Concepts: ABCs Pajama Story Time, 5/8/13

 

 Concepts: ABCs Pajama Story Time, 5/8/13

Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambeault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert
I have never clicked very well with this book, and tonight, the kids didn't either. I don't know what it is, but even when I read it in my absolute best reading voice, it tends to fall flat.

Song: ABCs

Book: LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
I've gotten a lot of mileage out of this book lately. The rhyme scheme was good for this mostly-two-year-old group, but the concept of the book may have gone over their heads.

Flannel Board: Alphabet Soup
Thank you, Lucy at In the Children's Room, for posting this. I was looking for a simple way to use my felt letters, and this was perfect! My word was "sleepy" and thankfully, two kids in the room actually knew their ABCs!

Book: Sleepy ABC by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Karen Katz
This is not the book I wanted to use. I wanted Sleepy Little Alphabet. And I had it set aside and everything, but it disappeared! So I chose this as a replacement, even though not all of the letters actually corresponded to words that begin with those letters. (X, for example, is for all the things you can play. Ugh.)

Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Song: Monkeys on the Bed  

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Concepts: Colors Drop-In Story Time, 5/7/13

Concepts: Colors Drop-In Story Time, 5/7/13

This week, to prevent myself from getting bored, I'm doing a whole variety of story times, each one on a different preschool concept. This morning, we talked about colors.

Book: A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
I knew the group would be small today because our little guys don't venture out in the rain very much, and I also suspected there might be some preschoolers in attendance, so I brought in a longer book. The real young ones weren't into it, but a few of the older kids did seem to like having a story with a bit more of a plot.

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake 

Book: Freight Train by Donald Crews
This book never fails! And it was a great lead-in to our next song.

Song with ukulele: Little Red Caboose
As I did previously in my transportation-themed story time in January, I sang this one three times - regular speed, really slow, and then really fast. This time, I asked everyone to clap with me, which made the experience that much more fun, especially when we sang it really quickly!

Book: Spot the Animals by the American Museum of Natural History
I think this would have gone over better with a smaller group, though some of these kids were into it. The snake was the favorite!

Letter of  the Day: V

• Flannel Board Song: Drive Drive Drive Your Vehicle
  I put a car, a truck, and then a bus on the flannel board and we pretended to drive each one. 
• Song with Stick Puppet: I’m a Veterinarian
  I always have good luck singing songs with simple stick puppets, so I cut out a clipart image of a veterinarian, colored her in, and used this simple song from Preschool Education, cutting out the second verse, which I didn't like.
• Flannel Board Song: Vincent Wore His ____ Vest
  Piggyback songs on Mary Wore Her Red Dress are kind of a staple of my story times at this point, but the process for this one got a little more involved than I expected. I will share the entire thing in a future Flannel Friday post.

Songs with ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Song with ukulele: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Monkeys on the Bed

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Builders and Diggers Preschool Story Time, 5/3/13

Builders and Diggers Preschool Story Time, 5/3/13

Book: Building Our House by Jonathan Bean
This is a lengthy book for preschoolers, but the kids were really into it, especially one boy of about three, who sat in his mom's lap and just stared into the pictures the whole time. The story, which is based on the author's real experiences, shows the step by step process of building a house in a very straightforward and easy-to-understand tone. It would be an even better read-aloud for early elementary schoolers, or for a beginning reader story time.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out
The older kids in this group often complain about this song, but we had been sitting for so long, and a couple of the kids were really little, so we danced around a little bit. Even the oldest girl, a kindergartener, begrudgingly sang along. 

Book: Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop by Lisa Shulman
I had this book and If I Built a House both on hand, with the idea that I would choose between them based on the ages of the kids. Since we had an infant and a toddler as well as a younger preschooler, I went with the sing-along book. It was a pretty big success, and the ending, where Old MacDonald is revealed to be building a farm hit the right note with just about everybody.

Song with Toolbox Prop: Here's My Toolbox 
I made a toolbox! The kids were thrilled with this prop, and they seemed to like the song as well. This will be the focus of my Flannel Friday post on May 10. Check back then for photos and instructions on making your own.

Book: This is The House That Jack Built by Simms Taback
I always loved this poem as a kid, mostly because of the word "forlorn." I was careful to change "killed the rat" to "chased the rat" as I read, even though the rat is obviously dead in the illustrations. I just couldn't bring myself to say "killed" to a room full of preschoolers.

Activity: Playing with Duplo Blocks
I have a set of Duplo blocks from a program we did a while back, and this seemed like the perfect day to use them. We had an awesome time - the kids built everything from towers to abstract sculpture, and they were very willing to help clean up, too!

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.

Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/3/13

 

Builders and Diggers Toddler Lap Time, 5/3/13

Book: The Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer
I was right - moving this to the earliest spot in the story time got a much better response. This was a wild group,  but they mostly sat for this book.

Flannel Board: Down Around the Corner at the Hardware Store
Counting works with toddlers. They don't typically know how to count, but they love to listen to adults do it.

Book: Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop by Lisa Shulman
I didn't remember this book in time for yesterday's story time, but when I found it when I was preparing for preschool story time last night, I knew it would work perfectly with this group. Since they were so restless, having a singable picture book on hand was a godsend!

Song: Construction Worker Song
This group was more interested in this song than yesterday's group, but they were a bit younger and not as able to do the motions. (I bet some of them will go home and do them tonight, though!)

Book: Truckery Rhymes by Jon Scieszka
We obviously didn't read the whole book; I just chose the rhymes that related to construction and shared a few of those. The response was lukewarm, except to "Swing Around Like Rose" which got smiles all around.

Song: ABCs

Song: Hands Up High

Songs with Foam Butterflies

• Fly Like a Butterfly
• Flutter, Flutter Butterfly
• There’s a Butterfly On My Head

A butterfly got ripped in half at this story time. This is the first time a child has ever destroyed one of my foam shapes - a pretty good track record!

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

This puppet is always popular, but two particular kids in this group literally could not get enough of him. I had to give multiple high fives with Mr. Sun at the end of story time as well to satisfy his admirers.

Song: Row Your Boat

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.