My first storytime at my new library post is Bugs! It was a theme
chosen by Ms. Martha who was here before me. Here's the rundown:
I started us off with Hello Friends with signing. I did a brief
demonstration of the signs for hello and friends and then we sang the song
twice.
Hello friends
Hello friends
Hello friends
Its time to say hello
From Jbrary
Next we sang I Wake Up My Hands
I wake up my hands with a clap, clap, clap
a clap, clap, clap, a clap, clap, clap
I wake up my hands with a clap, clap, clap
and I wiggle my waggles away
Verses: Feet - stomp, head - nod, belly-beep, eyes- blink,
hips - shake
Also from Jbrary
(BTW: Jbrary is my superjam.)
Next I demonstrated the sign for butterfly and we fluttered our
butterflies around a bit.
After this I used a butterfly colors flannel.
Ugh. Sorry for the wonky colors. I will need to use a better
camera than my phone in the future.
Man, look at Ol' Green will you? He reminds me of the moth man!
Yikes! +REE REE REE REE+
Ok back to storytime. With this flannel I recited the following
poem:
Pretty Yellow Butterfly
How you love to flutter by
Flying low and flying high
pretty yellow butterfly
From: Childcare seminar
While reciting the poem we all did our butterfly sign and floated
high and low with our hands. I did this with about half of the butterflies I
had. Next I put up the rest of the butterflies and we all said what color each
one was. Once all the butterflies were on the board we counted them and then
said goodbye to them.
I sang:
Flutter flutter butterfly
Floating in the summer sky
Floating by for all to see
Floating by so Merrily
Flutter flutter butterfly
Floating in the summer sky
Which I got from Storytime Katie
Next we read Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horacek
The kids loved the pop-up butterfly at the end of the book and I
got a big response. I acted very shocked and we opened and closed the page
several times. The kids were delighted.
After this story I put a flannel beehive on the board and asked
the kids if they knew what it was. They guessed cake and ice cream. Kids after
my own heart, I tell ya. I explained that it is a bee hive which is a home for
bees.
We did Here is the Beehive twice through:
Here is the beehive (make a ball of two clasped hands)
But where are the bees? (Quizzical face)
Hiding away where nobody sees! (Squinch one eye close and peek
into clasped hands)
Watch and you'll see them come out of the hive
1,2, 3-4-5 (Open fingers one by one to make five bees)
Buzz buzz buzz (Wiggle fingers or tickle while buzzing)
From: Childhood
On the flannel board I did How Many Bees in the Hive
Six
little bumblebees sitting on a hive
One flew away and then there were five
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
Five little bumblebees sitting on the floor
One flew away and then there were four
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
Four little bumblebees sitting in the tree
One flew away and then there were three
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
Three little bumblebees looking at you
One flew away and then there were two
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
Two little bumblebees sitting in the sun
One flew away and then there was one
Bumblebee, bumblebee fly away!
Bumblebee, bumblebee happy all day!
One little bumblebee left all alone
He flew away, safe to his home
Which I
also got from Storytime Katie.
Love Her.
The kids
responded to this rhyme and began chanting it with me right away.
Then we
sang Itsy Bitsy Spider twice through.
The Itsy
Bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout.
Down came
the rain and washed the spider out!
Out came
the sun and dried up all the rain
and the
Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the spout again.
From:
Childhood
I read The Very Busy Spider by Erik Carle. The kids
were excited to name the animals and their sounds.
We
finished up by singing Baby Bumblebee and then standing up and singing Head Shoulders Knees and
Toes standing up. This was a
good segue into craft!
We made
these Caterpillar puppets. I had crayons and some stripey circle stickers to
decorate them with.
How it
went:
I had a
lot of different ages, even though this was Toddler/Preschool. The kids all
participated and we had a great time! I’ll admit to getting a little flustered
in the middle of head shoulders knees and toes. My hair was getting in my face
when I bent down. I also may have rushed craft, as I’ve never had a craft in my
storytime before. I’ll build the confidence in no time, I’m sure.
