Moldy Cheese Day Storytime

Today is National Moldy Cheese Day! FYI - we focused on the cheese, not the moldy, part!

Hello, How are You? by Dr. Jean

Cheese Please - i had a print out with the words and ASL for "cheese," "please," and "love" for the adults. The song goes like this:
Cheese, cheese, cheese, we love cheese
Please, please, please, give us cheese.
We love white cheese, yes we do.
Orange cheese tastes wonderful, too.
Yellow cheese for me and you
Oh, we love cheese.

We went through the signs then did the song twice.

Thanks, Mom! by Ed Emberly

Activity: Farmer in the Dell
I made character necklaces - one for each child and adult - and when we reached their character, they stood up and got to dance around.








Chorale Reading: I Went Walking

Taste Testing Chart
We tasted three different cheeses: sharp cheddar cheese, string cheese, and mozzarella cheese. While they ate their cheeses, I read "The Stinky Cheese Man." After they were done eating, they came up and marked a line under their favorite cheese. Then we counted out how many people liked each cheese, which had more likes, and which had the least.

Poem: "My Mouse is Rather Fond of Cheese" in My Hippo Has the Hiccups by Kenn Nesbitt

Goodbye Songs

After Storytime, I brought out some playdough mats and fun foam for the kids and adults to play with. BIG HIT!


Next week: PIZZA!! (Sorry, no taste testing!)

I Dig Up, Down, All Around

We had a smaller crowd yesterday, probably due to the amazing weather and the fact that I had been out ill for a few days. But we still had fun and even had some new faces!

Hello, How are You? Welcome Song

Scarlette Beane by Karen Wallace

Then we played a few parachute games as we listened to Tom Pease's song Turn the World Around.

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Song Corn, Beans, & Squash on the CD Pickin & Grinnin by Music for Little People. I passed out photos of corn, beans, and squash and we danced around.

Subway by Anastasia Suen

We ran out of time for Find Rain Forest Animals: Up, Down, Around by Janice Behrens. (Sorry, Ms Behrens.)

We finished up with the poem Skies and Seas by Amy LV and it can be found here. I split it up into a two person poem and called for an adult volunteer to help me read it aloud. The highlighted and underlined sections denote who read which section, with some parts being read by both people.

Skies and Seas

A boat and an airplane fell in love
From afar and away and afar
but the boat couldn't fly
and the plane couldn't swim so
They stayed where they were they are.

The plane looked down
And the boat looked up
Writing love letters on the blue
In wisps of white and watery waves.
I love you. I love you. I love you.

Minutes months and decades passed.
They grew old in love and apart.
The plane swam skies.
The boat flew seas.
Each with a broken heart.

Next Wednesday is our final Storytime until our Storytime with Teachers on August 21 and 28. Join us July 31 for I Dig for Treasure as we read about pirates, treasure, and more! Each child will be able to participate in a scavenger hunt and go home with a special surprise as a thank you for an amazing session of Storytime. We had records numbers at storytime all summer and we hope to see you during the school year as much as possible!

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.

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 :)