H is for Happy Halloween! (Two's and Preschool)

Today we had our Halloween party! I dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood, but I didn't think about the hood scaring the two's. I think that combined with my friendly monster on the bulletin board behind me made the two's a little apprehensive. But I still had a good crowd and they seemed to enjoy all my books, especially when the puppets came out to visit. I made sure that my costume didn't have a mask, because I know that scares them. But I wasn't thinking that my cape and hood would. I will remember that for next year.

Time for Two’s Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: “If You Want to Hear a Story”

Book: “Tickle Monster”

*I absolutely love using this book, and it's so much fun to make a flannel out of. Right away the two's pointed out the big monster up on my flannelboard.

Fingerplay: Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed

*To print out not too scary monsters to use on your flannelboard, click here!

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Book: Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bat Hiding Game

*Today we hunted for little bat who was hiding behind a witch's hat!

Credit: Early Learning Ideas

Fingerplay/Flannel:Halloween Flash Cards

*For this, I just made my own Halloween flash cards. For instance, one said stomp your feet like a monster. You can find many versions of these online. But we ran out of time to do these.

Today we had food and juice, along with games! For our games we played pumpkin putt-putt, monster knockdown, and pumpkin pom-pom. I will have pictures posted with the preschool summary below.

Extra Books:

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Book: There’s a Monster In Your Book

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed
*To print out not too scary monsters to use on your flannelboard, click here!

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Book: Tickle Monster

*The kids caught on very quickly what our monster was turning into.  This was so much fun to read today!

Action: Halloween Movement Cards

*For this, I just made my own Halloween flash cards. For instance, one said stomp your feet like a monster. You can find many versions of these online. But we ran out of time to do these.

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Make a Jack-O-Lantern”

*I had so much fun doing this with the kids today.  I put up a plain orange pumpkin and tell them I want to turn this into a jack-o-lantern.  When I go to put eyes on it, I will put up something silly before the traditional black triangle eyes.  I will repeat this a couple of times before I get it right.  Then I will do this again with the nose and mouth.  The preschoolers always enjoy telling me that I am doing this wrong and that I need to change it!

Fingerplay: Ghost Changing Colors

*We ran out of time for this really cute story, but you can find a picture of it here.  I didn't come up with this fabulous idea, but I sure do love it!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bat, Little Bat

  *Today we hunted for little bat who was hiding behind a witch's hat!

Credit: Early Learning Ideas

Tablet Game: “Shadow Guessing”

*There is a wonderful guessing game that you can download to your tablet, which let's the kids guess what the shadows are.  We didn't do this game today, but the kids really enjoy playing it.

Today was our party!   We had yummy food and we played games!  I have included picture below of our games.  Happy Halloween!!!

We played mummy bowling.  Kudos to my co-workers for turning all the bowling pins into awesome mummies!

We had pom-pom push.  I took an old box, put jack-o-lanterns on the front, and cut out the mouths.  Then my volunteer made pumpkins out of pom-poms and pipe cleaners.  

Credit: Early Learning Ideas

Another game that was fun, but probably the least played was shape monster!  

Credit: The Imagination Tree

Our last game is monster knockdown!  I think the kids probably enjoyed this one the most, just because they could knock something down!  All I did was cover empty boxes with paper, and add the monster faces I made.  That's it!

Extra Read-Alouds:

It's Halloween Night

Just Say Boo!

Little Blue Truck’s Halloween

Peep and Egg: I’m Not Hatching!

Pete the Cat: Trick or Pete

Ten Busy Brooms

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat!

This is the House That Monsters Built

What Am I? Halloween

G is for Go Away, Big Green Monster! (Two's and Preschool)

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: There’s a Monster in Your Book!

*I absolutely love interactive books, and this one is adorable! You have this precious little monster stuck in your book, but how do you get him out? By shaking, spinning and tickling him, of course! The two's had a lot of fun helping me with my monster.

Fingerplay: “Monster, Monster”
Monster, monster, turn around.
Monster, monster, touch the ground.
Monster, monster, show your teeth.
Monster, monster, stomp your feet.
Monster, monster, touch the sky.
Monster, monster, wave goodbye.
Monster, monster, pat your head.
Monster, monster, go to bed.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Monster, Monster (Hide monster behind doors.)

Monster, monster, where can you be?

Shout out a color on the count of three!

Book: Go Away, Big Green Monster!

*I love reading this book, and my heart just melted at the reaction of the two's. When I started making the big green monster disappear, the two's would gasp aloud! You could hear a pin drop in the room, they were all spellbound. You always hope for moments like this, and I am so glad that it happened with me and this book. I absolutely love doing storytime, and sometimes I feel like I'm not making a difference with the kids. But after seeing the reactions of the two's, I have been rejuvenated!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed
*The two's loved jumping up and down like monsters! To print out not too scary monsters to use on your flannelboard, click here!
Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Our craft today was a monster!  The two's loved being able to glue all the dots and piece of the monster down.  Again, I apologize, my picture is sideways.  But at least my monster is green!

