New Books for December (Part 1)

Meet My Feet!

I can't wait to use this book in storytime, it's so adorable!  Each page has a close-up of the animals feet, and the kids can guess who they belong to. When you flip the page, you get to see the animal.  I love that real photos of animals are being used in this book too.

Wake and Sleep

This is such a fun interactive board book.  For each page, you get to do something fun to either put the animals to bed or wake them up!  After your action, you lift up the flap to see if it worked!  A great bedtime book to add to your collection.

Hello

This is an adorable animal book that has all the precious animals saying hello!  I want to use this with puppets, and think that the kids will have lots of fun making all the animal sounds along with me.

Bunny Slopes

Oh my goodness, I am in love with this book!  What a great interactive book, just in time for winter!  As you turn each page, you have to help bunny slide down the hill!  You start out by helping bunny who can't ski without snow!  But to do that you have to shake the book!  This is a great book to use for winter or snow themes.



I am in love with this firefighter book!  The adorable little firefighters are getting ready for their parade, but their coats are missing the buttons!  This is a great interactive but that you can use and have the kids guess what buttons belong to each firefighter.  I plan on making a flannel to go along with it to help the kids see the jackets better.

Read in the New Year with Books (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Book: This Book is Out of Control!

*I absolutely love this book! The kids didn't catch on as quickly as I had hoped, but they still seemed to enjoy this book. I had a remote control as a prop that my volunteer made for me out of a box. I used this during my story to show what buttons were being pressed. The older kids that I had attend caught on very quickly, because I had a dog puppet behind me doing the motions along with the dog inside the book.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Mouse, Little Mouse, What House are you Behind?

Book: Still a Gorilla!

*The kids really enjoyed this book, and caught on very quickly when I asked them if the animal was still a gorilla? Yes, he was! We used puppets also during this book, which is always a big hit.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (With Music)

Book: Great AAA-OOO!

*The favorite part of this book was when the kids helped me howl along. The kids seemed to enjoy this book, but not as much as I had hoped they would.

Time for Two's Storytime

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story Clap Your Hands

Book: Wheels on the Bus (Jungle Version)

*The kids really enjoyed getting to see the puppets behind me and everybody did great helping me make noises and animal movements.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

*As always, a big hit!

Book: Clap Your Hands

*I had hoped that the kids would have enjoyed this book more than they did, but it was still a fun one to do.

Fingerplay/Flannel:Little Mouse, Little Mouse

Book: A Hop is Up

*A huge hit with the kids! They loved getting to jump up and down non-stop in this book. Will definitely do this one again!

*We ended by using a new bubble machine, and it worked out wonderfully! I just pressed the button once and the bubbles came out non-stop! The kids did great with it and I am planning on using it once a month as a special surprise!

Polar Express Party

I wanted to share our annual Polar Express Party we have at my library.  I have to give credit to my boss, who made all this magic happen.  I just assisted.  We started out reading the book "Polar Express", then we showed the movie.  We served hot chocolate and popcorn.  We also had marshmallows, with whipped cream and chocolate.  My favorite part is the giant train we made out of boxes, and the beautiful train track that my boss labored over!  The train track went all the way to the front of our auditorium.  We had the biggest crowd ever, with 93 people total!

Tis the Season (Two's)

Opening: Big Books

Book: Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho!

*The kids seemed to enjoy seeing our puppets get stuck in our chimney. For this prop I took a box and just covered it with red paper and turned it into bricks.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

*All month long we've been jumping up and down like gingerbread, and today they loved doing it again!

Book: Where is Baby’s Christmas Present?

*The kids loved hunting for baby's presents in this lift-the-flap book.

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Decorate Tree”

Extra Read Alouds:

Christmas Pop-Up Peekaboo

Elf Boogie

Little Blue Truck’s Christmas

Two’s Games:

Christmas Bowling

Reindeer Shape Matching

Christmas Tree Ornament Matching

Christmas Tree Pom-Pom Push Box

To check out what games we played today, click here to see them!

