Preschool Storytime - Sports

Opening
We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3

I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.


Books

Dunk Skunk by Michael Rex 
My kids did not quite understand this book, they wanted it to be a story and I skipped the last few pages before I totally lost my kids' attention.

Spider on the Floor by Raffi
Almost from the beginning the kids were singing along with this and had no trouble pretending their hands were spiders that moved from legs to stomaches and heads. We will do the song format for sure. 

Tap to Play by Salina Yoon
I had just heard about this book the week before.  It was hilarious.  I would definitely do this again.  I was a little surprised that none of my kids tried to take the book or touch it when the character asked them for help.


Rhyme
10 little Baseballs – to the tune of 10 little bubbles. Watch the video from Boone County Public Library to hear the tune. 

Special thanks to my coworkers who helped me with the lingo of this rhyme.  I am not sportsy at all and I didn't know what a fly ball was.  


1 little 2 little three little baseballs
4 little 5 little 6 little baseballs
7 little 8 little 9 little baseballs
10 little baseballs went up up up

Catch them catch them catch those fly balls
Catch them catch them catch those fly balls
Catch them catch them catch those fly ball
10 flies were caught caught caught


Songs
Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes
Hands are for clapping by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes
Jumping and counting by Jim Gill - Irrational Anthem and More Salutes to Nonsense


Egg Shakers
Today we were really rambunctious with our eggs.  I'm glad we just had sit down songs as I think a dance off to Shake Your Sillies Out might have brought the house down.  I told the kids the eggs were too noisy and then scolded my egg by holding it near my face and then shushing it my other hand.  The kids immediately copied me and the room became oddly silent.  Of course the silence didn't last but it was cute for the briefest moment. 

Both songs are from Give Your Storytime a Shake on JBrary.

If You're Happy and You Know It
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy you know it and you really want to show it
if you’re happy and you it give a shake
clap – tap

Everyone can Shake, Shake, Shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake shake
and now lets make a stop
tap – clap – wave

Bean Bags

Toys for the kids...and me :)

I discovered we have two sets of  Bucket Blast.  I scampered all the way to youth services with this clasped to my chest in delight. I mean dude, bean bags in 6 colors! Am I right?  

The box containers: 
6 colors buckets
6 waist straps 
24 bean bags
4 cones
6 blindfolds
1 carry bag
1 direction booklet

Storytime gear where there 
would normally be paperwork.

Many of the games are for outdoor play and really need a larger space than the room I use.  A whole section of games involves water and honestly they were for older kids.  Today I took out just the bean bags and buckets.  I had some wild vision of playing some relay games but the kids were like molecules pinging around the room so we stood at one end of the room and with the bean bag balanced on our hands we tried to make it to the other side of the room. We walked, hopped, took big monster steps, did a tippy toe baby walk and even crawled on the floor and shuffled on our knees.  Next we tried to balance the bean bags on our heads, knees, feet, elbows and other body parts.  Since I had never used the bean bags with this group before I think we need to build up to free range bean bag play.  I think we need some bean bag songs and rhymes the same way to use our egg shakers and scarves. 


Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime.

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this.

No craft this time.  I'm trying to wean my group off so many paper crafts since they seem to just rush through the craft or leave it behind anyway.  I am hoping they will remember that we played more than anything else. 

Laura

Disclaimer

YALSA The Hub : Dream Interpretation - Spiders

Howdy

A positive perceptive on spider dreams with an even more optimistic diagnosis; Teen Fiction. 

YA Lit Dream Interpretation: Spiders

And yes I realize that this post is mostly meme. Never thought I'd say it, but that is one cute spider

Laura

Disclaimer

ChopStick Challenge

We have to work
 for our food?

Howdy

I think this is a common theme with all teen programs, you put out a lovely spread of snacks and your often mild mannered young adult patrons turn into a swarm of locusts.  Less then a minute later the food is gone and sometimes so are your program participants.  Now who is going to stay and watch Dragon Ball Z with you?  

I have been encouraging my teens to play with their food. This seems to slow down the gobbling just a bit. I got on Pinterest and looked for any sort of food activity that they could geek and eat. 

Dig in.

