Karma Wilson

Week Two of my Author Highlights: Karma Wilson


This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.


Opening Activity:
Little Mouse

Books:

Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson
The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson
Moose Tracks! by Karma Wilson
Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson
Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive by Karma Wilson

Jazz It Up Moment/Song:
"Cake" by Juice Box Heroes from No Sugar Added

I tried something new with this song, normally I encourage the kids to free dance and jump whenever they hear the word 'cake', which is pretty often (it's to the tune of "Faith" by George Michael). This time I decided to introduce a new prop, Boomwhackers!

Boomwhackers are big plastic, hollow tubes that make specific musical notes. The longer the boomwhacker, the lower the note. We have used rhythm sticks a lot in storytime so the children are familiar with the general rules of a prop this shape and size. The difference with these is that they are specific to musical notes! We discussed that and then listened to the different notes and what was high and what was low. Every child got one shorter boomwhacker and one longer one.

Then I just let them go! We danced and hit our boomwhackers along with the song. A lot of them mimiced me when I slammed my boomwhackers on the ground every time I heard the word 'cake'. The loved the colors, the size, and all the noises they could make! I'm really encouraged now to take the next step with these props and assign notes to each child and possibly play a song together.

Closing Song:
"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk Music from Songs for Wiggleworms



What Went Not So Great

• Moose Tracks is a hilarious story with a great punch line. Unfortunately none of the children got it and were just kinda lost at the end.
• Sake's Alive! A Cattle Drive is another story that the kids didn't really get all the humor. They didn't really understand what a cattle drive was so they missed the main plot of the book. However, they really loved watching the silliness of the cows driving the truck all around.

What Went Right

• Mortimer's First Garden went really well even though I was very nervous. I was concerned because it discusses God and  miracles, but I just changed the words a bit and made it more of a story about Spring and the miracle of growth. The older kids really enjoyed it.
• The boomwhackers were an enormous hit! The children really seemed to understand that the longer ones made lower notes and the shorter ones made higher notes. A great success and first try-out with the props.
• Bear's Loose Tooth was a great choice because a lot of the the children could really relate to Bear and his loose tooth. The only I would do different is allow more time for discussing this book because every child wanted to tell me story about their loose tooth or one of their siblings'.