Preschool Story Time - Who's the April Fool?

"I have no idea what I am doing."  This is how I started story time this week.  Still recovering from PLA conference and a very big job interview (more on that later), I never got around to making my parent handout.  I had everything I needed, but I was totally winging the 'how' of what I was going to do.  It turned out pretty well though!  So here is my SILLY Story Time just in time for April Fools Day.

 Silly Tilly was so silly!  She did everything, well, differently from everyone else.  Could the other animals convince her to not be so silly?  The kids enjoyed this one very much.

 A true April Fools Day book.  How many of those are out there?  Thank goodness for the punchline at the end because I could see the kids getting tired of sheep playing practical jokes on the other animals.  They just thought sheep was mean.  Moving on....

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.....

I have both of these sets for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  The doll is mine, and the other is in house...good thing too!!!  It was "Take your sibling to story time day!"  That means, school was out today, so I had older kids.  I used them though in story time!  One helper passed out the creatures mentioned while I held the doll.  The other helper held up the other Old Lady.  This meant we had PLENTY of creatures for everyone, which could be fed to the doll or put in the Old Lady belly while I sang the song.  It was sung SO slowly because we had to wait for all of the action to happen, so no one cared that she died.  The older siblings said at the end "And that, of course,  is why you don't swallow a horse!"  Well done.



After HALFTIME, and the Popcorn Song, we were back with another felt story!

Kids love to touch felt.  They also love Mo Willems!  So I put 'calm pigeon' on the board, passed out our "NO" balloons (and talked about the letters and what N-O spells) and I read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  After, I asked the kids if pigeon could drive.  They screamed NO so I changed 'calm pigeon' on the board to 'flipping out' pigeon and let them put their NOs on the board.  Simple, simple, simple - but they love it.  Make sure to have more than enough Nos because little ones might put them in their mouths. Hey, they can keep that one!

 My favorite part of the SILLY DAY!  That was because I had those older sibs.  I had a helper hold the book and turn the pages, so I could accompany everyone on Ukulele.  Now seriously, not only do I have the smallest human hands, but I have no musical training.  The Wheels on the Bus is TWO very simple chords....two of the three chords needed to play all of the songs you would ever need.  So why not?  Give it a try.  As terrible as I am, I got a "YAY" when I pulled out the Uke today! 

 We closed with Silly Suzy Goose because, well, my name is in the title, frankly.  It's a fast read and the kids liked it.  It takes a little extra explaining, but the pictures are great and the text is easy.  Nice way to end the day.


 And my craft today was more of an activity.  One of our patrons gave me some wonderful beads, so today we strung them on yarn.  We used big-eyed plastic needles and taped one end of the yarn to the table so it would stay put.  The kids worked so intently!  This is such a great craft idea that I try to do something like this seasonally.  Some of the kids did patterns, some wanted almost all one color.  No matter.  They worked on their fine motor skills and had a great time.

And oh, if you are still wondering, I accepted a job offer as a Head Librarian in our county system!  Whoot! Don't worry, I plan to blog all of my story times until I go, and I hope to have lots to blog about in the future!
I could never leave the Library Village!

Thanks for stopping by!