Last month I made bowls of trail mix that contained cereal (rice chex and fruit loops), marshmallows (it was going to just be the mini mallows but we found some giant campfire sized marshmallows so I added those too), and jelly beans.  OK its not your momma's trail mix but my teens liked the combo. The idea was to have three foods that were various skill levels on the chop stick scale; easy - marshmallows, medium - cereal, and hard - jelly beans. So instead of providing plates for them to use while shoveling in the food, I handed everyone a pair of chop sticks and a cup.  They had to serve themselves with the chop sticks and then they could eat from the cup.  You still have to watch for double dipping but mostly we only had a few near misses.  Surprisingly my teens didn't roll their eyes or wait for me to finally hand out plates or just dig in with their hands; they quietly dove in and laughed and dropped food and generally had a good time.  And I had leftovers, can you believe it?

But we still get soda, right?

For me the hardest part of this activity was getting the chopsticks.  Yes I can steal a pair or two at a time from the sushi guy at the grocery store.  I wanted a nice supply since I plan on  serving  ramen as a summer reading treat.  I couldn't seem to find chopsticks at the supermarket in with plastic utensils. At some point I even called GFS (Gordon Food Services) who carry a lot of catering supplies.  I was told it was a seasonal item. Because Chinese or Thai food is only eaten in the summer?  No idea what that means.  My coworkers were nice enough to start bringing in their chopsticks and now I have a nice stock of utensils at my desk.  Along with many other incongruous things.  We will  definitely do this activity again.  

Now if only I knew what we were doing at Anime this week? um help. 

Laura

Disclaimer 

Preschool Storytime - Frogs

Opening

We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.

TotSchooling 

To warm up after our song I had prepared a yellow bag with Free Printable Rhyming Sorting Game (thank you Pinterest) inside.  Its a set a of 8 rhymes with 16 cards all together.  Its great to have so many pieces because I have a lot of little helpers.  Hiding at the bottom of my bog was large resin frog. This way we could talk about which pairs rhyme, which pairs don't and which ones lead us back to our froggy friend.

Books

Frog Thing by Eric Drachman
Croaky Pokey by Ethan Long
Ribbit by Rodrigo Folgueira Frog in a Bog by Karma Wilson

Songs
Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes
Can You Leap Like a Frog by Greg and Steve - Kids in Action
Wiggle Your Fingers by Peter and Ellen Allard - Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 2

I decided to use our 12" parachute to act as a lily pad in storytime.  I have used parachutes before but not with this group.  I loved that the kids wanted to sit on the lily pad instead of wandering around as much.  I didn't like that some of my kids got really fixated on the handles.  We didn't do any activities that would lift the parachute off the floor but it still took a lot of work to keep them focused on the floor games I had for us to do.  I will definitely use the parachute again but I think I will need more ground rules or a better why to regain everyone's attention.  I admit I let things get a little wild and wooly. 

Rhyme
Five Green Speckled Frogs – with felt set. I like the Raffi version of this song but sometimes it just goes too fast. We just sang along today and it worked fine.

Five green and speckled frogs
Sitting on a speckled log
eating the most delicious grub, YUM YUM
one jumped into the pool
where it was nice and cool
now there are 4 green speckled frogs
Ribbit ribbit!

Five Green and Speckled Frogs | Mother Goose Club Playhouse Kids Video

Two Little Frogs - borrowed from Frog Storytime - Miss Meg's Storytime , her version is adapted from Two Little Blackbirds.  I added two verses at the end because the kids really got into the rhyme after the second verse. 

Two little froggies sitting in the lake
One named Jane, and one named Jake
Swim away Jane, swim away Jake
Come back Jane, come back Jake!

Two little froggies sitting on the bay
One named Greg, and one named May
Jump away Greg, jump away May
Come back Greg, come back May

Two little froggies sitting on a cloud
One croaked soft and one croaked loud
croak aways soft, croak away loud
come back soft, come back loud.

Two little froggies sitting by the gate
one came early and one came late
go away early, go away late
come back early, come back late

This works best when you really ham it up and have the frogs appear but or after they are supposed to as if the frogs are just too silly to the right thing. 

Scarves
Borrowed from Scarf Songs and Rhymes for Storytime on Jbrary.
One Bright scarf (adapted from 10 Little Fingers at Storytime Rocks)

One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow (hold in hand)
Wiggle it high (wiggle scarf above head)
Wiggle it low (wiggle scarf by knees)
Shake it fast (wiggle scarf quickly)
Shake it slow (wiggle scarf slowly)
Put it behind your back (bring out empty hands)
Where did it go?


