Outreach Round-Up, 11/14/12 - 11/21/12

Public School Pre-K: Wednesday, 11/14
Books: The Grumpalump, The Day Ray Got Away, I'm Flying
Songs: If You'd Like to Read a Book, Hat Coat Pants and Shoes, These Are My Glasses
Game: Balloon Guessing Game (see here for details)
Notes: The theme was balloons. I'm Flying was an unexpected hit - not with everybody, but the kids who were into it were riveted.  I made up motions to go with The Grumpalump and it was hugely successful. The kids also had no idea it was a balloon until the end.

Public School Pre-K: Wednesday, 11/14
Books: The Grumpalump, The Day Ray Got Away 
Songs: If You'd Like to Read a Book, These Are My Glasses
Game: Balloon Guessing Game (see here for details)
Notes: This group was late coming back from PE, so we got cut short. Next time, though, I'll be  there in the morning, so it should be easier to get in a full session. 

Catholic School Pre-K: Thursday, 11/15
Books: The Grumpalump, Balloons Balloons Balloons, Molly Who Flew Away, Sally's Great Balloon Adventure
Songs: If You'd Like to Read a Book, Shake My Sillies Out,  These Are My Glasses 
Flannel Board: Five Balloons (to be featured on an upcoming Flannel Friday, hopefully!)

Catholic School 5th Grade: Thursday, 11/15 
Books: Frankenstein, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
Notes: These books were not that funny to this age group. The choices were too juvenile, even if it might have made a nice lesson in parody.

Catholic School Kindergarten: Friday, 11/16 
Book: Little Bear
Song: Hat. Coat, Pants and Shoes
Notes: None of these kids knew of Little Bear, but by the end, they were in love. Birthday Soup was the favorite story of the session.

Catholic School 1st Grade: Friday, 11/16 
Book: I am the Turkey

Rec. Center Cooperative Play Program: Wednesday, 11/21
Books: When Autumn Falls, Growing Vegetable Soup, Little Red Hen, Thank You Thanksgiving
Songs: I Like Soup (based on Laurie Berkner's "I Feel Crazy"), Sing a Happy Song, Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon, If You're Thankful and You Know It, The Wheels on the Bus    
Rhymes: Corn Grows Tall, Two Little Turkeys
Notes: The kids loved singing about what they would put in soup. The funniest food ingredient they named was donuts. The funniest non-food ingredient was fire.  Two Little Turkeys was based on Two Little Blackbirds, but when the turkeys ran away, I said "gobble gobble gobble" and the kids just cracked up.

Drop-In Story Time, 11/20/12 (Thanksgiving Theme)

Friday's preschool story time was one of my best ever, and this Drop-In story time was one of the worst in history. I am stating right now that next year, I will not do a Thanksgiving story time for this age group. The books do not engage the kids or  the nannies, and no one wants to sing Over the River and Through the Woods. It's just not a toddler-friendly theme. In any case, here is what I presented to the large and restless Tuesday morning crowd.

Book: Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
I was disappointed that the adults wouldn't help me say "And Bear says thanks" each time it came up.

Rhyme: We Are Thankful

Book: The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
I think the kids in my neighborhood are the only ones in the world who don't like Todd Parr, but they really do not. The books are too simple for the preschoolers and too sophisticated for the toddlers.

Song: Let's Be Thankful 
I found this song, which goes to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, here, and played it on the ukulele.


Let’s be thankful for this day,
For our friends and for our play.
Let’s be thankful; let’s be glad,
For the food and things we have.
Let’s give thanks for you and me,
And our home and family.


Song: If You're Thankful and You Know It
I was so desperate to regain control that I mentally rearranged the entire story time on the spot and stuck this song in there immediately. I did as many motions as I could think of while I decided what to do next.

Rhyme: Mr. Turkey
In the end, I decided to proceed with the turkey songs and ditch the rest of my books. Then we just sang favorites until story time was over.

Rhyme: Four Little Turkeys
I borrowed the text from Five Silly Turkeys, decreased the number of turkeys from five to four, and shared it on the flannel board. 

Flannel Board Song: We Eat Turkey

Flannel Board Song: Five Little Pumpkins Round
I was so glad I'd brought my pumpkins into the story room. They always love this one. 

Song: Here We Go Up, Up, Up

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Chickadee

One thing I will say about this story time is that a lot of kids did the motions to every song from Rum Sum Sum to the end, many more than I've ever noticed before. I'll call the story time a success on that front, but I will stick to a family theme this time next year!

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.

