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!

Flannel Friday - There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Trout

Long before I became a children's librarian, I would go into my children's preschool or kindergarten class and read every alternate version of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  I hung onto many versions of the book.  Now I can say I have flannelized at least a half dozen versions.  This is definitely my favorite one!

This book, by Teri Sloat, is my favorite for many reasons.  I love the artwork, the alternate lyrics stay true to the pattern and form of the original song, and nobody dies!  All of the things she swallows are ocean related, so this can be used for several story time themes.

Here's the whole set.  Placed carefully, all of the creatures fit onto the Old Lady's dress.  The felt design is right out of the book.  I have a tough time with people in felt, but I got close.

You can use this set with or without the Old Lady.  Another option is to use it with the book, but place the sea creatures on the board in order, so as the song progresses, there is a visual as to what creature is next.  This is great for repetition and retelling!

This was one of the (if not THE) first sets I ever made.  I almost forgot I had it!  Now that it is rediscovered, I can't wait to do an ocean or fish theme again soon!

Thank you to Brooke at Reading With Red for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  If you'd like to learn more about Flannel Friday, click here!  Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Story Time - Ducks!

So sorry for the long hiatus from Baby Story Time! I've been feeling a little bit "blah" about my story times lately - do you ever get that way?  I must have had the winter blues, but I'm trying my best to snap out of it!  In fact, a few weeks ago I tried a spring-y theme to cheer us all up - Ducks!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Roly-Poly" (from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, up, up, up
     (roll arms, arms reach up)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, down, down, down
     (roll arms, arms reach down)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, out, out, out
     (roll arms, arms reach out)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, in, in, in!
     (roll arms, bring arms together)

1st BOOK: Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters

This was a new one for me, and I really liked reading it! We were thinking Spring, for sure!

GUESSING GAME: "Where's Duck?"

Check out my Flannel Friday post about this simple little activity. It went really well!

COUNTING SONG: "Mama Duck" (from Peter Allard's cd "Sing It!, Say It!, Stamp It!, Sway It! Vol. 3)
This song is so much fun to do with babies.  Give your baby a bounce on every "Quack!" I always just sing this song so that I can control the speed and give directions between each verse.

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck and 1 little duckling - Quack! (one bounce)

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck and 2 little ducklings - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)

Keep going up to five bounces - be ready for lots of giggles!

2nd BOOK: Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates

Sing this one!

ACTION SONG: "Old MacDonald" (traditional)

I busted out our big-mouth puppets for this fun song! You can get them here.





We don't always use the same animals every time we sing this song.  This week we did cow, dog, pig, and ended with our duck.

RHYTHM TIME: SHAKERS!

"Six Little Ducks" (from Bob McGrath's cd "Sing Along with Bob #1)

We shook our shakers to this lively duck song with lots of quacking!

"Shake Your Shaker" (To the tune of "Old MacDonald")

1) Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

   With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,
   Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
   Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

2) Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

    With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,

    Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
    Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

3rd BOOK: Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

We didn't get to this book with my "Wonderful Ones" group - they were just too wiggly that day! The little babies enjoyed it though!

CLOSING SONG: "If You're Happy and You Know It" *

GOODBYE SONG: "Babies, Bye-Bye" *

CLOSING RHYME: "Thank You" *



*Check out my Baby Story Time page for the words to all of my weekly songs and rhymes.

We had a great time quacking our way towards Spring with ducks this week! And our actual Spring-themed story time is coming soon!

Want to see how Miss Kristie used Duckie's Rainbow with Toddlers? Click here.

Library Village ladies meet their mentors at the PLA

Last week I had the chance to go to the PLA (Public Library Association) Conference held in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Miss Kristen and Miss Kristie also were able to attend on the Friday of the event, so it was really spectacular for the Library Village to be all together sharing this experience.  Besides the great exhibits, great speakers (I am still talking about Amy Cuddy), great author signings and luncheons (John Green!  Whoot!), and programs, there were wonderful opportunities to meet some of the professionals in the field who have really inspired us.

Miss Kristie, Miss Sue, Miss Kristen

I have been a children's librarian for two years this week (Yay, happy anniversary to me!).  My boss at the time gave me the link to Melissa Depper's Blog Mel's Desk and said, "Read THIS."  I did, and got some great ideas on how to create my own story times in my own way.  Then I discovered Katie Salo at Storytime Katie.   You have to know these blogs.  I mean, a google search on ANYthing story time, and their blogs come up.  I followed these two blogs for a year and a half and wondered, "could I blog too?  But who would read it?"