Jack in the box, sits so still
Will he come out, yes he will.


Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime.

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this.

Craft
For our craft a staff member used the printable template for our frog and lily pad to precut the basic shapes.  I braided paper for the springs, here after called boingers because I thought that was really funny.  While the website suggests some kids can make their own boingers I found my kids excelled at taking the boingers apart and then insisting their boinger broke.

Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Bugs and Insects

Opening
We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.

Books
Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi
I Love Bugs by Philemon Sturges,
Can You Make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas


Songs
Flitter Flutter by Johnette Downing The Second Line – Scarf Activity Songs
Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi - More Singable Songs
Took a Bath In a Washing Machine by Jim Gill - Jim Gill Sings The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes

Felt
Bug in a Rug Game 
I've seen printable versions of this game where its several different types of bugs (Storytiming - Flannel Friday: Bug In A Rug). I play this with with kids using a felt set I found.  I added a few more ants and then glued together a rug.  The idea is to introduce all the colors first.  Then the kids have to cover their eyes so you can use the rug to hide a bug.  When you say rhyme they must open their eyes and tell you what color is gone.  If you think your group is peeking you turn your felt board around.  My felt board likes to collapse randomly so to hide what I am doing I will step in front of the  board limit the view.

Bug in a rug, bug in a rug
what color bug is under the rug?

Green ant lost his antenna
 but that didn't stop red and purple ant from playing hide and seek.

Five Flashing Fireflies
I wanted to incorporate fire flies after reading the post on Catch the Possibilities called Flannel Friday: Ten Flashing Fireflies by Philemon Sturges.  I saw this theme again in a Library Village post called Preschool Story Time - Fireflies. I was lucky enough to find a cute set of fireflies in our collection of felt boards, so as charming as these guys are I cannot take credit for them.  Of course I can't take credit for the cute rhyme which is based off the Philemon Sturges' book Ten Flashing Fireflies. I hope you don't think the rhyme is too much of a tongue twister.  I found myself saying 'flashing flyer flies' a lot. 

What do you see on a summer night?
5 flashing fireflies burning bright.
Let's catch the one that's twinkling light a star.
Now there is one firefly in our jar. 

Just repeat the rhyme and count down as you go.  


Egg Shakers
Both songs are from Give Your Storytime a Shake on JBrary.

If You're Happy and You Know It
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy you know it and you really want to show it
if you’re happy and you it give a shake
clap – tap

Everyone can Shake, Shake, Shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake shake
and now lets make a stop
tap – clap – wave

Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime.

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this. 

After our song I gave each child a large Ellison die cut beetle to color.  A large number of the kids tore some or all of the legs off their insect within a few minutes.  I rather like my big orange buggy.  I pretended to use his mandibles to pick my nose while standing in front of my boss's office.  If your boss is on the phone when you do this be prepared to scurry away quickly when the call ends.

Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Mother's Day

I'm hoping this post is better late than never.  At least it has me thinking about Father's Day and now I have a much better idea of what to try for Mother's Day next year. 

Opening
We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3

I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.

Books

Is Your Momma a Llama by Deborah Guarino
I like It When... by Mary Murphy
Hug by Jez Alborough

Songs

Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes
Jump up , Turn around by Jim Gill - Moving Rhyme for Modern Times
Goldfish by Laurie Berkner - The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band

Little Red Box - Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs
This song was so short that even though I had it on cd we just sang along together.  To my surprise several of the children knew the tune already.  The song was so well liked that we continued to sing it while adding other things we loved like our siblings and pets, also chickens.  :)  

I wish I had a little red box 
To put my mommy in. 
I'd take her out and go, 
Kiss, kiss, kiss,     (Kiss in air.) 
And put her back again.

Daddy: Hug, hug, hug.    (Hug self.)

Good Friends: "How do you do?" (Shake hands).

Felt Board
5 Little Hearts (colors rhyme)
All the little hearts that that I once knew
All lined up for me to view
But one is special, one is the best
One stands out above all the rest
My favorite heart’s name rhymes with …

With some groups I can call out a rhyming word for each of the colors and with some prompting the children will identity the correct color. Other times it works best to leave out the rhyming portion and state the last line as "My favorite heart's name is..." and we simply name all the colors as I point to them.

