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
• 
  

Rompin' Stompin' Story Time

Rompin’ Stompin’ Story Time takes place every Thursday at my library and it is by far the most popular story time that I offer.  We offer this story time for all ages and have everyone has a blast.  I normally have between 15 and 25 children attend this story time.

Rompin’ Stompin’ has three parts: songs and dance, rhythm and movement, and read aloud.  The parts occur is about 5 minute spurts so that the dynamic is always changing for short attention spans.  I use a lot of children’s music in this story time and keep the schedule pretty much the same.  In the example linked below the song and dance portions are in green, the rhythm and movement portions in blue and where I read aloud is in red. 

Click here for a Rompin' Stompin  Story Time schedule

We do a lot of the same songs every week.  I have a few that I switch around and I introduce a new song about once a month.  This is by far the easiest story time to plan and the most fun to do.  Our Rompin’ Stompin’ Story Time normally last about an hour. 

Since we are moving around almost the entire time we have juice boxes for the children when we are done.  The kids definitely work hard and earn their juice!

This week we read:

•         Dogs by Emily Gravett
•          Underwater Dogs: Kid’s Edition by Seth Casteel

I try to find short and funny stories to read so that they hold the children’s interest and not bore them.  Stories that allow the kids to move around and make noises are the best!

The most popular part of Rompin’ Stompin’ is the parachute and we save this for last.  The children start by holding the parachute and I play the song Popcorn by Barenaked Ladies (yes, they have a children’s album).  I shake pom-pom balls out into the middle of the parachute.  The children shake the parachute and pop the balls like popcorn as the song speeds up.  We normally have to do this at least twice.  Below is a You Tube video for the song, listen and you will see how perfect it is for this activity!

Mother Goose Time- Story Time For Babies

On Wednesdays at the library we have a special story time that is designed for babies between the ages of 5 months and two years old.  This story time includes rhymes, lap jogs, songs, books, flannel boards, and finger plays.  Many of the rhymes we recite each week with fun motions so that the babies can learn them and start to say them as they learn to speak.  This story time surrounds them with language and words through the fun a timeless rhymes and proves just how important nursery rhymes are to early speech and literacy.  This Mother Goose Time was created and inspired by the ideas of Jane Marino. Click here for a list of her books.  

The books that are read during Mother Goose Time need to to have short amounts of text on each page and colorful pictures.  Today for Mother Goose Time, we read the following:

• To & Fro, Fast & Slow by Durga Bernhard
• No Two Alike by Keith Baker

The rhymes listed below are two of the most popular ones that we recite each week

"Criss-Cross Applesauce"

Criss-Cross Applesauce  ”  [make big “X” on back]

Spider Crawling up your back [walk fingers up back]

Cool breeze; tight squeeze   [blow on cheek; hug]

Now you’ve got the shivers!   [tickle on front]  

"Popcorn, Popcorn"

Popcorn, popcorn, sizzlin’ in the pan [bounce]

Shake ‘em up, shake ‘em up, bam, bam bam  [shake gently]

Popcorn, popcorn, sizzlin’ in the pot [bounce baby]

Shake ‘em up, shake ‘em up, pop, pop, pop. [shake again, then bounce up]

Look for new rhymes, books, and flannel boards each Wednesday

Elephants In the Library!

Elephants took over story time today.  We enjoyed the following books:

• Elmer by David McKee
• Meet Me At the Moon by Gianna Marino
• I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems

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

Elephant Craft

Materials

• White card stock
• crayons
• party blowout
• scissors
• Elephant template (Click here)

Directions

1. Print off the elephant template on card stock
2. Cut out the elephants.  Cut an X in the circle where the trunk will go
3. Have the child color their elephant using crayons.  The more colors the better!
4. Push the party blowout through the X.
5. Enjoy!

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

• Elmer series by David McKee
• Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems
• Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
• The Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff
• But No Elephants by Jerry Smath
• "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas
• Ella the Elegant Elephant by Carmela D'amico
• Little Elephants by Graeme Base
• Daddy, Could I Have an Elephant? by Jake Wolf
• How the Elephant Got Its Trunk by Jean Richards
• Ollie by Paola Opal
• When the Elephant Walks by Keiko Kasza
• Little Elephant by Tana Hoban
• Just for Elephants by Carol Buckley
• Engelbert the Elephant by Tom Paxton