Pre-K Storytime 12-29-11 Teddy Bears

Yesterday we had some fun with teddy bears.  I have a nice collection of teddy bears started for storytime but need more to make a full set.  If you have any teddy bears you're not attached to and need a home for, I would welcome them!

Memory Box:  G  (yes, it was a big letter G)

Game: Famous teddy bears.  We identified some famous teddy bears like Michael's bear from Peter Pan, Paddington Bear, Teddy Ruxpin (just for fun LOL), and the most famous stuffed bear of all, Winnie the Pooh.

Book:  My Bear Griz by Suzanne McGinness.  Billy goes on adventures with his bear Griz who is really his teddy bear.  The big G (from our memory box) appears in this book.

Book:  Teddy Bears, Teddy Bears by Harriet Ziefert.  All the kids got a teddy bear to move like the bears in this classic rhyme, "Teddy bears, teddy bears, turn around...." and so on.

Book:  Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough.  When a small boy named Eddie goes searching for his lost teddy in the dark woods, he comes across a gigantic bear with a similar problem.  I think this book is really funny, but I'm not sure if it went over the kids' heads a little bit.  Book reviews recommend it for Pre-S/ ages 2-5.






Movement: "Teddy Bear Playtime".  All the kids had a teddy bear and practiced throwing and catching, balancing, and identifying body parts.

Wiggle Worms 12-27-11

Animal Song: Grandpa's Farm

Letter of the Day: Hh for hippo (which we saw later in our book)

Book:  We've All Got Bellybuttons by David Martin.  All the animals in this books do things young toddlers can do: Clap, kick, wiggle their ears, and giggle giggle giggle when tickled! 

Movement:  We danced to one of my favorite songs "Wiggerly Woo" using colorful ribbons.

Flannel:  Baa Baa Black Sheep

Rhyme:  There Was a Little Turtle

Library closed Monday, December 26th

Wiggle Worms 12-19-11

Thanks for coming!  I know you're all busy this time of year so it's really nice that you take some time to come to storytime. 

I would love to own a library set of teddy bears, so if you have any non-sentimental ones please donate them!

Today we:

Animal Song: "If I Was a Bird"

Letter of the Day:  Ss for snake ssssssssss

Book:  My Bear Griz by Suzanne McGinness.  Billy loves bears!  With a little imagination his teddy bear becomes a Grizzly bear to have adventures with.

Movement:  "Teddy Bear Playtime" by Hap Palmer.  We had fun throwing our teddy bears up and catching them and having them sit on our heads.

Flannel: Santa's Hat

We ended storytime with a jingle bell parade around the library!  All of our staff and a bunch of high school students were out in the library clapping for the kids so it was really cute.  We paraded to "Kris Kringle's Jingle Bell Band"

Happy Holidays!!

Wiggle Worms 12-12-11

Thanks for braving the rain to visit with us today!

Animal Song: Old MacDonald

Letter of the Day: Bb for bus and ball

Book: The Boy on the Bus by Penny Dale.  When all the animals want to ride the bus it makes for a noisy bus ride!  We sang this book to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus".

Plush Balls:  We practiced following instructions, hand-eye coordination, and gross motor skills by rolling, passing, bouncing, and tossing plush balls  using the song "Roll, Roll, Roll Your Ball"

Flannel:  "Baa Baa Black Sheep".  We also used a purple, green, and blue sheep for this rhyme and change the ending a little bit.

Baa Baa Black Sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for my Master, one for my Dame
and one for your child's name who lives down the lane.

Finger Play:  "Rain is Falling Down" (so apropos)

Rain is falling down
Rain is falling down
Pitter patter, pitter patter
Rain is falling down
SPLASH!!

Pre-K - Butterflies

Thursday was a little bit of a smaller group, which worked well with our interactive books.  We read about caterpillars, butterflies, and moths.

Book:  Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek.  Lucy looks everywhere for her butterfly and finally finds it in the sky.  We identified lots of bugs in this book including a ladybug which was our memory box item.

Book: Don't Worry, Bear by Greg Foley.  The kids really helped me bring this book to life!  My colleague  read the book as I manipulated the felt board pieces to tell the story of a caterpillar who spins himself a cocoon.  Bear worries for caterpillar because it gets dark (turned the lights off), gets windy (we made gusts of wind), snows (we all threw packing popcorn in the air for a big snowstorm), and rains (spritzed some water).  Don't worry; caterpillar is just fine!  He emerges a beautiful moth.

Shakers: "Harry Caterpillar" is a song off the CD Exercise Party.  Harry Caterpillar wants to cross the street so he has to "wiggle and jiggle and roll himself over" all the way there.  I have a caterpillar puppet that turns into a a butterfly, which is exactly what Harry does at the end, so the puppet danced around with us.

