Construction, Construction - A Storytime Outline

Another new theme for me! The children really liked it. I had a lot of fun.

This storytime season the children have loads of energy. So, now, before I do "Open, Shut Them" I have the children get their wiggles out by wiggling, jumping, turn around and doing jumping jacks. In fact, I also did a quick thing of that after we did the "Construction Worker Song."

BOOKS
Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site written by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illus. by Tom Lichtenheld 
This is such a cute little book. The children wanted to read this one first (we typically vote for at least one book). The children started acting like the construction vehicles and would fall asleep. They'd wake up and act like the next vehicle. 

Who Made This Cake written by Chihiro Nakagawa and illus. by Junji Koyose 
The children love anything with birthday cakes. At first they thought the little workers were normal human size and were just baking a giant cake. But some of them realized they were itty bitty workers who baked the cake.

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.

Construction Worker Song 
(Make actions to each tool used) 
This is the way we pound the nails,
Pound the nails, pound the nails
This is the way we pound the nails
So early in the morning

Other lyrics 
Saw the woo
Turn the screwdriver
Drill a hole,
Stack the brick,
Stir the pant
Paint the walls
Source: Storytime Katie

 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 Block 
I had a tape measure in the box and picture of tools.


Name Box 
This time around I put the name tag shape in their craft box so that they could put it in the box after their craft. This worked out better than me handing them out.


Hard Hats 
I have two hard hats from my grandpa. I let the children try on the hats after their craft. They looked so cute with their little tool belt craft.

STEAM ACTIVITIES
How Many Books Read/ Stories Told 
The children are getting better at their math skills.


Today's Weather 
We've been hit with crazy hot weather again in the middle of September. When asked the children were excited to tell me that it was Sunny and Super Hot!


Building Blocks 
I have a bin of wooden blocks that were donated to my library. I brought them out and let everyone help build a fort for Abner the Owl. Pretty much it was only two girls who ended up playing with the blocks, which was awesome!


CRAFT
Tool Belts 
I saw this craft idea over at Project I.Am.Amy (link here for a picture!) that included a downloaded printable for tools, which were so cute! I printed the tools on white card stock for the children to color. Then for the tool belt I used craft foam rectangles that had slits for the tools to be slipped into. I also hole punched the top corners so that we could tie some strings to it.


Images of the book covers were found on www.goodreads.com here and here.

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.

The Three Little Pigs - A Storytime Outline

This was a fun storytime! I basically found various versions of the tale "The Three Little Pigs" to introduce the children the idea that there are different ways to the tell the same story. I started out with our memory box then telling the classic tale with puppets before we went to our first book.


The children really liked this program. In fact they wanted to not do any in-between activity songs or rhymes. We pretty read through all the books before the craft. The last book The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs did take some time, and the children were losing interest, we didn't end up doing the the STEAM activity - building blocks. Oh well.

ORAL STORY
The Three Little Pigs 
I told this story with puppets. Three adorable pig puppets, which all the children cooed over and an awesome wolf puppet. The children were given props, which were pictures of a wolf (laminated) an glued to a craft stick to help them act the "And I'll huff, and I'll puff and I'll blooow your house down" parts of the story.

BOOKS
The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale written and illus. by Steven Guarnaccia 
Surprisingly, the children wanted to read this one first! Which was great because I wanted to as well.

The Three Horrid Little Pigs written and illus. by Liz Pichon 
As I mentioned before the children wanted to skip our in-between-books song and go straight onto another story. So we read this one next. The children understood that the pigs did not have very nice manners at first.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs written by Jon Scieszka and illus. by Lane Smith
The majority of the children wanted another story before our craft. So we read this one, which was a bit too long for the end. I sped through the book because the story was long and I wasn't sure if the children were understanding it.

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.

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 
The item that was inside the box was one of my cute pig puppets. 

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.

Building Blocks 
I didn't do this because we ran out of time. But! The plan was to have the children work on building a house for all our piggy puppets. I know that some child would probably take the wolf puppet and plow down the house after it was built, but that may be to be expected.

CRAFT
"The Three Little Pig" story sequence pictures
I found this via Pinterest - a link to Kindergarten Nana (link here) who shared a scan of a printable page that had six panels that told the story of the three little pigs.The children liked this craft a lot. Some needed a little help, my looking at my example, to get their sequence right. However, that being said, everyone got it right without help!

