Rhythm and Rhyme - 4 & 5 year olds

This plan is for my program Storybook Fun! It's a registered storytime for 4 &5 year olds to attend independently.

To save on my planning time I use a lot of the same materials between my 3 year old program and my 4/5 program. So there will be a lot of repetition in the Storybook Fun posts from time to time.


Opening Activity:
Little Mouse flannel board game with musical notes hiding under the houses

Opening Song:
"These Are My Glasses" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

Book: 

Mole Music by David McPhail

Jazz It Up Moment:

Read and listen to Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
I played the song on the iPod and used the flannel pieces as a storytelling prop. A lot of the children are familiar with the book so this was a fun new way to grab their attention and allowed them to sing (and dance) along with me.

Scarf Song:

"Rhythm in the Scarves" by Johnette Downing from Second Line Scarf Activity Songs

Book:

Be Quiet, Mike! by Leslie Patricelli

Closing Rhyme:
Reach for the Sky
Clap your hands, touch your toes,
Turn around and put a finger on your nose
Flap your arms, jump up high
Wiggle your fingers and reach for the sky!

What I Didn't Have Time For:

A variety of books:

• Boom Chicka Rock by John Archambault
• The Remarkable Farkle McBride by John Lithgow
• Down by the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter

Rhythm and Rhyme - 3 Year Olds

This plan is for our Ready, Set, Read! program for 3 year olds. It's a registered storytime that the children attend independently.

Opening Activity:
Little Mouse flannel board game with musical notes hiding under the houses

Opening Song:
"These Are My Glasses" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

Book:
Down by the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter

Scarf Song:
"Rhythm in the Scarves" by Johnette Downing from Second Line Scarf Activity Songs

Book:
Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus by James Dean

Closing Rhyme:
Reach for the Sky
Clap your hands, touch your toes,
Turn around and put a finger on your nose
Flap your arms, jump up high
Wiggle your fingers and reach for the sky!



What I Didn't Have Time For:

• My Jazz It Up Moment this week was going to me an Ants Go Marching flannel I made, but we spent so much time chatting in the beginning and getting to know one another (this was our first week) that I just ran out of time.
• A variety of books:
• Boom Chicka Rock by John Archambault
• Mole Music by David McPhail
• Be Quiet, Mike! by Leslie Patricelli

Music Makers: Bath and Bedtime

Music Makers is a thirty minute registered program for 2 and 3 year olds and their caregivers. The focus of the program is music and each storytime concentrates on music, singing, and movement.

I don't normally use a theme when I plan Music Makers. After I planned this current session I noticed that each week had some vague similarities/theme qualities so I went ahead and labeled them. Just remember that it's a very loose theme and not everything pertains to it.

Dewey Bear

Dewey Bear greets everyone on the way in with hugs and high fives.

Opening Song:

"Tony Chestnut" by Carol Hammett from Toddlers on Parade

Movement Songs:

"Warm Up Time" by Georgiana Stewart from Action Songs for Preschoolers

"Jump Up, Turn Around" by Jim Gill from Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times

"Put Your Finger in the Air" by Carole Peterson from Baloney

Book:

Eyes Noes Fingers and Toes by Judy Hindley

This book is quite lenghty and I didn't know if my toddlers would sit through it, but they did! They loved that they could act out the text as I read it. I know this isn't a song and doesn't necessarily fit into a music program. However, I let it slide because this program also focuses on movement and I wanted to show parents that you could find books that help assist with that as well.

Bath Time Songs:

"Bathing in the Tub" by Priscilla A. Hegner from Baby Games

"Fluffy Towel" by Priscilla A. Hegner from Baby Games

For the first song, I used bubbles. I walked around the room blowing bubbles (I only had one bottle) and let the children try and pop and catch them. Typically I like having the little individual bottles of bubbles and I give one to each caregiver so each child has a personal bubble blower, but we seemed to be out of those and I had to settle with just me. It got a little chaotic with me being the only one with the bubbles and we had a few kids running around screaming while others just patiently waited for me to come to them with the bubbles.

