Caroling in the Library 2012

We had a HUGE turn out and are planning for next year with these numbers in mind.  I'll note the planned changes throughout the post (in red).

This event was created by my colleague Allison Burke six years ago and she and I have single-handedly (or is that double-handedly?) planned, presented, collaborated with the high school (all Allie!), and pulled this program off for another five! 

684 library customers enjoyed the festivities!

Some decorating and promotion:

 

Gingerbread Man Decorating:
Will have 250 instead of 160
Thanks for the home-made cookies, Perry High School Culinary students and Angela Stutz!

                                                           

Before the madness

 

Evelyn and Dad

Getting busy

Our culinary students

 

Decorating done...Go time!

Elf Station
The elves will be in the Newsstand Room next year

Thank you,  Elf Kaylie, Elf Emily, and Elf Arriana

 

 

 

Letters for Santa.  Emails returned by our very own Perry elves!

 

Refreshments:  Cookies, Cupcakes, Coffee, Hot Chocolate

12 platters of cookies.  MORE next year and in a spacier location!

 

My cutie snagged a cupcake

 

Choir

Sound system next year for our awesome Carolers

 

Thank you, Joe Little and the PHS choir



 

Families enjoying interactive choir

 

Pajama Storytime

Next year: In the open "stage area" where the choir was

AND I'll learn how to use the mic better

 

Set up

 

How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen

 

 

Rhyimg flannel game: "Rudolph, Rudolph"

 

Found a recorded version of "Reindeer Pokey"!

 

Hmm is this cowboy hat Santa's hat?

 

5 gingerbread cookies cooling on a tray.  This one jumped up and hopped away!

 

Because my niece is plain old cute!

 

 

Books we read:

 

How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen

Who Will Help Santa This Year? by Jerry Pallotta

Pajama Time by Sanra Boynton (big book)



 

 

Everyone who helped us out day of!  Thank you

I wouldn't change a thing  =)

 

Miss Lesley, Miss Allie, Elf Kaylie, Elf Emily, Yours Truly in black footie jammies, Elf Arianna

 

Joe, our wonderful elfish security guard and Miss Emily who came from Southeast Library to help out.



 

 

 

 

Pre-K Thanksgiving 11-15-12

Thanksgiving is in ONE WEEK!  Yay

Theme:  Thanksgiving

Books:

I Know and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Allison Jackson

The old lady swallows a pie.  You know the rest.  I do not read all the repeating lines in order to shorten the story.

 

To make it easier to "see the book" I made this flannel.  The lady's skirt gets bigger and bigger as she eats.

 

 

 

The Ugly Pumpkin (Or in my version: The Bumpy Pumpkin) by Dave Horowitz.  The bumpy pumpkin is really a squash.  The other pumpkins are pretty mean to him so I change or skip most of the text and make it an upbeat story.

 

Why do I love this book?  Because I buy cool bumpy gourds every year and let the kids all touch them.

 

 

 

 

 

Flannels:

 

"Turkey Wore His Red Feather"

 

I LOVE programming during the holidays because attendance is low enough that I can do activities like this!!  Each child picked a feather and did a fabulous job waiting until I called their color and they came up to put feathers on the turkey.

 

As they brought the feathers up, I sang "Turkey wore his red feather, red feather, red feather / Turkey wore his red feather all day long" etc. for all the colors.

 

 

 

 

Bibbity Boppity Boo -- Turkey style

 

I came up with this game (it's floating around on the Internet without my name attached to it because I shared it on a listserve and was not credited when ideas were compiled).  It's easy and can work with any animal / thing really.

 

Each kid got a flannel turkey (I buckled down in front of the TV and made 40 of them last year) and we moved them around our bodies.

 

"Bibbity Boppity Boo - A turkey sat on my shoe"

"Bibbity Boppity Bed - A turkey sat on my head"  etc

 

 

 

Music:

 

"She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" - because she reminds me of the lady who swallowed a pie!

 

"Turkey Trot" (Gosh!  I don't know who to credit).

 

Oh you turkey to the left

You turkey to the right

You heel toe heel toe

And you scratch with all your might

You flap your turkey wings

As your head goes bobble, bobble, bobble

You turn around and then you say, "Gobble, gobble, gobble."

 

Of course Turkey trotted with us

 

 

 

Video song:

 

Apparently I am the only one with nostalgic memories of this from elementary school, but the parents all sang along and the kids got the "gobble gobble" refrain down.  The held on to the little flannel turkeys to dance with.

