Umbrella Days

Grab your umbrella and get ready for the rain!

The Books

  

The Thingamabob by Il Sung Na
Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison

Opening Song

Letter of the Day

Today we did the letter U!
We use a powerpoint with our storytimes and I love to put up the letter of the day slide with no letter and ask the children to tell me what the letter of the day is.  It gets a great reaction when I act all shocked that the letter is not there and I tell the children that we need to sing the ABCs to help our shy letter appear.  As we get to the end of singing I use the clicker and the letter magically appears and the children rejoice.

Once the letter shows up we talk about what sound it makes.  This week we also drew the letter U with the help of two mountains.  I then have 3 pictures of different things that start with the letter that the children have to guess, this week I used unicorn, up, and underwear.  The children really got a kick out of the use of underwear since I used the book cover for One Big Pair of Underwear by Tom Lichtenheld as my picture.  It is hard to come up with pictures to go with the letter U that are easy for children to guess!

Backpack

Freddy the Frog is our beloved backpack that houses our themed item and normally letters to spell the theme word.  Since umbrella is a long word and we only have one of each letter I put the letter U and two other random letters in the backpack. I pulled out the letters acting like a had no clue why they were in the bag and got the children to tell me their sounds as I put them on the flannel board. We have these really cute storm cloud and raindrop puppets that I also pulled out of the bag.  I had the children make thunder with their feet as I pulled the storm cloud out.  With the raindrop I told the children that I really didn't want to get wet and asked them how I could stay dry.  An wouldn't you know it, I had a rainbow umbrella in my bag (And I was brave and opened it inside).  Then, I got the brilliant idea that one of the letters from the bag must be what the word "umbrella" starts with.  I got the children to help me eventually figure out that it was the letter U (they absolutely love the confused adult act!).

Hiding Game

Using the flannel board I played a hiding game by hiding a raindrop behind a cloud.  I already had this up on the board before storytime started.  I used the following rhyme:

Raindrop, Raindrop
Where can you be
Are you hiding behind the big (guess the color) cloud?

Action Rhyme

To get ready for our story we did the following action rhyme:

Raindrop, Raindrop, turn around
Raindrop, Raindrop, touch the ground

Raindrop, Raindrop, reach up high

Raindrop, Raindrop, touch the sky

Raindrop, Raindrop, touch your nose

Raindrop, Raindrop, grab your toes

Raindrop, Raindrop, touch your knees

Raindrop, Raindrop, sit down please

Book

Since our main theme item was umbrella this week Il Sung Na's The Thingamabob was perfect.  I asked the children what color the Thingamabob was and that if they knew what the Thingamabob was to keep it a secret until the end.  This book went over well and the illustrations are so beautiful!

Action Rhyme

This song was a lot of fun.  I left off the second verse so we could focus on the rain and do the first verse a few times.  

The Rain Is Falling Down

Tune of The Farmer in the Dell 

The rain is falling down, (flutter fingers down)

SPLASH (clap once loudly)

The rain is falling down, (flutter fingers down)

SPLASH (clap once loudly)

Pitter patter pitter patter (tap legs softly)

The rain is falling down, (flutter fingers down)

SPLASH (clap once loudly)

Source: Storytime Katie


Movement Song

"The Goldfish" by Laurie Berkner.  I had to do this song in every storytime at my previous library or risk a revolt.  I am so glad that the children at my new library liked it.  The parents also got a kick out of it.  I like to use the version from her video since it is more uptempo than the original CD recording.  You can watch it here.


Action Rhyme

Open, Shut Them

(Have children sit down)

Open, shut them (open and close hands)

Open, shut them

Give a little clap, clap, clap

Open, shut them

Open, shut them

Put them in your lap, lap, lap (put hands in lap)

Big and small… (make hands big and small)

Fast and slow…(spin arms like wheels on the bus to speed you need)
Open, shot them...
Source: Super Simple Learning (pulled from their longer version)

Book

I started the week out with one of my personal favorites, The Rain Came Down by David Shannon, but for some reason the kids didn't really care for it and I wasn't keeping their attention.  I have a storytime 6 days a week so I got rid of this book after my second one and changed to Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison.  This one worked so much better for the children since it had counting and a lot of places that I could ask them questions.

