Preschool Story Time - Classic Tales & Storytelling Techniques

Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, and Fables are fantastic fodder for story time from preschool through early school age kids.  This is because they have been told, retold, modified and embellished for generations.  Most kids know the big ones - Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and maybe even Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  They have their own ideas of how they 'should' be told and are quite outspoken if you do not tell it the way they are used to.  For me, that makes it fun!  There are so many fractured fairy tales now that one could do an entire lesson on them.  My "In the Bag" story time for school age visitors is on fractured fairy tales and the kids love it.  For this edition, I took classic folk tales and told them using three different techniques for story telling.  This took more planning than most story times, but it was worth the effort!

** Note that for this story time, I had loads of different versions of these books on display for check out.  There are so many different versions, so I suggest you finding your favorites - whether told by using the picture book, in felt, or by heart - because your love of what you are doing is what will shine through.

The Three Little Pigs - Told as a felt story.

One of my first and most favorite sets, I believe this is one that every story teller needs to have in their collection.  Click HERE for more on this felt set.
This was great fun to tell with felt.  Now, a little disclaimer that I had decided that 'no one in Miss Sue's story times dies'....after I had one little heckler telling me that I wasn't telling the story right.  So in the end, my wolf just ran away screaming with the pigs safely giggling at home.  A couple parents appreciated the comical ending, but it was really funny to see how far that little heckler would take her opinions on how the story should go!


Action Rhyme - Everyone stand up for squats!!  OK, I am kidding, but we did do this chant a few times going faster and faster and faster - what a workout!

The Grand Old Duke of York

The Grand old duke of York (march)

Had ten thousand men. (show 10 fingers)

He marched them up the hill (march)

And he marched them down again.

And when they’re up, they’re up. (Stand Up on tiptoe)

And when they’re down, they’re down. (crouch way down)

When they are only half way up,  (crouch) they’re neither up (stand) nor down! (sit)

The Little Red Hen - Told via picture book.

I do love the story of the Little Red Hen!  The thing about these classic tales is, once you start telling them, you can almost hear your own mom or dad and how they read it to you.  It all comes back to you, and it did for me as I read "Not I!!"  After the first round of the animals turning down the Red Hen, the kids had caught on and shouted "Not I!" with me.  So fun!

Nursery Rhymes work well in this kind of story time.  Some people don't like them.  I do for a couple of reasons.  One is they are familiar and repetitive.  Children are learning language through patterns at this age and latch on to nursery rhymes for this reason.  Another reason is that preschoolers are learning unfamiliar words through rhyme.  They are opening up their vocabularies. You are introducing words they may not get in normal conversation and that is a very good thing.   Finally preschoolers are developing their little egos are feel very proud and excited when they recognize a rhyme and can repeat it back.  They think "whoa!  I got this!" and that is a cool thing to see on their faces.

With that in mind, here are some of Library Village's resources for Nursery Rhymes.
Our FELT sets are HERE for the SHEEP Rhymes, and HERE for Kristie's HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE set.  Then you can click HERE for a bunch of blog posts on various uses for Nursery Rhymes.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff - Told orally, using large cutouts

This was where the bulk of my prep-time went.  I created a bulletin board behind me to look just like the illustrations in this book.  I had the fields, the goats, the bridge and the troll in larger-than-life format behind me as I proceeded through story time.  For our finale, I pulled out all of my best story telling techniques and told this story off-book.  This was one of my own kids' favorites, so after reading it so many times to them I had it down.

Another disclaimer - I think I must be really good at troll voices, because I scared the pants off some of the more sensitive kids.  I toned it down and kept the troll hidden for a lot of the story.  I also stopped and whispered to the little fella "I'll tell you a secret - the goats win in the end!"  Lesson learned as I think this one in full voice might be better for the older preschool crowd, or at least to get to know my audience better before pulling out the scarier stories!

Here is what my bulletin board and story time area looked like that day:

You can see my 3 Little Pigs felt set, my Good Morning Weather felts (which later became my Weather Bear), and the bulletin board.  The Troll is hiding in my bin.  On my cart, I had my Big Fat Hen puppet for more nursery rhyme run.

And here is a closeup of the 3 Goats.  The artwork is right out of the book.

Craft - 3 Billy Goats Gruff puppets
If you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of story re-telling. I give out a parent newsletter with our rhymes and books, I have many books on display, and many of the crafts I select are designed so the child can go home and retell the story to their siblings or stuffed animals.  We do a lot of puppets in story time - here is my goat puppet!  Simply a white bag, goat head cut outs, snipped yarn, and markers make this craft.