Other blogs we read are listed on our blog roll, and several I am sure I have missed.  We follow them all, see what works, take away what we think would work in our story times, and share our secrets.  This is what the online community is about.  We are all there for each other, cheering each other on.  I decided, whoa, maybe we can do this.

During the last week of July last year, I blogged for the first time.  I decided to model my blog similarly to Lisa Mulvenna's blog Libraryland.  I really liked what she was doing on her blog so I took a deep breath, and copied her layout at the time!  (Thanks Lisa!)  The three of us continued to follow other bloggers, Flannel Friday (if you do not follow Flannel Friday, stop reading this blog and go learn more!), and Story Time Underground (Love those librarians!).  We also took to Facebook to follow these groups and we contribute when we can. 

Guess what?  People started reading!  Our minds are blown over how many people pop over from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or even from other blogs we are mentioned in!  We thank you for that.  We love what we do and we love sharing what we do.  It's what it's all about, really.  We all support each other.  Shout out to Marge Loch-Wouters for being a huge advocate for children's librarians and their blogs, the Dana and Lindsay at Jbrary for inspiring others to bring music and finger plays back into story time (and for their support),  and to Storytime Underground for their advocacy and support!. 

So at the PLA, I got to meet some of the superstars.  We had a story time underground lunch meeting where I got to sit down with Amy Koester (Show Me Librarian), Lisa Mulvenna (Libraryland), Brooke Rasche (Reading With Red), and a bunch of other ninjas.  We talked about blogging and encouraged others to give it a try.  We also shared ideas for story time.  I went to meet my mentors, and found myself mentoring others.  What an amazing feeling.

I also got to meet Katie Salo (Storytime Katie) and Angie Manfredi (Fat Girl Reading) since I attended one of their presentations.  I made sure to say hello, thank Katie for inspiring our blog, and Angie for inspiring me to get more involved in Twitter.

I also attended Guerrilla Story Time!  What a blast!  The recap written by Amy Koester is HERE. Amy is another superstar I got to meet and thank for her inspiration.  I have been talking about this for days and hope to get a Guerrilla Story Time going here at our library.

All of us have an online presence.  The library world is small and not often understood by those who aren't in the field, so we all need to be there for each other.  We all do good things.  We are advocates for children, teens, and libraries.  Read each others blogs. Follow each other in social media. Meet each other at conferences.  To the librarians who write blogs, I thank you. You have all inspired me to be the best I can be. You are all doing amazing things.  You are all superstars!

Flannel Friday - The Three Little Pigs

I recently had to recreate some of my old flannel board sets.  This was one of the first sets I had ever made, so while I was getting a do-over, I thought I would make a few little changes.  Every story teller needs a Three Little Pigs set in their repertoire, if not a couple of them.  It's one of those stories you can tell ANY WAY YOU WANT as well!  Love that!  I think I found a coloring page I used as a template, but I do not remember whom to credit.

These are the characters - you'll notice that my wolf is not scary.  This is on purpose.  I try to make the story a little more comical and a little less frightening, because I have some sensitive little boys who often really get worked up in my story times.  I also have a son that was afraid of everything when he was little, so I really keep an eye on my voices and gestures now.

The first little pig built his house of straw at Number 1 Pigadilly Square.

The second little pig build his house of wood at Number 2 Pigadilly Square.

And the third pig built her house of bricks at Number 3 Pigadilly Square. Any pig works for any house, this is just the way I photographed mine (Girl Power!).

You will notice that all of my houses have enough windows for the pigs.  Pig one runs to his brother's wooden house when the wolf finds them there - and the brothers then run over to their sister's brick house and look out the windows to watch the wolf make a silly, windy spectacle of himself.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Katie Fitzgerald at Story Time Secrets  for hosting this week.  If you would like to learn more about Flannel Friday, Click HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!

Toddler Story Time - Let's Make a Rainbow!

I always love a good color themed story time!  There are many awesome books available to read and loads of rhymes and fingerplays!  But this time, I wanted to make it just a smidge more special, especially with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner.  And I couldn't think of any better way to do this than making a rainbow!  Who doesn't love rainbows?!

