AZ Centennial Celebration: Storytime with guest author Conrad Storad

On Thursday, Feb 9th we will have a storytime guest!  At 10:30, Conrad Storad, author of Rattlesnake Rules, will present storytime accompanied by his snake puppet JR Ringo.  This program is geared for children ages 3-5. 

His books will be on sale!! Checks only please!

Wiggle Worms 1-30-12

Animal Song: "If I Was a Bird". We sing an animal song every week with puppets and today we enjoyed moving to this mellow song from my favorite CD.

Letter of the Day: Gg for grapes

Book: I Love Animals by Flora McDonnell.  In the spirit of Valentine's Day fast approaching, we read this big book version.

Movement:  We moved our arms like Henry with ribbons and my octopus puppet danced along.

Rhymes:

Here is the Beehive

There Was a Little Turtle

Flannel:  Straight from http://www.sotomorrowblog.com/
Little worm playing  hide and seek
Are you under the __________?
Let's take a peek

Pre-K 1-26-12 Dragons!

2012 is the year of the dragon (or so I've been told).  Time to celebrate and dragons are always fun to read about!

Books:

If I Had a Dragon by Tom Ellery.  Tired of playing with his little brother, a boy imagines what it would be like to play with a dragon!  Turns out, not so fun....

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow.  A child shares adventures with Puff, our beloved dragon from the 1960's song.

Draw and Tell Story: An Emperor in China searches high and low for the majestic Chinese dragon in this draw-and-tell story by http://www.storyconnection.net/

Game:

Famous Dragons:  The kids helped me name some famous dragons in the pictures I held up (like Falkor from The NeverEnding Story, Penelope from Barbie as Rapunzel, and Dragon from Shrek).

Letter of the day:  Dd for dragon (and dinosaur)

Movement:

We stomped like dinosaurs in "We Are the Dinosaurs"...not dragons, but close enough.

The rhymes below are from http://jplmainchildrens.blogspot.com/2011/09/dragon-storytime.html

Little Dragon

Little dragon counts to three

Little dragon bends one knee

Little dragon touches his toes

Little dragon touches his nose

Little dragon make a funny face

Little dragon runs in place

Little dragon lays on the floor

Little dragon starts to snore

Turn Around

Turn around once and swing your dragon tail

Turn around twice and flap your wings like sails

Turn around three times, stomp your feet and roar

Jump up high, then sit down on the floor

 Parade:  We ended storytime with a parade around the library.  I love when the High School students are in the library during their lunch because with a little bit of coaxing, we had a couple dozen teenagers clapping and cheering for the kids.  I played "Puff the Magic Dragon" on the library floor as Lesley led the parade with a big dragon and all the kids (a little over 30) followed with little fledgling dragon finger puppets.  Sooo cute!

Baby Time 1-25-12

I'm sorry I didn't have my full set of shakers and big bag of toys....our High School Students clean our materials each week and some did not make it back in time for babytime today. 

I was asked again today about CD titles used so I will link below what we do have in our collection.  I've posted before that I've gone through  hundreds of CDs and song samples on Amazon and CD Baby to find my programming music.  I've done most of this listening and downloading at home so that I'm not limited to what is in our collection.

Animal Song: "Old MacDonald" from Songs for Wiggleworms.  I love this folksy, lively version of Old MacDonald with the tickle bug at the end!!

Book: Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming.  I adore this book!  My baby cracks up whenever I say, "But where's goose?".  This book didn't encourage action, but it has lots of fun animals sounds and big, bold pictures (especially since we have a copy of a BIG book version)

Bouncing Song: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" from Songs for Wiggleworms


Some rhymes we did today:

Kernels (Totally stolen from http://melissa.depperfamily.net/blog/?p=1516)

5 little kernels getting hot
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle....
POP

Bicycle
I like to ride my bicycle
I ride it to the shop
And when I see the big red light
I know it's time to STOP

I like to ride my bicycle
I ride it to and fro
And when I see the big green light
I know it's time to GO

Pre-K 1-19-12 Socks!

Book:  Ducks Don't Wear Socks by John Nedwidek.  Emily, a serious girl, meets a duck who helps her see the more humorous side of life by wearing clothing (including underpants).

 

I used this template to make the flannel.

Book: New Socks by Bob Shea.  This chicken sure is excited about his new socks!