Tis the Season (Preschool)

Opening: Big Books

Book: A Creature Was Stirring

*This book is so precious! My co-worker and I read this, and she read the traditional part of the Night Before Christmas. I read the part of the little boy, and to dress the part I had on my fuzzy pajama robe. I had hoped the kids would have enjoyed this more than they did, but it was still a very fun and entertaining read for this time of year.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

*As always, the kids had a blast jumping up and down. We've done this every week, but I was pleasantly surprised when they all knew to say gingerbread instead of monkeys jumping on the bed!

Book: Here Comes Santa Cat

*This book is a favorite of mine, and it took a lot of involvement, but it was worth it. My co-worker read this book, while I acted out the part of Santa Cat. I hand-drew all the cards that Santa Cat holds in the book, and I held these up as we went along with the book. I had a jetpack on my back when Santa Cat tries to fly, and all the other props in the book you read, we had too! The cans of food, a fish, Christmas lights, yes we did it all! I even changed into an elf costume at the end. I would do it all again in a second!

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Christmas Action Cards”
*Here we did some action cards that were Christmas themed. The kids knew everything I showed them. We twinkled like a star, rolled like a Christmas ornament, and a bunch of other fun and festive items.

  

Fingerplay/Flannel: Rudolph, Rudolph

Rudolph, Rudolph, what will you do?

You can't guide the sleigh if your nose is blue.

Let’s touch our knee and then our shoe.

Rudolph, Rudolph, you're such a silly fellow

Who will know it's you if your nose is yellow.

Let’s wiggle around like a happy fellow.

Rudolph, Rudolph, your way cannot be seen,

Through the wintry weather if your nose is green.

Let’s jump up and down like a jumping bean.

Rudolph, Rudolph, it's time to go to town

But you can't help Santa if your nose is brown.

Let’s reach up high and touch the ground.

Rudolph, Rudolph, the children are in bed

And now we get on our way because your nose is red.

Let’s pat our legs, turn around, and sit back down!

*We ran out of time for this fingerplay, but I found part of the words for this here. I added more lines to it, so that the kids could get some wiggles out. The lines I added came from a Mailbox magazine we had.

Preschool Games:

To check out our games and sensory bin, just click here!

Extra Read-Alouds:

Christmas Eve Goodnight

Christmas Tree by Minor

Dream Snow

Little Elfie One

Merry Christmas, Stinky Face

Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s Christmas
Once There Was a Christmas Tree

Three Bears’ Christmas

What Am I? Christmas

Christmas Games & Sensory Bins

This month our games were centered around Christmas.  Below are what we played!


1.) Here is the website where I found the game pictured below.  You can download all of them for free, and then just cut them out and have fun!  I picked up the little bows at the dollar store, and sat them out in a container.  Then the kids could place each number of bows on the Christmas tree.



2.) Here is the website where I found the two games pictured below.  You can download all of them for free, and then just cut them out and have fun!  For this game, the kids matched the right numbered tree to the one opposite.  It's a great one to help with their number recognition.




For this game, the kids matched the ornaments to the correct one.  Both of these games were a big hit with the kids, and they came from the same website, which I included the link above.

3.) Here is the website where I found for this next game, and I turned it into a sensory bin.  The kids seemed to enjoy it so much!  I decided to spell out gingerbread, and hide the gingerbread men inside shredded paper I got at the dollar store.  The kids got to dig out the gingerbread men and match them up to the correct letter.



4.) For our last game, we had a pom-pom push with a Christmas tree.  I didn't include a picture of ours, but here's a link to the website with all the details.  The kids seemed to enjoy this and the gingerbread matching the most.

Jingle-Jingle (Preschool)

Opening: Big Books

Book: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell

*We had so much fun reading this book. Instead of using flannel pieces, my volunteer used props to place on the tables as I was reading. It seemed to work out much better, and the kids really enjoyed the book this year.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

*As usual, the kids went crazy jumping up and down!

Book: Dear Santa

*For this book, I ended up making it into a bigger story, that I could hold up and show the kids. I included a picture below to show an example. I took each present that santa took and put it on paper, then I put a present over it. After I read the line from the book, I pulled off the present that was velcroed over the picture to reveal the present that Santa sent. I thought the kids would enjoy this book more, but they weren't super excited about it.

