B is for...

Welcome Song

Henrietta's Basket:  Blue balloon

Song:  Be my echo  (bumblebee and button, bubble and bicycle)

Flannel Board:  Color Butterflies
Say the rhyme and color the butterflies


The first to come to the garden bed
Is a lovely butterfly of brilliant RED
Then in comes another and that makes two
Fly right in my friend of BLUE
“The garden is fine, the best I’ve seen”
Says the butterfly of softest GREEN
Our garden needs a sunny fellow
Fly in butterfly with wings of YELLOW
Little friend of PURPLE, fly in too
The garden is waiting for a color like you
ORANGE, orange you’ve waited so long
Fly right in where you belong
Butterflies, butterflies, you’re such a sight
Flying together – what a delight!


Book:  Billy's Bucket (Gray)

Song:  Beanbag song
(tune:  If you're happy and you know it)

Put your beanbag on your hair, on your hair
Put your beanbag on your hair, on your hair
Put your beanbag on your hair and leave it right up there
Put your beanbag on your hair, on your hair.

Ground--step and step around
Toe--lift it high and low
Hand--toss it up and watch it land

Nursery Rhyme:  Little Boy Blue

Book:  The Little School Bus (Roth)

ABC Chant

Animal Good-byes

Enrichment Activities:  dot-to-dot, bug counters, blocks, balloon file folder game, and I blew some bubbles on Thursday.

A is for...

Welcome Song

Henrietta’s Basket: Ant puppet

More words that start with the letter a /a/

Sign Language: Letter A

Song: Be my echo (6 syllables x 2)   Antarctica and applesauce, alphabet and ambulance

Flannel Board: 5 little astronauts

5 little astronauts floating in space,
Looking at the stars with a smile on their face.
Then along came a spaceship to beam one out
And the 4 little astronauts gave a little shout!

Continue counting down...4-3 3-2 2-1

Book: Hey, Little Ant

Song: 5 little monkeys swinging in a tree

Nursery Rhyme: 1, 2 buckle my shoe

Book: The Apple Pie Tree

ABC Chant

Good bye Chant

Enrichment: Baby Animal matching, Alphabet suitcase, Alphabet file folder game, apple sizes (cut activity) count and sort, fingerprint ants (on large “A”—half sheet), dot-to-dot

On Thursday instead of  cutting apples and the fingerprint ants we glued Alpha-bit cereal onto construction paper.

Storytimes Begin Again!

First some exciting news!!!  After TWO years of begging and pleading we finally got two preschool tables and 12 preschool chairs!!  It is so great to have "age appropriate" furniture for the children and they love to sit at the tables to do their activities. (Thank you Mr. Mier for "finding" the money for this!!)

Over the last few years I have been working on adding additional early literacy skills to preschool storytime.  This year I added additional print awareness exercise.  Each nursery rhyme now has sentence strips, so when we repeat the nursery rhyme together I point to the words.  I found this idea (and many of the sentence strips) from these books.

I wrote a letter to the parents/caregivers explaining why I do some of the things I do during storytime.  Most importantly I wanted them to know that I was not trying to teach their child to read using the sentence strips--it was just a way I could better incorporate print awareness.

Parent Letter

This fall I am also doing an afternoon storytime for children ages 4-7 (preschoolers and homeschooler).  We'll see how that goes.  If it is mostly just preschoolers who come I may not prepare a different storytime, but just use the alphabet one.

B is for Bus

A Kindercare Storytime

B is for Bus

Book:  Molly rides the bus (Brillhart)

Finger play: The Bus

One lonely bus driver all alone and blue
He picked up a passenger and then there were two.
Two people riding, they stopped by a tree
They picked up a passenger, and then there were three.
Three people riding, they stopped by a store
They picked up a passenger, and then there were four.
Four people riding, happy and alive,
They picked up a passenger, and then there were five.

Five people riding open swung the door
Four passengers got off the bus,
The driver's alone once more.

