Preschool Story Time - St. Patrick's Day!

I don't know about you, but the January-March holidays seem to be my rough months.  Mostly because the books for story time with a theme of an early year holiday (such as Chinese New Year, Easter, Valentine's Day, Groundhogs Day, President's Day, or St. Patrick's Day) aren't always plentiful or easy to read in a group.  I like to play homage to the holiday du jour though, so I try my best to work around the books and use more songs and dances or a great craft.  Being an Irish lass from Boston, I could not skip St. Patrick's Day no matter what, so here we go!

Green Shamrocks - Eve Bunting

This one is cute and eye catching for the kids.  It's also an opportunity for counting, animal sounds, or general conversation. Sometimes holiday books are just too long for preschoolers, but this one seemed to do the trick.


Musical Interlude - The Unicorn Song
I have known The Unicorn Song and all of the hand movements ever since I was a little kid.  I understand it might not be familiar to you (as I have discovered while living in the mid-west by the blank expressions on some faces!).  The original poem is by Shel Silverstein and the song was made famous by the Irish Rovers in the 1960's.  It still makes the circuit in Irish Festivals around the country however.

Jim Cosgrove does an EXCELLENT version for kids.  At the end he gets faster and faster which was very fun in the Kindergarten classroom of the school where I once worked.

I sang the song A Capella so I could first teach it a couple times and sing it nice and slowly.  I'll let you Google the hand motions on Youtube, but here is what I do:

Song: Unicorn Song

Chorus:

There were green alligators (extend arms like long gator mouth)

And long neck geese (fluff your neck feathers)

Humpy back camels (put your hands on your back as humps)

And Chimpanzees (make chimp arms)

Cats (ears), and Rats (whiskers), and Elephants (one arm is trunk while the other arm supports the first arm)

As sure as you’re born (cradle baby)

But the Loveliest of all was the Unicorn. (Show your best horn!)

A long time ago when the earth was green, there were more kinds of animals than you’ve ever seen.  They would run around free while the Earth was being born, and the loveliest of all was the Unicorn!

Repeat Chorus.

The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever - Teddy Slater

I always enjoy Ethan Long's illustrations!  It also will open up the kids' vocabulary with words like leprechaun, luck, shamrock, etc....sort of like the next book.  My goal of holiday story times are to do just that, increase exposure and vocabulary and talk about culture (and of course make it fun!).


Finger Play Interlude

Leprechaun, Leprechaun

Leprechaun, Leprechaun Hiding in the hay. (cover one pointer finger with other hand)

Leprechaun, Leprechaun Don’t you run away. (hop pointer finger around)

Leprechaun, Leprechaun Let’s go out and play. (hop both pointer fingers around)

Leprechaun, Leprechaun It’s Saint Patrick’s Day! (hopping fingers together)

I’m a Little Leprechaun (Sing to the tune of I’m a Little Teapot)

I'm a little leprechaun
Dressed in green, (tug on your shirt)
The tiniest man
That you have seen. (make your index and pointer finger close together)
If you ever catch me,
so it's told, (make like both arms are catching something)
I'll give you my big pot of gold. (hold out hands as giving)

There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover - Lucille Colandro

Yet another Lucille Colandro "Old Lady" book making its way into my holiday-themed story times!  And once again I did it in felt!  Here is my set:

Did you notice my mistake?  Yep - I was in such a rush to finish this set, that my rainbow colors are screwed up.  Miss Kristie was so kind to notice and let me know right before my story time!  Oh well, it was just fine in the end.  There are also several sites that offer more classroom resources for this story.  The one I used was Crazy Speech World.  There are some templates that can be used for sequence and retelling.

Craft - Lucky Necklace

So in line with St. Patrick's Day, we made rainbow colored pasta necklaces.  The kids really love this activity and the parents do too!  I Googled how to make colored pasta - it was easy peasy.  Then I bundled the craft in snack size zippy bags so the kids would have the perfect amount of pasta for their craft.  The shamrock was die cut from green paper.  Here is a tip - tape one end of the yarn to make a 'needle' and tape the other end to the table so the pasta doesn't fly off the other end!

Bonus Craft! Pot of Gold

I snitched this one from the DLTK website where they had a template.  Click HERE for that. Some kids didn't want to do the necklace, and some preferred to take the craft home to do.  I used die cut circles (I have a 1 inch punch at home) and black paper which the kids could then use white crayon or chalk to decorate.


Luck of the Irish to ye!  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!