No matter how you tell stories - through felt sets, via picture book, orally, with puppets, or through song, story times need to come from the heart...YOUR HEART.  I enjoy telling stories through lots of techniques, and I hope my love of story telling shines through to my preschool kids and their families.  I hope you enjoyed this story time.  This was the one my boss attended for my performance review and I am happy to report that she was as pleased with the results as I was.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Flannel Friday Series - Felts3Ways. Fish

I was really excited by the Ohio Library Council's Convention and Expo last October.  The Library Village took part in the Convention by presenting felt board techniques in a poster session.  My piece of the presentation involved showing how to use ONE felt set in each of the three age groups (or 4 in some cases) we serve:  Baby, Toddler, Preschool (and young school age) Story Times.  This technique saves time and money for your department by sharing resources.

The next installment in my series Felts 3 Ways (a-la Iron Chef....oh dear, it might be sushi this time) is on the topic of Fish.  This set will work great for lots of themes such as fish, sharks, ocean, summer, and fractured fairy tales.

First, here is the whole set.  The artwork could not be easier as I traced the pieces right out of the book The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Will Grace, Ken Geist, and Julie Gorton.  The felts were outlined in a light marker but then embellished with puffy paint.

For Baby Story Time, we can play peek-a-boo with the baby fish as the mommy fish looks for her baby.  Using the three houses, one baby and the mama fish, we can play hide and seek.  Where is the baby fish?  Oh I see her!  She is in the sandcastle!

Next up for Toddlers, we have a fun rhyme based on 5 Little Monkeys sitting in a Tree:

5 Little Fish swimming in the sea
Teasing Mr Shark "Can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr Shark....SNAP!
Oh No!  Where is he?

And then for Preschool - of course we would use the whole story of the Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.

And the best part is when the shark tries to break the ship house but all of his teeth fall out and he is stuck eating seaweed salad for dinner!

Thanks to Bridget from What is Bridget Reading for hosting Flannel Friday this week.  What is Flannel Friday you might say?  Well, Check out the Flannel Friday BLOG for more.  Or you can check out Flannel Friday on Facebook, and even on Pinterest!  You can also follow Flannel Friday on Twitter using the Hashtag #Flannelstorytime.

Thanks for stopping by!

Let's go on a StoryWalk®

About a year ago or more I saw some chatter about StoryWalks on Facebook.  I thought - "How cool is THAT?" but could not figure out how to get one at my current location.  Since then, I became a Head Librarian of a different location, one directly on the bike trail, and knew it was time to give it a try.

StoryWalk® is a trademarked program, and belongs to the folks at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Vermont.  This idea is *NOT* Library Village's idea nor do we take any credit or money for our Story Walks.  If you would like to learn about this amazing program's roots, Click HERE.  If you want to see some FAQ's on the program which will help you make your own, Click HERE.  Essentially, if you credit the creator properly, you are free to use the idea in a not-for-profit setting like a library.

Here's what the credit would look like:

The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

OK, essentially a StoryWalk® is a way for families to read together outside, promoting literacy and fitness.  The pages of a book are laminated and mounted on stakes and presented one at a time down a trail or throughout a park. They can be spaced as close or as far apart as needed.  Families can stroll from one page to the next, or you can encourage movement from one to the next like hopping or skipping.

For our first StoryWalk®, I laminated the pages of Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, mounted them on foam core with velcro, and then mounted those on wooden stakes.  We did not make the sets as sturdy as the ones listed on the Kellogg-Hubbard library but this is because our StoryWalk® is designed for use near the library and for only hours, so weather is not a factor.  With a little help from our Friends group, we have now done 3 StoryWalk®s and can easily make more.  I try to use books that are about the same size each time - and reuse the rest of the materials.

The approximate cost breaks down like this for us:

Two books from the used book store - $6

Velcro - $10

Wooden Stakes - 8 foot long cut in two - $15

Foam Core cut in half - $15

The response has been wonderful!  Families have said they love the books we choose, and love the idea.  We keep the library copies of the books on display and families like to take them home.  Our library has been asked to continue the program at all events, and other branches have asked to borrow our  StoryWalk®s for their events as well.

We have done three StoryWalk®s in 2014 in three different ways.  Duck on a Bike was at our Summer Reading Kickoff party with the story pages about 15-20 feet apart down our bike trail.  Next, at the end of the summer, we used The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear at a festival in town.  We placed the pages around the perimeter of the festival.  Finally we did an indoor StoryWalk® at Christmas Time!  We used T'was the Night Before Christmas at an in-house and after hours event. No stakes or boards were necessary for this event.  Besides, our Duck on a Bike set was on loan to another library event at the time.  Once you have the first kit, adding books to your collection is a breeze.