Book:  The Little School Bus (Roth)

Song:  The Wheels on the Bus

Book:  The Bus for Us (Bloom)

M is for Magic

A Kindercare Storytime

Flannel Board:  Carl the Clown
My name boys and girls is Carl the Clown
I wear my hats all over town.
Each one has its own color name,
Which you can learn if you play my game.
Oh, here's a hat, and it is red (Santa hat)
it fits so nicely on my head.
Now when I wear my hat of yellow, (hard hat)
I'm told I'm quite a dandy fellow.
I hope you like my hat of blue (ball cap)
I'll put it on just for you.
I wear my white hat on a sunny day. (sombrero)
It looks quite nice my friends all say.
i put on my green hat to visit the park, (leprechaun)
But I take it off when it gets dark.
My purple hat is just as good, (clown)
I'd wear it always if I could.
My life would be oh so tragic
If I didn't have my black hat for magic!

The Magic Hat by Mem Fox

The Magic Rabbit by Annette LeBlane Cate

Have you ever seen a bunny
(tune: Have you ever seen a Lassie)
Have you ever seen a bunny, a bunny, a bunny
Have you ever seen a bunny that hops so slow?
He hops, and hops and hops and hops
Have you ever seen a bunny that hops so slow?

Additional verses:
Fast, Backward, On one foot

Milo's Hat Trick by Jon Agee

A is for Apples

A Kindercare storytime

Book: Tucker’s Apple-dandy Day (Winget)

Finger play:
Way up high in the apple tree,
Four little apples hung over me
I shook the tree as hard as I could
Down came an apple and mmmmmmm!
It was good!

Continue down to 1
Book: Ouch! (Scamell)

Song:  Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Book: Apple Farmer Annie (Wellington)

P is for Pirate

A Kindercare storytime

Book: Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC (Sobel)

Ten Little Pirates

Ten little pirates stood in a row hold up all ten fingers
They bowed to their captain so lower and raise fingers
They marched to the left march hands to left (or opposite since kids will mirror you)
They marched to the right see above
They shouted yoo hoo! cup hands over mouth
And gave their captain a fright act scared, cover mouth with hands

Book: Bubble Bath Pirates (Krosoczka)

The Day I went to Sea

When I was one (hold up one finger)
I sucked my thumb (mock sucking thumb)
The day I went to sea.
I jumped aboard a pirate ship (jump)
And the captain said to me. (point to self)
We're going this way (lean and sway while pointing right)
And that way (lean and sway while pointing left)
And forward (rock/walk forward)
And backward (rock/walk backward)
Across the deep blue sea. (spin in circle)

other verses
When I was two, I tied my shoe...
When I was three, I scraped my knee...
When I was four, I shut the door...
When I was five, I danced a jive... (or learned to dive)...

Book: Don’t Mention Pirates (McConnell)

Animals of Australia

Welcome Song

Wesley and Henrietta

Henrietta’s basket

Flannel Board: Five Baby Emus

5 baby emus, wishing they could soar

1 went to try and that left 4

4 baby emus hungry as can be

1 went to eat and that left 3

3 baby emus go off to the zoo

1 ran away and that left 2

2 baby emus were looking for some fun

1 found a playmate and that left 1

1 baby emu playing in the sun

Than all were gone and that left none!

Book: Help: Waking Up Down Under (Votaw)

 

Stand-up song:  Kangaroo Hop

(chant)
Hop, hop, kangaroo hop
Hop, hop, kangaroo hop
Hop, hop, kangaroo hop
Hop, hop, hop until you drop!

Additional verses:
Eat--until you're beat
Jump--fall on your rump
Leap--then fall asleep

Koala, Koala Turn Around

Rhyme time song:

Rhyme: Brown Kangaroo

The brown kangaroo is very funny.

She leaps and runs and hops like a bunny.

And on her stomach is a pocket so wide.

Her baby can jump in and go for a ride!

Book: Wombat Walkabout (Shields) 

 

Animal Good-byes