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

Happy Birthday Mo Willems! - A Storytime Outline

Whoo hoo! Mo Willems' birthday (belated by the time this is posted!) is just on excuse to have a Mo Willem themed program! I love his books, and so do the children!

BOOKS
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late written and illus. by Mo Willems 
For this story, I made sure the children had the little no signs to raise up as they shout out "No!" whenever the Pigeon tried to find a way to stay up late. 

There Is a Bird On Your Head written and illus. by Mo Willems 
I LOVE Elephant and Piggie books! Even though it's awesome read with another librarian, I've gotten experience enough to easily make different voices and mannerisms to represent both Elephant and Piggie. This book was awesome to read with the families, because, as usual, it was funny!

The Duckling Gets a Cookie?! written and illus. by Mo Willems
Such a silly book!

 


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.

Bananas Unite! 
Bananas Unite! 
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas
Chop bananas, chop, chop bananas
Mash bananas, mash, mash bananas
Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas
Go bananas, go, go bananas 
Source: JLibrary
*Please watch the video below for the actions! My storytime families LOVE this! We do this song three times, and mix up the speeds.

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
Naked Mole Rat 
It's been soooo long since I did an awesome flannel board like this! It was a lot of fun to make. I basically enlarged a picture of the mole rat then I made clothes for. The children had the opportunity to take turns dressing him up!


ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
The item of the day was a rubber duck, which was in connection to the duckling in The Duckling Gets a Cookie?!. The children did a good job of making the connection, which was pretty easy.

Counting the Number of Books 
I'm continuing the activity of having the children help keep track of the number books that were read and the number of stories that were told (orally - no books).

CRAFT
Decorate Your Own Cookie 
Cookies for everyone! Everyone got a brown construction paper circle as their cookie. Then they had little black circles for chocolate chips, different colored foam rectangles for sprinkles, and tan foam squiggles that were nuts (walnuts). The children could pick their "toppings" and glue to their cookie. I really wanted a real cookie after seeing their creations! 


* Images of book covers were found via www.goodreads.com - here, here, and here.

Jazz! - A Storytime Outline

It was that time of year again. I always try to include cultural storytimes every so often (plus, my Administration loves it when we do!), even though they can be the hardest program in the world (in my opinion!). For African American Heritage Month I decided to focus on music, especially Jazz music. It actually was a good program! Yay!

BOOKS
Ben's Trumpet written and illus. by Rachel Isadora 
We talked about the illustrations in this book because it's mostly black and white, with a hint of color, which from an artist stand point is great for the story. The children loved talking about the art as well, which means I can put this book on the "read again" list! 

Rap A Tap Tap: Here Is Bojangles - Think of That! written and illus. by Leo and Diane Dillan 
This was a good book, and the children responded well to it.

This Jazz Man written by Karen Ehrhardt and illus. by R.G. Roth
I actually bought this book because I knew it'd be perfect for the program, especially if I had younger children attending. This was a good book, and I totally recommend it! 

A-tisket A-tasket by Ella Fitzgerald and illus. by Ora Eitan
The children enjoyed this book, and they came up with good theories about the basket going missing and who took the basket. I wasn't expecting that, and it was fun to listen to them talk about it.

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.

Old McDonald Had a Farm 
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O
With a "moo-moo" here and a "moo-moo" there
Here a "moo" there a "moo"
Everywhere a "moo-moo"
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
Continue with other farm animals:
Sheep, Chicken, Pig

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
Listened to Ella Fitzgerald's "Old MacDonald"
To talk about Jazz in the way chilren could understand is hard. So! We sang the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" like typically do. Then I played Ella Fitzgerald's version to introduce the way Jazz sounds. This was a great idea!

Freeze Dance 
Another activity was  having the children do the popular Freeze Dance to a more modern type jazzy song by children's Jim Gill.


CRAFT 
I wasn't quite sure what to make for this program. I decided to have a simple coloring page of a trumpet, but to make it exciting for the children we had to use gold glitter! Who doesn't LOVE glitter (other than the cleaning crew?)!?!?


*Images of book covers were found via www.goodreads.com - here, here, here, and here.

We're Going to the Zoo! - A Storytime Outline

"Wake up cousin! We're going to the zoo!". Whenever I think about the zoo I also think about the quote from Dudley in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Well, I didn't recite lines from Harry Potter during storytime. The children liked the program a lot. I noticed that some families haven't been to the zoo yet, which is either because of how far away it is from the community, or the family is new to the area, or the fact that the tickets to the zoo can be pricy. I hope they get to go soon though!