Action Rhyme

The Itsy Bitsy Spider 

The itsy bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout.
Down came the rain

And washed the spider out!
Out came the sun

And dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider
Went up the spout again!

We also met some of the Itsy Bitsy Spider's cousins, the Very Fast Spider, the Very Slow Spider, and the Very Quiet Spider.

Source: Childhood

Flannel Board

Ten Little Umbrellas

One little, two little, three little umbrellas
Four little, five little, six little umbrellas
Seven little, eight little, nine little umbrellas
Ten umbrellas waiting for the rain

One little, two little, three little raindrops
Four little, five little, six little raindrops
Seven little, eight little, nine little raindrops
Ten little raindrops falling down

After we sang the rhyme I told the children that it needed to stop raining so we needed to put the raindrops away.  We counted backwards as I took them off the board.  With no rain we didn't need umbrellas so we counted backwards and put them up too!

Source: Storytime Katie

Movement Song

Since it was our egg shaker week (I switch out what we use between scarves, shakers, and bean bags)  We used our shakers to make it rain.  We started out with a sprinkle that turned into a thunderstorm (stomping feet) and then died down and turned into a rainbow.  After that we shook to "Milkshake" by Old Town School of Folk Music. 

Monkey Business

This week's storytime was all about those crazy monkeys.

The Books

  

Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett
Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett

Opening Song

Letter of the Day

We use a powerpoint with our storytimes and I love to put up the letter of the day slide with no letter and ask the children to tell me what the letter of the day is.  It gets a great reaction when I act all shocked that the letter is not there and I tell the children that we need to sing the ABCs to help our shy letter appear.  As we get to the end of singing I use the clicker and the letter magically appears and the children rejoice.

Once the letter shows up we talk about what sound it makes.  I then have 3 pictures of different things that start with the letter that the children have to guess, this week I used moon, mouse, and mailbox.

Backpack

Freddy the Frog is our beloved backpack that houses our themed item and normally letters to spell the theme word.  Since monkey is a long word and our y was missing I put the letter M and three other random letters in the backpack. I pulled out the letters acting like a had no clue why they were in the bag and got the children to tell me their sounds as I put them on the flannel board.  I also had a toy banana and a monkey puppet in the bag.  After the monkey puppet got to eat his banana I got the brilliant idea that one of the letters from the bag must be what the word "monkey" starts with.  I got the children to help me eventually figure out that it was the letter M (they absolutely love the confused adult act!).

Hiding Game

Using the flannel board I played a hiding game by hiding a little monkey behind one of our five flannel trees.  I already had this up on the board before storytime started.  I used the following rhyme:

Monkey, Monkey
Hiding in a tree
Come on out and play with me
Are you in the (guess the color) tree?

Action Rhyme

To get ready for our story we did the following action rhyme:

Monkey, Monkey, turn around

Monkey, Monkey, touch the ground

Monkey, Monkey, reach up high

Monkey, Monkey, touch the sky

Monkey, Monkey, touch your nose

Monkey, Monkey, grab your toes

Monkey, Monkey, touch your knees

Monkey, Monkey, sit down please

Book

I read Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett.  Spoiler Alert: There are no monkeys to count!   This book was a hit since I had the children do all the interactive parts with me.  I also made sure to hold the book in front of me when I turned the page and then ask the how many monkeys they counted.  They had so much fun yelling none or zero and laughing at me every time as a dramatically looked at the page in shock that there were no monkeys.

Action Rhyme

A coworker has an awesome blog here where I got the idea for "Bananas Unite."  I did not use the flannel for this and found that the crazier that I was the more fun the kids had.

Bananas Unite!  

Bananas unite! (Hands meet over your head)

Bananas split! (arms down by your side)Go bananas! (dance around as crazy as you can)
Go, go bananas! Go bananas!Go go bananas!
Bananas Unite! (Hands meet over your head)
Bananas to the left (move to the left)Bananas to the right (move to the right) Peel your banana and, mmmmmm, take a bite! (act like you are eating a banana)
Source: Felt-tastic Flannelboard Funtime 


Movement Song

"Rocketship Run" by Laurie Berkner.  This song is very popular with our toddlers and fit perfect since we had a picture of the moon with our letter of the day.

Action Rhyme

Open Shut Them
(Have children sit down)

Open, shut them (open and close hands)

Open, shut them

Give a little clap, clap, clap

Open, shut them

Open, shut them

Put them in your lap, lap, lap (put hands in lap)

Big and small… (make hands big and small)

Loud and quiet…

Book

I love Emily Gravett so I read her books every opportunity that I get.  For Monkey and Me I read it with a little bit of a cadence and I never read the page that said what they saw, I always had the children tell me.  I also acted out the falling asleep at the end which the children loved.  To get them thinking, I asked after reading where the little girl could have went to see all the animals and the children yelled, "The zoo!"

Action Rhyme

The Itsy Bitsy Monkey 

Tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy monkey

climbed up the coconut tree (climb a tree with your hands)

Down came a coconut

that bopped him on the knee 

(make your fist into the coconut and have it fall from up high and hit you on the knee)

Along came his Mama,

who kissed away the pain (kiss your hand and put it on your knee)

Then the itsy bitsy monkey

climbed up the tree again (climb a tree with your hands)

This was a big hit that the kids wanted to do over and over again.

Source: http://senaitmohammed.weebly.com/song-rhymes--finger-plays.html 

Flannel Board

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

(Count monkeys as you put them up above the bed)

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed (hold up 5 fingers and bounce them on top of your other hand)

One fell off and bumped his head (Pull down a flannel monkey)

Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, (Make a telephone with your hand)

“No more monkeys jumping on the bed!” (shake your finger)

*repeat until there are no monkeys left.

Movement Song

Groovy Joe's- "The Groovy Dance" by Eric Litwin.  We jammed out with scarves to this song.  You can download the song for FREE here!  Thank you Eric Litwin!

Big Changes

So a lot has changed this new year.  I have moved from a small rural library to working in a regional library in Raleigh, NC.  I also went from serving ages 0-12 at my old library to serving as a preschool librarian focused on ages 3-5.  I now have a daily storytime with a theme that changes every week.  I will work hard to post my weekly themes and layout for you to use for ideas.  Stay tuned for more!

The Letter A

I have decided to take a year (maybe a little more)  and incorporate story times with the letters of the alphabet along with my seasonal themes.  September is the perfect time to start with school starting back for older siblings and apples in season!

Today we read the following books:

• If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't! by Elise Parsley
• Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray
• Your Alien by Tammi Sauer

I start every story time with the same three songs to say hello, get the kids moving and get them seated and ready for the first story.  They are:

Hello, Hello (sung by me)

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner



Can You Clap by Sue Schnitzer

When we finished the last opening song I told the children that we were going to be learning about the letter A today (I wish that I would have asked them to tell me some words that started the the letter A.  There is always next year!).  We then read the first book.

After the first book we did a song to get the kids up and moving and then one to get them calmed down for the next book:

Shake It All About by Basho and Friends


Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi

We then read our second book, Apple Pie ABC.  I didn't have time to get it ready this year but I would love to include a felt board activity with Five Little Apples or an interactive felt board where the children have to help me find the pictures of things that start with the letter A.

After our second book we did a newer song to story time, and it is one of my absolute favorites and gets the kids to really stretch and listen for what to do.

Very, Very Tall by Old Town School of Folk Music

I then used a classic to get them ready for the next story:

Open, Shut Them by Knock Knock English

This led us into our third book, Your Alien.  This book was very cute and we used a lot of the faces in the pictures to tell how people were feeling.

After our third book we did our ending song:

The Goldfish by Laurie Berkner

After this song we came back together to see what craft we would be making.  I showed the children how we were going to take the letter A, turn it sideways, and make it into an alligator.  The children then got their glue sticks and googly eye from me and headed for the craft tables that already had their letter A, squares of green paper, and triangles of white paper.

Shake, Shake, Shake

Part of my Rompin' Stompin' Story Time is fun with shaker eggs.  This is normally the first activity where the kids are getting something to hold and they start running to the front as soon as they see the purple basket that the shakers live in.  Here is my routine for this part of story time.

