Thursday, March 8, 2012

Poetry

I wasn't sure how this one would go, since a lot of the books I found were very short poems and there is no true storyline. However, the kids were more than happy to listen to some funny poems from Dirt on my Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy and we read aloud together A Giraffe and a Half by Shel Silverstein. I also read Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw and Me I Am! by Jack Prelutsky.


The kids helped me tell the rhymes "Hey Diddle Diddle" and "Humpty Dumpty" using flannel board pieces. I mixed Humpty Dumpty up and asked if he was put together correctly; they kept yelling at me that I was wrong every time I changed him around! I finally had a volunteer help put him together the right way.

For our craft, we recreated the poem Bear in There by Shel Silverstein, by making a fridge that folds (fridge door on the front and poem on the back) and gluing a polar bear inside. For fun I gave them stickers to put on the front like they were fridge magnets. When you get to the place in the poem where the polar bear roars, you open the "fridge" and roar. Here is a picture and the poem:










Bear in There
by Shel Silverstein

There's a polar bear
In our Frigidaire—
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there—
That polary bear
In our Fridgitydaire.

Friday, February 10, 2012

African Folk Tales

I was excited this week to tell a few African Folk Tales in celebration of Black History Month. I explained to the kids in storytime that many parents tell stories to their children that teach lessons in fun ways. I challenged them to tell me the moral of each story when we finished the following books:

 
I told the story of "Head Body Legs" using the flannel board, where children had to put the pieces together as they are read in the story, and then rearrange them correctly in the end. We moved around to this song from http://www.trlib.org/BirthTo5/Pages/StoriesRhymes.aspx

If You're a (  ) & You Know It
If you’re an elephant & you know it, stomp your feet,
If you’re an elephant & you know it, stomp your feet,
If you’re an elephant & you know it, then you really ought to show it,
If you’re an elephant & you know it, stomp your feet.
Repeat:
Parrot…flap your wings
Crocodile…snap your jaws
Monkey…turn around
Lion…roar out loud

For our craft, we made the little red mouse from Mabela the Clever using the instructions from the DLTK website.



Friday, February 3, 2012

Groundhog Day

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, hooray! Centering a storytime around groundhogs at first seemed daunting, but I was able to find some good choices that both told a story and helped the children learn what Groundhog Day is all about.

I read three books in this storytime:


 
I created a flannel board called "Five Groundhogs" using a rhyme from the DLTK Groundhog resource page. I used clip art as a model for the groundhogs, then drew each one and cut it out of tan foam. My craft was a groundhog cup puppet. Children cut out pre-made groundhog shapes and taped them to a popsicle stick, that you poke through the bottom of a cup. I added gift basket paper shreds for visual appeal. Viola!

Friday, January 20, 2012

It's a Mystery!

Last night's storytime theme was "It's a Mystery" and the kids had a good time guessing the ending of books along the way. We read:

Detective Small in the Amazing Banana Caper by Wong Herbert Yee
Dot and Jabber and the Big Bug Mystery by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? by Bonnie Lass
Moose Tracks by Karma Wilson













The kids also had a good time with the flannel boards "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" and "What Did You Put in Your Pocket." Storytime ended with a mustache disguise craft. I got the template from http://www.tiffanykelley.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/mustaches-template.jpg

Here is the end result:

Friday, January 13, 2012

Happy Birthday! Storytime


I currently conduct family storytimes that are meant for children of all ages, although I find most of them are ages 4-10.

This week in honor of my birthday, I had a birthday themed storytime. Here are the books I read:

Happy Birthday, Hamster by Cynthia Lord
Don’t Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr
Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch
Moira’s Birthday by Robert Munsch




 This was their favorite book! Lots of laughter during the telling of this story! 

Picture from:


I used two flannel boards this week, one about cupcakes and the other about birthday candles. For the candles flannel board, I put a cake on the board and passed out ten candles to the kids. I sang a rhyme, and when I called the color of the candle they were holding, they had to place it on the board. The rhyme went like this:
"If you have a blue candle, blue candle, blue candle,
If you have a blue candle, put it on the board."
The kids were very creative and made a cake man out of the candles. I was impressed!

Our craft was a birthday card made with construction paper, a cupcake die cut, and sequins.
 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

"One choice can transform you. Pass initiation. Do not fail! Thrilling urban dystopian fiction debut from exciting young author. In sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior's world, society is divided into five factions -- Abnegation (the selfless), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent) -- each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue, in the attempt to form a "perfect society." At the age of sixteen, teens must choose the faction to which they will devote their lives. On her Choosing Day, Beatrice renames herself Tris, rejects her family's group, and chooses another faction. After surviving a brutal initiation, Tris finds romance with a super-hot boy, but also discovers unrest and growing conflict in their seemingly "perfect society." To survive and save those they love, they must use their strengths to uncover the truths about their identities, their families, and the order of their society itself." - from http://www.amazon.com/Divergent-Veronica-Roth/dp/0062024027

I finished this novel over New Year's weekend, and it was amazing! If you like Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Pretties by Scott Westerfield, or The Maze Runner by James Dashner then this is the book for you. Tris has a wicked time in this novel, and I am scared for her the whole way. Be warned that the Dauntless beat, maim, and kill each other to reach the top and this book describes those things in detail. Thanks to my Mom for suggesting this one to me!
Today I put up my January bulletin board celebrating Lunar New Year.