Family Storytime: Numbers and Counting

We ended our summer storytime session by having a learning theme on numbers and counting. The smaller group I had was a bit antsy from the summer weather, so it was a short storytime but we made the most out of it. After following along to the movements in our bean bag song, we read two books, did a flannel activity, and had fun making our craft.

The books we read were Let's Count Goats by Mem Fox and Stack the Cats by Susie Ghahremani. We counted some popsicles on the flannel board and went over their colors before we had to move on to our craft.

For our craft, the group had to glue ladybugs onto their leaves and put one dot on one ladybug, two dots on two ladybugs, and so on until they had five ladybugs filled with dots. This was great counting practice and was a challenge for the younger ones.

Other books on counting/numbers:
 1 Big Salad by Juana Medina
123 Peas by Keith Baker
I Know Numbers! by Taro Gomi
Pretty Kitty by Karen Beaumont
Bear Counts by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Groovy Joe Dance Party Countdown by Eric Litwin 

I would have definitely used Pretty Kitty if my group could stand a longer story and Groovy Joe Dance Party has a free movement song to go along with the story.

We'll be taking a storytime break to get some weeding done, putting on other programs, and of course prepping for fall storytime themes. In the meantime, I'll be posting on some of my other programs going on. 

Creative Writing Workshop: Reading Takes You Everywhere

This was a successful writing program for kids 8-12 that tied in with the Summer Reading Club's theme of Reading Takes You Everywhere. We explored settings in writing using audiobook clips of setting descriptions and then took time to start writing our own settings.

I put together a Powerpoint that introduced how to write a setting using the 6 "w" questions and setting writing tips. We sampled a variety of story settings using certain audiobook clips describing different settings and different styles each author used. I took audio of books that this age group, ages 8-12, should be familiar with. I made sure I had a variety of examples in case we ran long on time, so we didn't go through every example, but we went through most of them and had some discussion on each one.

About half way through the program, we started writing. It's typical that the group had a harder time getting started, but quickly pulled through. Everyone pretty much had some writing down and some in the group are more advanced than others, but that is to be expected with the age range. It is also to be expected that some of those in the group have a harder time focusing, but everyone was able to write a setting idea.

I was surprised to hear that some of the group hadn't read a lot of these classics, so I think it was a good opportunity for them to get introduced and interested in the stories. In the future, I think I won't just focus on the classics, but pick more books that the kids are currently reading. I had a few of them in there, such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Wonder, which were well received. 

The settings I used were from a variety of classic children's books for this age:

Bridge of Terabithia

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

One and Only Ivan

Holes

James and the Giant Peach

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlotte's Web

Esperanza Rising

Tuck Everlasting

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Walk Two Moons

Bud, Not Buddy

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Wonder 

If anyone would be interested in having the Powerpoint presentation or my "teacher notes" on each slide, contact me.

Overall, I think the group enjoyed listening to the audio and learned a little bit more about writing settings.

Family Storytime: Pirates

A pirate storytime is always a fun theme, but I find it harder to find shorter books for storytime audiences. There are a few short favorites I can count on so I always end up having enough books. 

It seems it's also more difficult to come up with activities to do with this one, but again, I use my favorites and have a good time. 

The shorter books I can count on and used were The Pirate Who Said Please by Timothy Knapman, Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, and Pirate Pickle and the White Balloon by Ann Burg. I liked how the first book teaches manners and the others use imagination. 

 We learned colors using the Pirate Bear flannel and the group had to each put their pirate patch colors on him once I sang out the color. "Pirate wore his red patch, red patch, red patch, Pirate wore his red patch out one day."

I wanted to do something different for our next pirate activity and I was able to use some gold coins I had for a sensory bin for another program and we counted our treasure coins. I found very helpful printable counting mats online and I'll be laminating and adding Velcro to our coins to add to our felt collection.  

Our craft was making our own pirate flags. I liked how this craft used the kids' imaginations because they could decorate it any way they liked, but I added a ship die-cut to give it a more pirate look and help the kids get their ideas started. They also had the option of cutting out their pirate flag and making it look jagged using scissors.

Other Books...but longer:
Pirasaurs! by Josh Funk
Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel
Are You the Pirate Captain? by Gareth P. Jones 
Don't Mention Pirates by Sarah McConnell
Pirate Treasure by Scoular Anderson

Other Activities:
Row, Row, Row Your Boat song

Ahoy, mateys!

Toddler Art: Red, White, and Blue

For this month's Toddler Art, we kept the Independence Day theme and had fun with paint and construction paper. 

I read Red, White, and Boom by Lee Wardlaw. It's a quick story about celebrating with a parade and fireworks. 

The little ones began working on their crafts. We had all sorts of motor skill practice making our own red, white, and blue flags using paint. This group also used clothespins and pom poms, but I modified the template for this group to make it more simple and dilly-dot like. 

Their next craft was making a smiley star. I think they had fun with both crafts, but enjoyed the takeaway of this one better and just appreciated using paint in the first craft. I cut up some larger stars, used our die-cut machine for smaller ones to use as the hands and feet, and white strips of paper for the arms and legs of our star. We drew our smiles on and used eye stickers.

I can't wait for next month's theme, at the beach, because I have some good ideas planned and there are so many options. Plus, who wouldn't want to be at the beach?

Family Storytime: Picnic

This was another good storytime with a nice theme. There are so many books and activities to choose from when going on a picnic. We read three books, did three activities, and did our craft. I would say this is one of my favorite themes for the summer because it's so easy to put together and there's always new material.