Preschool Story Time (Thanksgiving Theme), 11/16/12

This is the cozy little corner of my story time room that I set up for Preschool Story Time on Friday. (I staged this photo after the fact, but minus the turkey feathers, it looked exactly like this when the kids came in.)

Introduction: We started story time with the hello song, and then I asked the kids to help me figure out the word of the day (on the green poster board in my not-so-great handwriting.) Clearly, our local schools are doing their job, because as soon as I pointed to the word, one little four-year-old called out, "Thanks!" Normally, the preschoolers I see are not yet reading, so this was a surprise. But we still went through and named the letters and it worked out fine. 

Book: Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes, illustrated by Doris Barrette
We started with this short rhyming book because I thought it would spark a great discussion about what we're thankful for. Unfortunately, only two kids really wanted to say anything. One little girl said "kitties" several times, and another little guy (the "Thanks" reader) said he was thankful for his house. The rest were too little or too shy.

 

Book: Too Many Turkeys by Linda White, illustrated by Megan Lloyd
This book really resonated with some kids and was too long for others. We had some toddlers and twos kind of wander in, and they got restless during this book. It was nice, though, to read a story about turkeys that isn't expressly about Thanksgiving.

Song: Turkey Pokey
This is the Hokey Pokey, but with wings, drumsticks, and tail feathers. It was cute. 

Song: Sing a Happy Song

Activity: Turkey Match

The idea for this has been brewing in my mind for a long time, and I decided this would be a good opportunity to test it out. I found a turkey image on Clker.com, then copied it 6 times in word and altered it so that each turkey had one of the letters in turkey on its chest. I used a template for a tie from Google Images to create the feathers, which I recolored in MS Paint. I added the letters to the feathers in Word as well. When it was time to play the game, I quickly counted up the number of kids in the room and divided up the feathers evenly. Then we sang the following verse, to the tune of You Are My Sunshine: 

Let’s help this turkey
This little turkey
whose feathers all have gone astray.
He needs some friends to help him find them
In time for Thanksgiving Day.

 The kids brought their feathers up when their letter was called. Even the littlest kids did it with the help of their parents. It was great! The game went on a little long, so in the future I might pick a shorter word, but otherwise, it's a really fun game, and not too hard to put together.

Book: The Day Ray Got Away by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Luke LaMarca
I took a different route with this year's Thanksgiving theme and read this quirky little book about parade balloons. There was one little boy who absolutely loved the book. The entire time, he was front and center, pointing and grunting. (He was a bit young to be talking.) The older kids had mixed reactions, but overall, it was a good choice.

Guessing Game: Name the Balloon Shape
I'm working on coming up with new ideas for preschool story time activities, and this was an experiment that went very well. I found some pictures of balloons on Google, then pixellated them using FotoFlexer. I mounted the pixellated version on one side of a piece of construction paper, then the real versions, with labels, on the reverse.  The turkey balloon pictured above was the most difficult one to guess. All the others were way too easy. Still, it was fun, and the kids laughed through the whole thing.

Song: If You're Thankful and You Know It

I looked forward to this story time for weeks, and I was thrilled with how it turned out. I am really looking forward to stepping up my preschool story time game even more in January!

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.

Drop-In Story Time, 11/16/12 (Family Theme)

 

Book: My Mom and Me by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
The flaps on the pages of this book were awkward for me to handle. I'd have to memorize the text, I think, to use it again effectively.

Rhymes: Mommy’s Glasses / Daddy’s Glasses (based on Here Are Grandma's Glasses)

Book: Dad and Pop: An Ode to Fathers and Stepfathers by Kelly Bennett
Surprisingly, this one wasn't well-received. I'm not quite sure why. 

Song: Where is Thumbkin? (family edition)

Book: One Special Day by Lola Schaefer
This is such a sweet picture book about new siblings. It's the only one in this bunch that was checked out at the end of story time, and the mom told me she was going to read it to her son who is a new big brother!

Flannel Board Rhyme: Knock Knock, Who's There?
Presentation is key with this one. I haven't had great luck with it in the past, but today, there was so much applause we did it a second time!
 

Book: Do Like Kyla by Angela Johnson
I didn't think most people were listening by this point and wondered whether the fourth book was one too many, but then I heard a few awws from some adults and looked up to see several kids staring at the book with rapt attention. Not everyone was listening, but some people obviously enjoyed it, and I'm trying to remember that this is the important thing.

Song: Here We Go Up Up

Letter of the Day: Letter N

• Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?
• Let’s Make a Noise
• Five Little Nails

Songs with ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep
Song with ukulele: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Song: Five Little Monkeys Jumping 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.