Flannel Friday (a day late): Fall is Not Easy

I do a lot of storytimes outside of the building because I visit preschools all the time. I was trying to come up with a way to do flannel stories in these programs without having to haul a giant flannel board or depend on the school having a flannel board easily accessible for me to use. I was digging through all of our storytime material at my library and found this little baby travel board (it's about the size of an 8.5x11 piece of paper).

I decided to make a flannel story that would fit on this board, so I made Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. Those of you familiar with the book will see that I didn't include all the different colors of the leaves. Instead I just made a few that the children would like and find funny. 

This went over wonderfully! The children were delighted and loved the silliness of the story. And I think they really enjoyed the satisfaction of having the tree finally get its colors right in the end.

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

I Survived the Summer!

So I had these great ambitions to blog all summer long about all the awesome programs we were doing at my library.

That failed.

Turns out I was way too busy (and way too exhausted) to even think about blogging throughout the summer. Luckily things have calmed down (not really) enough for me to start posting regularly again.

Looking at my fall schedule, I can tell you I have 4 different steady programs a week with 3 of them being storytimes. On top of that I have preschool visits outside of the building and the occasional special program on weekends (Super Hero Party in November!!!).

I will try my hardest to keep up with blogging about the storytimes, at least. I'll be changing the format of how I post and probably slim down the text, just bare bones info. However, if that leaves you with questions just leave a comment! I'm also hoping to start actively participating in Flannel Friday, so we'll see how that goes. Amy over at Catch the Possibilities is a great inspiration to me when it comes to blogging and Flannel Friday. She's been pushing to be a part of Flannel Friday for some time now (and was in fact the reason I started this blog), so let's keep our fingers crossed that I can do this!

With all that settled I'm going to start writing about my storytimes from last week, hopefully they will show up here within the next couple of days.

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. 

Karen Beaumont

Week Six of Author Highlights: Karen Beaumont
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:


Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont
Doggone Dogs! by Karen Beaumont
Where's My T-R-U-C-K? by Karen Beaumont

Jazz It Up Moment #1:
Retell Move Over, Rover with puppets and cardboard box

I used a cardboard box I found in our Receiving Room to use as a dog house. Then I gathered all the puppets to match the animals in the story (dog, cat, raccoon, squirrel, blue jay, snake, mouse, and skunk). Luckily I had puppets for everything but the blue jay, and for that I substituted a robin instead.

I adapted the book a bit and wrote a little script so it would be easy to follow when telling the story, but it was basically just taking the text from the book and typing it up so I knew what animal came next.

It was extremely fun to stuff all the puppets in the box and then throw them all out when they started to smell the skunk at the end of the story. I hid the skunk puppet under the dog before the children got in the room for the element of surprise.

Action Song:

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

Jazz It Up Moment #2:

Give each child a paint brush and have them follow along "painting" themselves while reading I Ain't Gonna Paint No More.

I've done this activity in the past successfully and I was really excited to bring it back for this storytime. I knew my kids could really grasp the idea of pretending, so we had a discussion about what it means to pretend to paint themselves with pretend paint. I even added another element to the activity by having the children guess which body part we would paint next based on the rhyming text. All together a very successful activity that really encouraged active listening.

Goodbye Song:

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

What Went Not So Great:

Doggone Dogs was the biggest let down. I chose it as more of a filler book and I ended up needing it in my morning session. The children just didn't get into it or enjoy the humor.

What Went Right:

Basically everything else! The puppet retelling was a hit, as was the paintbrush activity. The books were a blast to read aloud and the children really got into it. They loved seeing Dini keep getting into the bathtub with all his clothes on and my first group of kids didn't know what T-R-U-C-K spelled so that was a fun guessing game for them too.

You Are Special: An Out of the Library Preschool Visit

Part of my job at my library is visiting preschools and daycares in the area and presenting storytimes. This particular plan is for one of those instances, I had to create a very diverse plan to fit the following schedule the preschool set for me.

Monday

9:15am-9:30am (2-3 year olds) 

9:30am-9:45am (3-4 year olds)

9:45am-10:15am (4-5 year olds)

12:30pm-1pm (5 year olds-Kindergarten)

Tuesday 

9:15am-9:30am (15 months-2 year olds)

9:30am-9:45am (2-3 year olds)

9:45am-10am (3-4 year olds)

10am-10:30am (4-5 year olds)

In the 3 and 1/2 years I've been going to the local sites, I have found that a lot of them want me to come in and out quickly and provide very little space for me to perform the storytime. The children are often packed in like sardines, on a circle-time rug, and are told to NOT MOVE from their spot by their teachers. I have to keep this in mind when I plan, that means very little movement/dancing songs because there just isn't space for it. I also need to make sure the plans are creative enough and have enough child involvement that the kids aren't bored.

I think it's really important that I continue these visits, even if the conditions aren't ideal. This is often the only time some of these children see anything library related at all, so any time I can get into their classrooms and show off library pride I do!

The plan is a little all over the place. I'll designate what I used for the younger rooms (3 year olds and younger) and what I did for the older rooms (4 year olds and up). It varied room to room and I didn't use ALL the material listed for every room. Hopefully it won't be too confusing. Please feel free to leave questions in the comments if something isn't clear.

The theme requested by the preschool director was "You Are Special". They were celebrating the Week of the Young Child and thought that was an appropriate theme. I had a little difficulty finding materials that really fit this theme, especially for the little ones. I went with materials that focused on self-esteem, being different and unique, and just generally getting along with one another and friendship.

Opening Song - All Ages:

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

I didn't have a CD player or iPod with me so I sang all the songs acapella. I often do this on visits because I'm never sure what technology the rooms will have and I want to be prepared for everything.

Books for Young Rooms:

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle

The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

You Are Special, Little One by Nancy Tafuri

Books for Older Rooms:

Artist Ted by Andrea Beatty

Chamelia by Ethan Long

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

A Dog is a Dog by Shephen Shaskan

Cheetah Can't Lose by Bob Shea

Action Song for Older Rooms:

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

My hands are starting to wiggle

My hands are starting to wiggle

My hands are starting to wiggle

Around and around and around!

I didn't follow this song exactly since I didn't have the music to go along with it. I sang the first verse using "hands" and then I allowed the kids to suggest other body parts to wiggle. They really enjoyed helping me "write" the song as we went. We used everything from tummy to shoulders to hips to feet, and I always ended with "all of me is a wiggle". A great success!

Closing Song for Younger Rooms:

"Skinnamarink"

Closing Song for Older Rooms:

"The More We Get Together" using sign language

I did this recently in a preschool in-house storytime with great results. Here's a great video from Skokie Public Library showing exactly how to do the signs.

How It Went:

I would say that overall the storytimes were successful. The really young ones just kind of stared at me the whole time and didn't participate (even though their teachers did!). I think it was the first time the little ones had any sort of structured storytime so I was very impressed with how well they sat for me, even if they didn't participate. The best book for the young ones was The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. I chose this book simply because it shows things in a different way. The children laughed at all the colors and helped with animal noises.

The theme was a difficult one, but the older rooms really got into the discussions of how it's okay to be different and how we should all get along even if we aren't all the same. That itself was really encouraging because I could tell that the books were getting through to them and they were relating to the stories. Chamelia and Cheetah Can't Lose were the most successful books in that aspect. They deal with being different and fair and what being a good friend means and the children really understood that.

The songs were successful too. Everyone enjoyed "These are My Glasses" and the older kids really got into the sign language of "The More We Get Together". Apparently in the music class at the school they already sing "Skinnamarink" so everyone knew that one and sang along with gusto, which is always fun.