Picnic, No Ants Allowed! - A Storytime Outline

If it isn't too hot, families should enjoy picnics! This is the storytime that I did during the week of July 4th, and hoped that some families were going to do the tradition of joining the outdoor festivities, which includes yummy food noshing, before the firework show. The children loved the theme, and all of theme loved the reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The preschool children loved sneezing during the Five Hungry Ants rhyme. A word to the wise, be prepared for a response about what happens to the ant(s) after they sneeze. A boy who kept on saying that they died when they sneezed! I said they were so tired after sneezing really big that they had to take a break. Whew!

T = Toddler Storytime
P = Preschool Storytime

BOOKS

Click, Clack, Quackity-Quack: An Alphabet Adventure written by Doreen Cronin and illus. by Betsy Lewin (T)
The toddlers liked seeing the animals, especially the sheep because they were zooming fast to catch up. One little boy thought it was because they wanted to eat the mice. Thankfully he agreed when I said that they were probably wanting to go on the picnic with the rest of the farm animals too.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar written and illus. by Eric Carle (T, P)
Eating yummy food is always a good idea for a picnic. Even the Preschool children wanted to read this story instead of another "picnic" book.

Ready for Anything written and illus. by Keiko Kasza (P)
A book about friendship and being prepared. The children loved guessing what would live in a cave.

SONGS & RHYMES

Open, Shut Them (T, P)

follow actions

Open, shut them

Open, shut them

Give a little clap

Open, shut them

Open, shut them

Lay them in your lap

Creep them, creep them up to your chin

Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!

Open, shut them

Open, shut them

Give a big clap

Open, shut them

Lay them in your lap

Five Hungry Ants (P)

Five hungry ants,

marching in a line,

came upon a picnic

where they could dine.

They marched into the salad, 

they marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper...

Uh oh, that was a mistake!

AAHHHH-CHOOO!

continue to count down till there is one ant left

One hungry ant,

marching in a line,

came upon a picnic

where it could dine.

It marched through the salad,

it marched through the cake,

it marched through the pepper...

Uh oh, that was a mistake!

AAHHHH-CHOOO!

Now there are no more hungry ants 

Source: Miss Mary Liberry

We're Going on a Picnic (T, P) - I ran out of time before I got to do this one.
We're going on a picnic,
A picnic, a picnic.
We're going on a picnic,
and this is what we'll bring.

Let the children say what we should bring.

We'll bring along some hot dogs,
Some hot dogs, some hot dog.
We'll bring along some hot dogs,
and that is what we'll bring.

Continue with other items:
watermelon, beach balls, bubbles
Source: Yakaberry

Touch Your Nose (T, P)

follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it ends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES

Egg Shakers (T, P)
We did our usual shaking in the Toddler Storytime, but because I was running out of time and wasn't able to do our last song, I had the Preschoolers do some egg shaking as well. They loved it! In both programs I added in the song "Head and Shoulders," which they got the grasp of all the while shaking an egg.

Watermelon Seeds (T)
This is a flannel board. No rhyme (at least not until I write one up, eventually), just sticking seeds on the felt watermelon.

FLANNEL BOARD

Watermelon Seeds (T)
To make the watermelon just made fat U-shapes from the pink and green felt. I added in light green felt squiggles to give the skin some variety. The seeds are just regular black felt ovals. They were the perfect size for a toddler's hand.

Five Hungry Ants (P)
To go along with the rhyme, I flannelized the elements. How awesome is that salad? The children thought that my pepper shaker was a sock, but I'm that it was because they never really paid attention a salt and pepper shaker in real life before. The ants were three lumps with three strips glued on the middle of the backside. The children loved making the sneezing portion of the rhyme. One boy kept on saying that the ants died every time they sneezed. I told him that each ant was just tired from such a big sneeze!

CRAFTS

Picnic Plates (T, P)
To keep it simple this time, I cut out pictures of food from magazines and had the children glue the pictures to a paper plate. They could color their plate with the crayons if they wanted too.

PICTURES

I need to get a better camera or try to take pictures in a different room. I'm getting dark pictures right now, it's depressing despite the uber cuteness of the flannel boards!

Watermelon Seeds flannel board, Toddler Storytime,
Created by Dorothy WP-CC, 2012.

Five Hungry Ants flannel board, Preschool Storytime,
Created by Dorothy WP-CC, 2012. 

Picnic Plate craft, Toddler and Preschool Storytime,
Created by Dorothy WP-CC, 2012.  

MORE BOOKS

We're Going on a Picnic! written and illus. by Pat Hutchins
The Best Picnic Ever written and illus. by Clare Jarrett
Polly's Picnic written by Richard Hamilton and illus. by Sophy Williams
One Hundred Hungry Ants written by Elinor J. Pinczes and illus. by Bonnie Mackain
Please Do Feed the Bears written by Phyllis Renolds Naylor and illus. by Ana Lopez Escriva
How Hungry Are You? written by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen and illus. by Amy Walrod
The Surprise Picnic written and illus. by John S. Goodall
Piggins written by Jane Yolen and illus. by Jane Dyer
The Rattlebang Picnic written by Margaret Mahy and illus. by Steven Kellogg
The Most Perfect Spot written and illus. by Diane Goode
The Bears' Picnic written and illus. by Stan and Jan Berenstain