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!

Flannel Friday - Big Wide-Mouthed Frog

This is our first Flannel Friday Post.  I just couldn't wait to show off my flannels!

I love the story of the Big Wide-Mouthed Frog.  We have lots of versions in the library, but I wanted to create a flannel story where I could just tell the story.  I really like Ana Martin Larranaga's version with the Australian animals, so I created flannels based on her art.  When I saw that we had only one copy of this book in the library left, and it was a much-loved, taped-up copy, I knew I had to work fast!

They are large felts so placement is off:  The pieces are made by photocopying the pages of the book (I love the illustrations!) and sizing as needed.  I traced the pieces on felt, then went over with puffy paint.  Some pieces got embellishment with other colors of paint.  I have to say that this is my largest set, so you will want to be aware of the size of your board (or travel board in some cases) before making it to size.  But I also work with large groups so the size is needed.  One more note, some of the creatures are reversed so they always face the same way.  This was to reduce the number of frogs I had to make.

Here's the Wide Mouthed Frog as he meets Kangaroo and Emu. 

Then the Koala and Possum....I made one tree where the koala could sit on one branch, then remove her and add the possum family branch. The possum is connected to the branch by yarn legs and tail.

And finally, the frog with his teenie, puckered mouth as he meets the crocodile!

Miss Kristie used my flannel board today for a visiting preschool.  Next week is when I get to use my set for the first time in my Frog themed story time, I am so excited to try it out!  I hope to get a lot of use from this story.

-Miss Sue