Movement:  We rocked out with sock puppets the "Sock Puppet" song

Movement:  We spelled BOOTS while stomping, dancing, hopping, and splashing around with the song "BOOTS" by Laurie Berkner

Letter of the Day:  Ss for socks, of course!

Activity:  We ended storytime with a sock matching game.  Each child got a picture of a sock and found its mate among socks all over the storyroom floor.

Babytime 1-18-11

Today was great fun!  Lots of new babies!  I am often asked where I get my music from and the answer is hours and hours of sitting with my laptop listening to music samples on Amazon and cdbaby and checking out dozens of CDs from libraries.  I download many of my songs from home and compile them onto CDs so I can't link to all my music, but I will try to include links to our Library's materials.

Animal Song: "Grandpa's Farm" (my favorite version is Raffi's)

Book:  Mommy, Carry Me Please by Jane Cabrera.  This book is great for cuddles, tickles, and body part and animal identification.  Sometimes, like today, I'll set out animal finger puppets to use while reading this book.  

Bouncing Song: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Activity:  We usually end storytime with shakers, but today we ended with finger puppets and I played one of my favorite songs ("Elephant's Have Wrinkles"), but any fun music works.

There are some rhymes we do every week:

Jack is Quiet

Jack is quiet
in his box
Lift the lid

and up he POPS!











Robbie Rabbit:

Robbie Rabbit is so fat, fat, fat
His soft little paws go pat, pat, pat
His soft little ears go flop, flop, flop
And when Robbie runs

he goes hop, hop, hop

Chick flannel

Here is the chick flannel we did last week.  An all original Tara Chmielowski flannel pattern and words!

Thanks to my new fancy phone, posting pics is easy!

Little chick, little chick
can you do a special trick?

Little chick, little chick
can you do another trick?

(The chick changes color each time we ask it to do another trick....saving the best trick for last)

Wiggle Worms! 1-17-12

Today we had a big group considering registration is limited to 30 children (46 toddlers plus siblings).  Fortunately we had enough back-up bean bags for everyone, but please be aware that registration is required for a quality program, including having enough supplies for all participants.  If registration is full, we do have a wait list so arrive early.  If you let yourself in after the program has started (even if you registered), we may not be able to offer a quality program for all due to group size.

I truly do love seeing all of you and your children's excited faces each week and want everyone to enjoy themselves!

Animal song: Grandpa's Farm

Letter of the day: Pp for popcorn

Book:  Peek-a-Moo.  In this lift the flap book, different farm animals play peek-a-boo.

Movement: We kept our bean bag shapes in action with the song  "Shapes in Action" 


Flannel: In honor of National Popcorn Day on the 19th, we did this flannel rhyme.  I got the idea from http://melissa.depperfamily.net/blog/?p=1516, but changed the words.

Popcorn
5 little kernels getting hot
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle...
POP!

  

1-12-12 Pre-K Outer Space

Today was super fun!  There were so many new kiddos and everyone had the most awesome storytime etiquette I've ever seen.  Please come back!  =)

Today we read about outer space and the astronauts that visit.  I had one more book planned because I knew storytime might run a little short (which it did by about 3 minutes), but I didn't want to push my luck by reading it and have the kids get antsy.

Memory Box: Giraffe

Books:
Astronaut PiggyWiggy by Chistyan Fox.  PiggyWiggy daydreams about being an astronaut and visiting space.  This book introduced some words that were new for some kids, but some kids really impressed me today and already knew many of them.  Astronaut, launch, rocket ship, telescope, alien

Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli.  In this colorful book with very little text, a little girl wants her dad to push her higher and higher on the swing.  The giraffe from the memory box was in this book.



I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton.  I really like this author's bold, clear illustrations for storytimes.  This was the book I didn't read today, but had planned on it.  A young child thinks about what it would be like to go on a space mission.







Letter of the Day:
There were 5 letters today and we matched them to 5 pictures: Sun=S, Moon=M, Astronaut=A, Rocket=R, Planet=P

Movement:

We went into outer space using some dance ribbons using the song "First Kid in Outer Space" by the Not-Its!  With a lot of kid imagination, we dressed as astronauts, counted down to blast off, flew around space, saw planets and aliens, landed on the moon, moved in slow motion, did our best space dance, and then counted down back to earth.