BOOKS
A Sick Day for Amos McGee written by Philip C. Stead and illus. by Erin E. Stead
This was a sweet book, and the children enjoyed it, which I was glad about. 

What's New At the Zoo? written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and illus. Travis Foster
Everyone thought this was a silly book. 

From Head to Toe written and illus. by Eric Carle
The children liked mimicking the animal movements.

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.

Bananas Unite! 
Bananas Unite! 
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas
Chop bananas, chop, chop bananas
Mash bananas, mash, mash bananas
Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas
Go bananas, go, go bananas 
Source: JLibrary
*Please watch the video below for the actions! My storytime families LOVE this! We do this song three times, and mix up the speeds.

Head and Shoulders
follow actions
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
knees and toes
Eyes and ears and mouth and knows
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes.
*Note: We do this song three times and very the speed each time. 

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
Animal Noise ID 
I downloaded the app "Zoo Sounds" onto my storytime iPod, and I had the children use their listening skills to guess which animal was making the noise. One child did a great job, but the other children needed to work on their animal identification skills.

CRAFT
Alligator Weaving 
 Everyone worked on their little finger motor skills by weaving different colored strips of paper through the body of an alligator to create his colorful scales along his back. Some of the younger children needed their guardian's assistance in completing the craft.

MORE BOOKS
A Night at the Zoo written and illus. by Kathy Caple
Penguins written and illus. by Liz Pichon
Two at the Zoo written by Danna Smith and illus. by Valeria Petrone

*Images of book covers found via www.goodreads.com: here, here, and here.

I Spy - A Storytime Outline

This Family Storytime theme was the perfect time for me to introduce a new activity... The Memory Box! I was looking for new ideas freshen up my Family Storytime, and I came across Abby the Librarian's blog post about her Memory Box. I thought it was a nifty idea, and I really wanted to give it a try. Hope it works out!

BOOKS
I Spy on the Farm written and illus. by Edward Gibbs
This was a good boo cause the children had to guess what type of animal that is being introduced a bit at a time on each page.

Flashlight written and illus. by Lizi Boyd
This is really the first time I that used a wordless book in storytime, but this worked out well! It was a good thing that I only about 8 children in the program so that way I could take some time and walk around the room and have the children see the different animals that were being discovered by the flashlight. 

Duck! Rabbit! written by Amy Krause Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld 
The children loved debating what animal it was. Is it a duck? Is it a rabbit? 
 

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.

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 
Memory Box 
The item in the box today was an Owl. I told the children if they saw an owl anywhere in any of the books that we were going to share they had to let me know. Excitingly, one boy actually did just that while we were going through Flashlight! Yay!

Scavenger Hunt 
After the children finished their craft they could participate in a scavenger hunt in which they had to find book characters around the room. I tried to make this good for all ages, but there were some little ones visiting on their first to the library. Their guardians thought it was kind of hard to do in such a small space, which is true. My storytime room is very small.



CRAFT 
I Spy Bags 
While scrolling through Pinterest I saw a lot of I Spy Bags/Bottles. I thought they were really nifty so used a lot blue colored rice and little object I had in my craft supplies. Every child had the opportunity to pick a couple of objects to put in their ziploc bags then I poured in a cup of rice. They children thought it was pretty nifty! 



*Images of book covers found via www.goodreads.com - here and here.

Let's Tell A Story Together - A Storytime Outline

I've done an interactive storytime before, but they are so much fun. Plus, there are more and more books coming out that require involvement from the readers, which means I have more opportunities to do storytimes like this! 

BOOKS
Don't Push the Button! written and illus. by Bill Cotter
Since I want to make sure that every child has a chance to push the button I decided to create a copy of the red button to push to have in front of them. They LOVED it! Our photocopier, which has a scanning mode, was out of order so I had to make black and white copies of the button and use a red crayon to color the button, but it worked out. Next time I plan on scanning the page and print in color... and maybe even laminating them so I can keep them on hand.

It's a Tiger! written by David LaRochelle and illus. by Jeremy Tankard 
Every time I read this book I start to lose my voice! It's true! It's such a fun book. For the school-age children in my family storytime caught onto the game quickly, but I made sure to keep the story interesting and interactive by having the run in place, swing from a pretend vine and so on. They certainly got a workout!