Things we learned from our StoryWalk® program were: know your soil - the soil nearby struggled to hold the stakes, so we modified this by using buckets with the stakes secured inside.  Also, our lamination is standard for indoor use so rain will ruin the pages.  You can see below how one of our arrows had gotten wet over the summer. I'll be making more arrows soon.  Finally, Velcro is great for making the StoryWalk® reusable, but not great on a windy day.  Keep your weather and the direction of your stakes in mind.

For more information on StoryWalk®  please visit the Kellogg-Hubbard Library Page.  I'd be happy to answer any questions as well.  They are only limited by your imagination.

Thanks for stopping by!

Preschool Story Time - Alligators and Crocodiles!

Yet another theme with a heaping helping of books and materials to choose from, Alligators and Crocodiles as a story time theme is just as much fun as a land alternative to the Shark story time.  There's a whole-lotta chomping going on!

My story times are divided in two camps...my Wednesday story times were heavily laden with very busy boys, and my Thursdays were chock full of delightfully attentive girls.  That happened naturally over the course of time but always left me wondering how my story times would go over on the different days.  This one seemed to please both camps!

Here was the plan:

The Fantastic Mr Wani - by Kanako Usui

What a sweet book!  Mr Wani is late for a party.  He runs as fast as he can, but needs a little help from his friends to make it.  Just a fun and silly book that the kids enjoyed.

Song/ Felt - Lady With the Alligator Purse 

I am a contributor to the Flannel Friday blog but never blogged this one.  Quite frankly, it isn't my idea so I didn't feel like I should make a blog post.  I found these images on a site selling felts and thought that I could make a set just like that for myself.  In the interest of crediting the seller, you can find that link HERE. The site hasn't been updated since 2006 so I am not sure they are still selling it.  I just did a search for felt sets and spotted this one and thought it to be the cutest of the bunch!  My set is made with black puffy paint on white felt and shaded with marker.

This was surprising to me that not many of the moms knew it.  I have seen this concern addressed on Facebook - what to do when you start a song or finger play that no one has heard before?  Well, I always supply the words to any song/fingerplay to each of my parents via my newsletter.  I also preface these by asking the parents for help with the song if they know it.  Finally, I just go and have fun - these songs and fingerplays have repetitive tunes and lines which most people can catch onto.  Who knows, you might even get a parent asking where they can find the song on tape to take home! (** Hint: Have copies of The Lady With the Alligator Purse on display and see if you can also find it on CD for the display area as well!)

Alternate Felt - Big Wide Mouth Frog

This is one of my most favorite felt sets and stories out there.  I blogged about it in our early days of our blog (as you can tell by the not-so-great photo). Click HERE to read more about the Big Wide Mouth Frog felt set.  This one was a big hit with the kids.

Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley

This was a book that left the kids full of anticipation.  Whatever will happen next?  The kids couldn't take their eyes off this one.

Finger Play - 5 Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree 

This is a classic which everyone knows.  The best part is, most of the children will play right along with you!

5 little monkeys sitting in a tree - teasing Mr. Crocodile "Can't catch me!"
Along comes Mr. Crocodile - SNAP!!  Oh NO Where is he??
4 little monkeys.....
(and so on)

For the movements, I use my fingers as tails which hang from my opposite arm (as tree branch).  When I make the crocodile, I use my hand to make a puppet-like mouth...moving through the grass until SNAP!

Alternate activity/story - AlphaGator!

This is another one of my early story time ideas, although I just blogged about him recently.  Click HERE to learn more about AlphaGator.

Snip, Snap - What was THAT? By Mara Bergman 

Oh boy - the suspense was killing us all!  What WAS that??  I had to tone down how I read this one to my shier group because I could see them becoming nervous.  Overall, a good pick for the story time, however!

Craft - A is for Alligator

I used this one in my Letter A story time, but that is OK.  It was new to all of the kids in my story time that day so no harm, no foul.  It is simply three strips of green paper, and some teeth and an eye.

And there you have it!  So many options!  Alligators are fascinating creatures so you can even throw some fun facts or a good non-fiction book into your story times.  Like the shark story times, you might want to be careful about how you use your actions and voices because some little ones may be frightened, but overall I suspect your story timers will simply love an alligator story time at your library or school.

Thanks for stopping by!




 

Flannel Friday - AlphaGator

I have seen this done many different ways.  I forgot I even had it, actually! This little story is called AlphaGator and I am not sure of where the original comes from.

