Seasons Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

First the kids identified what the four seasons were. We got to do a little guiding about what holidays and weather were, and that seasons were different. Then went on to the program!

Book: How Will We Get to the Beach? – Brigitte Luciani

 

(A story for summer. Lots of fun, the kids are great at identifying what is missing, even if not on the first try.)

Activity: There’s something in my garden

Some people like to stay home during the summer, rather than traveling to the beach. And they can be visited by animals in their garden.

There’s something in my garden,
That I can’t really see.
There’s something in my garden
Now what can it be?
Hear its funny sound….
RIBBIT – RIBBIT – RIBBIT.
A FROG is what I found!
RIBBIT – RIBBIT – RIBBIT.

continue with other animals. this time we did a frog, rabbit, bird, mouse, and bee.

 

(Another fun guessing activity, the kids were very good at this one.) 

Book: That Pup! – Lindsay Barrett George

(A simple story with great talking points. ‘who is watching the puppy’, ‘do you know how the acorns got there?’.)

Activity: A Leaf is on my nose – Adapted from the traditional, which uses a fly in place of a leaf

 A leaf is on my nose, a leaf is on my nose

Hi-ho just watch me blow

this leaf right off my nose!

Continue with other body parts. The kids can give great suggestions!

Book: A Kitten Tale – Eric Rohmann

(Three kittens aren’t too excited about winter coming, but one can’t wait! Cute and simple, made a great addition to the program.)

Activity: Planting seeds/Mr Golden Sun – from the CD Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi

First you take the seed and you plant it in the ground (pretend to plant seeds in hand)
Next a little rain cloud comes that waters all around (Use hand to simulate rain)
And the sun sends beams, shining bright without a sound (make circle over head with arms)
Then in a few days, a flower can be found! (cup hands together, then open fingers with wrists touching.)

(We also did this fingerplay in the musical interlude during Raffi’s song.)

Mr. Sun
Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,
~arms up, rock in time to the rhythm

Please shine down on me.
~wiggle fingers down toward face
Oh Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,
~arms up again
Hiding behind a tree
~ASL sign for ‘tree’ in front of face to ‘hide’

These little children are asking you,
~gesture towards children

To please come down
so they can play with you,
~sign ASL sign for ‘Play’

Oh, Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,

~arms up again

Please shine down on me.
~wiggle fingers down toward face

 (This was good times! Bright bouncy song)

Book: Home for a Bunny – Margaret Wise Brown

(In spring, bunny is trying to find a home. In a nest? A pond? Where will it be? Such a cute story. Deffinatly a new, old, favorite.) 

Activity: Flowers on parachute

We then bounced flower die-cuts on our parachute, like the flowers that fall from the trees in spring.

Seasons Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

Book: Spring Song – Barbara Seuling

(Pretty awesome pics, and interactive element with guessing. Well received.)

Activity: Planting Seeds/Mr Golden Sun

from the CD Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi

Planting Seeds

First you take the seed and you plant it in the ground (pretend to plant seeds in hand)
Next a little rain cloud comes that waters all around (Use hand to simulate rain)
And the sun sends beams, shining bright without a sound (make circle over head with arms)
Then in a few days, a flower can be found! (cup hands together, then open fingers with wrists touching.)

(We also did this fingerplay in the musical interlude during Raffi’s song.)

Mr. Sun
Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,
~arms up, rock in time to the rhythm

Please shine down on me.
~wiggle fingers down toward face
Oh Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,
~arms up again
Hiding behind a tree
~ASL sign for ‘tree’ in front of face to ‘hide’

These little children are asking you,
~gesture towards children

To please come down
so they can play with you,
~sign ASL sign for ‘Play’

Oh, Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. Golden sun,

~arms up again

Please shine down on me.
~wiggle fingers down toward face

 (This was good times! Bright bouncy song)

Book: How Will We Get to the Beach? – Brigitte Luciani

(The group was a little unengaged today, but I’ve had great response with this book. Even so it was nice!)

Activity: There’s Something in my Garden

There’s Something in My Garden

There’s something in my garden,
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound….
RIBBIT – RIBBIT – RIBBIT.
A FROG is what I found!
RIBBIT – RIBBIT – RIBBIT.

(continue with other animals. I pulled some from my critter bin: a frog, rabbit, chicken, kitten.)

(The kids always like this, and are very excited that they know the animals)

Book: That Pup! – Lindsay Barrett George

(A cute story, with a fun chance to predict things with the hidden squirrel)

Activity: A Leaf is on My Nose

 A leaf is on my nose, a leaf is on my nose

Hi-ho just watch me blow

this leaf right off my nose!

