Insects Storytime

This was our second to last storytime. Again, we sat in a circle! Exciting stuff!

Song: Hello, How are You? by Dr. Jean

Then we played a guessing game with the same insects I used later for "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Bugs" by Johnette Downing. I asked basic questions about each insect/critter (is the slug an insect??) and then put them on the felt.

Chorale Reading: I Like Bugs by Margaret Wise Brown. The kids are getting used to following directions and the parents used to reading along with me. Over the summer, we'll read the same book multiple times. Then the children will start memorizing the words and it will be great!

Book on CD: Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Weston Woods and Bob Barner

Song: The Bumble Dance on The Bee's Knees CD "We Share the Earth" Because of lower numbers, we were able to use TWO instruments to dance with!

Book with felt pieces: There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Bugs by Johnette Downing - As i read the story, the children took turns placing their insect on the felt. Each child was able to to do two insects.

Book: I Love Bugs! by Philomen Sturges

Song: The Itsy Bitsy Spider. We sang it through the "correct" way, then replaced rain with snow, sleet, and jellybeans. Then we replaced the word sun with pizza. Then we sang it with rain and sun, again.

Poem: Oh, Fly on page 6 in Jane Yolen's 'Bug Off! Creepy, Crawly Poems'

We ran out of time for the song Head, Thorax, Abdomen on Johnette Downing's CD "Boogie Woogie Bugs"

Goodbye Songs:
We waved buggy parts instead of human parts yesterday :)

Next week is our final school year storytime. We will have a party complete with treats, freebies, and an activity! We will resume again in June. Remember, the whole family is welcome to attend storytime. If you have an older child that might tag along, we always have books to read and other stuff set aside.

Jump Around - Storytime May 1, 2013

We sat in a circle today! O joy! O goody! O great job, everyone! Our focus today was anything music and movement.



Hello, How are You? by Dr. Jean

Book: The Maestro Plays by Bill Martin, Jr.

Book & Song: All God's Critters, illustrated by Kadir Nelson along with Peter Paul and Mary's version on their CD "In These Times"






Song: Head & Shoulders Baby 1 2 3
(point to that part of body and clap your hands when you count)
Head and shoulders baby 1 2 3
Head and shoulders baby 1 2 3
Head and shoulders
Head and shoulders
Head and shoulders baby 1 2 3
Shoulders, waist
Waist, knees
Knees, toes
Eyes, ears
Nose, mouth
Round the world (make a circle with your hips)
Shoot the Stars (pretend to shoot stars)
Kick the bucket (kick your legs out)
That's all. (quiet and sit down)

Song: Clap Your Hands by They Might Be Giants on the CD Here Come the ABCs

Copycat Game with beanbags: We put our beanbags on various parts of our body, did different dance movies and actions, and held them quietly.

Chorale Reading: I Went Walking - Each child had their own copy of the book and we read along together. We are going to try doing this more and more :) It's all sorts of exciting. It was great seeing the adults reading along and the kids following directions and holding the books themselves.

(We ran out of time for What a Wonderful World illustrated by Ashley Bryan and Willie Nelson's version on his CD What a Wonderful World)

Then we sang our regular goodbye songs with bell shakers, maracas, and jingle bell shakers.

Next week will be all about insects!

We have TWO storytimes left until June.

Storytime April 17 & April 24

For time's sake, there are no photos of the books today. Sorry :(

April 17: Community Helpers

Hello, How are You? by Dr. Jean

Book: Librarians at Work - This is a long book, so I paraphrased it and ask the children questions about the pictures.

Next we listened to the song 'People in Or Neighborhood' on Kimbo's CD. We borrowed the Community Helpers bin from Amery, which included numerous community helpers puppets.

Book: What Does a Dentist Do? by Heather Miller (Again, did some paraphrasing.)

Song: Dentist (I didn't save the document and threw the printed copy away! oops!)

Book: I Stink! By Kate & Jim McMullan

Book: All Through My Town by Jean Reidy

Action Poem: I'm a Firefighter
I'm a firefighter.
Here's my hose.
I put out fires
As everyone knows.
When I see a fire
I douse it out.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
People shout.

