Preschool Storytime - Elephants

Opening
We Are Here Together - From Open/Closing Songs by Storytime Katie

(Tune: “Skip to My Lou”)
Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
We’re all here in storytime
Hello, children, how are you?
Hello, grown-ups, how are you?
Hello, friends, how are you?
We’re so glad to see you!

Books
Hide and seek by Il Na
Thingamabob by Il Na
Elephants Can’t Jump by Jeanne Willis

Songs
Jumping and counting by Jim Gill from the Irrational Anthem and More Salutes to Nonsense

Can You Leap Like a Frog by Greg and Steve from Kids in Action

The Freeze by Greg and Steve from Kids in Action

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

Rhyme
One Elephant Went out to Play
One elephant went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day. (big jump)
He had such enormous fun, (arms up high)
He called for another elephant to come… “Oh, ELEPHANT!” 
(swing arm in front of you like trumpeting trunk)

Two elephants…
Three elephants…
Four elephants…
Five elephants went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day. (jump)
they had such enormous fun (arms up high)
that they played and played until day was done. (lots of jumping)

Bean Bags
Silly Hat Song”(Tune: This Old Man) 
On my head, I wear my hat. 
It is such a silly hat 
That my head will wiggle waggle to and fro 
Where else can my silly hat go?

[Repeat using foot, elbow and knee.] 
Credit: SurLaLune Storytime

Puppet On Your Heart
From JBrary, you can watch the full video of the song.  I changed the lyrics to beanbags and it went very well.  

Put your puppet on your heart, On your heart. 
Put your puppet on your heart, On your heart. 
Put your puppet on your heart, What a lovely way to start! 
Put your puppet on your heart, On your heart.

Put your puppet on your knee…You’ll both be filled with glee… 
Put your puppet on your toes… Now move it to your nose… 
Put your puppet on your head… Put your puppet straight to bed… 
Give your puppet a big hug…make him snug as a bug in a rug


Felt Board 
Inspired by JenInTheLibrary's Bathtime Storytime.

1 elephant in the bathtub going for a swim. 
Knock, knock (clap hands for each knock) 
Splash, splash (pat lap for each splash) 
Come on in! (Wave hand invitingly)

Repeat to 5
5 elephants in the bathtub going for a swim. 
Knock, knock (clap hands for each knock) 
Splash, splash (pat lap for each splash) 
And they all fell in! (Knock all the elephants and tub off the felt board!)


Closing
We Clap Our Hands Like This - Tune of 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 – We keep getting so busy that I forget to take pictures of the crafts before we start. I punched out colored paper with our Ellison SureCut Die - Paper Bag Puppet, Elephant - XL.  I am trying to use up scrap so I used color copy paper and color construction paper.  With white and brown paper bags we glued on the precut pieces and used crayons to add embellishments.  


Laura

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Parachute Play

Flickr

*Look for my more recent post  Parachute Play Songs*
You will need a 10' parachute (a bigger parachute or several little parachutes would also work), scarves, bean bags or egg shakers. The concepts are presented by topic. You can share each element in whatever order works best for you and your patrons.

Books
Tap to Play by Salina Yoon

Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea

The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak

Scarves
Scarves Up Down and Around by Johnette Downing from The Second Line - Scarf Activity Songs

Scarves On Your Lap Johnette Downing from The Second Line - Scarf Activity Songs

Story Song - Big Plop by Mr. Eric and Mr. Michael from Rockin' Red. I had never heard this song before but it is a really fun alternative to Going On a Bear Hunt. We used the scarves to make the experience more vibrant but its a lot of fun without the scarves too.


Parachute
Song – Fast and Slow by Laurie Berkner from The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band - The song has an alternating rhythm that will encourage the kids go change their speed but it only works if they pay attention.

Popcorn Game with Scarves - Place the scarves in the middle of the parachute. The parachute should be laying on the floor. Pretend the scarves are popcorn. Have the child crouch and hold the parachute edge. Count 1, 2 ,3 and yell popcorn. Jump up to throw the scarves in the air. This works with other soft toys or under-inflated balls.

Song - The Freeze by Greg and Steve from Kids in Motion - This works well as a free dance or you can use the scarves or beanbags. It's a pretty flexible song.

Sleeping Bag Song by Carole Peterson Stephenson from H.U.M. - Highly Usable Music - Here the tune so you can sing it yourself and see lyrics on Macaroni Soup. You can use with a large enough parachute by sitting with your legs under the fabric like it is your sleeping bag.

Rhyme - Ring Around the Rosie - Because who doesn't like falling down over and over? For some reason they always think this is hilarious and most of the adults in attendance know the words and tune.

Rhyme - All Around the Mulberry Bush - When you say 'Pop goes the weasel' you can pop up the parachute. Think about using a plush toy to play the part of the weasel.

Criss-Cross Game - This game depends a lot how your group does at following directions. With everyone standing and the parachute in hand, have the kids lift the parachute off the floor. When the parachute is overhead call out a color and have those children change places by running under the parachute. If your kids are squirrelly use a partner adult, then the parachute is lifted tap two children only to participate each time.


Beanbags 

Kids in Motion
by Greg and Steve

Bean Bag Boogie 1 by Greg and Steve from Kids in Motion - The same cd has a Bean Bag Boogie 2 if you need more content.


