Saturday Morning Stories – Silliness

9:30 am: I realize I have storytime today and did not prepare anything! I have 20 min max before needing to be on the desk. Away to the props room!

 

This is what I chose for today:

• Wheels on the bus (always)
• What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas
• I am a pizza (ala Charlotte Diamond) with felt pieces
• Five Cheeky Monkeys with puppets
• Monkey and Me  by Emily Gravett
• Shake your sillies out (Raffi)
• Bubblegum song
• Zoom, Zoom, Zoom
• Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
• Little Mouse, Little Mouse
• Roly Poly

 

What a wonderful storytime! Yet more proof that you don’t really need a theme, you just need good materials, a range of songs to suit your audience, and enthusiasm.  I couldn’t remember all the words in the right order to I am a pizza so I brought my cheat sheet with me, and fooled everybody. I also blanked when I started Five Cheeky Monkeys because I had pizza rolling around my head, the parents though that was hilarious.

I made a chant and guessing game out of Monkey and Me which worked perfectly. They were a busy bunch so we had much, much fun with our active songs. They were much more willing to shake some sillies than usual today, maybe due to an excess of silly.

Finally, I really stumped them on the first round of Little Mouse, we got down to the very last house! The next two were guessed on the first or second try.

Fun times!

Little Chameleon’s Colour Game

Another children’s librarian told me about this little game when we were trading ideas for a colour storytime. The original version is done with felt, but she told me that she does hers with a cut out folder and coloured paper, so I tracked down the original online and then adapted it for paper.

The original is from Fun with Friends at Storytime by Kathryn. She even wrote the rhymes herself.

Instead of making felts, I picked out a chameleon picture and traced it onto a manila folder, then cut it out leaving a chameleon shaped hole in the center of one side of the folder. Then I glued a clear page protector on the back and a googly eye to the plastic. The I just filled the folder with sheets of appropriately coloured paper in order of the rhyme (which I taped tot he back of the folder).

Easy-peasy. The kids were very good at guessing the colour and they really enjoyed themselves. I will do this again. My colleague said something about Zebra stripes.

 

Chameleon I traced

 

 

 

Easter and Bunnies Toddle Time

Toddler time just before Easter without a whole lot of notice. It didn’t have to be ester themed but it would be nice, but I had so few seasonal materials left, especially ones good for toddlers! So I expanded it to Bunnies.

• Opening:
  • Up, Down, Turn around
  • Wheels on the bus
  • Here is a bunny, with ears so funny (glove bunny puppet)
• Max Counts His Chickens by Rosemary Wells
• Song: There’s Something in my garden (with finger puppets)
• Song: Old MacDonald (with same finger puppets)
• Song: Sleeping Bunnies
• Song: Mmm-mm Went the Little Green Frog
• Rhyme: Little Rabbit
• Song/ Book: If You’re Hoppy and You Know it by April Pulley Sayre
• Rhyme: Little Bunny
• Song: Rain is falling down
• Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes
• Game: Find the Bunny in the Egg
• Closing:
  • Roly Poly
• Back-up: Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Little Rabbit, Little Rabbit, What egg are you in? Little Rabbit, Little Rabbit, is it the ‘blue’ one you’re hiding in?