Finger Play:

The Earth Turns Around (each child got an earth, moon, and sun)

The earth turns around

The earth turns around

Once a day, every day,

The earth turns around

The moon goes round the earth

The moon goes round the earth

Once a month, every month

The moon goes round the earth

The earth goes round the sun

The earth goes round the sun

Once a year, every year

The earth goes round the sun

*Flannel:

Six Little Men in a Flying Saucer

Six little men in a flying saucer

Flew around the world one day

Looked to left and right of us

But didn’t like the sight of us

So one more flew away

* I copied this flannel and song 100% from http://sunflowerstorytime.com/2011/11/03/outerspace/

Baby Time 1-11-12

The holidays are over!  Back to the routine again, which includes the library.  We had 46 babies; lots of new faces, some old faces, all of them precious.  This week I encouraged older babies (18-20 mo+) to start moving up into the toddler program where the setting and activities are more appropriate.  Toddlers can create a safety issue for younger babies and they often no longer find it engaging or fun to participate from the caregiver's lap.  You can register for Wiggle Worms here: Perry's Events.

This week we:

Animal Song:  Old MacDonald.  I love all those tickle bugs!

Book: The Cuddle Book by Guido Van Genechten.  Who doesn't love a book where animals cuddle?  Lots of oportunities for baby hugs and cuddles.

Rhymes:
Popcorn

Popcorn, popcorn
put it in the pot
Shake it, shake it
Pop, Pop, Pop!

Bicycle (This is new for babytime, but my baby and I have loved this rhyme since he was a newborn)

I like to ride my bicycle
I ride it to the shop
and when I see the big red light
I know it's time to STOP

I like to ride my bicycle
I ride it to and fro
and when I see the big green light
I know it's time to GO

Wiggle Worms 1-9-12 Chicks!

People often ask me where I get my flannel ideas from.  Today's flannel was something I came up with on Friday when I decided I wanted to do something new and didn't like any of the "chick" or "egg" flannels I was finding online.  My co-workers threw some words out that rhyme with "chick" and once I ruled out "finger lickin' good" LOL, I decided our chick would do tricks.

Animals Song: "If Animals Could Dance".  Yes, if animals could dance, they'd look very funny!  In this song the toddlers dance along with the puppets and make animal sounds.

Letter of the Day: Ee for egg

Book:  Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting.  In this simple, colorful book all the animal are hurrying to the barn yard to see what all the excitement is about.  As the chick hatches in the book, I break open a big plastic egg to reveal a chick finger puppet.  I got the large egg last Easter in the holiday aisle in Wal-mart (filled with Pop Rocks) and painted it white.

Movement:  We shook shaky eggs and danced with a hen (puppet) to the song "I Know a Chicken"

Flannel: I should take a picture to post, but for now here is a description.  I made several flannel chicks in different colors and put them inside flannel eggs.  The first chick was yellow and could do a fancy trick: turn blue.  Then we asked

"Little chick, little chick,

Can you do another trick?"

to make him change colors a few more times.  The last chick had black polka dots!

Pre-K 1-5-12 Opposites!

We had a little bit of a shy group today (lots of new kiddos), but storytime got pretty lively by the end.  If kids are feeling a little shy, it's really helpful for the adults to get up and get goofy with the kids.  I felt a bit like Will Ferrell in Old School running down the street....you know what scene I'm talking about.  ;-)

Memory Box: Stoplight (from Maisy Big, Maisy Small)

Book: Maisy Big, Maisy Small by Lucy Cousins

Book: "Tall Mouse, Short Mouse" from Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel.  We presented this as a puppet show.

Another fun opposites book:  Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox

Movement: "Drivin' in My Car" by Ralph's World.  We drove around (ok, I, drove around) with paper plate steering wheels)

Finger Play: "Two Little Black Birds".  I hand out two black pom poms to each child for this rhyme.

Two little black birds

Sitting on a hill

One named Jack

And one named Jill

Fly away, Jack

Fly away, Jill

Come back, Jack

Come back, Jill

Two little black birds

Sitting on a cloud

One named Quiet

And one named Loud

Fly away, Quiet

Fly away, Loud

Come back, Quiet

Come back, Loud

Two little black birds

Sitting in some snow

One named Fast

And one named Slow

Fly away, Fast

Fly away, Slow

Come back, Fast

Come back, Loud

Letter of the Day:  Rr

Babytime's a go!

I hope to see you later today!

Sick =(

I'm sorry I didn't update my blog this morning...I kept thinking about it....but all I wanted to do was puke and then get back into bed.  G and I are feeling better but I don't know if we'll be in tomorrow or not.  I'll make the decision in the morning.  Good night. =)