Then you say goodbye to the kids and you nap on the parachute.


Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Father's Day

Opening
We Are Here Together - From Open/Closing Songs by Storytime Katie

Learning Groove Cds

“Here, Here” (Tune: “Skip to My Lou”)

Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
We’re all here in storytime
Hello, children, how are you?
Hello, grown-ups, how are you?
Hello, friends, how are you?
We’re so glad to see you!


Songs
One two three whee by Mr. Eric and Mr Michael from Groovy Green - my kids didn't understand this song at all, they wouldnt follow me through the motions so it just fell flat

Wheels on the Bus by Mr. Eric and Mr Michael from Groovy Green

Shake my Shaker by Mr. Eric and Mr Michael from Bouncy Blue

This Old Man by Mr. Eric and Mr Michael from Groovy Green


We sang this song for our Mother's Day Storytime. Its so popular with the kids and parents i wonder if we should sing it every week.   

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).

Books
I Love My Daddy by Giles Andreae 

How to Cheer Up Dad by Fred Koehler 

Guess How Much I love You by Sam McBratney - My favorite of the bunch.  I love having the kids stretch to show how far their love goes.  It might be corny but to me it's a classic. 



Folder Story
I had made a folder story with paint that changes colors but I hadn't used it yet.  I made up a tale about a dad on father's day.  The children do not know what to get dad as a present so they paint his truck and it ends up in rainbow colors. 

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
We Clap Our Hands Like This - 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.

Oh, Were They Ever Happy
by Peter Spier

We ended storytime by watching the filmstrip of Oh Where They Ever Happy by Peter Spier.  It's only 4 minutes long and it's colorful.  I liked that the words were at the bottom for the older kids to try to read so they could follow along with the narrator.  





Laura

Disclaimer

Preschool Storytime - Birds

Inspired by the Birds Storytime from Miss Meg's Storytime.

Opening

We Are Here Together - From Open/Closing Songs by Storytime Katie
“Here, Here” (Tune: “Skip to My Lou”)
Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
Here, here, we’ll all here
We’re all here in storytime
Hello, children, how are you?
Hello, grown-ups, how are you?
Hello, friends, how are you?
We’re so glad to see you!

Books

Whose Chick Are You by Nancy Tafuri
Click, Clack, Peep! by Doreen Cronin
Peep and Ducky Rainy Day by David Martin

Songs
Scarves In Your Laps - Johnette Downing The Second Line – Scarf Activity Songs
Donald Duck - Peter & Ellen Allard from Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 2
Flitter Flutter – Johnette Downing The Second Line – Scarf Activity Songs

Felt Board

The theme is birds but maybe
the theme should be eggs. 

So first the good news, I got a new felt board.  Its new to me.  It is in actuality quite old. But it doesn't have a broken hinge in the middle that would cause it to collapse and knock all the pieces to the ground during your storytime. Also the back of it has a chalkboard.  I didn't test to see if it was also magnetic though oddly enough I found magnetic tape in the closet just the other day, so here's hoping.  

Chicks Hide and Seek  - In this hide and seek game I have hidden three chicks, a frog and a butterfly under the eggs.  I think we could have learned a lot about colors but we did not learn a lot about patience.  I think we'll have to try this again with fewer pieces. 

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
Where did it go? (bring out empty hands)


Jack in the box sits so still
Will he come out
Yes he will

Rhyme
Way up in the sky, the little birds fly (flap arms)
While down in the nest
The little bird rest (place hands together, lay head on hands)
With a wing on the left, and a wing on the right (flap left then right wing)
The little birds sleep all through the night (lay head on hands)
Shhh they’re sleeping (shush children)
The bright sun comes up, the dew falls away 
     (stretch arms overhead, wiggles fingers as you lower arms)
Good morning good morning the little birds say 
     (raise and lower arms each time you say good morning)

I couldn't find a video that had the exact same presentation for the rhyme but I hope from my words and this video from the King County Library System YouTube channel that you will get the basic idea.  We used to sing this at camp to wake people up and we had a lot of fun yelling the ending as loudly possible.  

Closing
We Clap Our Hands Like This - 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

peep, peep

Our craft was Hatching Chicks from Little Foundations.  We have an Ellison die of a little duck so I used that because our Ellison die cut chicken is huge.  The eggs are made of scrap paper so we had many, many colors of eggs.  The children had time to color their eggs and their ducks.  Then they glued the duck into the bottom of the egg.  We used brads or brass fasteners to make a hinge so the duck could appear over and over again.  For some reason I was nervous that someone would cut their hand on the brads.  I don't know where I got that idea.  It all went fine. 

Laura

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Quick Pic - I am Groot

Howdy
As part of the Summer Reading Program hero theme I started off the teen line of programs with three crafts.  We decorated twinkies to look like Minions, we made swords with paint sticks and we made baby Groots from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy.  Most of this craft was created from supplies I found in our closet.  The base is a plantable, bio-degradable pot. The outside is made of brown paper bags in different sizes and there is a large popsicle stick at the center for a little structure.  We used Mod Podge like papermache and the whole thing set and dried very quickly. I painted on a little face.  I think you could use markers to add other details if you wanted. I was rather amused with the outcome.

DIY Baby Groot

Laura

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