The second song I used scarves. I would have preferred actual washcloths, but my library doesn't have a set of those. We talked about pretending and how we would pretend that the scarf was a washcloth and we needed to dry ourselves off. They loved it!

Jazz It Up Moment:

Sing and retell Five Little Monkeys using flannel pieces

Closing Song:
"Skinnamarink" by Carole Peterson from Stinky Cake

Dewey Bear

Dewey Bear says goodbye to everyone on the way out with hugs and high fives.

How it Went:

I was pleased with this program and this is definitely a plan I will use again. 

I did run out of time, I had planned on reading Twinkle Twinkle Time for Bed as a shared board book. I wanted to read it three times and each time we get quieter and quieter. I thought it was perfect for the theme, but I just didn't have time. 

Caroline Jayne Church

Week Four of Author Highlights: Caroline Jayne Church
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 Flannel Activity

Books:

Hungry Hen by Richard Waring (illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church)
Little Lost Cowboy by Simon Puttock (illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church)
Ping Pong Pig written and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

Not all of these books are written by Caroline Jayne Church, but they are all at least illustrated by her. This was a great opportunity to discuss the difference between the author and the illustrator and what they are responsible for in the bookmaking process. It might be hopeful thinking, but I really think my kids are starting to get the whole author concept!

Scarf Song:
"The Airplane Song" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

This song was not intended to be a scarf song, but my preschoolers seem to really respond to scarves. I have kids that will ONLY participate if a scarf is involved. I'm lucky enough to have enough scarves to give each of my kids two, so we used them as our airplane wings in this song. It is also a good listening song because it gives specific actions throughout.

Jazz It Up Moment #1:
I use board book sets in my toddler programs a lot. We have sets of 15-20 books of the same title so that each child can hold their own copy of the book I'm reading aloud to them. I've tried using these board books sets once or twice with my preschoolers with great results so I brought it back for this storytime because we happened to have a board book illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church.

You Are My Sunshine illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

This was a perfect choice for this storytime. We just read through the book together at first with me pointing to each word as I read it. I went extremely slow so the children could follow along with me in their own copies. They LOVED being able to do this with me. The second time through the book I sang it, a lot of them sang it with me too!

Jazz It Up Moment #2:
This was completely improptu and wasn't in my plan at all. I had a couple of extra minutes and decided it would be fun to sing the song "The More We Get Together" and teach the children the signs to go along with it. I used the signs for "more", "together", "happy", and "friends". The Skokie Public Library has a great YouTube video of this, HERE.

This is typically a song I use in my toddler programs, but I thought these kids would like it and would really appreciate what sign language was and understand it's meaning. Turns out, they really enjoyed it! I'll probably be quizzing them on it next week and see if they remember the signs.

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


What Went Not So Great:
Timing. I was all done with my songs, books, and activities and still had 5 minutes left of my 30 minute program. So I decided to teach the children the sign language for "The More We Get Together". I thought about this song because Caroline Jayne Church has illustrated a board book of this song. We have a set of that title as well so I was considering using it when I was doing my planning. Maybe that's why the song was on my mind.

What Went Right:
Really, everything. The only thing I would add is possibly a prop or flannel retelling instead of doing the sign language, only because it would go along with the author theme better.

I would say the absolute most successful moment was the shared board book reading. It was great seeing the kids get so engaged in the program. I might invest in some higher level board books for our collection so I can do this more often. I loved how it presented such a perfect opportunity to practice  early literacy with print awareness!

Music Makers: Easter and Spring

Music Makers is a thirty minute registered program for 2 and 3 year olds and their caregivers. The focus of the program is music and each storytime concentrates on music, singing, and movement. I usually read two books during the program, but they are all "sing-a-book" titles so I actually end up singing the books instead of straight reading.

