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!

Bookworms Book Club - We Are in a Book!

Guess what? We, here at Library Village, actually do other programming besides story times!!

I started a book club for children in Kindergarten through 2nd grade last winter, and it has been a hit!  We are called the "Bookworms," and we've read some really fun stories such as:

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold

Some parents think I'm crazy when I hand them a picture book or beginning reader for the book club because they think the books are too easy.  I think it's important to note that I'm not trying to challenge their reading.  Instead, I'm teaching them how to be in a book club.  This means how to have a group discussion, where everyone gets a turn to talk, and how to analyze a book and find the right words to discuss it.  In this way, the children are building vocabulary and comprehension skills, as well as social skills.  We are also celebrating the joys of reading!

We took the summer off, so September was our first meeting for the school year.

September's Book: We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems

Gerald the Elephant and his best friend Piggie have many zany adventures together in this series.  In We Are in a Book!, they realize that a reader is reading them!  Can they make the reader say anything they want? And what happens when the book comes to an end??

Miss Kristie made us these fabulous name tags: 

We always start out reading the book aloud, story time style.  Since the children have already read it, this is a great way to have some discussion about the book as we read.  We talk about what we see in the artwork, what the characters' intentions are, why they have certain reactions, etc.  My goal is to go beyond reading comprehension, guiding the children in how to analyze a book and it's author.

I ask a lot of open-ended questions, asking about favorite characters, favorite parts of the story, and what they thought the author was trying to convey.  I don't want it to feel like school; just like a fun and relaxed conversation.

Here's one thing I thought was great, and showed how much they were thinking: the Elephant &Piggie Party Kit  (from Mo Willems' website) stated that Elephant is the serious one, and Piggie is the silly one.  When I asked the kids who they thought was the serious one, they all said Piggie!  I think this makes a lot of sense because to a young child, Piggie's dry sense of humor comes off quite serious, while Elephant's over-the-top reactions come off quite silly.

Next we did an Elephant & Piggie Mad Lib from the Party Kit.  I was afraid they wouldn't know what Mad Libs are or understand how to do it, but they did a great job!  We went around the group and every child gave a word, and then I read the story - it was hilarious!  We did it twice!

I had more activities planned, but we had such a great discussion that we were running out of time!  We moved on to the craft, paper bag puppets, which I found at Three Little Birds.  There wasn't a template, so I printed out her samples and recreated them.  Ours turned out pretty cute, and the kids had fun recreating the story with their puppets!

"BANANA!"

While they crafted, I couldn't resist showing them this awesome Elephant & Piggie Dance Game.  They thought it was hilarious!

How it went:

I was so pleased to have 9 children attend this book club!  They were very enthusiastic and had a great time.  I was worried they were too young for the Mad Libs, but they loved it, and I was worried they were too old for the paper bag puppets, but they loved those, too!  These kids always surprise me with how bright and creative they are! 

Can't wait til our October meeting!  We'll be reading The Hallo-wiener by Dav Pilkey!