Game:  Bibbity Boppity Boo with flannel butterflies.  Each child got a butterfly and I put their rhyming skills to the test.  "Bibbity Boppity Boo a  butterfly sat on my shoe", etc.

Letter of the Day:  Ll

Wiggle Worms! 12/5 and 12/6

Today we:

Animal Song: "If Animals Could Dance"

Letter of the Day:  Ff for fish

Book:  Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins is one of my favorite storytime books.  The illustrations are bold, colorful, and BIG.  This is a great book to check out and take home too since the pictures lend themselves well to lots of "what" questions for you and your toddler to discuss.

Movement: "The Goldfish" song by Laurie Berkner.  I usually do this with the Pre-schoolers, but the toddlers totally go the hang of this song!  Our little fish like to take naps, swim around, and do silly things like take showers.

Flannel:  We reviewed concepts like "big and small (or little)", "happy and sad", and "polka dots and stripes"

Finger Play:  We did a "new" finger play that was one of my favorites as a kid when I went to storytimes. 

The Little Turtle

There was a little turtle.

He lived in a box.

He swam in a puddle.

He climbed on the rocks.

 

He snapped at a mosquito.

He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a minnow.

And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.

He caught the flea.

He caught the minnow.

But he didn't catch me.

5th Annual Caroling in the Library!

I always have such a blast organizing and doing this program with my colleague, Allie Burke, while the rest of our staff help direct the flow of traffic and add to the holiday cheer.  We put this event on every year for the families in our community. 

The PHS students baked 150 gingerbread men for children to decorate and take with them. These students also baked the dozens of gorgeous cookies and set out hot beverages for the pubic to enjoy during the evening.  Their culinary instructor, Angela Stutz, helps cater this event.

The PHS choir, led by their instructor Joe Little, sang many of favorite Christmas songs and provided all the lyrics so families to carol along.

The evening concluded with pajama storytime which I led and my (twin) sister helped me with.  She is awesome enough to help me every year (and I think we throw a few people off every year too LOL).  I read some of my old favorite books but added some new books and activities as well.

Books:

Dream Snow by Eric Carle
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone

 


Flannel Activities:

"Santa's New Suit":  Santa was all ready for Christmas...except for all the soot on his suit.  His elves washed his suit but then it shrunk in the drier.  Not only would Santa be cold if he wore it, he looked plain old silly.  His elves made him a beautiful blue suit and then a yellow suit, but they were the wrong color.  Oh well, it was Christmas Even by then and Santa would have to make due with one of those suits...but then Mrs. Clause surprised him with a gift she had been working hard on!

"Santa's Hat": Santa is definitely in a few predicaments this Christmas!  In this flannel, he has so many hats the children had to help him figure out which one was the right one.

"My Kittens Mittens":  We hung mittens up on a clothes line just like the cats did in Three Little Kittens.  We put the audience's rhyming skills to the test with this one as we helped my kitten look for her lost mitten:

My poor little kitten lost her mitten
and started to cry, "Boo hoo"
So I helped my kitten look for her mitten
Her beautiful mitten of blue

I found a mitten under my  mother's bed
But it wasn't the right one
because it was ..... red

I found a mitten under the kitchen sink
But it wasn't the right one
because it was .... pink, etc.

 

Baby Time - November 30, 2011

I had so much fun with you at Baby Time this week!  We did a new activity, I saw lots of familiar and friendly faces, and the energy was really great.  It was the perfect Wednesday-pick-me-up!

* “Ball Time”

 From  The Baby Bonding Book for Dads :

Very early on babies like looking at balls, balloons, and stuffed-animal-style balls.

Once they can grasp, babies like soft-stuffed balls, and you can play little games of holding them out and pulling them back, tug-of-war, and gently tickling their noses or tummies with the ball.    As you hold a ball out to your child to grasp, you're not just bonding with the baby and offering him a toy, you're teaching him a skill set that will come in handy later.  More than fun, your baby's actually hard at work on eye-hand-coordination.

 
On Wednesday:

Mr. Bear

Rhyme: Roly Poly

Song: I Wake Up My Hands

Rhyme: Jack is Quiet

Animal Song:  If I Was a Bird (Rotate weekly)

Rhyme:  Popcorn (Rotate weekly)

Books: Board books (Rotate weekly)

Rhyme : This Little Piggy (Rotate weekly)

Rhyme:  Robbie Rabbit

Bouncing Song:  Wheels on the Bus (Rotate weekly)

Rhyme:  Rickety, Rickety Rocking Horse(Rotate weekly)

*Activity: Ball (Rotate last Wednesday of the month)

Bubbles

* On the last Wednesday of the month, it's fun to deviate from the usual shakers we use to end storytime.  This week all the babies got a plush ball and we played the song "Roll, Roll, Roll Your Ball" and got some practice rolling, bouncing, passing, and tossing.