ART WEEK Storytime

The week of May 15-19 was ART Week throughout our library district!  I was the coordinator for all of the art projects, so it ended up being a pretty big job.  But it was so much fun and the children really seemed to have fun with it...and the parents liked the change of pace too.

Books

White Rabbit's Color Book

by Alan Baker

I subbed on Wednesday and since I had some of the same kids I read...

Mouse Paint

Ellen Stoll Walsh

Elephants Can Paint Too!

by Katya Arnold

Songs/Rhymes

ABC Welcome

What did Henrietta Bring? (paintbrush)

Paint a Picture
Instead of a song we all stood up and "painted a picture"
Put on apron, get out paints, decide on the size of our canvas

Squirt out some blue...
What could we paint that is blue?
I allowed children to name whatever they wanted to paint, and then we "painted" it

Wash out your brush!

Continue with red and yellow

Let's make green.  What colors do we need to mix together to make green?

Continue with orange and purple.

Sign your name!  Show your picture to your grown-up!

With all these colors let's paint one more picture...a rainbow!

Play and Learn

Can You Paint with That?

 I made two identical egg carton paint palette and paint "brushes"--feather, pipe cleaners, straw, cotton ball, foil ball, yarn.  The kids did a pretty good job of putting their "paintbrushes" back into the correct paint color.

Chalk Art

Ice Painting

Blocks, magnets, train set

See this post about how I divided up the preschoolers.

On Wednesday the storytime person wanted to do "New Creatures" instead of painting.

A Tip from Kindergarten--Stations!

Internal Blog Post

Sometimes in storytime I set up an activity that the children swarm.  All of them want to do it first thing and very quickly there isn’t enough room for everyone or enough of the activity to go around.  Then kids get hurt feelings or maybe a little aggressive because they want to be in on it.  Here’s a trick from the Kindergarten classroom that that easily be used in storytime to help all children enjoy the activities you have…just not all at the same time.

This is also a great tool to encourage and develop executive function skills—yes, the dreaded, “waiting your turn”.  Here’s what I did during Art Week that made the flow so much smoother:

I had three tables set up with three art projects as well as an area with toys.  Each of the tables had a different table cloth/paper covering.  I decided how many kids could comfortably be at each art table, then cut out scraps of colored paper to match the color of the table cloths.  I then passed out the colored squares of paper to the children (making sure sibling got the same color) and they were to start at the table with the same color table cloth as their square.

Here’s how that looked:

• Red Table—Can You Paint with That?  There was enough room for 6 kids, so I passed out 6 red colored squares.
• Black Table—Chalk Art  There was enough room for 4 kids, so I passed out 4 black colored squares.
• Green Table—Painting with Ice with enough room for 4 kids, so I passed out 4 green squares.
• I cut up a bunch of yellow squares to pass out last—which was to play with the toys first.

I told the parents/caregivers what I was doing…and why…and threw in the bit about how this would be something kids would be expected to do in Kindergarten.  I was pleasantly surprised that the parents/caregivers really helped the kids follow through with waiting their turn as well as watching when a station had an open spot.  Even the kids who had to play first did a great job waiting to go to an art station.

You can use this “trick” with almost any group of activities you put out—especially if this is one you think the children will swarm. 

Baby Storytime--April and May

I love, love, love Baby Storytime...but I've found that putting the outline on the blog every week is somewhat redundant since the program is almost the same every time.  So instead I will be posting once a month or so...

Read Aloud Book
(1 per storytime)

Ten Tiny Babies

by Karen Katz

The Very Busy Spider

by Eric Carle

Ten Tiny Toes

by Caroline Jayne Church

Elephants Can Paint Too!

by Kaya Arnold

**to go along with our special ART Week**

You and Me, Baby

by Lynn Reiser and Penny Gentieu

Songs/Bounces/Rhymes

*Hello Song
*Good Morning to You
*Little Bear
*There was a Little Duck
Baby Hokey Pokey
Tiny Little Babies
Pat-a-Cake
Itsy Bitsy Spider
I'm a Little Teapot
Three Little Monkeys
Hey Diddle, Diddle
Pease Porridge Hot
Hickory Dickory Dock
*Toast
Tickle the Clouds
Parachute Song (sung to Mary Had a Little Lamb)
One Bright Scarf

*every week

Flannel Board

Three Little Piggies
3 little piggies rolled in the mud
Oh, my goodness! They need a scrub!
The farmer took one piggie out
Oink, oink, oink! that pig did shout!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Using color circles I did as many verses as I thought the babies would enjoy

Brown bear, brown bear
What did you see?
I see a red bird looking at me...

I've added a pink pig and a gray elephant


Shared Reading
We've been using (discarded) Babybug magazines, which have been fun to share!

Play and Learn

We continue to pull out our "regular" baby toys--balls, discovery boxes, ring toys, stacking cups, blocks, sensory bottles, and puzzles.

ART week for the library district was May 15-19.  We made Mess-Free Paintings and Chalk Art!

Zoo Storytime

I have had a lot of fun with this theme.  I was spoiled when I lived in the Omaha area and could visit the Henry Doorly Zoo many times a year.  A lot of kids around here have never been to a zoo, so I told them that we get to visit the zoo in the books!  I did this storytime at preschool and all ages storytimes and two early learning classrooms.

Zoo Day: A My First Experience Book
by Anne Rockwell; illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

After reading the book we went back to the zoo map and followed the family's path talking about all the animals they saw.

Two at the Zoo: A Counting Book

by Danna Smith; illustrated by Valeria Petrone

Graph Question

What animals would you like to see at the zoo?
Elephant, Lion, Giraffe, Monkey

Songs/Rhymes

ABC Welcome

What Did Henrietta Bring?

At the Zoo
(The Wheels on the Bus)

I saw an elephant go stomp, stomp, stomp
Stomp, stomp, stomp
Stomp, stomp, stomp
I saw an elephant go stomp, stomp, stomp
At the zoo!

Monkey--oooh!oooh!
Lion--roar!
Snake--slither
Bird--fly/flap
Giraffe--stretch
Sea Lion--ark!

Play and Learn

Use a variety of animal stamps to create you own zoo

Some had fun drawing themselves vising the zoo!

Sheep Storytime

Kind of have an animal theme going on for storytime! (from May 9)

No Sleep for the Sheep!

by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

Where is the Green Sheep?

by Mem Fox; illustrated by Judy Horacek

Mary had a Little Lamb

We first decided on something that's a certain color (ex. yellow=banana) then we sang the song with the sheep being that color.  The kids had fun thinking of different objects of the different colors!

Where is the Green Sheep Magnet Board Guessing Game

I had a green sheep with different colored bushes it could hide behind.  We did the game 3-4 times so that everyone had a turn to guess a color.

We made the classic sheep craft--gluing cotton balls onto a sheep cutout.