Then we did a guessing game on the feltboard using colored, cutout, and laminated community helper pictures from The Mailbox.

Goodbye Songs.

I left out the community helpers guessing game and the puppets for everyone to play with after storytime.


Pigs!

Song: Hello, How are You?

Book: Pigs on the Farm by Mari C. Schuh

Felt: Dirty Pigs
5 pigs so squeaky clean.
Cleanest pigs you've ever seen,
Wanted to go outside and play IN THE MUD!
1 jumped into the mud,
Landed with a great big THUD.
Now there are 4 pigs squeaky clean.
4...3...2...1...










Book: Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems

Song: Four Jolly Pink Pigs on CD Animal Songs by Susie Tallman - we listened to the action words and used shakers.

Book: Boo! by Colin McNaughton We shouted "BOO!" together.

Book: I read part of Mercy Watson: Something Wonky this Way Comes by Kate DiCamillo

Then we watched Robert Munsch's Pigs on Tumblebooks.

We ran out of time for Peaceful Piggy Yoga by Kerry Lee MacLean

Goodbye Songs

Next week: Jump Around! We'll use lots of instruments and play quite a few action games!

Homeschool Club April 18 - National Poem in Your Pocket Day

We were poets today! We watched a  few animated poems on YouTube and then read aloud some Shel Silverstein and others. We talked about poems and then made some group poems using inspiration from  Prelutsky's Rhymes to Read, Rhymes to Write.

Then we took turns writing poems about our pants and stuff on our faces! There were some major giggles!

Then we wrote individual poems:

Color Poems

Picture Poems

Picture Poems

Drawing and writing while listening to music

Getting a little help from Mom :)

We meet next on May 23 at 1:30pm! Pre-registration is requested but not required :)

2nd Annual Puppet Show

What a hit! Thanks to all who helped make this year's puppet show a hit: our puppeteers Erin, Emily, and Aidan; the Library staff and volunteers; the community for helping spread the word and attending; the kids for being excited and participating during the show; parents and grandparents for getting their families to the Village Hall; and the many libraries who let us borrow their puppets for a few weeks.

The show consisted of a few puppet-only skits, audience participation songs, familiar songs done differently, dancing, instruments, and coloring personal dinosaur puppets to take home. Each child also went home with a felt puppet to decorate. 

Enjoy the photos and be sure to come next year!

Puppeteer Aidan relaxing before the show

Watching the puppets

Parley Garfield going around the crick

Puppeteers Emily and Erin showing off puppets

Coloring dinosaur stick puppets

LEGO Design Contest voting after the show

Indoor Yard Sale Success

Many thanks to all volunteers, staff, donors, bakers,

and buyers at our first Indoor Yard Sale! We still have a few items left. The aloe plants, see below, are available in the Library. An E-Bay account will be made for the Simpsons and Precious Moments figurine collectibles. The rest will be donated to the Free Market held on April 27 in the Village Hall.

Thanks to your efforts, the Fall Creek Public Library raised close to $320.00 on Saturday!

Frog & Toad

(No, we didn't read any Frog & Toad books... oops!)

Hello, How Are You? by Dr. Jean

The Mud Fairy by Amy Young

Then we learned what "mimic" means. We listened to 6 different recordings of frogs and toads then mimicked their sounds. The animals we listened to are: bull frog, Fowler's Toad, American Toad, Eastern Spadefoot, Oak Toad, and Eastern Narrowmouth. I used the CD and book from Lang Elliot called The Calls of Frogs and Toads.

Then we watched two short videos of the Spring Peeper and the Mink Frog on R. Korb's DVD Calls of Wisconsin Frogs.

Then we danced and hopped around with wand ribbons to John Ondrasik's song The Hoppity Song.

Then we read The Croaky Pokey by Ethan Long.

Goodbye Songs:

It is Time to Say Goodbye to Our Friends
and

Wave your froggy tongues goodbye.
Wave your froggy feet goodbye.
Hop your froggy feet goodbye.
Wave your tadpole tails goodbye.
Wave your hands and say "goodbye."

NEXT WEEK: Community Helpers!!