Fingerplay: Five Little Candy Canes
Five little candy canes hanging on the door.
Santa ate one.  Then there were four.
Four little candy canes  hanging on the door.
Mrs. Claus ate one.  Then there were three.
Three little candy canes lying by a shoe.
An elf ate one.  Then there were two.
Two little candy canes lying in the sun.
A reindeer ate one.  Then there was one.
One little candy cane by the chimney.
Santa put it in his bag and brought it to me.
*This was a great fingerplay to use, and instead of saying Santa, I fed my candy canes to puppets. The kids went crazy! Here is where I found this adorable fingerplay.

Book: Jingle-Jingle

*This book is a favorite of mine, and I love using puppets with it. I put up my big red sleigh on the puppet stage behind me, and encourage the kids to pat their legs and stomp their feet as we crunch through the snow. They enjoyed this book.

Action: Draw and Tell Story
*I fell in love with this draw and tell story about a little old man searching for his Christmas star. Some of the kids seemed really excited when I opened up my paper to show the tree and star, while others didn't. But I still consider this one a success! Here is the link to the full story and how to cut and tell this story.

Action: Decorating Tree
*For this, we have a tree that is on our flannelboard. Everybody gets an ornament, and I say an action rhyme that will call out for a specific ornament. This way all the kids don't rush up at one time to put their ornaments on the tree. The kids listened extremely well with this and waited very patiently for their turn.

Craft:
Our craft this week was Pete the Cat dressed up as Santa! Below is a picture of our craft and here is where I found it.

Extra Read-Alouds:

A Creature Was Stirring

Dinosaur vs. Santa

Little Elfie One

Mrs. Wishy-Washy’s Christmas

Rudolph Shines Again

Samurai Santa

C is for Cookie (Two's)

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Who Ate All the Cookie Dough?

*The kids really enjoyed this book, and adding puppets to it helped a lot.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

*As usual, everybody enjoyed getting the chance to jump up and down!

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Five Little Cookies”

   Five little cookies, with frosting galore

   ALLIGATOR ate the PURPLE one, then there were four.   

Four little cookies, two and two you see,

   MONKEY ate the GREEN one, and that left three.

   Three little cookies, but before I knew,

   DUCK ate the BLUE one, and that left two.

   Two little cookies, oh what fun!

   SNAKE ate the ORANGE one,

   Then there was one.

   One little cookie, watch me run!

   I ate the RED one, then there was none.

*The kids always enjoy getting to see puppets, and today we fed them cookies!

Book: Cookie’s Week

*The kids loved having things fall out on them, but they didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought they would. Let me explain...in this book, the adorable cat Cookie gets into all kinds of mischief. For example, on Monday, Cookie fell in the toilet, and water went everywhere! What I did was have paper cutouts representing all the things that happened to Cookie. After I read the lines and showed the pictures, then I threw out the things in the book. For the water, I had little blue raindrops that "rained" down upon the kids. Tuesday, Cookie knocks over a plant and dirt flies everywhere. For that, I had little brown circles of paper representing dirt, and the dirt flew down onto the kids.

Action: Cookie Dancing & Feed Cookie Monster

*We ran out of time today to feed cookie monster, but check it out here.

Extra Read-Alouds:

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies?

Who Took the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?

C is for Cookie (Preschool)

Opening: Big Books

Book: Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?

*The kids really seemed to enjoy seeing the puppets jump up and snatch the cookies from me. I have my ten cookies inside a flannel cookie jar, and I take them out one by one and feed the puppets as I read along.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

*The kids loved this fingerplay! Instead of jumping up and down like monkeys, we were gingerbread men today. After the second line everybody caught onto what we were singing and it was a big success.

Book: Cow Loves Cookies

*I love this book, but we ran out of time to read it today.

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Which House?”

   Gingerbread man, quiet as a house.

   Where are you hiding, behind which house?

*The kids always enjoy hunting for something, and today we found our gingerbread man hiding behind a gingerbread house.