 We read Picnic by John Burningham, Pignic by Matt Phelan, and What This Story Needs Is a Munch and a Crunch by Emma Virjan. All three of these stories were just short enough, but offered a cute story. I think the kids enjoyed Pignic the best. 

For one of our activities, we matched some flannel kites using the flannel board and talked about their colors and counted them.

For our last activity, which was received the best, was a picnic basket guessing game using the flannel board. Different colored picnic baskets were put up and the group had to guess which one had the apple behind it using their colors. They always love guessing games!

What picnic would be complete without watermelon? We made watermelon crafts using paper plate halves, tissue paper, and black paint for the seeds. The first craft I remember doing as a kid was a watermelon craft in kindergarten so this craft is dear to my heart.  

Other books for this theme:
Porcupine's Picnic: Who Eats What? by Betsy R. Rosenthal
Bears and Blossoms by Shirley Parenteau
Ready for Anything! by Keiko Kasza
We're Going on a Picnic! by Pat Hutchins 
Duck and Hippo Lost and Found by Jonathan London
It's the Bear! by Jez Alborough
Claude Has a Picnic by Dick Gackenbach
The Lost Picnic by B.B. Cronin
The Best Picnic Ever by Clare Jarrett

Other activities for this theme:
Five Hungry Ants rhyme
Five Yummy Cookies rhyme
It Looked Like Spilt Milk Flannel
Popsicle counting and colors

Preschool Picasso: Red, White, and Blue

What a turnout! This was such a fun, big group! I had most of my registrations show up and had some drop-ins as well. I had enough craft for everybody because I usually plan for extra and I think everyone had a great time.

 We all really enjoyed listening to The Night Before the Fourth of July by Amy Wummer. These Night Before books are always so fun and rhythmic to read. The group loved this book and I read it a second time after we were done with our crafts.

The pom pom flag craft we did was great practice for them to get used to painting and the windsock seemed to be the favorite of the two crafts. I used printouts, red and blue pom poms with red and blue paint, and q-tips for white star dotting to come up with our pom-pom flag craft.

Our second craft was a red, white, and blue windsock. I used cut-out blue construction paper for the base, die-cut red and white stars, and red and white streamers. We used red ribbon to hang it up. 

This was a fun way to see one of my favorite groups and celebrate Independence Day!

Family Storytime: Camping

We had an adventure theme for the week of July 2nd and after looking at everything we pulled and gravitating towards all the camping books, I decided to go with a camping theme. 

I read Maisy Goes Camping by Lucy Cousins and Explorers of the Wild by Cale Atkinson.  

Some other books that would have been great for reading with an adventure theme are:
The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat
Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty
I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black
Found by Saliina Yoon
Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton 

Other books that are perfect for a camping storytime are:
Sally Goes to the Mountains by Stephen Huneck
I Love the Mountains by Steven Anderson
Do Princesses Make Happy Campers? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle
Duck Tents by Lynne Berry

We were having some trouble settling down during this one, so we did some flannel board matching with cars and their matching colored suitcase and then got to our craft of making a tent out of construction paper and Popsicle sticks. They liked decorating their camper.

If the kids weren't so antsy, we had a song and Five Little Froggies flannel to do too. It's the summer so I'm definitely competing for attention between going outside and reading, but we had a good storytime nonetheless. 

Safari Storytime

For my current session of storytimes, I have really been having to pick really short books because of this small group's attention span. I do miss reading longer picture books, but I always try to cater to what's best for each group.

For this June 25th storytime, we had a safari theme. I have a tendency to pull more books and activities than needed, but I was able to get a few books in and some of the fun ideas.

We read Starry Safari by Linda Ashman, We've All Got Belly Buttons by David Martin, and Do Croc's Kiss? by Salina Yoon.

The group was less shy and more lively this time. They really enjoy the flap-up books and had fun and took their time making their lion puppet craft. They liked dancing to the Animal song and were friendly with one another.  

We did the bean bag rock song, went over our colors in our Geri the Giraffe Needs some spots color involvement flannel, and danced along to Move Like an Animal by Bobs & Lolo. 

The craft was a lion puppet using construction paper, paper plates, and Popsicle sticks. We cut out the middle of the paper plate and added yellow and orange construction paper for the mane and then added some construction paper ears so we could pretend to be lions.

Some of the other great books I've found for this theme and were going to use if I had more time were If You're Happy and You Know It Jungle Edition by James Warhola,Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen, Splash! by Flora McDonnell, and When Elephant Walks By Keiko Kasza. 

Extra, extra books:
Hiccupotamus by Steven Smallman
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming
Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson
Ten Monkey Jamboree by Dianne Ochiltree
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Five Little Monkeys Sitting In a Tree by Eileen Christelow

Extra Craft Idea:
Color the lion and add orange/yellow tissue paper/construction paper for the mane. Use a coloring page.

Other Activities:
Sitting in My Box flannel story
I See an Elephant Color Flannel
Five Little Elephants

Fun with 3D Pens!

I held my first 3D Pen program for the older kids last month, and despite being nervous about technology failing me, it was an excellent program and I discovered how much I enjoy using 3D pens myself.

I had a brief introduction on how to use the 3D pens and then had the group choose whatever they wanted to make using our laminated booklets, rubber tracers, or freestyle. 

A few made butterflies, the Eiffel Tower, and a car using templates. Others free-styled and just got the hang of the pens. 

I practiced making a butterfly before the program and it turned out pretty good for my first time.

My next older age bracket youth program will be my writing program coming up next week on settings. It's nice to be able to put on programs for both younger and older kids.