Preschool Story Time - Grumpy!

It is fantastic to work in a great team who encourages you to take risks and become a better librarian.  In response to Miss Kristie's "What Does the Fox Say" story time, I just had to do something that the parents especially would really enjoy, so I chose Grumpy Cat!  I just love Grumpy Cat and actually, "grumpy" makes a great story time theme!  

This is my 50th Story Time at my current branch, but alas, my last one.  I accepted a new position and start tomorrow!  I'll be in a new physical village, but I will definitely be blogging with the best team ever, my Library Village.  So here we go!

From www.grumpycats.com

Emotions are a concept that children can't see our touch, so as parents, we need to help them identify when they are angry or grumpy or frustrated. I hope this story time gives preschoolers a little more vocabulary for those off days.

Grumpy Cat by Britta Teckentrup

Poor cat is so grumpy all of the time!!  Everyone leaves him alone.  Perhaps he is just lonely though.  Kitten tries to find out.  


Here was my simple little action rhyme this week - Feelings by Karen Folk @ Warren Publishing House:
Sometimes on my face you'll see (point to chest)
How I feel inside of me (point to face)
A smile means happy (smile)
A frown means sad (frown)
And gritting teeth means I'm mad (grit teeth)
When I am proud, I beam and glow (puff up chest and smile)
But when I am shy my head hangs low (bow head).

I really couldn't wait another minute to show off my new felt!  I based it on an illustration I found on the internet, and traced it back to Erin Hunting

While I was at my felting, I wrote a quick little song to the tune Farmer in the Dell:

The Grumpy Little Cat (by Miss Sue)
The Grumpy Little Cat
The Grumpy Little Cat
How do you think he got that way?
The Grumpy Little Cat

"NO" says the cat
"NO" says the cat
What do you think that cat will say?
"NO" says the cat

Let's hug that little cat
Let's hug that little cat
A hug a day keeps the grumps away
Let's hug that little cat

(Now the best part - the mouth/nose piece of the felt flips over for this last verse)

The happy little cat
The happy little cat
Turned that frown upside down
The happy little cat!

Here's a link to my Flannel Friday Post about this happy cat! 
 

The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

Pout-Pout fish is grumpy - because he is.  There's nothing you can do about it. Until...
The kids were squealing through this book and repeating "I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face."  This one has become a favorite.

After halftime, I settled the kids down with a sing-a-long song. 

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to learn enough of the ukulele that I could play in story time when I needed to.  The first song I learned was "If You're Happy and You Know It" because I use it every week!  So with that in mind, I debuted my uke this week singing these words:

If you're grumpy and you know it, make a frown.
If you're grumpy and you know it, make a frown.
If you're grumpy and you know it and you really want to show it, if you're grumpy and you know it, make a frown.

Continue with:
Fold your arms
Look away
Stomp your feet
Say 'NO WAY'


Now to my FLANNEL BOARD story!

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by Kimberly and James Dean

I try to do a flannel board story at each story time.  For some reason, our library didn't receive a copy of this book fast enough for me to let the kids take out copies, but I DID get a chance to immortalize it in flannel!  

You will have to check out my Flannel Friday Post (Click Here to see it) to see the entire set because it doesn't fit on a flannel board! These pieces have a flip side to them which makes them so functional.

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard

A fun way to end story time - Grumpy Bird just wants to take a walk and no one will leave him alone.  There are lots of opportunity for funny voices in this one - even a 'play along'.  The kids will want to do what Grumpy Bird does.

And for our craft this week, I decided to model a stick puppet after Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses.  One side is Grumpy Pete, and the other side is Groovy Pete!  They do not have their stick yet in this photo but they will!  The kids really loved this one and ran to show me their work.

What a successful story time!  I'll be doing this one again at my new library for sure.  It was hard to say goodbye to 'my kids', but can't wait to meet my new kids! Thanks for visiting!