Penguin Storytime

My storytimes have started to skew to younger children.  It is advertised as an "All Ages" storytime (ages 2-5) but for the last several weeks I have gotten more 2 and 3 year-olds and not so many preschoolers.  So I have started to adjust my storytimes to three shorter books instead of two longer books.  So far so good!

Books

If You Were a Penguin

by Wendell and Florence Minor

Up & Down: A Lift-the-flap Book

by Britta Teckentrup

Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere!

by Bob Barner

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel Board

Six Little Penguins
by Nancy J. Smith

Six little penguins off an iceberg did dive
One bumped its head and then there were five.

Five little penguins swam the ocean floor.
One saw a whale and then there were four.

Four little penguins twirled around, wheeee!
One spun off and then there were three.

Three little penguins with nothing to do
One went fishing and then there were two.

Two little penguins having lots of fun
One slid away and then there was one.

One little penguin, when the day was done,
Waddle home to sleep and then there were none.

One Little Penguin
(Tune: Five Little Ducks)

One little penguin in the snow
Waddles fast and waddles slow
Flaps his wings and calls, "Come on!"
"Join me for some winter fun!"

Two little penguins in the snow
Waddle fast and waddle slow
Flaps their wings and calls, "Come on!"
"Join us for some winter fun!"

Continue counting up to five.

Play and Learn

Penguin coloring sheet/Dot-to-dot

Gone Fishing (color sorting) from Criss-Cross Applesauce

Ice Sensory Play

Compare sizes
How tall are you compared to penguins?!

Fishing Activity  (from Lakeshore)

Colored beads (from Lakeshore)

Jim Gill Concert

On Sunday, February 22, children's music artist, Jim Gill held a concert for the library.  We had nearly 300 people attend!

One of the things I liked best about his performance was they he encouraged the adults to participate. It was an exception that they help their children participate by participating themselves.

I also loved the movement and silliness and fun!  Our library requested that we do "The Silly Dance Contest"!

Here's a clip of his last song:

Outreach Storytime--Community Helpers

One of the preschool/daycare centers I went to this month requested a "Community Helpers" storytime.  Here is what I shared (age dependent)

Books

Hardworking Puppies

by Lynn Reiser

Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms 

by Christine Kole MacLean; illustrated by Mike Reed

Guess Who?  

by Margaret Miller

Fire Engine Man

by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

Song

The Wheels on the Bus

And somehow I forgot my "Find the Puppy" guessing activity.  I was NOT happy with myself...

Baby Storytime--Colors!

I was excited to be at storytime today after being ill last week.  Baby Storytime truly is the highlight of my week!  The babies are really starting to respond to my "Little Bear".  Their faces light up and there were squeals of delight today when the bear popped out.

Little Bear in the tree

Sitting oh, so still

Won't you come out?

Yes he will!

He looks to the left

He looks to the right

He looks straight ahead

Then he pops out of sight!

Songs/Bounces

(can be found  this post)

Hello Song

Good Morning to You

Little Bear

Mother, Father, and Uncle John

Pat-a-Cake

Humpty Dumpty

Roly-Poly

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Alabama, Mississippi (with parachute)

Read Aloud 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

by: Bill Martin Jr.; illustrated by Eric Carle

Shared Reading

Books about colors including:

Eating the Rainbow: A Colorful Food Book

Colors (Say & Play)

Play and Learn

In addition to our "regular" toys we played with Color Discovery Boxes from Lakeshore

Kids Club--Can You Believe Your Eyes?

Another interesting change with regards to programming in my new position--executing a program having not planned the program.  This is challenging for me!  Not that the program that had been planned was flawed, I am just used to having to do it all...decide on program, find ideas and think about what I want the program to look like, (change my mind), finalize plans, buy/gather supplies, THEN have the program.  So the 5 or 6 hours of planning and tweaking are lost.  I now open the box, pull out the instructions and supplies, set up the room and do the program with the kids.  I just didn't feel as prepared or excited like I usually am for programs.

