Alligators and Croc: Pre-K and Family Storytimes

8-15-13  Last week we read about alligators and crocodiles in storytime

Pre-K Storytime (Thursdays at 10:30)
52 kids
37 adults
89 total

Evening Family Storytime (Thursdays at 6pm)
34 kids
36 adults
70 total

Yup!  Summer vacations are over and library programs are in full swing!

Memory Box:  Hippo from Solomon Crocodile

Books: 

Solomon Crocodile by Catherine Rayner.  This book gets mixed reviews, but I love the bold, charming illustrations!  I think of Solomon as a puppy -  all he wants to do is play but he sure can be a pest!

Snip Snap by Mara Bergman.  Don't let the cover fool you.  This book is so fun!  An alligator creeps up the stairs, closer and closer to the children.  The author asks the audience several times:  "Were the children scared?" 

And we all answer:  "YOU BET THEY WERE!"

Finally, the children have enough of all this scary alligator stuff and tell him to, "GET OUT!"

Do you think he was scared?  YOU BET HE WAS!


Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut.  What can you give a crocodile who spends all day brushing her teeth?  Clarabella's friends have the perfect gift!

The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli.  I read this one a few weeks ago, but it would have been great with this theme too.
Blog post here


Flannel / Prop:

The Alpha-gator

I couldn't resist making this prop when I found this poem about an alpha-gator who eats the alphabet; but those letters keep wreaking havic in his tummy.  http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/17

Fingerplay / Movement
(From Miss Trish at Chandler Library)

I have the kids crawl toward me and then turn around and target their parents!

The alligator's jaws go snap snap snap
(snap arms in front of you)
The alligator's tail goes thwack thwack thwack
(swish arms like a tail)
And he's getting closer
(crawl)

... repeat....

GOTCHYA!
(grab/hug someone you know!)

Music / Movement
The kids danced with scarves to the lively song "Alligator Jump"

The chorus:

Alligators jump
Alligators slide
All the alligators like to move from side to side

Alligators grunt
Alligators giggle
All the alligators like to turn around and wiggle

Pre-K 2-23-12 Frogs and Alligators

Today we had a full-energy group...and lots of siblings.  We read about frogs and alligators and grooved to a new song.

Memory box: Fly (from Wide-Mouthed-Frog).  It was pretty funny and unexpected when the kids kept spotting the fly on every page LOL

What color are frogs?:  We had fun looking at a variety of colorful frogs

Books:

Jump! by Scott Fischer.  All the children got a colorful scarf to lift up high each time I read the word, "JUMP!" (which was fairly often).  From a bug and a frog to a croc and a shark, each animal JUMPS away from a larger animal.

Wide-Mouthed-Frog by Keith Faulkner.  The wide-mouth frog in this pop-up book eats flies and asks other animals about their favorite foods....until he meets an alligator who eats wide-mouthed-frogs.  The children then helped me retell the story with puppet props.

Flannel:
Little frog, little frog
are you in the color log?
(I let the kids call out colors and we looked under the logs until we found the two frogs)

Letter of the Day:
My duck from "All the Fish" laid two colorful eggs!  I instructed Lesley to show them the egg, but they couldn't tell me th letter.  Instead I had to guess the letter based on the words they came up with.
Music (sorry; neither CD is in our collection): 
"All the Fish":  We swam with fish, quacked with ducks, hopped with frogs, snapped like alligaors, flew like seagulls, and swam with children in the song "All the Fish"...and SPLASHed enthusiastically.

"Alligator Jump":  An alligator puppet taught us how to do the Alligator Jump with dancing scarves.  The chorus is:

Alligator jump

Alligator slide

All the alligators like to move from side to side

Alligator grunt

Alligator giggle

All the alligators like to turn around and wiggle