C is for Counting, 1,2,3! (Two's)

*This was a very big group, with 36 kids!  They were quite active, so we stopped a bit early today.  But still a good storytime!

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book/Flannel: Where’s Bear?

*I love the "Bear & Hare" series, and I did skip a few pages in this book.  The two's seemed to enjoy hunting for bear and hare all throughout the book.

Fingerplay: Three Little Butterflies 

            Three little butterflies, saying “Howdy-do!”

            One flew to {puppet}, and that left two.

            Two little butterflies, snoozing in the sun,

            One flew to {puppet}, and that left one.

            One little butterfly, all alone.

            It flew to {puppet}, and that left none.

*Instead of butterflies we used bumblebees that flew away to our puppets.  

Fingerplay: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

*Our mouse was hiding behind a barn today.

Fingerplay: Animal Movements

*Stood up and acted like different animals.

Book: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

*This is one of my favorite counting books, and not only because I love Pete the Cat.  I have all the buttons that go along with Pete cut out of construction paper.  As I'm reading the book, when I come to the part of the button popping off, I will throw out paper buttons onto the kids.  They go crazy over this!  I could hardly get them calmed down after the first button popped to keep on reading, they loved it so much.

Our craft today was the hungry caterpillar, and the kids glued down the food, face and legs.

Below is a picture of our caterpillar.

Credit: A Spoonful of Learning

C is for Camping Out (Preschool)

*I have to admit, I wasn't super excited about the camping theme, but as I planned this storytime I became more and more enthused.  This ended up being a very enjoyable storytime!

Opening: Big Books

Action: Show Letter C

Book: Goodnight Underwear (Bear in Underwear)

*This was my first time reading a "Bear in Underwear" book, and I was a little nervous that the kids and parents wouldn't like it.  Boy, was I wrong!  Right away the kids laughed hysterically at bear in  his underwear.  I'm sure it helped that I had my big bear puppet wearing Dr. Seuss underwear behind me as I read the book!

Flannel: Blankets On My Head (Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes)

A blanket on my head, a blanket on my head, hey ho, I’m cozy-o, a blanket on my head.

The wind blows tonight, the wind blows tonight, hey ho, I’m freezing-o, the wind blows tonight.

(Repeat until you get to five blankets.)

Five blankets on my head, five blankets on my head, hey ho, the wind doesn’t blow.

Take these blankets off my head!!!

*The kids loved seeing me with blankets on my head, especially when the last blanket covered my face!  I was only brave enough to do three blankets.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Hunt for Bug Under the Rug

Credit: Mel's Desk

Book: One-Dog Canoe 

*This was a fun book to read, and I wanted to make this more interactive.  So I took some empty boxes that I use to retell stories with, that are already wrapped in white paper.  I printed out all the animals from the story,the red canoe and taped each one to a box.  As I was reading, my volunteer stacked each animal on top of each other.  By the end of the story, we had quite a tower of animals going on!  The best part was when all the animals fall out of the canoe.  Why?  All of the boxes were knocked off my table!  Some of the kids were shocked and others absolutely loved it!

Fingerplay: Insect Animal Flash Cards

Credit: Click here to view the flash cards.

Skit: Fishing

*This is something we do quite often in storytime, where the kids help me go fishing.  I have a puppet stage up behind me, covered in water.  I tell the kids I'm going to catch a fish, and to let me know when they see it.  My volunteer will pop the fish up when I have my back turned, but I never turn around in time to see that fish!  I will then catch everything from a sock to an empty candy wrapper before I catch the fish.  But not the big giant fish the kids see, but a little tiny fish they haven't seen.  The best part that happened was when I showed the kids my empty bag of M&M's and asked them if they ate my candy.  I was only joking with them, and a little girl came up to me and said that she did!  I thought I was going to lose all my compsure right there!  The kids went crazy screaming and shouting every time they saw the fish pop up!!!

Our craft today was a cute little owl!  The kids glued everything down and  had star stickers to add.  We decided to use scrapbooking paper for the wings.  Pictured below is what our owls looked like.

