Outreach Round-Up, 1/3/13 - 1/11/13

Catholic School 5th Grade, 1/3/13 
Short Story: "Your Question for Author Here" by Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka, from Guys Read: Funny Business 
Notes: The teacher liked the story; the class did not. I think it was too long for them, and letters aren't the easiest thing to read aloud.

Catholic School 3rd Grade, 1/4/13
Book: Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex
Notes: Several kids called out, "I love this!" when we were about three or four pages into the story. Their interest fizzled by the end, which was too bad, but they loved the meta-fictional approach to the story.

Catholic School 5th Grade, 1/10/13 
Activity: Writing Stories
I gave each of three teams a story starter. (It was the first line of Nim's Island - "In a palm tree, on an island, in the middle of the wide blue sea, was a girl." For two of the teams, I changed the last word to "boy" and "monkey.") I then challenged them to take turns adding sentences to the story to see where their creativity would take them. Aside from an obvious need for more structure, they did a nice job. (Our story room's walls are eraseable, so that's where they wrote.) The results are below. (White marks appear where I Photoshopped out the kids' names.)

 

 

Catholic School Kindergarten, 1/11/13
Books: How to Drive Your Sister Crazy by Diane Z. Shore and George and Martha: Encore by James Marshall
Notes: This group didn't get the humor in the book that I chose, but one of them had checked out the big collection of George and Martha stories, and they all wanted to hear one of those. I chose one we hadn't read before, and the kids liked pointing out how it was the same or different from a previous title we had read together. They asked for more George and Martha for next time, a request I will do my best to honor!

Catholic School First Grade, 1/11/13 
Book: Lentil by Robert McCloskey
Notes: The kids were very excited about the harmonica in this book. They were restless at first, but fell really silent as the plot got going. I always liked this book when I was around their age, and was glad to see it still holds up. I also want to keep this one in mind if I do a preschool music theme. And it would be great if I could get a harmonica!

Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13

Today was one of our better-attended preschool story time sessions - 8 kids in all! Some things, I came up with at the very last minute, but they all worked really well. 

Welcome to Winter! Preschool Story Time, 1/11/13
 Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
I think this is a much better read-aloud than I was expecting, because most of  the kids seemed mesmerized. Only one little girl didn't like it and kept saying so to her mom.

Book and Activity: The Mitten by Jan Brett
For this story, I created a mitten on the floor with blue masking tape, as shown above. (The idea came from Pinterest.) Each of the kids had one of these cards and when their animal was called, they stepped into the mitten. At the end, when the bear sneezes, we all sneezed and jumped out of the mitten.

Song: If You Have a...
We were going to do an actual sequencing activity with the  sequencing cards but I quickly realized these kids would not be up to it. Instead, I sang to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress: "If you have the badger... bring it up to me." That worked really well.

Rhyme: Hedgehog's Hungry
This was another spur of  the moment idea. I tried out my new puppet, and asked the kids what they would feed him. The most popular answer, overwhelmingly, was dirt. (Credit for this idea goes to Miss Tara, who suggested feeding the puppet.)

Song: Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes 
Only one little girl found this funny, but it was worth it to hear her laugh. 

Book: Cold Snap by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
This is a long one to be the last story of a session like this, but they liked it. And I love the artwork. 


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.

Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

When I first started doing this story time, it felt like an out of control mess almost all the time. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to approach it in 2013, and these two sessions are proof that I made good decisions. These were great story times, with great groups, and I can't wait to see where we go from here!

 Welcome to Winter! Toddler Lap Time, 1/10/13 & 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Song: It's Wintertime, You Know 
I found this song at Mel's Desk and printed out clipart to go with it. (I initially wanted to use photos, but our color copier has been down all week and clipart is best when it has to be black and white.) instead of Melissa's "We will have some snow," I sang "We might have some snow" because that is more accurate for this region. 

Book: Red Sled by Lita Judge
I was very nervous about sharing a mostly wordless book, but this one worked its magic on kids and adults in both sessions. It went over slightly better today than yesterday, possibly because I felt more comfortable with it the second time around.

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Red Sled

Song: I’m a Little Teapot

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Song: Sing a Happy Song 

Book: Oh! by Kevin Henkes
This is so awkward to read aloud, but it seemed to go over better today than yesterday. One little guy loved the page where the children "jump jump jump" - he didn't want me to keep going because he was so attached to that page!

Flannel Board Song: A Hat Goes on my Head 
Toddlers really like this one. The parents were great about helping them find the right place to wear a hat, boots, snowpants, gloves, and a scarf. 

Rhyme: Snowflakes Falling Down (Thursday only)
I misread my setlist and basically just forgot this rhyme altogether in today's session. It was a good one yesterday, though - simple enough for this age group for sure. 

Book: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

Song: Dance Like Snowflakes
For this one, I handed out snowflakes to every child - each child got one yesterday and two today. The parents loved that there was something for the kids to hold onto, and the kids loved crumpling them up and shaking them around. 

Song: There’s a Snowflake on My Head
This song is kind of chaotic, but enough of the kids seemed into it that I'd do something similar again. 

Song: If You Have a Snowflake... 
This is a simple song to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress that I used to help us clean up. (If you have a snowflake... bring it up to me.) Yesterday, I tried to have them bring the snowflakes up by color - today we just all brought them up at once.

Song: One Little Finger
This was an old favorite of mine from when I first started singing all my songs without recordings. It was a hit as always.

Song: If You’re Happy

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.

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Welcome to Winter! Drop-In Story Time, 1/11/13

Click to download this week's handout. 

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

Song: Ten Little Icicles

Book: A Den is a Bed for a Bear by Becky Baines
This was surprisingly the better received of the two books, possibly because of the rhyming  text and photos. I am definitely going to see about incorporating more simple non-fiction into this story time.

Song: Goodnight
Since we read about a hibernating bear, we sang goodnight to a bear, and two other hibernating animals - a frog and a mouse. 

Song: Bumpin’ Up and Down on my Little Blue Sled

Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled

Song: Head and Shoulders

Letter of the Day: T

• Song: Trees Are Growing High
• Song: I'm a Little Teapot
• Song: Drive, Drive, Drive Your Truck
• Song: Tommy Thumb

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

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big
I realized by this point that we had been singing for almost 20 minutes straight, so I threw in some rhymes. It thrilled me to see some of our 18 month olds who have been coming to story time for about a year suddenly doing all the motions with me. 

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake
I was amazed at how well everyone remembered this one, as it's been a few months. I'll have to put it back into the regular rotation now that it's back on my radar.

Song: Sing a Happy Song
This woke up all the grown-ups - they were much more into this song than usual today!

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It


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.