 



 

Game:  "Mouse View"  I created this game a few years ago.  I printed close-ups of various Thanksgiving foods and the kids guess what they are.

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

 

 

 



 

 

Pre-K Squirrels Getting Ready For Winter

I've been busy as a squirrel getting ready for winter (haha) and haven't been blogging.  This particular program worked well the MORNING AFTER HALLOWEEN because it was a smaller group and the acorn activity would have been crazy with a bigger group.

Theme: Squirrels getting ready for winter
Kids: 21
Siblings: 4
Adults: 16

 Books:

Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert (I like this book but not my first choice).  A rascally squirrel has an indoor adventure.

 

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri.  Squirrel is too busy to play with the other animals because he is getting ready for winter.

 

Memory Box:  Pumpkin from The Busy Little Squirrel

Music / Movement:

Music: "Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel".  There are many versions but I used the one that has gray squirrel, mommy squirrel, and daddy squirrel all shake their bushy tails.  I had enough pom poms for adults to move too and a few moms and dads did stand up.  Their kids LOVED watching them dance (so did I).  So funny! 

"Furry, Furry Squirrel" (poem) by Jack Prelutsky.  The kids acted the poem out as the puppet also hopped, ran up the tree, turned around, and scurried down.

 

 

 

Letter of the Day:  Ss for squirrel

 

I presented different animals and we categorized them as words that start with Ss and that don't:

Oh, yeah...that's a Snowy Owl

Flannel:

Sammy Squirrel comes from a flannel book.  Eesh I can't remember which one...

Sammy Squirrel contemplates how to stay warm during the winter when he can't find a tree with leaves on it.  He thinks about various friends who hibernate but none of those homes work for him.  Finally he sees something green in the distance...pull slowly out of folder....what is it?  A tree for Sammy!!

 

 

Activity:  The kids searched the library for acorns to put in the squirrel's tree hole.  Despite my clarity on only finding 2 or 3 each, some kids went nuts (haha) so I helped the more reserved kids find the acorns that the others didn't find (like in our potted plants).  I cut 76 acorns so there were plenty to find.

Borrowed straight from:  http://busycraftingmommy.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/animals-in-fall-storytime/

 

 

 



Flannel Friday - Chocolate chip ghost

Ghosts are white!  They are supposed to only eat white things...milk, yogurt, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, mashed potatoes....

 

Well these ghosts got adventurous and wanted to try new foods!
This ghost ate an apple.  What color do you think he turned?

This ghost drank some grape juice.  What color do you think she turned?

Etc....

This ghost ate a chocolate chip cookie.  What color did he turn?  I usually get puzzled looks and then a bunch of laughter when I turn the last one over.

Spiders! Pre-K 10-4-12

It's that time of year again!  Spiders are great, creepy critters to read about in the month of October.

41 children
3 siblings
28 adults

Theme: Spiders

Memory Box: Cow from The Very Busy Spider

Books:

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Aaaarrgghh Spider! by Lydia Monks.  LOL So funny to read in storytime.  All the kids screamed "Aaaarrgghh!  A spider!" right on cue. 

Fluffy (the spider puppet pictured with Letter of the Day) acted out the spider's part in the book since the spider in the picture is a little small.

Flannel/Clip Art:
I picked bugs we wouldn't mind a spider eating: Flea, mosquito, beetle, wasp, fly

The spider catches a fly
The spider catches a fly
Hi ho the dairy-o
The spider catches a fly

The bugs attach to the web with velcro

Music and Props:
It's not very often we use two musical handouts...but today it was just so fitting...

"There's a Spider on the Floor"  I am linking Raffi's version because the version I use isn't in our catalog.  The kids all get a spider to bounce around on the floor and move up their bodies.  My favorite verses:

There's a spider on my neck / I'm a psychological wreck
There's a spider on my face / What an inconvenient place
There's a spider on my head / It's the thing that I most dread

"Shoo Fly" In the version I played, the kids used scarves to shoo the flies away (Lesley and I "flew" around) and in between shooing we clapped, stomped, jumped, and then sat like a pretzel.

Cube Roll:  Poet's Corner
I had a poem picked out:

Letter of the Day: Oo and Pp
Spiders usually lay lots of eggs, but our spider, Fluffy, only laid two.  I truly didn't look at the balls before putting them below Fluffy. 

I instructed the kids to NOT shout out the letter (I closed my eyes and covered my ears just in case).  When I uncovered my ears they told me words that started with each letter and I guessed it based on their clues!