The rainbow fun began with the action rhyme, Colors.  Thanks King County Library System!  This was a great warm up rhyme and it has the cutest ending.  It received lots of giggles.

Colors
Blue is the lake,  (point to the floor)
Yellow is the sun  (point to the sky)
Silver are the stars,
When the day is done  (wiggle fingers in the air)
Red is the apple,  (make circle with hands)
Green is the tree  (raise arms over head like branches)
Brown is a chocolate chip cookie  (rub tummy)
for you and me!

Our first book was Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd.  This book is a great color book and counting book.  We counted the dots on each page giving us lots of practice!  Next time I use this story, I may do a flannel version of it.  How fun!

After our ABC's and some finger wiggling, we were ready for our second book.  I love Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry!  I have used it several times before.  It has simple text, bright colored pages, and it is shaped like a rainbow!  So cute!  The little ones always get excited when they realize the book is becoming a rainbow.

Flannel Time!  This week we made a delicious Rainbow Stew.  Thank you to Storytime ABCs for the wonderful idea.  I brought in a bowl and spoon and we stirred the stew into a beautiful rainbow!  The little ones loved it!  (I did have a couple who were VERY curious about what was in my bowl..  Shhh..  It's magic!)  You can check out the the flannel story in its entirety here!

After our bellies were full of rainbow stew, I passed out rainbow scarves!  These are wonderful and I really should use them more often because we always have a great time.  I had several activities planned to use with them, so we jumped right in!

Let's All Twirl (Sung to the tune of "The Mulberry Bush")
Let's all twirl with our scarves today,
Scarves today, scarves today,
Let's all wirl our craves today,
All around the room.

Let's Make a Rainbow!
Let's wave our scarves high!
Let's wave our scarves low!
Let's wave our scarves fast!
Let's wave our scarves slow!
Now let's crumple up our scarves.
One, Two, Three!  (Throw scarves into the air and watch the rainbow of colors fall to the ground.)

Rainbow Song (Sung to the tune of "Hush, Little Baby")
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow Orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.
Come and count
The colors with me
How many colors
Can you see?  (Count the colors!)
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow Orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.
(This rhyme can be found here.  I changed it a little bit.  The first two I found in a story time resource book that I can't remember but I will add the credit as soon as I find it!)

The third book I read was Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.  I had never read this book before.  I must live under a rock!  I love it!  The different sheep are so funny and cute!  The little ones and their grown ups joined in to ask Where is the Green Sheep?.  Thank goodness we found him at the end!

Did you think I was done?  Not yet!

Because we don't have a story time for St. Patrick's Day, I included a bonus St. Patrick's Day book and rhyme!  We read the little board book, St. Patrick's Day Countdown by Salina Yoon.  This little book has sparkly shamrocks!  A cute way to celebrate the holiday!  And we finished with the rhyme I'm a Little Leprechaun, sung to the always popular tune, "I'm a Little Teapot".  I found this great little rhyme here.

I'm a Little Leprechaun
I'm a little leprechaun  (hold hands on hips)
Dressed in green,  (point to shirt)
The tiniest man  (hold thumb and index finger about an inch apart)
You've ever seen.  (point to the other people)
If you ever catch me, so it's told  (make a motion like you're grabbing at a leprechaun)
I will give you my pot of gold!  (make motion like you're giving something away)

As a special treat, we made paper rainbows instead of playing toys.  They were super simple to make!  I precut half circles that got a little smaller with each color of the rainbow.  With a grown ups help, the little ones stacked the colors from biggest to smallest and it made a rainbow!  I also had cotton ball clouds to glue on.  A punched hole along the top and a bit of yarn..  Ta da!  A beautiful rainbow!  

I hope this colorful story time encourages some warmer weather!

I am headed off to the PLA tomorrow..  Maybe I will meet some of you there!  Thanks for stopping by!

Preschool Story Time - Letter of the Month is B

In our continuing series, this month we move on to the letter B!

We start with our mail bag with our 5 envelopes.  This month they held a banana, balloon, bat (in underwear), bike, and the letter B.  I love doing this activity and so do the kids.  Everyone wants to know what is in the mail bag.

