Pandas! - A Storytime Outline

A lot of children, especially the girls, were excited about this program! "Pandas! I love pandas!" many would tell me before we started the program. This was a lot of fun, and a completely new theme for me!

The children had loads of energy at the beginning of the program. So! I had everyone jump up an down and turning around and jumping jack and all sorts of things. It worked for at least one story. We did the "Panda Bear, Panda Bear" rhyme between the first two books, which helped. We ended up not singing "If You're a Panda and You Know It" song cause we wanted another book instead. Always ok with me!

BOOKS
Please, Mr. Panda written and illus. by Steve Antony 
I saw this book quite a while ago and knew I had to do at least a panda storytime and/or a donut storyime. The children finally got, after a little encouragement, that all the animals were not being polite, which is why Mr. Panda never gave them any yummies!

Chengdu Could Not, Would Not Fall Asleep written and illus. by Barney Saltzberg 
This is such a fun story. After a couple of pages all of the children started to act like Chengdu. They tossed and turned. They rolled their legs over their heads (I certainly got a view that even the parents laughed at!) and they climbed.

Xander's Panda Party written by Linda Sue Park and illus. by Matt Phelan 
This was such a cute book about including everyone to party. They really liked it when another panda was brought to the zoo so that Xander had a friend. 

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.

Panda Bear, Panda Bear 
Panda bear, panda bear turn around.
Panda bear, panda bear touch the ground.
Panda bear, panda bear show your shoe.
Panda bear, panda bear say "How do you do?"
Panda bear, panda bear turn off the light.
Panda bear, panda bear say "Good-night"
Panda bear, panda bear wake up now.
Panda bear, panda bear take a bow.
Source: Jen in the Library 

If You're a Panda and You Know It 
If you're a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws (clap, clap)
If you're a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws (clap, clap)
If you're a panda bear and you know it, then your face will surely show it (hands in circles around eyes)
If you're a panda and you know it clap your paws (clap, clap)
Other lyrics 
If you're a panda and you know it it, stomp your feet... (stomp, stomp)
... shout hooray... (hooray!)
Source: Starry-Eyed Storytimes  

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.

FLANNEL BOARD 
N/A

ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
I had printed out various pictures to share with the children. First was a page of different panda pictures. They loved the one with a baby panda in it! The second page showed different pictures of bamboo that the pandas eat (I did ask the question, "What do they eat?" before showing them the pictures). Then I had various pictures of animals who are also black and white, which I had the children guess before I shared them. 

STEAM ACTIVITIES
Watch Me Grow in Storytime 
This is one of my new STEAM elements for storytime. I made a growth chart from a free printable I found through Pinterest (link to blog post here). The children love it! I used my die cutter to make little blue birds for the children to wright their name on. Then we measured everyone to see how tall we are at the beginning of the storytime season.

Name Box Color Sort
I got this idea from a coworker who provides toddler and preschool storytime at her branch location.  She has been working on my Early Literacy elements for her program, and one of her ideas was having the children work on their writing skills. They would do this by writing their name on a shape and dropping into a name box. I added more to this idea by making different colored slots on my box and the children were given different colored shapes. They have not only write their name but they have slip their shape into the corresponding colored. 

How Many Stories Read/Told
I've been doing this for the past year. I have the children work on their math skills by counting the number of books we have read and the number of stories that were told without a book and add it to last week's total.

CRAFT
Panda Headbands
These are so cute! To make this I took a piece of white construction paper and gave approximate three inches band that when in about two inches before arching up to make the head. Then on the other end of the paper I cut out a strip to band the connecting band for the back. I drew the face and glued on googly eyes. The children LOVED it! Some added color other than black to make rainbow panda bears, which was so cute!

This is the shapes that I cut out from one sheet of construction paper.

Final product! So cute!

Book images were found on www.goodreads.com here, here, and here.