Can You Make a Scary Face? written and illus. by Jan Thomas
I heart Jan Thomas! Her books are so much fun. I had a frog puppet to help with this story. We all pretended to be ladybugs and made silly and scary faces. At the end I had the children make the scariest face they could in front of my frog, which I would make it get really scared and hop onto the next child. 

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.

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
Pull and Tell A Story
I placed a number of objects (such as a cat, a car, a dinosaur, and a soldier) from a bag to help us create our own story. The story got very silly, and complicated. But the children loved it!

CRAFT
Story Scroll 
I found this craft on Imagination Soup's website, and thought it was perfect. I followed the rocket ship theme and wrote the story lines, but the children had to draw their own pictures to help tell the story. Everyone did a great job, and were quite imaginative.


MORE BOOKS
Tap to Play! written and illus. by Salina Yoon
Tap the Magic Tree written and illus. by Christie Matheson
Tickle the Duck! written and illus. by Ethan Long

*Images of book covers were found on www.goodreads.com - here, here, and here.

What's New III - A Storytime Outline

This post is kinda old, peeps, but it's a good one!

BOOKS
Orangutangled written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and illus. by Aaron Zenz 
The world "organutangled" is quite a tongue-twister for me, but it worked out. The children were great in trying to explain why all the animals got tangled together. 

Ding Dong! Gorilla! written by Michelle Robinson and illus. by Leonie Lord
Quite a silly book. 

How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth written by Michelle Robinson and illus. by Kate Hindley
This was a must read because it inspired my craft. 

Ninja, Ninja, Never Stop written by Todd Tuell and illus. by Tad Carpenter
The children insisted on reading this one. They LOVE ninjas! 

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.

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. The group LOVES going extremely fast!

Ninja, Ninja 
Ninja, ninja turn around.
Ninja, ninja touch the ground.
Ninja, ninja roll on the ground. 
Ninja, ninja sneak around.
Ninja, ninja touch the sky.
Ninja, ninja jump own low (strike your ninja pose!)
Ninja, ninja touch your toes.
Inspired by source: Preschool Express via What Happens in Storytime

Little Ninja, Little Ninja 
Little nnja, little ninja,
Are you behind the [color] house?
Source: Me... a piggyback of "Little Mouse, Little Mouse" 
 
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

Little Ninja, Little Ninja
We did this little rhyme after everyone had finished their craft. They love it!

CRAFT
Woolly Mammoth 
I saw this craft online and really wanted to do it. Even though it cost $1.70 to get a small pouch of wool roving at the local craft store, I could not figure out what to do with the leftovers (especially since I tend to have such a small attendance). Even though I still wished I had bought it, I am really happy with the idea of using brown yarn instead. To make the mammoths extra fuzzy feeling I had the children pull the strands of yarn apart and glue them to our mammoth image, which I found here. The children loved it. Plus, it ended up being a very good practice in fine motor skills and provided texture for the children to play with it!

PICTURE

Source of the book images found here, here, here, and here.

Hibernation - A Storytime Outline

Here in Texas we've hit winter early to the point of saying, "What happened to Fall?!?". So it was more than perfect for us to do a program on hibernation! I wanted to try to not have all hibernating bear stories, and didn't do too badly.

BOOKS
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: A Book of Changing Seasons written and illus. by Il Sung Na
Some of the children brought up a good, little discussion about

Old Bear written and illus. by Kevin Henkes 
Such a nice book. I used flannel pieces for the children to put on the board so that they could be part of the story.

Time to Sleep written and illus. by Denise Fleming 
As the children said, "Silly animals!"

SONG & RHYME
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.

The Mitten in the Snow
The mitten in the snow
The mitten in the snow
Help us please so we won't freeze!
The mitten in the snow.

A mole squeezes in
A mole squeeze in
Help us please so we won't freeze!
The mitten in the snow.

A rabbit squeezes in
A rabbit squeezes in
Help us please so we won't freeze!
The mitten in the snow.

Continue with the other animals:
Hedgehog
Owl
Badger
Fox
Bear (yes, even a bear!)
Mouse

The bear says, "A-choo!"
The bear says, "A-choo!"
All the animals fly out of
The mitten in the snow!
Source: Mrs. Jones Room 

ACTIVITY
Freeze Dance
I had the children dance to one or two songs and every time the music stopped I asked if a certain animal hibernated or not.