(continue with other places)

(Lots of kids, which makes thinks kind of die while passing things out, but they had fun with the activity.)

Book: Old Bear – Kevin Henkes

(A nice review of the seasons, great illustrations.)

Activity: Ice Skating (on paper plates)

(The passing out of plates seemed doubly tedious after the time it took for the leaves earlier. This activity kinda flopped.)

Halloween Storytime

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

Book: Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin – Mary Serfozo

(A cute book that gradually introduces the Halloween theme. Fun words and rhyming.

Song: Six Little Pumpkins (inspired from the book Dragons Halloween by Dav Pilkey)

I wanted to find a pumpkin as Big as a house to make a really scary jack-o’-lantern, but all I could find were a bunch of little pumpkins. (The kids help count as they get put on the flannel board.)

I decided I’d carve them anyway, and took them to my yard by the old dead tree.

(put tree on flannel board)Then I started to carve my scary pumpkins. (Pull off orange pieces, showing the glowing yellow!)

Do they look very scary? No?! Well, I guess I’ll stack them all up against my tree anyway.
So I stack 1-2-3-4-5-6 little pumpkins. AAaaaghhh! I guess six little pumpkins can be pretty scary after all!

(This was quite fun, the kids were engaged, and the parents enjoyed the surprise ending too!)

Book: Just say Boo – Susan Hood

(A good interactive and empowering story, cute illustrations!)

Activity: If you’re a ghost and you know it

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

If you’re a ghost and you know then you really ought to show it,

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

(Also did: Witch ride a broom, skeleton shake your bones, wolf give a howl, Superhero strike a pose, jack-o’-lantern give a grin)

Book: Mouse’s First Halloween – Lauren Thompson

(Another good interactive book, the kids are pretty good as guessing what’s scaring little mouse)

Shadow play: In the Dark Dark Woods

(Click the image for the full story! I ask the kid if they want to go in the house, open the box, etc. They enjoy doing it again and predicting the next step.)

Book: Little Old Lady was Not Afraid of Anything – jp Williams

(Super fun book to act out! A lot of the kids already knew the story and were excited for it.)

Craft: Lollypop Ghost

(We used tootsie pops, wrapped tissues around them, wrapped a bit of pipe cleaner to form the head, then drew the face! Simple and fun.)

Colors Storytime

I’ve done colors before as a theme, but I decided this time to focus on a specific color for each book, rather than smooshing them all in each time. The activities still had a variety!

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

We practiced some of the colors as I put the pillows from the Tooth Fairy flannel on the board. Then left them up during the first story. 

Book: The Red Wolf – Margaret Shannon

(This was a bit too long. I’ll try to make it more concise for the Thur group. I love the story and the illustrations! And I was surprised at how well the kids stayed focused. …this worked great for the Thur group with some pages clipped together and the rest condensed a bit!)

Visual: Tooth Fairy

(Now we made use of the pillows! One had a tooth hidden behind it, so the tooth fairy came out and sang her song until we found the tooth. Jolly good fun.)

Look and see, look and see,

Can you find the tooth for me?

Is it behind the ____ pillow?

 

(I like to get suggestions from the kids on which pillow to look under, and it makes them more excited too! If they get it too quickly, the tooth fairy goes to a different house with the tooth under a different pillow and we play again!)

Book: Little yellow leaf – Carin Berger

(I felt that this might not be interesting enough for the kids, and there is probably a better choice out there. Notwithstanding that, it worked well enough especially adding some talking points throughout.  I think it’s charming, and it tied it very nicely to the next activity!)

Song/Activity: Autumn Leaves

Way up high in an autumn tree

a little Green leaf happy as could be

The wind went Wwhoooooshh!!

and the leaf danced around,

then floated gently to the ground.

(continue with other colors)

(The kids had a great time with this, though passing out the pre-sorted leaves took a bit of time. We held them up high, danced them around, then drifted down to the ground with them.)

Book: Blue Chicken– Deborah Freedman

(Chicken spills the paint, and the other animals aren’t too happy about it! Lovely illustrations and narrative.)

Puppet: Baa baa black sheep – Traditional

(We sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, then this little guy popped up because no one ever sang about the white sheep! So we did, and then he put on different colors so that more were represented. The kids were much more excited about this in the Thur group. The idea of the sheep puppet with other colors was taken from Amy White of the Orem Public Library)

Book: Where is the green sheep? – Mem Fox

(The kids really liked this one, it was nice to bring back some simplicity.) =]

Activity: Leaves on Parachute

(All of the leaves from the song were put on a parachute, and we bounced it! The kids were so excited today, and even after quite a bit of play time, they left the room buzzing.)