Then we sang (with me on ukulele) Our Librarian has a Book, (to the tune of Old MacDonald).
Our Librarian has a book, E-I-E-I-O
And in that book there were some Bs, E-I-E-I-O.
With a B(uh) B(uh) here.....you get the idea.

Early literacy tip alert: The letter B sound is a puff of air (like P) and you can't and shouldn't drag it out (like mmmmmmm).  So when teaching the letter sound, don't be a sheep....its not baaaaaa or buuuuuuh. Make it short and sweet!

We prefaced each book with the question, "Now WHY would Miss Sue be reading THIS book today?" They quickly would respond something like "Because BANANA starts with B!" YES!

Darling Book!!  Isabel is tired of not being allowed a balloon because they are dangerous for porcupines.  Can she figure out a way to play with one safely before Graduation Day?

Check out my felt set!  Squee!  This is for a quick limerick by Edward Lear:
There was an old man with a beard
Who said, "This is just as I feared!
Two owls, a hen, four larks, and a wren
Have all made their nest in my beard!"

I start with my Old Man:

And one by one, pull the birds (Beard and Birds start with B!!) out of the little pockets I made in his beard.

I think this one was more for the moms than the kids because the moms were giggling and the kids all thought I was nuts.  But I couldn't resist this little poem for B week, so there it is. 

Sloppy, lazy mouse thinks it is funny to throw his used banana peels all over the jungle, until all of the animals start slipping on them!  Can they convince mouse that it's not cool to leave trash all over the jungle floor?

After halftime, we settled back with a rhyme.  I have an old school felt set for Little Boy Blue, so we looked at that, and recited it together:
Little Boy Blue come blow your horn.
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn.
But where is the little boy who tends to the sheep?
He's under the haystack, fast asleep.

I like using Mother Goose rhymes in story time because they are familiar, rhythmical, and rhyming.  The kids also feel special that they already know some of the materials I am using.  Technically for B week, I could use Baa Baa Black Sheep too - but I chose Little Boy Blue.

Bear would like some honey, but he is afraid of Bee.  Bear's misconceptions about what a Bee is like keeps him from a very fruitful friendship.

I really like the rhymes and visuals in this book.  Written like a chant, these book explores all kinds of bugs!  This busy book would be great to explore further one-on-one.

And my craft:  This was taken from another blogger Miss Maren's Monkeys (includes a template!)
I didn't add bee stripes because I wanted to leave room for the kids to add any decoration to the bee that they wanted.  Some copied me, some made stripes, and some went bananas with a purple crayon.  It's all good!!

Thanks for stopping by!  I already can't wait for the letter C story time.  These letter story times have been so far, very well received!

Flannel Friday - Rainbow Stew

This year, the Library Village will be at the PLA in Indianapolis, Indiana the week I would've planned a St. Patrick's Day story time.  So, instead of forgetting the holiday altogether, I decided to do a rainbow story time with a hint of St. Patrick's Day green!  I was so excited to find Storytime ABC's flannel story Rainbow Stew.  I knew immediately that it would be perfect for my story time.  I can't wait to make some rainbow stew with the little ones..  I know they are going to love it!

Rainbow Stew

Take an apple
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest red you ever did see!

Take an orange
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest orange you ever did see!

Take an banana
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest yellow you ever did see!

Take an pear
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest green you ever did see!

Take some blueberries
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest blue you ever did see!

Take some grapes
Put it in the pot.
Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.
Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest purple you ever did see!

What did  we make with our rainbow stew?  A magical rainbow for me and you!

Thank you to Amy at Catch the Possibilities for hosting Flannel Friday this week!  If you would like to learn more about Flannel Friday, follow the link here!  Hope to meet many of you at the PLA!  

Toddler Story Time - Roar! I'm a Dinosaur!

Roar!  Stomp your feet and show your claws!  It is time for a dinosaur story time!  I can't believe I didn't do a dinosaur story time sooner!  It was so much fun!  There are so many great dinosaur books to choose from.  Because this is toddler story time, I tried to pick books that were not scary and didn't show too much teeth!

Thanks to the always awesome rhymes over at Storytime Katie we started off story time with Dinosaur, Dinosaur.  This variation of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear was perfect because it instructed the little ones to sit down, making them ready for our first book!