Book: Cookie’s Week

*The kids went crazy during this book, and it was because I was throwing things out for them to grab. Let me explain....in this book, the adorable cat Cookie gets into all kinds of mischief. For example, on Monday, Cookie fell in the toilet, and water went everywhere! The kids found this hilarious! What I did was have paper cutouts representing all the things that happened to Cookie. After I read the lines and showed the pictures, then I threw out the things in the book. For the water, I had little blue raindrops that "rained" down upon the kids. Tuesday, Cookie knocks over a plant and dirt flies everywhere. For that, I had little brown circles of paper representing dirt, and the dirt flew down onto the kids. As usual, they went wild wanting more and more things to "fall" down upon them.

Action: Cookie Dancing & Feed Cookie Monster

*We ran out of time to feed cookie monster, but check it out here.

Today we had two special guests visit us, two dancers from the local ballet who are performing in “The Nutcracker”. They performed a short dance and then the ballet dancer read the picture book "The Nutcracker" for the kids.

For our craft, the kids got to make their own cookie baker. Here is where we found the craft, and below is what our craft looked like.

Extra Read-Alouds:

CATCH That Cookie!

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

Who took the COOKIES From the Cookie Jar?

Turkey Trot (Preschool)

Opening: Big Books

Book: Nanette’s Baguette (With real bread for prop)

*For this book, I bought a long loaf of bread, and cut it up into four pieces. I had my volunteer help me read this book. As you read along, Nanette can't help herself and eats the baguette! As I was reading, my volunteer would break a piece of bread off and put it behind her on a plate. This would represent the piece of bread that Nanette had eaten in the story. I would tell the kids to let me know when my bread was being eaten, and they certainly did! The next time I use this story I will buy a much smaller loaf or just a piece of bread so that we can actually eat the bread and not just put the bread behind us on a plate.

File Folder: Turkey Hunt

*This is such an adorable file folder story, and the kids got very excited seeing the turkey change colors before them. Here is where I found this.

Book: 10 Fat Turkeys (With ten turkeys as props)

*The kids loved shaking around as I read the same stanza through the book, gobble gobble, wibble wobble! I also had ten turkeys propped up on the puppet stage, and as each turkey disappeared, one turkey would fly away behind me. The kids found that very amusing! Below is a picture of what some of our turkeys looked like that we had propped up behind me.

Dancing: Shake Your Sillies Out!

*Since our turkeys danced around I decided that we needed to do a little dancing ourselves!

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Turkey, Turkey”

Turkey, turkey, come and play.

What color house are you in today?

*As usual, the kids went crazy telling me what color house to look behind for our turkey. Here is the website where I found this adorable game!

Action: Feeding Animals

*Click here to see what we did for this activity.

Game: Food guessing game APP

*The kids had a lot of fun guessing what food I was showing them.

*For the craft today, the kids got to make their own turkey finger puppet, which is below. Here is the website where the idea came from.

Games:

Scarecrow Knockdown

Normally this is the favorite game, but today I think all the other games won out over this one.

Pumpkin Soup Dipping

This was one of the top games. I took our big pot and filled it up with water. Then I dumped foam gourds, pumpkins and acorns that came from the dollar store inside. After that, the kids could scoop out the items and put them in our big bowl to make pumpkin soup! Next time I think I'll have out two pots for them to scoop things out of, it was such a big hit.

Letter Matching

This was also one of the top games. I found the free download for this letter matching game here. I didn't have room on my table to place all the letters of the alphabet, so I decided to spell out storytime. I wanted to make this into a sensory bin, so I hid the acorns inside a bowl of leaves. I taped down the squirrels to the table, and then the kids got to dig out the acorns and match them up to the correct squirrel. They really enjoyed this and I am now on the hunt for the next game!

Turkey Feather Matching

The kids really enjoyed doing this game also. I found the template for this matching game here. We decided to do pom-poms, since they've worked out well for us in the past.

Extra Read-Alouds:

Bear Says Thanks

Dinnertime for Chickies

Lemons Are Not Red

Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake

Mouse Who Reached the Sky

Nanette’s Baguette

Peanut Butter and Jelly by Westcott

Please Say Please!

Run, Turkey, Run!

Thank You! By Ethan Long

10 Fat Turkeys

10 Turkeys in the Road

That’s Not Bunny!

Thanksgiving Graces

Thanksgiving Rules

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey!

Ugly Pumpkin

What’s For Lunch?