We always start off with our Hello Song. I use the same hello song for all my storytimes and everyone gets really involved singing it.
Hello Song
This is the way we wave hello
Wave hello, wave hello
This is the way we wave hello
So early in the morning
…Clap hands
…Stomp feet
After we stomp our feet, I always ask the kids, what they want to do next. The toddlers pretty much always want to do the same thing - we will spin around, then we'll jump up and down. The older kids we'll get a little more variety. Today we snapped our fingers and did jumping jacks. Some days we might do a lot more activities but I think everyone was super excited to get on with the stories since I gave away our super special project for after the stories finished.
We read Muncha Muncha Muncha
The kids enjoyed shouting out if they thought the rabbits would be able to make it through each of the fences that the farmer built. The story did get a little long for the toddlers, but I just paraphrased some of the longer pages and we were good to go. The older kids got a kick out of discovering the bunnies in the basket.
Since we read the story about these pesky bunnies stealing all the farmers veggies (although we decided that the farmer had enough to share), we decided it was a good time to hop like bunnies. First we practiced to make sure we all could. Then it was time to get our bunny hop on.
Next I read In My Garden pop up book- it's not a particularly inspired story, but let's be honest, we're just in it for the pop up story.
Time to sing!
WE ARE GARDENERS
Tune: Farmer in the Dell
We all plant the seeds, We all plant the seeds
High ho the Derry-o
We all plant the seeds
(Bend down to plant seeds)
The sun comes out to shine,
The sun comes out to shine
High ho the Derry-o
The sun comes out to shine
(Hold hands up in the air to be the sun)
The rain starts to fall, The rain starts to fall
High ho the Derry-o
The rain starts to fall
(Use fingers to simulate rain falling)
The seeds start to grow, The seeds start to grow
High ho the Derry-o
The seeds start to grow
(Raise hands higher and higher growth)
We all smell the flowers, We all smell the flowers
Heigh ho the derry-o
We all smell the flowers
(Sniff flowers extravagantly)
At this point, the toddlers were pretty much done with reading books. They were pretty squirrley and it was getting close to the 25 minute mark. I decided to do a flannel story (thanks Sarah of Read Rabbit Read!), based on the book, Counting in the Garden.
The nice thing with this flannel is that I would have enough pieces basically no matter the size of the group - I cut out each bug or animal individually - 1 cat + 2 turtles + 3 dogs...+ 10 butterflys = lots of pieces. But the kids love participating in the flannel stories and helping me tell a story, even if its basically a giant mess that makes no sense at all to adults.
With the older kids, I was able to squeeze in one more story with them - I read them part of a non-fiction book - Secrets of the Garden
This was a great book to share, it covers how the plants grow, what insects come to eat the plants, and what birds and animals come to eat the insects. It's the food chain, right in the kids' backyard! This was the perfect introduction to our activity, planting a bean seed!
I picked up peat pots
and potting soil
and the Farming Librarian (my lovely co-worker) brought in green bean seeds.
First things first, we got our Popsicle sticks and markers, and colored those. We had to know what we planted and where it was planted, right? So we colored and colored. When our sticks were ready, now it was planting time. I filled each pot up with soil and instructed each child to make a small hole for the seed. Then I let them each drop their seed in the hole and cover it with dirt. I had them stick their sticks in the side of their containers, with instructions to put their pots on a very sunny windowsill and keep it nice and moist. Then, after it starts to grow and it gets nice outside - maybe towards the end of May, then can plant the entire thing, pot and all, outside. It should grow all summer long and finally they'll be able to pick the beans and eat them!
I had such a great day with the kids - everyone was so happy and joyful. They listened well, participated, and were so excited to take something home.
Numbers for today:
Storytime for 2s and 3s: 21 children, 17 adults
Storytime for 4s, 5s, and 6s: 9 children, 9 adults
You can find the rest of the songs and rhymes that I didn't end up using here on my handout.
No comments:
Post a Comment