Dinosaur, Dinosaur
Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the ground
Dinosaur, dinosaur, reach up high
Dinosaur, dinosaur, wink one eye
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch your nose
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch your toes
Dinosaur, dinosaur, slap your knees
Dinosaur, dinosaur, sit down please

The first book I chose was How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen.  The dinosaurs learned that even when they are a little ornery, their mommies and daddies will always love them.  I think the parents particularly liked this book. 

After a round of hugs around the room, I passed out our super popular jingle bells.  I love the jingle bells!  A roomful of two year olds jingling bells is a wonderful sound! (No.. Really it is!)  In addition to jingling to our ABCs, we sang the super cute song, Little Jingle Mouse from the book 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children by Abigail Flesch Connors. To make it extra special, I used puppets to help us sing along!

Little Jingle Mouse 
I heard a little jingle,  (jingle bells softly)
Right inside my house.
It sounded like the jingle
Of a little jingle mouse.
He jingled to the ceiling,  (jingle bells high over head)
he jingled to the floor,  (jingle bells on the floor)
He jingled till he fell asleep,  (hold jingle bells in arms like a baby)
And he began to snore...
(snooore, snooore, snooore)  (jingle bells very gently with a tiny, squeaky snore)

I head a great big jingle,  (jingle bells loudly)
Right outside my door,
It sounded like the jingle
Of a jingle dinosaur.
He jingled to the ceiling,  (jingle bells high over head)
He jingled to the floor,  (jingle bells on floor)
He jingled till he fell asleep,  (hold jingle bells in arms like a baby)
And he began to snore...
(snooore, snooore, snooore)  (jingle bells with a very loud snore)

With the jingle bells put away, we stomped and flapped to the rhyme, Dinosaur.  Thanks Perry Public Library Storytime for the great rhyme!

Dinosaur
Dinosaurs lived long ago
Some walked  (Stomp feet)
Some swam  (Pretend to swim)
Some flew, you know  (flap arms)
Some were big  (hold hands high)
Some were small  (hold hands low)
Some were gigantic  (stretch arms out wide)
And VERY tall!  (stretch arms up high)

Keeping with my friendly dinosaur theme, Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein was my second book.  Love it!  Dinah is so cute..  This poor little dinosaur just wants to kiss but chomps and whomps instead. Whoops!  The little ones loved it!

Flannel Time!  This week's flannel story was the rhyme, Five Dinosaurs.  Instead of the usual felt dinosaur, I used dinosaurs from a Lakeshore kit.  These stuffed dinosaurs have velcro on their backsides, but were just too heavy for my flannel board.  Luckily, it worked well with the story to prop them up along the floor.  The little ones all gathered around to see.  This was a great counting rhyme because we counted down and them added each dinosaur back at the end!

Five Dinosaurs
Five huge dinosaurs
Sleeping on the cave floor
Wake up and started to roar  (Each time this was said, the little ones would roar!)
"There's no room, no more, no more,
No more room on this floor!"
They tossed and turned and pushed galore,
Till one poor dinosaur was shoved out the door.
Four huge dinosaurs... three... two...
One huge dinosaur
Sleeping all alone, on a cave floor,
Wake up and started to roar,
"I'm lonely, come back, it was better before,
It's more fun, crowded together on the floor."

What dinosaur story time is complete without the Dino-Pokey?  I found this great version (I altered it a bit) at SurLaLune Storytime!

Dino-Pokey
You put your claws in,
You put your claws out,
You put your claws in,
And you scratch 'em all about.
You do the dino pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!
You stomp your feet in...
You swish your tail in...

Last but not least, we read the book Dinosaur Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland.  This book includes many dinosaur themed opposites that are fun to learn.  A great way to finish off this week's story time!

This week I also replaced our weekly Letter Box with a new Letter Bag!  I was excited and a bit nervous to see how the little ones would respond to the change.  The Letter Boxes are awesome!  I had a great time putting little items in them each week.  But, lately it has caused some tears from those who cannot participate in pulling something out of the box.  And the box just isn't big enough to put more than a few little things inside.  So...  my solution was to introduce the Letter Bag!  Each little bean bag is full of small items that begins with a letter of the alphabet.  We looked at the D bag for dinosaurs!  The little ones gathered around as we talked about what was inside the bag.  So much better!  

Hoping for spring soon!  Until next week...  Bye!