Pumpkins: All-Ages Storytime

This is the first time I did a pumpkin theme and it was so much fun!

Animal Song with Puppets: "Mr. Duck"

Mr. Mrs. Bear was not able to come to storytime today so his gal pal Mrs. Bear came to sing hello to us.  She is dressed as Elsa to remind you that Anna and Elsa are coming for Caroling in the Library on Dec 4th.  See our online calendar here.

 Books: 

Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills.  Duck and Goose look everywhere for a pumpkin and finally finds one at the pumpkin patch.

I read the large board book copy which was plenty big, especially with the large illustrations, even in our enormous storytime room.  It was super interactive because the kids got to answer, "No," each time Duck or Goose asked if the pumpkin was somewhere.

The Ugly Bumpy Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz.  This book is downright mean.  It's actually called "The Ugly Pumpkin" and the characters are pretty cruel to the "pumpkin".  I pretty much skip the whole middle of the book... but I love the end!

Prop Song: "Pumpkin Vine".    Basically the song leads us through using our imaginations to grow a pumpkin and I pull out the vine, big leaves, yellow flowers, red bug, and finally a pumpkin as they grow/appear in the song.
Listen here

Watch me in action (I have no idea why it's so insanely fast, but I actually like that it all plays out in like 5 seconds and then you can listen to the song at the link above):

Activity: Bibbity Boppity Boo
I used this rhyming game as a way to get the kids settled and holding autumn, sparkly, foam leaves for the Magic Cauldron activity (see next activity below).

Bibbity Boppity Boo a leaf is on my shoe
Bibbity Boppity Bed a leaf is on my head
Bibbity Boppity Bee a leaf is on my knee... etc...

Activity: Magic Autumn Cauldron
There is a squash (or pumpkin if you have the forethought to buy one in October) hidden in cauldren under a black plastic bag.

I tell the kids I am going to put item in my cauldron that make me think of fall.  I have a black trash bag because that's what we used to rake leaves into when I lived in NY and I add the apple, leaves, scarecrow, and jacket and then use my magic wand to say, "Hocus Pocus, "Bibbity Boppity Boo," and, "Abra Cadabra."  Sadly nothing magical happens.

Ahhhh!  We need magic leaves.  We practice holding up the color leaf we have and the kids bring their leaves up to put in the cauldron by color groups so they don't all run up at once.  It's not perfect, but it works.

Once all the leaves are in the cauldron, we say the magic words again and I magically pull something out of the cauldron I didn't put in.  Real magic there, folks.

 Fingerplay: