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!