Our Kids Club event today was all about our eyes!

I began by reading Whose Eyes are These?  A Look at Animal Eyes--Big, Round and Narrow by Peg Hall; illustrated by Ken Landmark

We also talked about why pirates might have worn an eye patch.  Google answer: Pirates frequently had to move above and below decks, from daylight to near darkness, and...the smart ones "wore a patch over one eye to keep it dark-adapted outside."

We then investigated four stations

Eye Model and Hello, Red Fox by Eric Carle

 

Penny Drop (using both eyes, then one eye)

Blind Spot

Make your own Phenakistoscope

Community Helpers Storytime

Have you ever had one of those storytimes that you are excited about, but then it just kind of "flops"?  Well, today was one of those days.  Storytime wasn't bad by any means, but it was a great program either.  To tell you the truth I really wasn't that excited about the theme until I came up with some fun enrichment activities.  I did this theme because I will be doing an outreach storytime next week and the school requested "Community Helpers"--not my first choose for a theme for storytime.  But since I had to develop it for my outreach I figured I might as well use it for regular storytime as well.

I even found some decent books...I thought of a fun guessing game...and several fun activities.  It just didn't go over all that well.  Anyway, here's what we did today.

Books

Guess Who?

by: Margaret Miller

Clothesline Clues to the Jobs People Do

by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook

illustrated by Andrew Robert Davies

Hardworking Puppies

by Lynn Reiser

Songs/Magnet Board

The Wheels on the Bus
verses we did:
Wheels
Doors (open and shut)
Driver ("Move on back!)
Wipers (swish, swish, swish)
Horn (beep, beep, beep)
Babies ("Waa, waa, waa!")
Mommies (Sh! Sh! Sh!)
Wheels

Guessing Game
To end program we did a guessing game to go along with Hardworking Puppies.  Guess which job the puppy wanted to do today--with the puppy hiding behind one of the community helpers vehicle (fire engine, police car, dump truck, mail truck, ice cream truck, school bus, airplane, and tractor)

Activities

Dramatic Play

• Deliver the Mail

• Bakery (with playdough)

• Construction Worker

Guessing Game

Career Hats cut and paste activity from The Education Center

Jez Alborough Storytime

I was introduced to Jez Alborough at storytime in Idaho when my first daughter was just two years old.  The theme was Teddy Bears and the children's librarian read Where's My Teddy?  My little girl absolutely loved the book and we read it many, many times.  My second daughter loved the book too...I read it so often I had it memorized (and 10 years later I still have it memorized!)  We absolutely feel in love with Bobo the little monkey in Hug.  The facial expression are so powerful in that simple, sweet book!

   

I was excited to find in our collection Watch Out! Big Bro's Coming!  My last library didn't have this book, so I'd nearly forgotten about it.  But the illustrations were unforgettable and I knew I wanted to share that book at storytime!

Books

Watch Out! Big Bro's Coming!

Duck in the Truck

Songs
I decided to go with an opposite theme so we could talk about big and small with the book "Big Bro".

Sing a Song of Opposites
(tune: Mary had a Little Lamb; actions to suit words)

This is big and this is small
This is big
This is small
This is big and this this is small
Sing along with me!

Additional verses:
Tall/Short
Happy/Sad
Yes/No
Fast/Slow

Parachute Opposites
(tune: Farmer in the Dell)
Words by Tammy Henry

The parachute goes up
The parachute goes down
Up! Down! Up! Down!
The parachute goes up...and down!

Additional verses
Fast/Slow
In/Out
Round and round (it's too difficult for young ones to switch directions left/right, but older kids would enjoy it)
Fast/Slow again
End with up and down...and under!

Play and Learn

Heart Sort from PreKinders since it was Valentine's week

Opposite Matching Game

Super Duck Coloring Page

Blocks