Depending on how big the group is I use the following songs to start our shaker egg time:

Small Group
I Can Shake My Shaker Egg
Mr. Eric & Mr. Michael
Rockin' Red


Large Group
Shake It!
Sally's Music Circle
Little Red Caboose


I love the Eric Litwin song, but it is a lot harder to do with my large groups since the children will end up running.

There is no way to use shaker eggs without this song!

I Know a Chicken
Laurie Berkner
Whaddaya Think of That?


I Know a Chicken is the crowd favorite and when we make the circle I have the children start by making little circles and make them bigger, and bigger until they are using their whole bodies.

Depending on how much the children are enjoying the shaker eggs we may do a third song with them.  This is a great song that I really get the children to dance with:

Shake! (Your Shaker Eggs)
We Kids Rock
Everybody Clap Your Hands


The key to this song is to go for the gold with your crazy dances and the children will too!

At this point in the story time I have the children bring me their shaker eggs and find their own space to do the "Crazy Hokey Pokey".

Shake It All About
Basho & Friends
Dance Party on Fun Street


The children absolutely love this song since I added it a few months ago.  It is one that I have to use almost every story time.  This song can get the children acting a little crazy so I always stop the music and the end and give the kids a very serious look and let them know that we have a problem, we have gotten way to silly with all this shaking and catching bean bags (our next activities) is very serious business.  So we need to... and this is where the regular kids yell- SHAKE MY SILLIES OUT!

Shake My Sillies Out
Raffi
More Singable Songs


I am always looking for new songs and activities to do with shaker eggs since they are such a popular part of my Rompin' Stompin' Story Time so please feel free to share your favorites in the comments!

Finding My Groove

When I started this blog in 2014 I thought it was such a great idea to keep up with story times and also share what I am doing in my library with others.  I know that I couldn't do my job without Storytime Underground, Pinterest, and the many blogs that I frequent for ideas, inspiration, and problem solving.

And then life happened... We decided to build a house and have a baby.  At work I was promoted to Branch Manager on top of my Youth Services positions and had a lot of turnover at my branch that left me barely surviving for months.

Now I have survived my busiest Summer Reading Program to date, work with an amazing staff that really love the library, and have split Youth Services so that I can focus on children ages 0-12.

I hope to be able to post my weekly themed story time outlines as well as reviews for books for children ages 0-12 and show the evolution of my various library programs as they grow.  I currently have a great small afterschool club, a growing preschool outreach program, and 3 awesome weekly story times.  I am hoping to add a once-a-month nighttime storytime for all ages, a homeschool book club, and an afterschool outreach collaboration.  I look forward to sharing what we are doing at my library and hope that this blog can be a source of ideas and inspiration for a few along the way.

Upward and Onward!

Bears

Bears

The weather is getting colder and with that I like to do story times about animals that hibernate.  This week we tackled Bears.  We enjoyed the following books:

• Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
• Baby Bear Discovers the World by Marion Dane Bauer

My story time crowd seems to no longer be dominated by one year olds, so I have been slowly picking longer books to see how attention spans hold up.  Baby Bear Discovers the World is by far the longest book that I have tried in a while and it was quite successful (mainly because it contained real pictures of bears).   I had also planned to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle but I was nearing my 30 minutes at the end of the second book.

I would love to start adding themed rhymes and flannel boards back to this story time since my audience has grown up and would be more likely to enjoying them instead of trying to pull them apart.  Here is a page of Bear Rhymes and Songs that I put together but did not get to at this story time.

For our craft children were able to make their very own Elmer-like elephants!

Bear Cave Craft

The above image came from Storytime Katie- where here post gave me the idea from Pinterest.  I had a child that wanted the example that I made so I couldn't get a picture today of mine.  I used a different sleepy bear that can be seen below.

Materials:

o   Bear cutout (Click Here)

o   tissue paper

o   leaf stickers

o   paper plates

o    glue

o    crayons

Directions:

o   Have children color their bear.

o   Children can then glue tissue paper and leaves onto their plate.

o   Glue the bear onto the plate last.

Here is a list of other bear picture books that you might enjoy!

• Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
• Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff
• Old Bear by Kevin Henkes
• Grizzly Bears by Gail Gibbons
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