Fizz, Boom, Read! Preschool Story Time Starter: Weather

This is my fourth story time starter inspired by the Fizz, Boom, Read! summer reading theme. Today's post is all about weather. (Previous posts focused on the five senses, temperature, and living vs. non-living things.)

Miss Katie's Recommended Books

• What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda DeWitt
  This is probably not a book to read in its entirety, but sharing parts of it will help introduce the topic and share some interesting science vocabulary.
• The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor
  This is really more of a fanciful story than a true scientific exploration of weather, but kids love the idea of parallel snowstorms happening outside the house and inside a snow globe as well.
• Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
  This book opens up a nice opportunity to talk about why we need rain, and what happens when there isn't enough. It's also fun to make the story interactive by asking the kids to repeat the refrain along with you. It's also a good one for retelling if you have some flannel board pieces on hand to assist. 

Other Possible Books

• Blue Sky by Audrey Wood
• BOOM!: Big, Big Thunder & One Small Dog by Mary Lyn Ray
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• I Love the Rain by Margaret Park Bridges
• Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky
• Rain by Robert Kalan
• Rainy Day! by Patricia Lakin
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
• The Storm Book by Charlotte Zolotow
• When it Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator

Songs & Rhymes

• Song: Boots by the Laurie Berkner Band
  This is one of the few songs for which I would suggest using the recording. It's a bit tricky to sing it yourself and dance around. The only exception would be if you can play it on guitar or ukulele.
• Song: I Can Sing a Rainbow
  This can be a fun sing-along. Make it interactive by passing out colored flags for the kids to wave as they sing it. I like to play this on the ukulele.
• Song: I Like to See the Raindrops Fall
  This song to the tune of Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush uses simple actions to recreate a storm. Kids of all ages love to sing this one!
• Rhyme: Snowman, Snowman (based on Book Bear, Book Bear)
  Pretend to be snowmen with this simple action rhyme that is also good for quieting wild groups between books.
• Rhyme: The Wind is Full of Tricks Today
  I have never used this rhyme myself, but the librarian from King County who performs it on their Wiki makes me want to try it! (The link above is to her video.)

Games & Activities

• Flannel Board Sorting Game: What do we wear in this weather?
  Sort articles of clothing according to the weather in which they would be appropriate to wear. Kizclub has clipart sets for clothing and weather that make useful templates. Instead of a flannel board, you could also sort the items onto a long clothesline with sections for sunny days, rainy days, snowy days, etc.
• Game: Drip, Drip, Drop
  Play this fun game based on Duck, Duck, Goose, which comes from Mailbox magazine.

Visit these Sites for More Ideas

• Weather from Harris County Public Library
• Weather posts from SLC Book Boy
• Weather - Science Storytime from the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California
• Weather Storytimes at Never Shushed

Flannel Friday Round-Up, March 21, 2014

Welcome to your Flannel Friday Round-Up for March 21, 2014. We have a little bit of everything this week, including several posts inspired by previous Flannel Fridays!

Superheroes

Two people posted about superheroes this week. Lisa at Thrive After Three has made flannel board pieces to accompany Ralph Cosentino's Batman picture books. She has Wayne Manor and the Batmobile, as well as The Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, and Two-Face.   Kathy from Bird's Books shares a set of superhero finger puppets which includes Batman and four others. (I don't know about you, but I'm saving both of these posts to my Pinterest board for summer reading 2015!)

Dr. Seuss

There are also two Dr. Seuss-themed posts. Brenda from Story Tree adapted "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" to "Way Up High in the Green Egg Tree." Her eggs have smiley faces on one side and green yolks on the other - adorable! Meg from Miss Meg's Story Time is also celebrating Dr. Seuss with a fish-themed flannel board rhyme to accompany One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. 

Little Mouse (and Little Frog!)

The ever-popular "Little Mouse Little Mouse" rhyme makes two appearances in this week's round-up. Amy from The Show Me Librarian shares her pieces for the original Little Mouse game, while Kelly, a first-time Flannel Friday participant, combines the little mouse concept with a frog theme in her post at Ms. Kelly at the Library.

Inspired by Flannel Friday

A few of this week's contributors were inspired by previous Flannel Friday posts.  At Storytime Extras, Jennifer shares her interpretation of Jenna's Enormous Turnip flannel board, but she uses an enormous carrot instead. Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime was inspired by Lisa's post to make a set of baby faces so that she could share "Poor Little Baby" at her recent emotions-themed story time. I'm thrilled that Bridget from What is Bridget Reading? was inspired by me this week! Her post is about "Doggy Doggy Where's Your Bone?," which I used as part of my Dig into Reading programming last summer.

Storytelling

If you're looking for stories to tell on the flannel board, there are a few of those this week as well.   At Felt Board Ideas, Christine has created a flannel set for Are You My Mother? for use in a Mother's Day, Spring, or All About Me theme.  At Library Village, Sue has a trio of pigs and a non-scary wolf for telling the classic tale of The Three Little Pigs. I love the way her pigs peek out the windows of their little houses! At Magic Librarian, Dana shares a story by Ron Maris called Better Move on Frog, which was included in her Animal Houses story time this past week. In a post about S.T.EM. stories at Read Rhyme & Sing, Shawn shares a flannel board adaptation of Mouse Count and a few other science and math activities.

