How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?

We visited the farm today!



Opening Song ----Who Wore Their

Color of the Day---Yellow

Baby Bear---Letter of the Day  F

Book-- I Went Walking by Sue Williams

Fingerplay--Two Little Blackbirds (we did fast slow, loud, quiet)

Book-- Prop story of  How Kind by

Action Song---The Cows on the Farm Go....pigs.....horses...ducks...chickens....roosters

Book---Flannel story of Who Said Moo? by

Goodbye Song

Stamp---purple cow

Craft---folded book about the farm

Fun storytime, would not change a thing (except the screaming child that is having difficulty and his mom does not take him out soon enough :  /    arrrgh     )

First Storytime of Fall 2012

I do a Babygarten program on Mondays, twos and threes on Wednesday, and fours and fives on Thursday. Today was the twos and threes program and we started off with a big group. I have to hold storytime for this group in the main area of the children's room, since we could not fit into the storytime room without a huge shoehorn! Today there were 30 children and  just as many adults with babies and extra adults added.

Opening ----Who Wore Their __________ Today?
Open Shut Them















Baby Bear introduces the letter of the day

Mother Goose Rhyme

Color of the day














Book---- Monkey and Me    Emily Gravett (illustrate running finger under some of the words)














Fingerplay--- Five Little Monkeys





Flannel Story---Brown Bear, Brown Bear     Bill Martin Jr.


Action Song---If You're Happy and You Know It





Book with Props---How Do You Put It On? Shiego Wantanabe


Closing--Teddy Bear Turn Around
Stamp a bear paw on hands
Color a brown bear

Perfect mix of stories, talking, action, but keep the first song short and go right into Open Shut Them

Blue, Blue, Blue, Blue Wednesday

Monday was the big candy, costume day and I figured we may have some overtired and oversugared kids. So....today is Blue Day. We really had a great time! Cynthia was Bunny Blue and had the kids boo hoo hoo with her on each page.

Opening: Who Wore Their Hair Today?

Baby Bear  brings in our letter of the day..... B.

Book: What's the Matter Bunny Blue? by Nicola Smee

Fingerplay: Two Little Bluebirds

Mother Goose: Little Boy Blue
I like to use the big Mother Goose poster sets by Kim Faurot.

Book: The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle
Love this book!

Action Song: Baby Beluga

Book: It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Always a hit in storytime. We use the big book version.

Closing Song: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Craft:

Blue Squish bags that Cynthia and I made ahead of time. We used blue hair gel and duct taped it into freezer ziplock bags. Kids can fingerpaint and squeeze their color.

Not Very Mellow Yellow

Yellow was the color of this weeks storytime. Bright sunshine, lemons, bananas, and buses! We read:

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes   using stuffed animals and a feather to act out the story using props. Just LOVE this book!

We sang "Oh, Mister Sun" by Raffi and had the words printed on papers around the room for those who do not know the words.

Baby Bear checked out the box with yellow items and brought our letter of the day.

"Lemons Are Not Red" was the next book. I thought it would be a good choice, but I think it was too small for our large group , and not engaging enough.
The school bus driver came in so I jumped to the bus book before telling everyone about the BIG SURPRISE............

School Bus by Donald Crews

After our rhymes, stories, and songs we had a big surprise.......a school bus! Everyone went outside and took their turn walking up the big steps and finding a seat on the bus. We took a trip to the park and the highlight was crossing the railroad tracks. The bus driver told everyone they needed to be silent when we crossed and the toddlers took it very seriously.

The bus driver was soooooo nice and everyone got a big kick out of riding the bus.

SEEING RED

Today was red day for our storytime color series. Cynthia wore "Beyonce' Red" lipstick,a red plaid vest, and her red boots. The only thing red I own is a red necklace, but it sufficed.

Baby Bear introduced the session, (after our opening song) with a red letter A.
Then we read "The Little Red Hen" by Byron Barton using props of puppets for the animals in the story. We shook the apples off the apple tree after the story with the tried and true "5 Little Apples" fingerplay.

We checked our little red mailbox for a clue to the next story. We found a small teddy bear......hmmmmmmm. "The Little Red House" by Norma Sawicki,  was told on flannelboard, and the little bear was in the house at the end of the story. WOW! How DID they do that?

Everyone stood up for the scarf activities that were outlined last week. We plan to use this activity throughout our color series. It gives those wiggly bodies a chance to jump, shake, and stomp.

Storytime ended with the "Teddy Bear" song and a red heart stamp.



Our craft this week was a red apple on a stick with a flip side of the white inside of the apple. Children had red, green, and black crayons to add leaf and seed detail.

World of Color

Cynthia always gets the attention of our group by rattling her woven shaker and singing "We're going to hear stories, stories, stories, we're going to hear stories, in the story circle".



Today's storytime was the first in our color series. After our Storytime Song and Who Wore Their....Today song, Baby Bear introduced the letter of the day and a clue. We used the letter F for fall and talked about the colors outdoors. Then Baby Bear pulled out a box of color crayons as a clue to today's colorful stories.

The first story was "Dog's Colorful Day" by Emma Dodd. I read the book,Cynthia had the flannel board version, and applied the spots as dog got messy.





Next we did an action song to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
Roll, roll, roll, your hands, slowly as can be.......words are on the song sheet picture.


Second book was "What Color is Your Underwear", a lift the flap book that is a fun book to use, but was not quite as funny to the toddlers as it was to our Head Start group.



We passed out scarves and everyone stood up for colorful scarf waving action song that ended with the scarves being thrown in the air.




We finished the storytime with that wonderful classic "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Bill Martin Jr. and told it on the flannelboard.



After our "Teddy Bear Turn Around" closing song, we stamped hands with a leaf stamp, and proceeded to the tables for a dog coloring sheet. Many of the dogs had a LOT of colorful spots!

Wouldn't change a thing. Worked very nicely, perfect craft for toddlers, fun books, just enough action and movement.

 The new "Storytime Suggestion Song" went over well as did our new staging area on the rug.

Next week: the color RED!

The Behavior Song

After storytime yesterday, Cynthia and I were inspired to create this song which we HOPE( let us be cautiously optimistic!) will encourage parents to follow our suggestions. So here it is................to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".......

The "Ready for Storytime Song"

Choose a spot where they can see,

Making eye contact with me.

Keep your child off the rug,

Pick them up and give a hug.

If they need a chance to chill,

Please come back, when they are still.

Sitting on your lap or floor,

They’ll enjoy the stories more.

Dance and Sing, Read and Rhyme,

Ready now for StoryTime .

          by Georgia Jones & Cynthia Hanson 9.28.2011