Movement

The collaborative theme for Texas libraries this summer is "On Your Mark, Get Set ... Read!" It was only logical to start off summer storytimes with movement! Here is what we did:


 We sang along with the flannelboard "Five Little Monkeys." Our craft was a drum made out of a cup, wax paper and a rubber band. I used my sample of the drum craft during the dancing feet book, and explained how the kids could sound out the syllables of their names with beats. I brought out different puppets and asked the kids to tell me what the animal was, what sound it made and what color it was, then they kept a beat while I made the puppets dance. We used scarves to dance with and used several songs from Jbrary. If you haven't checked out their videos yet, you must! I opened the storytime doors early for preschool time, and we did many of the yoga poses from You Are a Lion. Those kids had zero problems moving like a frog, butterfly, mountain, etc. I had planned on having them play with the parachute at the end, but there were way too many kids in the room and chaos would have ensued. Parachute is great for groups of 10 or less, in my experience.

Teddy Bears

Oh, teddy bears! I think every child has a stuffed animal that they will remember into adulthood. I put this storytime together with the help of the book STEP into Storytime: Using StoryTime Effective Practice to Strengthen the Development of Newborns to Five-Year-Olds by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting. This book is an excellent resource! Here is what happened in toddler storytime:

This one was in big book format:

I got out the scarves right before reading this book and used them to help us move around like the bears. We had a dance break afterward. Songs and rhymes used throughout this storytime included “My Hands Say Hello,” “Open Them, Shut Them,”  “Round and Round the Garden Goes the Teddy Bear,” “The Bear Went Over the Mountain,” and “Wave Good-bye.” A coworker helped make teddy bears in pajamas for the flannel board "Five Bears in the Bed." I taught the children how to sign the word "bear" and repeated that sign throughout storytime. We ended with sensory teddy bears (smooth, squishy, soft, rough), a Corduroy puppet for play and a craft that included coloring pajamas on die cut teddy bears. Preschool storytime was only slightly different with the addition of the flannel board "Bear and Bees Everywhere" and the books:

Owls

Spring storytime season has begun! I started off with one of my favorite animals: owls. Here is what we read:

Great for color recognition and the kids caught on and began saying "Wow" with me!

Adorable book about neighbors, friendship, and night and day animals.

Oh my, this one is adorable and they got a kick out of seeing what happens to his scarf in the end!

We talked a bit about animals that sleep in the day and stay awake at night, and vice versa. I ended up using a flannel board called "Five Little Owls" and "Day and Night Critter" props. Both are things that other librarians have made (we collectively make flannel boards across all four libraries and share them with each other). Our craft to finish storytime was an owl die cut that they glued to a black sheet of paper, then glued on very large googly eyes. After they finished their craft, I let them use the dry erase board and draw owls with various sizes of circles (I had a how-to there for parents to reference). I ended up having a lot of interesting looking owls!

Boo! It's Halloween!

I changed books the day before this storytime because I just wasn't satisfied with what I had pulled, and the books that I had requested weeks ago were not turned in in time for me to use them. Everything went well though, and the kids had the most fun with our last book. I'm now conducting preschool and toddler storytimes instead of family storytime and here is what we read today:

We sang the rhymes “Five Little Pumpkins,” “Monster, Monster,” “Flutter, Flutter Little Bat,” and “Pumpkin, Pumpkin” while dancing with scarves. I used the flannel boards Skeleton Dress Up and Halloween Farmer in the Dell. Storytime ended with a Halloween sensory tub and a toilet paper tube monster craft.

Jump, Jump - Frogs!

My library system has four locations, and this week I moved from a small branch to the main library! Very exciting for me! Now instead of conducting one family storytime, I have toddler and preschool storytimes. It is a bit different, a little rowdier, but I love the excitement shown when we sing Itsy Bitsy Spider, even though I know they have probably heard it a hundred times. This week the theme was "frogs" and I used several books that the previous librarian had already pulled, since our switch was so sudden and she had already planned that part of the storytime. Here is what we read:

I used a "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" flannel board that was pre-made by another librarian many moons ago. I made a flannel board that spelled out GREEN, and used this rhyme from Preschool Education:

Green added 9-16-99 Original Author Unknown
Sung to: "B-I-N-G-O"
There is a color we all know
Can you guess what it is?
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
Green is what that spells.
The grass and leaves outside
Are green as green as they can be.
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
Green is what that spells.

I made a song cube very similar to this and they loved it! It is a great early literacy tool and the fun was getting to throw it into the corner of the room. I don't think I'll ever lack volunteers for that task! 

At the end we made a frog in a pond craft, inspired by this image: http://nikarella.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/photo6.jpg 
I made numbered lily pads using this pattern and lined them up near the exit so kids could jump on the lily pads on their way out of the storytime room. It was a fun morning!

All Mixed Up!

This week's storytime was all about mixed-up, silly stories. We used a Mixed-Up Chameleon flannel board that my library already had made and ended with a mixed-up chameleon coloring craft. I put out different hats for them to dress up with and act silly. We read:

Days of the Week

And we're back! Fall storytime season started this week and I'm looking forward to the themes to come. Here is what we did for a "Days of the Week" storytime:

I used the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" flannel board and we sang the song "7 Days in a Week" song using American Sign Language. It is amazing how quickly kids pick up sign language! The kids made a hungry caterpillar craft from here (the 2nd and 4th ones on the page put together): http://welcomebabyuc.blogspot.com/2013/04/playgroup-very-hungry-caterpillar.html
We ended with a week color match sensory and educational activity. The idea came from here: http://b-inspiredmama.com/2013/08/learning-the-days-of-the-week/

Sensory Items This Summer

This summer I decided to add a sensory/play element to my storytimes. Here is what we have done so far. I have my last summer storytime next week and we will be playing with a magnetic fishing game.

Independence Day

I had a very small storytime group this week, and most of them were older children (6-10). We read one more book than normal and learned a bit about American symbols. We finished with a Water Fireworks experiment and a glitter fireworks craft. Glitter fireworks were made by putting a large glob of glue on the paper and using a q-tip to "pull" the glue out to make firework shapes. I then had them bring their sheets to me and I put glitter on it.

Inspiration for this flannel board came from Mel's Desk.

Beach Day

It wouldn't be summer without the beach! Here is what happened in storytime last week:

Great for bilingual storytime as well!

We also used the flannel boards "Five Little Seashells" and "Five Little Sandcastles."
The flannel board pieces for There Was an Old Lady came from here: http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/OldLadyShell-FeltBoard.htm.

We made a beach book using a template from The Mailbox as our craft. I created two sand and seashell sensory boxes for kids to play with at the end. They enjoyed seeing the different kinds of shells and would hold them up to their ears to hear the ocean.

Ocean Friends

First summer storytime! Always an interesting mix of regular patrons and lots of people there for the very first time. Our library's summer reading program theme is "Make a Splash: READ!" So, all of this summer's storytimes will be based on this theme. First up: Ocean Friends. I'm trying very hard to incorporate sensory and play items after learning all about it at ALA this spring. Here is what we read:

The flannel board story "The Hat" and flannel board rhyme "Five Little Ocean Friends" were used.

We also made a moved along with egg shakers, made a jellyfish craft and played with an ocean sensory item. The sensory idea came from this blog: http://homeschoolhighplains.blogspot.com/2012/11/o-is-for-ocean-and-octopus.html