Birds Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

 

Book: Do Like a Duck Does– by Judy Hindley

(A clever fox and a cleverer mother duck are charmingly captured in this book. The kids know what’s up, end enjoy being a step ahead.)

Activity: Two Little Blackbirds

 

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill

One named Jack and One named Jill

Fly away Jack

Fly away Jill

Come back Jack

Come back Jill

…sitting in the snow, one named fast, on named slow…

…sitting on a cloud, one named quiet, one named loud…

…sitting on a pole, one named high, one named low…

 (We make the sound of the birds flying away and back, which makes the add on actions even more fun!) 

Book: I Hatched! – Jill Esbaum

(This didn’t hold attention as well as I thought it would. I did clip a few pages together, but perhaps not the best choice for storytime.)

Activity: Shakey Egg – from the CD Whaddaya Think of That by Laurie Berkner

(A fun activity, and of course we have to pass out shakey eggs to the kids.) 

Book: There is a Bird on Your Head – Mo Willems

(Elephant and Piggie are always a hit, the kids loved it!)

Activity: House for Birdie adapted from the book A House for Birdie by Stuart Murphy

Birdie does not have a house.

Whenever it rains she gets wet, when the wind blows she gets cold.

So she decided to ask her friends to help her find a house.

On the way they find lots of houses that fit her friends perfectly,

but nothing for rosy!

Finally, the friends decide to build her a house.

And it fits just right!

 

(Another one that’s always a success. The kids really enjoy identifying which bird fits in each house as the story progresses.)

Book: The Baby BeeBee Bird – Diane Redfield Massie

(And the Baby Beebee Bird is fantastic, so noisy, so relateable. I’m sure the parents sympathize with the tired zoo animals.) 

Activity: Instruments

(The we let the kids be as loud as the bird with instruments!)

What Did You Put In Your Pocket

This not-so-flannel entry is adapted from the book by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

Here is my lovely clean pocket! It’s a ziplock bag, with felt hot glued to the front (to make it look more pockety) and safety pins holding in onto the apron from the back. I also wore a rubber glove to keep my fingers clean.

Tune: Skip to my Lou

What did you put in your pocket? What did you put in your pocket?

In your pockety, pockety, pocket  early Monday morning?

I put in a tissue, I put in a tissue, a nosy blowsy tissue, early Monday morning!

…should you put used tissue in your pocket? No? Oh!

(Continue with other days of the week and items. Tuesday-Crumbly Tumbly Dirt, Wednesday-Sippy Drippy Juice, Thursday-Swirly Twirly Spaghetti, Friday-Snipped and Clipped Hair, Saturday-Ooey Gooey Lotion, Sunday-Trendy Bendy Fingers) 

 

I changed the items from the book to fit what I could easy get a hold of. It worked great! The lotion seemed to get the biggest Eww! which surprised me. 

The aftermath of the activity. During one of the programs a child asked to do it again! (you can see my glove in this shot, it stayed in the bag). 

This weeks Flannel Friday is hosted by Libraryland

Messy Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

 

Book: Toad – Ruth Brown

(Some great images, and vocabulary builders in this yucky tale. The kids were quite expressive about their disgust. Good talking points too.) 

Activity: Dini Dinosaur – from the book by Karen Beaumont, see the full story here.

(A great engaging flannel board, where the kids get to identify clothing. And I think Dini is adorable!) 

Book: Aint gonna paint no more – Karen Beaumont

(Dini’s bath got him all clean, but this boy doesn’t let that stop him. Great bright illustrations.) 

Activity: Bubble Gum tune: Lollipop by the Chordettes

Let’s blow a big bubble with our gum!

(Blow between hands and spread them further with each breath.)

Oh no! We blew it too big! Pop! (clap hands together)

Now Our hands are stuck together!

(clap hands in time to the song, on each ‘gum’ and the second sticky,

pretending the gum pulls them back together.)

Bubblegum, bubblegum,

Sticky, sticky bubblegum.

Bubblegum!

-unstick!-

(continue blowing and poping on other parts of the body, or clothing)

(The kids really liked this, especially giving suggestions for where the gum would get stuck next.)

 Book: Icky Sticky Monster – Jo Lodge

(Such a great, repulsive book. Pop ups only make it more irresistible!) 

Activity: What did you put in your pocket?  adapted from the book by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

(The nice clean pocket)

Tune: Skip to my Lou

What did you put in your pocket? What did you put in your pocket?

In your pockety, pockety, pocket  early Monday morning?

I put in a tissue, I put in a tissue, a nosy blowsy tissue, early Monday morning! …should you put used tissue in your pocket? No? Oh!

(Continue with other days of the week and items. Tuesday-Crumbly Tumbly Dirt, Wednesday-Sippy Drippy Juice, Thursday-Swirly Twirly Spaghetti, Friday-Snipped and Clipped Hair, Saturday-Ooey Gooey Lotion, Sunday-Trendy Bendy Fingers) 

 

(The pocketed items) 

 

 

(Not it’s a messy pocket! You can see the blue glove I used to keep my fingers clean when they went in the pocket on Sunday.) 

(There was a lot of fun with this. We even got a request to do it again! …that would be tricky)

Book: Big Smelly Bear – Britta Teckentrup

(This has lovely large illustrations, and a fun ending.) 

Activity: Bubbles

(Bear liked baths after all! And the best kind of baths have bubbles.) =]

Letter P Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

 

Book: Please Say Please – Margery Cuyler

 

(The kids were laughing out loud at the animal antics, and were very good at recognizing inappropriate behaviors)

Activity: 5 Pigs So Squeaky Clean – from Mel’s Desk (tune: 5 green and speckled frogs)

Five pigs so squeaky clean, cleanest you’ve ever seen,

wanted to go outside and play. Uh huh!

One jumped into the mud, landed there with a thud.

Now there are four pigs squeaky clean. Oink, oink!

 

 

(This was a little blah to this group, but has been popular in other programs)

Book: The Pigs Picnic – Keiko Kasza

 

(An adorably funny story, with slightly frightening illustrations. The kids had a good time with it.)

Song: The Pirate Song –Carole Peterson

When I was one I had some fun on the day I went to sea 
I jumped aboard a pirate ship, and the captain said to me 
“Now you go this way, that way, forward, backward 
Over the deep blue sea!”

continue with increasing numbers and rhyming words

 

(We had a pirate friend show up to guide us through this song. A fun ‘get up and move’ activity.) 

Book: Pretty Pru – Polly Dunbar

 

(Pirates aren’t very pretty, but Pru is! A very fun, simple book.)

Puppets: Princess and the Pea

On top of all these mattresses I get to spend the night,

I toss and turn and cannot sleep, for something is not right.

Something (tickley, squishy, buzzy, scary, lumpy)  keeps me up. These mattresses I’ll spread…

A (feather, banana peel, bee, monster, pea)! That’s no good, get out of my bed!

(The princess then throws the item and climbs up for the next verse)

Finally everything is soft, and I can rest my head.

(Then our pirate puppet jumped up and said ‘Instead of sleeping, why don’t you join my crew?!’ and she became a princess pirate who went ‘this way, that way, forward, backward, over the deep blue sea.’ Which got a chuckle from some parents.)

 

 

(The kids have such a fun time with this, and are very good at recognizing what will be under the mattresses.) 

Book: Pigeon Wants a Puppy – Mo Willems

 

(We did a pigeon book last week, so the kids were already familiar and ready to interact. It was a hit!)

Activity: ‘Popcorn’ on Parachute

(We then used cotton ball ‘popcorn’ on our parachute. Lots of fun.)