Pre-K June 21, 2012 Bananas!

Theme: Bananas!

34 kids

7 siblings

16 adults

Sometimes storytime feels a little crazy for me, but I hope all the kids are still having fun.  I really enjoy programming for each of the age groups for different reasons and the most work goes into Pre-K by far, but there's such a big pay off when I get to interact with them.

Each child picked a laminated fruit on their way in to hold on to for later (which was a little bit of a distraction during storytime for some).  My reasons were: 1.) They never get to pick their color when I hand stuff out so I think it's fun to give them an opportunity to think and choose.  This does not work when passing stuff out during storytime because it would take forever by the time the kids are done contemplating which color they want and 2.) I would be handing out shakers later and handing out two things at once would be too much of a commotion.

Memory Box:  Bee from Beautiful Bananas

Books:

Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson. Gladys the Gorilla is distracted from her usual meal of bananas by a delicious scent and follows the scent all over until discovering that it is......banana bread!

Beautiful Bananas by Elizabeth Laird. On her way to her grandfather's house with a bunch of bananas, Beatrice has a series of mishaps with jungle animals who each substitute something new for what she's carrying.

Banana! by Ed Vere.  Two monkeys have one banana and learn how to share.  I would love to use this awesome book in storytime, but would need the right co-presenter to "act" it out with.

Music:

"B-Banana" (I used Carole Peterson's version, but I'm sure there are other/better ones out there).  The gist of it is:

B-banana
Peel banana
Eat banana
Go bananas

"Fruit Salad Salsa" by Laurie Berkner.  We identified our fruits and then each child received a shaker at this point.  They did a great job of standing up when they heard their fruit!!  But can I say I CAN'T WAIT to stop using CDs and a Wal-Mart radio to play music.  As soon as my I-Pod is up and running I can start using a louder system; it was pretty hard to hear the words.

Here's a picture of two of my favorite guys all stickered up displaying the laminated fruit:

"Apples and Bananas"

Letter(s) of the Day:  AEIOU (yes, some kids even knew those were called vowels).  We sang "Apples and Bananas".  I used the Kimbo version, but it's just what I had on hand; there are a bunch of other versions out there.

I totally should have done "Bananas in Pajamas"!  Oh well, next time......

Wiggle Worms 2-21-12

That adorable (albeit sleepy/cranky) little monkey I grabbed a time or two during storytime was my little dude enjoying storytime with some of our friends.

Animal song:  Old MacDonald

Book: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow.  We used the big book version and jumped along to an audio recording

Letter of the day: Bb for banana

Movement:  After learning the sign for b, we sang the "B-banana/Monkey" song off Carole Peterson's CD. http://www.macaronisoup.com/Songs/March2011.htm

"B-banana, B-B-banana, B-banana, B-B-banana
Peel banana, peel peel banana, peel banana, peel peel banana
Eat banana, eat eat banana, eat banana, eat eat
And go bananas, go go bananas!!  Go banana, go go bananas!"

Flannel:  "This Little Piggy".  Our little piggies love their fruits and veggies and I just picked up some more from Joann's so they can really pig out ha ha.  Today the piggy ate an apple, a pear, and a carrot.

Finger Play:  "The Alligator"
(copied from/adapted from Miss Trish at Chandler Libraries)
Get on your hands and knees and get ready to be alligators.  Once the kids get the hang of this, they can turn around and get YOU.

The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
and he's getting closer (crawl forward)

The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
and he's getting closer (crawl forward)
GOTCHYA! (big snap or hug)