I don't normally use a theme when I plan Music Makers. After I planned this current session I noticed that each week had some vague similarities/theme qualities so I went ahead and labeled them. Just remember that it's a very loose theme and not everything pertains to it.

Dewey Bear

Dewey Bear greets everyone on the way in with hugs and high fives.

Opening Song:

"Tony Chestnut" by Carol Hammett from Toddlers on Parade

Book:

The Croaky Pokey! by Ethan Long

Movement Songs:

"The Wiggle Song" by Carole Peterson from Sticky Bubble Gum

"Five Little Fish" by Dr. Jean from Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs

Scarf Songs:

"Let's Go Fly a Kite" by Georgiana Stewart from Musical Scarves and Activities

"Flitter Flutter" by Johnette Downing from Second Line Scarf Activity Songs

"Ribbons in the Air" by Pam Schiller from Leaping Literacy

Shared Board Book:

Duck and Goose, Here Comes the Easter Bunny! by Tad Hills

Jazz It Up Moment:

"Five Little Bunnies" flannel song, sung to the tune of "Five Little Monkeys" (taken from 1234 More Storytimes)

Five little bunnies hopping down the trail,

One fell down and bumper her tail.

Mama called the doctor - what did she say?

No more bunnies hopping today! 

(continue to count down until there are no more bunnies)

Closing Song:

"Skinnamarink" by Carole Peterson from Stinky Cake

Dewey Bear

Dewey Bear says goodbye to everyone on the way out with hugs and high fives.

The children freaked out about the scarves, they loved them! Just another storytime to use as evidence that prop songs are always a solid choice. It was also nice to have a couple songs that we could sit for, "Five Little Fish" and "Five Little Bunnies"were great AND they were really fun to use because we got to count on our fingers together repetitively (and we all know toddlers thrive on routine and repetition).

Margaret Wise Brown

Week One of Author Highlights: Margaret Wise Brown

This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver. This is the preschool version of the author highlight I did in Toddler Time.

Opening Activity:

Little Mouse Flannel Game

Opening Song:
"These Are My Glasses" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

Books:

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown - I used the Big Book version of this.
The Diggers by Margaret Wise Brown
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Sleepy ABC by Margaret Wise Brown

Jazz It Up Moment:
I brought in a small biography, Margaret Wise Brown by Jill C. Wheeler. The cover had a nice big picture of her on the front. We started by talking about what the word author meant (which almost all of the children knew). I told them that Margaret Wise Brown was the author of every book we were going to read to today and then pointed out her name on every cover of the books I had displayed.

Next I asked them if they knew what the word biography meant. A lot of them thought it was the illustrator of the book. I explained what a biography was and that they are different kinds of books they seemed to get it. I liked having the opportunity to bring up new vocabulary in storytime.

I quizzed them throughout the program on who Margaret Wise Brown was and each time I did this program (four, if you're counting) I had at least one little person shout..."ME!". Most of the older kids got it and would point to the biography I brought in when I asked that question.

Songs:
"The Wheels on the Bus" by The Learning Groove from Groovy Green
"Rhythm in the Scarves" by Johnette Downing" from Second Line Scarf Activity Songs 

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


What Went Not So Great

• It was a bit of an overload to do Little Mouse and an opening song. Next time I'll just pick one or the other, or a song that the kids are more excited about. I think my kids are starting to get bored with "These are My Glasses".
• The biography discussion seemed to go over the younger kid's heads (my preschool programs are 3-5 year olds without adults). 
• Sleepy ABC was just a big fat fail, it is just better suited for one-on-one reading I think.

What Went Right

• I can never stop using Little Mouse. The children will revolt and stop coming to storytime. He is the biggest draw, by far.
• Diggers was one of the most successful books. They liked talking about digging a hole big enough for a train to fit in.
• "Rhythm in the Scarves" made the kids really happy. Giving each of them a scarf to dance around with just seems to make their day. Plus this song focuses on counting, which I think is great to reinforce early literacy without beating them over the head with it.