Lullabies 

Do you perform story times in the evening? You will love Naptime Chickens, for which Anna at Future Librarian Superhero has made a set of adorable puppets. I especially love her suggestions for lullabies to cluck to the little chicks as they fall asleep. My post here at Story Time Secrets is also perfect for bedtime. It's an expansion on Rock-a-bye Baby which sings baby animals to sleep on the treetop.

Miscellaneous 

Rounding out the round-up today are posts that don't fit into any other category. Linda from Notes from the Story Room shares a wonderful original cut-and-tell story called "Who is Watching?" and Becky of A Librarian Less Ordinary has an entire story time devoted to peas complete with a pea pod made out of felt and green puff balls.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your great ideas! For more information about Flannel Friday, please visit the official website. You can also connect with Flannel Friday on Pinterest and Facebook. Next week's host is Brooke at Reading with Red. Have a great weekend!

Flannel Friday: Rockabye, Baby (Animals)

 

I spend a lot of time singing to Little Miss Muffet, who is now (unbelievably!) almost 4 months old. Typically, I will start out with a traditional song, but often by the fourth or fifth time through, I start changing the words. One night, while singing her to sleep, I heard myself come out with, "Rock-a-bye, monkey in the treetop." That was pretty cute, I thought, so I plugged in a few other two-syllable animals. By the time the baby was asleep, I had been inspired to create a new flannel board.

For the sake of this post, I chose animals for whom I could find easily recognizable silhouettes, and  whose names would fit the rhythm of the song. I would still like to find a cleaner silhouette of a cradle, but the blue one pictured will do for now.

Rock-a-bye, kitten...

Rock-a-bye, piglet...

Rock-a-bye, puppy...

Rock-a-bye, rabbit...

This adaptation of the familiar lullaby would make a nice ending to an evening pajama story time, or  to any story time about animals. 

I am your host for Flannel Friday this week! Leave your links in the comments on the placeholder post and check back for the round-up on Saturday morning.

For more about Flannel Friday, check out the official website, Facebook page, and Pinterest account.

Fizz, Boom, Read! Preschool Story Time Starter: Living or Non-living?

Today, I'm continuing my series of preschool story time starters inspired by the Fizz, Boom, Read! summer reading theme. (If you missed it, I began two weeks ago with the five senses, and last week I posted about temperature.) Today's theme is "Living or Non-Living?". Though some of the resources below specifically address the differences between things that are and are not alive, this theme can also be expanded to include topics like growing, planting, gardening, animals, and trees.
 

 Miss Katie's Recommended Books

• What’s Alive? by Kathleen Zoehfeld, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
  Introduce the theme of story time with this beginning science book. Either read the entire book straight through, or pick and choose segments that you think will be easiest for your audience to understand.
• Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan Shea, illustrated by Tom Slaughter
  This lift-the-flap book is a great guessing game that reinforces the concept of being alive with a series of questions about whether objects can or cannot grow. Kids as old as six and seven get really into this, but even the little ones will enjoy trying to figure out whether cars grow to become trucks or shirts grow to become sweaters.
• Are You Living? by Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Viviana Garofoli
  This is a singable non-fiction picture book by an excellent CYBILS award winning children's poet, all about the differences between living and non-living things. Sidebars provide additional information that can be shared as appropriate.

Other Possible Books

• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
• Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni
• Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
• Crinkleroot's 25 Mammals Every Child Should Know by Jim Arnosky
• Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
• The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss
• Hunwick's Egg by Mem Fox
• I Can't Said the Ant by Polly Cameron
• Mary Had a Little Lamp by Jack Lechner
• Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly
• Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton

Songs & Rhymes

• Song: Everything Grows by Raffi
  This song would be fun to sing with musical accompaniment (guitar, ukulele, piano, etc.) and/or with the kids holding up pictures to represent each growing thing represented in the lyrics. This would also be a good one to play as background music while the kids color or work on a craft. 
• Rhyme: Five Eggs and Five Eggs
  This fingerplay is also fun to do with puppets if you have an egg and a hen.
• Song: Mr. Sun
  After discussing how the sun helps living things grow, sing this song with a puppet, or holding up your arms in a sunshine shape.
• Song: One Seed by the Laurie Berkner Band
  Watch this video for the hand motions for Laurie Berkner's song about the importance of planting trees and passing down responsibility for our Earth to future generations.

Games

• Flannel Board Sorting Game: Is this alive or not alive?
  Provide children with a series of objects and ask them to decide whether they are alive or not. Hopefully, if you have a lot of flannel board pieces already made, you'll be able to choose from what you have without having to make anything new. Otherwise, kizclub.com has a lot of great clipart of all different objects that can be printed out, laminated, and used as is, and or used as templates for actual flannel pieces. There is also a set of Living and Nonliving Picture Cards available here. Librarians who are looking to introduce more technology at story time might also try sharing this game from Thinkcans.net. 
• Act out the Animals
  Provide puppets, flannel board pieces, or just simple pieces of paper printed with the names/images of animals and have the kids act them out. You could also ask them to act out other living things, such as flowers or plants, though they might have a limited range of movements. A good book to inspire animal movements is Pretend You're a Cat by Jean Marzollo.

Visit These Sites for More Ideas

• Living & Nonliving from Adventures of a K/1 Teacher
• Living and Non-Living: A Science Mini Unit by April Larremore 
• Teaching Living or Nonliving from Lerner Books