Food! - A Storytime Outline

FOOD! I love you! Who doesn't love food. Seriously? There were several ways I could've gone with this program, such as a "Big GULP!" type theme. But in the end, I had a mixture of books that I love (the best way to go, in my opinion), and it turned out great!

BOOKS
Creepy Carrots! written by Aaron Reynolds and illus. by Peter Brown 
This book is amazingly awesome, especially if you read it in a very dramatic and suspicious way. The children loved it! 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar written and illus. by Eric Carle 
How can you have a Food-themed storytime and not read The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

Stone Soup written and illus. by Marcia Brown 
I didn't have another version on hand - not that it matters too much. The story is pretty much the same. This version was a little long for my children so I paraphrased most of it and had the children put the flannel pieces on the board. 

The Watermelon Seed written and illus. by Greg Pizzoli 
Another read that has to be done with some drama. Some of the children thought - yes, indeed, a watermelon will grow inside of you. While some explained that you would have swallow dirt, water, and sunlight in order to have a melon grow inside of you.

SONGS & RHYMES 
 Open, Shut Them
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
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Pizza Man, Pizza Man
Pizza man, pizza man, turn around
Pizza man, pizza man, touch the ground

Pizza man, pizza man, smell a rose
Pizza man, pizza man, touch your toes

Pizza man, pizza man, touch the sky
Pizza man, Pizza man, wave goodbye

Pizza man, pizza man, turn around
Pizza man, pizza man, sit back down

Pizza man, pizza man, shake your head
Pizza man, pizza man, go to bed
Source: SurLaLune Storytime

Bananas Unite
Watch the video linked before for the actions! 
Banana Unite!
Peel, bananas, peel, peel, bananas,
Peel, bananas, peel, peel, bananas

Chop, bananas, chop, chop, bananas,
Chop, bananas, chop, chop, bananas,

Mash, bananas, mash, mash, bananas,
Mash, bananas, mash, mash, bananas,

Eat, bananas, eat, eat, bananas,
Eat, bananas, eat, eat, bananas,

Go, bananas, go, go, bananas,
Go, bananas, go, go, bananas,
Source: Jbrary 
Note: For this group, I went over the actions, and made sure they knew what to do with going bananas. We did three time, each time a little faster. This group loves doing speedy stuff!

Touch Your Nose

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 bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES 
"Pizza Man, Pizza Man" pizza box balancing
To make the "Pizza Man, Pizza Man" ever more interactive, I used pretend pizza delivery boxes that I made last year. They were out of square pieces of cardboard. To decorate them, so that they are recognized as a pizza box, I simply glued on a piece of paper that had a logo printed on them. The children loved doing the rhyme while holding the boxes in one hand.You can read the original description and see the photo here.

FLANNEL BOARD 
Stone Soup 
I really wanted a flannel board for this program, and my totally awesome Library Assistant Jennifer suggested this. I could believe that my library system did not have a flannel version of the Stone Soup story. Wow! So, with inspiration from Miss Mary I set Jennifer to the task of making me a flannel board. She did an amazing job and totally matches what I had envisioned!

Flannel Boar, Stone Soup, created by Jennifer,
WPCC 2014.

CRAFT 
Creepy Carrots 
I found this craft over at Miss Meg's Storytime blog and new it was the perfect craft for my group. I freehand everything - from the carrot body, the leafy tops, the eyebrows, mouths and teeth. For the eyes I simply used some of eye stickers I had on hand. At the end of the program we had an entire crop of creepy carrots!

Craft, Creepy Carrot
created by Dorothy, WPCC 2014.

MORE BOOKS 
Fast Food written by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Jamberry written and illus. by Bruce Degen
Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant written
The Doorbell Rang written and illus. by Pat Hutchins
Whopper Cake written by Karma Wilson and illus. by Will Hillenbrand

Book images were found at www.goodreads.com. 

Colors! - A Storytime Outline

The night of this storytime was, well, dark, but it had been a dark gray day to begin with. It was so old, rainy that the program was rather small, but that was OK. We still had fun!

BOOKS
Mouse Paint written and illus. by Ellen Stoll Walsh 
This was book was just about right in level for the group we had. I made sure to ask the children to guess/announce what color would be made when the mice danced and stirred and mixed the paint puddles together. One boy didn't know that you could make the color green by mixing blue and yellow together! I also use the library's big book version cause the other book is so small!

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! written by Karen Beaumont and illus. by David Catrow
You have to read this in rhythm, and for the older kids, you have to ask them what body part rhymes with the words before.

Press Here written and illus. by Herve Tullet 
I love this book, and this was the second time that I used it in a storytime. To make this more interactive I gave each child an activity page that had four dots (it really should be five) that they had to press instead of having them individually press the dot in the book. The children totally got into it!

A Color of His Own written and illus. by Leo Lionni 
This was a good book to end the program with because it was so simple and it has a happy ending.

SONGS & RHYMES 
Open, Shut Them
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
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Color Game 
Take red, put it on your head.
Take blue, put it on your shoe.
Take black, put on your back.
Take yellow, put it on your elbow.
Take white, put it on your right.
Take brown, put it all around.
Take the color of a rose, put it on your nose.
Take the color of snow, put it on your toe.
Take the color of sand, put it on your hand.
Take the color of cheese, put it on your knees.
Take the color of jelly, put it on your belly.
Take the color of bubblegum, put it on your thumb.
Take the color of your skin, put it on your chin.
Take the color of hair, wave it in the air.
Note: See below for details of I mixed this up a bit.
Source: by Jim Gill via Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime

ACTIVITIES 
Color Game 
Since I could not sing the song very well, I decided to just make it into a rhyme. Each child got a little packet of colored squares. They would find the right color and follow the actions. When it came to have them pick the color of a rose, cheese, bubblegum and the likes I let them pick whatever color they think matches. It was great to see them think an decide on their color choices! They were all different! This was such a good activity that I would like to laminate the squares and maybe loop them on a ring so that they could be used more often.

Press Here 
As I mentioned above the each child had an activity sheet to use during the reading of Press Here. To create this I simply used Microsoft Publisher. I had four dots on the page, two yellows (one on the right and one on the left), one red, and one blue. I really should consider adding a white dot (a black outlined circle) to the sheet, but so far I have lucked out and have been able to get the children to press the white dot in the book - one by one. The children did a great job participating the pressing, tilting, and shaking of the their activity as it corresponded with what I had to do with the book. One boy was in complete awe at every change that would happen. I loved his reactions!

Family Storytime, Press Here activity sheet,
created by Dorothy, WPCC 2014.

CRAFT
Mouse Paint Pattern Coloring Sheet 
I discovered the coloring sheets online at First Grade a la Carte. Following the prompted patterns were a little hard (I messed up two times while prepping my example!) and time consuming, but the children did a good job at trying! They at least understood the concept of AB, AAB, ABB, and etc. patterns!

Family Storytime, Mouse Paint coloring sheet,
colored by Dorothy, WPCC 2014. 

MORE BOOKS 
little blue and little yellow written and illus. by Leo Lionni
Lemons Are Not Red written and illus. by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Monsters Love Colors written and illus. by Mike Austin
A Rainbow of My Own written and illus. by Don Freeman
Mix It Up! written and illus. by Herve Tullet