Alpha-Gator
There once was an Alpha-Gator, who absolutely adored the alphabet.  He ate the alphabet and had sweet alphabet dreams all night long.
On Monday, he ate the letters A,B,C,D,E, and F.  Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep, but the pointy part of A kept poking him in the tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Tuesday, he ate the letters G,H,I,J, and K.  Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the letters H and I made a word and it kept saying "HI-HI-HI-HI" and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Wednesday, he ate the letters L,M,N,O, and P.  Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the O kept rolling around and around in his tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Thursday, he ate the letters Q,R,S,T,U, and V.  Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep but the S kept saying SSSSSSSSS and playing 'snake' in his tummy and he couldn't sleep a wink all night long!
On Friday, he ate the letters W,X,Y, and Z. Then he closed his eyes to get some sleep.  He dreamed of sweet ZZZZZZZZZZZs all night long!
See ya later, Alpha-Gator!

My gator gives off a glare because of the quality of the paper I used.  He is created from 12x12 scrapbook card stock - with an extension to his tail.  His belly, however is actually made of felt!  This is so the letters can be placed in his belly while you are reading the rhyme.
The letters shown here are foam letters, but I think next time I use this rhyme, it might be worth my time to trace these and cut them out in felt because the sticker backing to these letters made re-use difficult...that is why only some of the letters are shown here.

Now where did I use this?  I had it as part of several story times.  My Letter of the Month story time for A used this, as well as my Alligator story time and my Back to School story time.  I am sure I can find more uses for him too.  You don't always need to stay perfectly on theme.  If you have a hole in your story time, don't try to force something in there for the sake of the theme.  Pull out some favorites.  The kids will appreciate the familiarity and love it when they can anticipate what is coming.

Thanks for stopping by!  See ya later!

Thanksgiving Round-Up

We thought we would just do a quick recap on all of the Thanksgiving related posts we've done here at Library Village, just in case anyone's looking for any last-minute ideas!

Babies:
I don't feel like babies are really aware of Thanksgiving yet, so we usually just talk about food. That's the best part of Thanksgiving anyway, right?

Click here for Baby Story Time: Yummy Food!


Toddlers:
Miss Kristie has a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with her toddlers and their good friend, Biscuit the Puppy!

Click here for Toddler Story Time: Happy Thanksgiving!


Preschool:
Miss Sue is doing the "turkey pokey" with her preschoolers! What fun!

Click here for Preschool Story Time: Let's Talk Turkey!


Finally, click here for a Flannel Friday post that combines the talent of Miss Kristie and Miss Sue!
Miss Kristie has a rhyme that includes a pumpkin pie that's ten feet high!

 

 

And Miss Sue made a great felt set for the book I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie:

 

We hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for here at Library Village!

 



Imagination Station - Let's Play "Post Office!"

 

Our most popular Imagination Station thus far has been, hands-down, our Post Office! Let's take a look at some of our activities:

 

The Post Office (puppet theatre):



 

The Mail Bag and Envelopes:

Made of felt, obviously!

Do you recognize these from a Preschool Story Time post? We didn't want to ruin Miss Sue's set, so we made a second mail bag and envelopes to be played with.

 

Postcards and Stamps:

Although kids loved this activity, it did, unfortunately mean a lot of paper waste.

Don't forget to mail your postcards in the Mail Box!:

A hidden flap in the bottom so we could retrieve the mail! Miss Kristie's creation!

 

And who wouldn't want to drive the Mail Truck??:



Duct tape straps made this so easy to slip on and "drive" around!
(This truck has since been recycled into a school bus!)

Miscellaneous:

We had foam visors, which once said "Mail" in foam letters, but they kept falling off!
Miss Kristie also made those little mail boxes, which we placed around the room.  That way kids could deliver the mail around the neighborhood!

 

This was probably our messiest Imagination Station so far, because we were constantly cleaning up the papers and stamps, emptying the envelopes, rounding up all of the pieces and straightening up.  But it was also the most fun! Kids really enjoyed driving the truck, wearing the visors and mail bag, and leaving us mail in the big mail box!

 

Looking back, it's clear that children were able to practice at least four of the ECRR2 practices:

Reading - "mail" related books were on display

Writing - they wrote on postcards

Talking - that puppet theatre got A LOT of use

Playing - just look at all of these cool things to play with!

 

Feel free to borrow any of these ideas - we borrowed some of them, ourselves! And share with us any great ideas you've had for imaginative play!

 

Thanks for stopping by!