FLANNEL BOARD
The Mitten in the Snow 
This flannel board was made ages ago for my Cool Winter Fun storytime.

Old Bear 
This flannel board was made together with a coworker for a Kevin Henkes storytime!

CRAFT
Paper Bag Cave 
I found this craft on the web via Pinterest (again!) a while back and I finally was able to do it! The children had a little difficulty understanding how to make the cave, but it worked out very well in the end! I found the clipart for the bear on The Mailbox and did a little computer magic to shrink the image a little. For the tree, I found it on Microsoft Publisher.

Paper Bag Cave craft, Family Storytime,
created by Dorothy, WPCC 2014.

MORE BOOKS
Bear Snores On written by Karma Wilson and illus. by Jane Chapman
Over and Under the Snow written by Kate Messner and illus. by Christopher Silas Neal
Ouch! written by Ragnhild Scamell and Michael Terry
Sleep Big Bear, Sleep! written by Maureen Wright and illus. by Will Hillenbrand

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

Boo! Halloween! - A Storytime Outline

It's that time of year again! I typically panic around this time because I always wanted a good, ol' Halloween storytime with an exciting atmosphere. Perhaps it's because my old library system had them. Anyway! This year I managed to pull off a homemade bat costume (I feel so crafty!). A couple of kids dressed up for the program, but most didn't, which was to be expected. The children enjoyed the program, but I'm still wanting to do more!

BOOKS
Ghosts in the House! written and illus. by Kazuno Kohara 
This is such a fun book! I love the limited use of colors, and the children really enjoyed it too. We all thought it was funny that the cat even had a witch cat costume! 

Ten Little Mummies: An Egyptian Counting Book written by Philip Yates and illus. by G. Brian Karas 
Ever since I saw Philip Yates speak over five years ago, I have always wanted to use this book! It was a good book for the group. Score! 

Boo, Bunny! written by Kathryn O. Galbraith and illus. by Jeff Mack
The children wanted to read this one, and so, obviously, I obliged. It's very simple, and you can totally embrace the emotions and sounds that you come across in the story. 

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.

The Haunted House (T, P)
The ghost in the house goes "Boo! Boo! Boo!"
Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo! Boo!
The ghost in the house goes "Boo! Boo! Boo!"
On Halloween.

continue with:
The mice go "Squeak, squeak, squeak"
The cats go "Meow, meow, meow"
The witches go "ha ha ha"
The monsters go "rawr, rawr, rawr"
The bats go "ee ee ee"
Source: Preschool Education 

ACTIVITIES 
Freeze Dance to the Monster Mash
Knowing the group that I get at this little library I needed something for them to do to get some of their wiggles out, especially since I didn't really have any action songs. So! I whipped out the handy dandy iPod and loaded the song The Monster Mash, and we all did a freeze dance. It would have been more fun if there were movement scarves, but, alas, I did not have any on hand. Next time!

Skeleton Dress Up 
See below for details.

The Haunted House  
I made these many moons ago. If I remember correctly, I simply used Microsoft clip art to use as patterns for the each character. Even the witch, which I'm still impressed that I made - even if she is little ugly looking.

The Haunted House flannel board,
Created by Dorothy WP-CC, 2011

FLANNEL BOARD

Skeleton Dress Up 
I made Sal, that's his name, by the way a few years back. To make a skeleton I found a cartoon template online and blue it up a bit to make him about 18inches in height. His arms, skull, rib cage, and legs are separate pieces, which allowed me more freedom if I ever needed to have more fun. To make it exciting for the children I made clothes and accessories for them to put on him. For a little more detail, check out my Flannel Friday post for Sal.

For this group, I let everyone have a piece and asked them to come up based on color or by where one would typically wear an item of clothing. Here's what they came up with!

Sal dressed by Family Storytime children!,
WPCC, 2014.

CRAFT 
Masking Tape Mummies 
I found this craft on No Time for Flash Cards via Pinterest (Did I ever mention I love Pinterest???), and I have wanted to make this craft ever since. I followed the instructions pretty much to a T, and the children did a really good job at working with the masking tape and the safety scissors. Talk about letting the kids work on their fine motor skills.

Masking Tape Mummy, Family Storytime,
created by Dorothy WPCC, 2014.