Things that Grow!

March 18, 2014

Things that Grow!

A storytime about things that grow up, grow down, grow bigger, grow smaller, you name it!

Books:

Pouch! by David Ezra Stein
Thirsty Thursday by Phyllis Root
Big or Little? by Kathy Stinson
Tree Ring Circus by Adam Rex

Songs:
Opening Song: Where is Thumbkin? - Kimbo

 Song 2: Skinny-Marinky-Dinky-Dink - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

 Song 3: Dance Your Fingers / Clap Along With Me - Wee Sing for Baby

 Song 4: Shake your Sillies Out - Raffi

 Song 5: Peanut Butter and Jelly - Limbo

 Song 6: If You're Happy and You Know It - Kimbo

 Song 7: Wheels on the Bus - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

Felt / Magnet Board:

No, we didn't get to the magnet board - things were a little chaotic and it was more or less glanced over at the time. BUT - that doesn't mean we can't highlight it here! I present to you:

Five Little Seeds!!
 Five little seeds,
Five little seeds.
Three will make flowers,
And two will make weeds.

Under the leaves,
And under the snow,
Five little seeds are
Waiting to grow.

Out comes the sun,
Down comes a shower.
And up come the three,
Pretty pink flowers.

Out comes the sun,
That every plant needs,
And up come two,
Funny old weeds.

Craft:

We made a Spiral Vine Craft - from Oriental Trading. It's basically made from a green paper plate cut into a spiral and then sticky-backed foam leaves and flowers were used to decorate it. The sticky foam means no glue!! The kids really enjoyed making this one and the parents appreciated how easy it was.

Hungry

Februrary 18, 2014

Hungry!

A storytime devoted to a favorite activity of ours: eating!

Books: 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle


If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile by Won-Lyd Paye

The Gingerbread Man

The kids really enjoyed every book this week! The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a staple, of course, so everyone was familiar with it and already loves it. We have a BIG BOOK version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie which really help keep the waning attention towards the end of storytime. Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile is an amazing retelling of an African folktale - Mrs. Chicken convinces the Hungry Crocodile that they are sisters to avoid becoming dinner. We told the Ginerbread Man with printed stick puppets to convey the story.


Songs:

Opening Song: Where is Thumbkin? - Kimbo

 Song 2: Skinny-Marinky-Dinky-Dink - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids








 Song 3: Peanut Butter and Jelly - Kimbo

 Song 4: Dance Your Fingers / Clap Along With Me - Wee Sing for Baby

 Song 5: Shake your Sillies Out - Raffi

 Song 8: If You're Happy and You Know It - Kimbo

 Song 9: Wheels on the Bus - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

Felt / Magnet Board:

This week we did What Apple is the Worm In? We hid the worm in the last apple on the board (of course) and pulled away each apple one by one to see if that's the apple the worm in hiding in.Before we pulled each apple we had the kids tell us which color the apple was - Red? Orange? Yellow? Lots of fun and very easy.

Craft:

This week we did a simple, printable fruit basket to go along with our Hungry theme. We found it at first-school a website devoted to activities for preschoolers. They have lots of other crafts that are printable and adorable.

Windy!

January 21, 2014

Windy!

In keeping with our W's for the month of January, we did a WINDY storytime with books devoted to windy and stormy weather.

Books:

The Magic Hat by Mem Fox
One Winter's Day by M. Christina Butle
Kite Day: A Bear and Mole Story by Will Hillenbrand

Songs:
Opening Song: Where is Thumbkin? - Kimbo

 Song 2: Skinny-Marinky-Dinky-Dink - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

 Song 3(Theme Song Pick): The Frost Song

 Song 4: Shake your Sillies Out - Raffi

 Song 5: Walking, Walking - Wee Sing for Baby

 Song 6: Dance Your Fingers / Clap Along With Me - Wee Sing for Baby

 Song 7: If You're Happy and You Know It - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

 Song 8: Wheels on the Bus - 100 Singalong Songs for Kids

We've settled into a fairly standard song list for this month, though that's mostly because of the rush of the morning before storytime. This storytime was the day after a holiday so we only had an hour or so to truly prepare our arrangement

Felt/Magnet Board:
 This week we pulled off TWO magnet board presentations.

 

The first one was a simple rhyme that starts "One little kite in a sky so blue" lovingly borrowed from Storytime Katie. I wish I were creative enough to come up with such a rhyme on my own, but Google does the trick too!
The rhyme goes:
One little kite in the sky so blue,
Along came another, then there were two.
Two little kites flying high above me;
Along came another, then there were three.
Three little kites, just watch them soar,
Along came another, then there were four.
Four little kites, so high and alive
Along came another, then there were five.
Five little kites dancing across the sky,
What a sight to see, way up so high!

Our second magnet board was the classic "Five Little Ducks Went Out To Play."
It goes like this:
Five little ducks went out one day,
Over the hills and far away,
When mama duck said,
“Quack, quack, quack,”
Four Little ducks came running back.

Four little ducks…
Three little ducks…
Two little ducks…
One little duck…

No little ducks went out to play,
Over the hills and far away,
When mother duck said
“QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!”
Five little ducks came running back.

The kids LOVED yelling the QUACK QUACK QUACK - it was the perfect thing to bring their attention back to us at the end.

Craft:
A decorate it yourself FLAG!

We rifled through our storytime crafts closests and came across this leftover gem from the summer and what a perfect match it was! Flags fly in the wind afterall, don't they?

How Many Did You Have?
We had 46 total for this go 'round!

How Did It Go?
As you may have gathered, we've been losing the crowd around Book 3 recently, but the magnet board was a perfect thing to bring them back again!