Credit: B-Inspired Mama

B is for Bears' Picnic (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime

*This theme was so much fun to plan!  I had really good attendance and the kids were very engrossed during all the books.  That makes it worth it!

Opening: Big Books

Opening: Spell Bear

*The kids loved spelling out bear!  So much fun!  

Book: Bears’ Big Breakfast

*Everybody loved seeing the puppets pop up behind me! Of course, we had to feed bear some berries, not once but twice!

Fingerplay: Black Bear

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Black bear, black bear reach touch the sky.

Black bear, black bear jump up high.

Black bear, black bear show your claws.

Black bear, black bear paw around.

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a dinosaur?  No? Then…..

       How about some berries!

Book: Ants at the Picnic

*For this story I place all the food up behind me on a puppet stage.  Then my ants appear and take away the food as I read the book. There was lots of screaming and hollering as the ants took my food away.

Flannel: Bears’ Feast   

*The kids loved telling me all the food baby bear brought back wasn’t the correct food. This was a really fun story to make and tell.

Credit: Storytime in the Stacks

Fingerplay:“We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathbub!  No?  Then…

       How about a sandwich and a cookie!

Book: Where’s Bear?

*The kids went crazy shouting and screaming when the big bear puppet popped up behind me.  At the end the bear puppet held the teddy bear out to me. I didn't expect the kids to be so enthused with this book, but I was so happy that they were!

Fingerplay: Ants (From Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes: a Sourcebook & DVD)

One ant, two ants, three ants, four.

Our picnic is their grocery store.

Five ants, six ants, seven ants, eight.

They are crawling on my plate!

TAKE OFF PLATE:  Eight ants, seven ants, stomp around.

Six ants, five ants, on the ground.

Four ants, three ants, on the run!

Two ants, one ant, no more fun!

*We ran out of time for this really cute fingerplay. What I did to prepare for it was velcro eight ants to a paper plate. That way I could pull the ants on and take them off easily.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bear Hiding Game

Little bear, little bear, are you hiding under there?

*My kids love hunting for things! We ran out of time for this, but it's still a great one to use!

Credit: Jbrary

Fingerplay: Five Hungry Ants

Five hungry ants marching in a line, (hold up five fingers)

Came upon a picnic where they could dine. (eating motions with hands to mouth)

They marched into the salad, (march in place)

They marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper…

Uh oh! That was a mistake! (hands to face with shocked expression)

A..a..a..choo!

(Throw small black circles on kids to represent pepper)

Four hungry ants... (and so on counting down

http://www.literaryhoots.com/2017/05/flannel-friday-five-hungry-ants.html

*This was so much fun to do! I had little black circles cut out, and I threw these out on the kids when we got to the part where the ants sneezed!

Credit: Literary Hoots

The kids made ants carrying a watermelon! They turned out so cute!

Extra Books:

Bare Bear

Bear Wants More

Help! The Wolf is Coming!

Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods

Moose Tracks!

More Bears!

The Most Perfect Spot

Time for Two’s Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a dinosaur?  No? Then…..

       How about some berries!

Book: Bear’s Big Breakfast

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathtub?  No? Then…..

       How about a cookie!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bear Hiding Game

Little bear, little bear, are you hiding under there?

*My kids love hunting for things! We ran out of time for this, but it's still a great one to use!

Credit: Jbrary

Book: Ants at the Picnic

*For this story I place all the food up behind me on a puppet stage.  Then my ants appear and take away the food as I read the book. There was lots of screaming and hollering as the ants took my food away.

Fingerplay: Fingerplay: Black Bear

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Black bear, black bear reach touch the sky.

Black bear, black bear jump up high.

Black bear, black bear show your claws.

Black bear, black bear paw around.

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground

Action: Feeding Animals

Fingerplay:“We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathbub!  No?  Then…

       How about a sandwich and a cookie!

Action: Feed Bear Berries
*I ran out of time today to have the kids feed my bear berries.