Scarves
Borrowed from Scarf Songs and Rhymes for Storytime on Jbrary.
One Bright scarf (adapted from 10 Little Fingers at Storytime Rocks)

One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow (hold in hand)
Wiggle it high (wiggle scarf above head)
Wiggle it low (wiggle scarf by knees)
Shake it fast (wiggle scarf quickly)
Shake it slow (wiggle scarf slowly)
Put it behind your back (bring out empty hands)
Where did it go?


Jack in the box, sits so still
Will he come out, yes he will.

Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime.

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this. 

Nancy Tafuri

Film – Have You Seen My Duckling by Nancy Tafuri (5 minutes)


Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Farms

Opening 
We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3

I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.

Books
Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborourgh
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Songs
Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes 
I know a chicken by Laurie Berkner - The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band
Jump up, Turn around by Jim Gill - Moving Rhyme for Modern Times 

Rhyme
Dingle Dangle Scarecrow

When all the cows were sleeping and the sun had gone to bed
Up jumped the scarecrow and this is what he said
I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and shake my feet like that.

When all the dogs were sleeping and the cats in the loft
Up jumped the scarecrow, who whispered very soft
I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow with a flippy floppy hat,
I can shake my hands like this and shake my feet like that.

When all the hens were rousting and the moon behind a cloud,

Up jumped the scarecrow and shouted very loud
I’m a dingle dangle scarecrow With a flippy floppy hat
I can shake my hands like this and shake my feet like that


Egg Shakers
Both songs are from Give Your Storytime a Shake on JBrary.

If You're Happy and You Know It
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy and you know it give a shake
if you’re happy you know it and you really want to show it
if you’re happy and you it give a shake

clap – tap

Everyone can Shake, Shake, Shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake
everyone can shake shake shake shake
and now lets make a stop

tap – clap – wave

Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime. 

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this. 

Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Rainy Day

Thank you to Sunflower Storytime and the Rainy Day Storytime that inspired my first preschool storytime at my new job.  I got to know the kids by introducing myself and letting each child test my rain stick to see if they too could make a storm. Late comers got to create rain after class. 

Rainy day

Opening 

We Are Here Together - based on I Am Here & You Are Here by Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 3

I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna clap our hands.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna stomp our feet.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna jump up and down.
I am here and you are here
and we are here together.
I am here and you are here
and we’re gonna have some fun.


Songs

Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes 

Leaky umbrella by Jim Gill - The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes 

Goldfish by Laurie Berkner - The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band 

If All of the Raindrops by Barney - Barney's Big Surprise 

Jump up , Turn around by Jim Gill - Moving Rhyme for Modern Times

Split! Splat! by Amy Gibson

Books 
BOOM! Big, Big Thunder and One Small Dog by Mary Lyn Ray

Split! Splat! by Amy Gibson

Scarves
Borrowed from Scarf Songs and Rhymes for Storytime on Jbrary.
One Bright scarf (adapted from 10 Little Fingers at Storytime Rocks)

One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow (hold in hand)
Wiggle it high (wiggle scarf above head)
Wiggle it low (wiggle scarf by knees)
Shake it fast (wiggle scarf quickly)
Shake it slow (wiggle scarf slowly)
Put it behind your back (bring out empty hands)
Where did it go?

Jack in the box, sits so still
Will he come out, yes he will.

Felt Board
Five little raindrops (hold up five fingers)
Dancing on the walk(dance hand up and down)
Pitter patter, pitter patter,
that’s the way they talk. (pat legs)
Out comes the yellow sun, shining in the sky (raise arms up like the sun)
And away goes one raindrop (hold up one finger)
Bye, bye, bye! (wave goodbye)

Closing – tune farmer in the dell
Borrowed from Opening/Closing Songs on Storytime Katie who borrowed it from Rhymes for Toddlers on Sunflower Storytime. 

We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands like this
We clap our hands with all of our friends
We clap our hands like this.

We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss like this
We blow a kiss with all of our friends
We blow a kiss like this.

We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye with all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this. 

I way over planned this storytime.  I think I had enough rhymes, songs and books for an entire new program.  I'm still working on 'Less is More.'  This storytime was brought to you by the concept of editing. :) 

Laura

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