Fingerplay: Five Hungry Ants

Five hungry ants marching in a line, (hold up five fingers)

Came upon a picnic where they could dine. (eating motions with hands to mouth)

They marched into the salad, (march in place)

They marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper…

Uh oh! That was a mistake! (hands to face with shocked expression)

A..a..a..choo!

(Throw small black circles on kids to represent pepper)

Four hungry ants... (and so on counting down

Credit: Literary Hoots

*This is a wonderful fingerplay to use, but I ran out of time to do it.

The kids made ants carrying a watermelon! They turned out so cute!

A is for Artist (Preschool and Two's)

Starting this September, I'm doing an alphabet theme. Every week, the books will center around each letter. There will be a few weeks I won't do this, most likely around holidays. But otherwise I am going to stick to the alphabet. This has been a really good challenge for me, and I have enjoyed doing the planning for this. I hope you enjoy it too! We are kicking off with letter "A"!

Our attendance this week was low with the preschool storytime, but we had a lot of new families, so that's really encouraging to me. I hope to build up the attendance, but we did take the month of August off. I think this impacted our preschool crowd, but the two's storytime was attendance was great!

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Action: Letter Painting

(Write A on white paper with crayon, then paint over with watercolors.)

*I was really excited to introduce the letter "A", but I forgot to grab my paint!

Book: Black and White Factory

*This is a great interactive book to use. The kids really enjoyed letting me know that the colors had sneaked inside the book!

Fingerplay: Missing Paint Brush

*I was super excited to use this fingerplay, but I think the kids were a little too young to catch on. But I still think it's a wonderful guessing game, and I found it here.

Book: Mouse Paint

*This is my favorite color book to use! I found this wonderful idea here, of using actual paint cans to tell this story with. All I did was cover old paint cans with paper and printed out the clipart to go along with the story. Then I told the story using my props and paint cans. They kids loved seeing my mice disappear into the paint cans and then come out a different color!

Fingerplay: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

*The kids love hunting for items and today we found not only the mouse but a bunch of other fun items! I found this great idea here!

Book: Mix It Up!

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

Action: Crayon Dancing

Book: Colors All Around

*Before I read this book, I took a giant crayon box we already had and showed my big crayons to the kids. They loved telling me what color crayon I was holding. This is another great interactive books to use, and it helps teach colors too! What I like to do is have items from the book cut out of paper. When we come to that part of the book, I will have that item rain down on the kids like confetti. The kids go crazy over this!

Our craft today was a mouse made out of a paper bag.  Of course he was covered in paint!

Time for Two’s Storytime

Opening: Big Books

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

Book: Mix It Up

*I love using this book with the two's.  It's so much fun watching their reaction when you show them how the colors have changed inside the book. Their faces are priceless!

Fingerplay: Open Them, Shut Them

Action: We Can Hop

We can hop like a rabbit

We can hop like a rabbit.

We can jump like a frog.

We can quack like a duck.

We can run like a dog.

We can fly like a bird.

We can swim like a fish.

We can turn around, sit back down.

And not say a single word.

*I love doing this fingerplay and I like to use puppets with it.

Action: White Rabbit’s Color Book

*Instead of telling Mouse Paint, I decided to use my paint cans and tell this story instead. I found the great idea for this here. The kids enjoyed seeing my rabbits change color right before their eyes!

Fingerplay: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

*The kids love hunting for items and today we found not only the mouse but a bunch of other fun items! I found this great idea here!

Fingerplay: Open Them, Shut Them

Book: Colors All Around

*Before I read this book, I took a giant crayon box we already had and showed my big crayons to the kids. They loved telling me what color crayon I was holding. This is another great interactive books to use, and it helps teach colors too! What I like to do is have items from the book cut out of paper. When we come to that part of the book, I will have that item rain down on the kids like confetti. The kids go crazy over this!

Action: Crayon Dancing

Our craft today was mouse shapes! The two's did a great job with their craft, they turned out great!
I found the idea for our craft here.

Our