Extra Books:

Preschool Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Book: My Tail’s Not Tired!

*This is a new book, and it's so adorable!  Mama monster just wants to put baby monster to bed, but all of his body parts are not tired!  So all of us stood up and stomped our feet, wiggled our arms, and followed along with baby monster.  Loads of fun!

Fingerplay: “Monster, Monster”
    Monster, monster, turn around.
    Monster, monster, touch the ground.
    Monster, monster, show your teeth.
    Monster, monster, stomp your feet.
    Monster, monster, touch the sky.   
    Monster, monster, wave goodbye.
    Monster, monster, pat your head.
    Monster, monster, go to bed.

Book: Go Away, Big Green Monster!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed

*To print out not too scary monsters to use on your flannelboard, click here!
Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Book: Nighty, Night, Little Green Monster

*At the last minute, I changed out the book I had planned to read with this book.  The reason why?  After we jumped up and down like monsters, a preschooler looked at me and said, I'm tired!  I had to hold back my laughter!  I said, I am too!  The book I was planning had quite a bit of movement in it, so I decided to read another favorite.

Our craft today was a monster!  The two's loved being able to glue all the dots and piece of the monster down.  Again, I apologize, my picture is sideways.  But at least my monster is green!

Shapes All Around (Preschool)

*Today we took a detour from our normal alphabet themed storytimes.  But we will pick the alphabet back up next week with the letter "G"!

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: Shape Guessing Game

*Have shapes up on board, then give clues to kids before flipping over to reveal what they are.

Book: Mouse Shapes

*This book is so much fun to use! I've made all the shapes and mice from the book to place on my flannel. The kids really enjoyed telling me what shapes the mice were making as I read the book to them.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Kangaroo, kangaroo, behind which shape are you?

Credit: Falling Flannelboards

Book: Shapes, Reshape!

*This book was so much fun to use!  As you can see by the cover, all the shapes are mixed up inside.  You count down from ten to one and discover all the animals hiding inside the book. The first page is the shapes all stacked on each other with a clue as to what they could be.  Then you turn the page to find them rearranged into the animal.  The kids went crazy telling me what animals was in my book.  Of course, it didn't hurt anything that I had the puppets pop up behind me too!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

*Today we jumped up and down like monkeys along with music.

Book: Up Close by Gay Wegerif

*I was very excited to use this book, because it's a great guessing book. I think it would have went over great with the kids, except they were so wound up from jumping that they were a little too unfocused to pay attention. Still a great one to use!

Our craft today was a dog made from shapes! I apologize, the picture would only load sideways!

Credit: Teacherspayteachers

Extra Books:

*I love this circle book! All of the books by this author are so much fun, I recommend them all!

*This book is great to read, and there is a wonderful way to turn this interactive. Check out this website to see how it's done! I've done this before and the kids went crazy over it!

*This is a classic book to use around Halloween or a shape storytime. I've made a flannel to go along with it, so that the kids can see the monster being taken apart right before their eyes.

*I love Walter! It's such a cute book about a spider, and it teaches the kids about shapes and they don't even realize it.

E is for Eating Through the Alphabet (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Storytelling: Very Hungry Caterpillar

*This book is always a big hit to use, and I love telling it!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Snake Hiding Game

Credit: Storytime in the Stacks

Book: I am Bat (With puppets taking cherries off puppet stage.)

*Oh my goodness, don't you just love the little fangs sticking out of bat's mouth?  Now, I admit, this book is very simple, but so adorable!  Bat loves his cherries that he has inside his book, and nobody is allowed to touch them or take them!  Different animals pop up inside the book and steal his cherries.  But at the end, the animals bring him back a pear!  I had my volunteer behind me with the cherries propped up.  As I read, the puppets would take my cherries.  But of course, the puppets popped up and gave me back a pear!  The kids were very enthusiastic in letting me know when my cherries disappeared and who had taken them.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Silly Bananas

Song: Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill

Book: Hi, Pizza Man!

*This is a classic book to me, and the kids loved seeing the animals pop up behind me.  My favorite part was when a little boy started telling me what animals was coming up next in the book!

Flannel: Pizza Toppings

*I don't remember where I found this, but I have four round pizzas printed out.  I've laminated them and put velcro on them.  Next I printed out about forty individual pizza toppings.  These I've laminated and placed velcro on the back of also.  I handed out all the toppings and had the kids place these onto my pizza.

Action: Turn Kids Into Pizza

*This action is based on the kids book "Pete's a Pizza" which I recommend you check out!  I have my pizza toppings cut out of construction paper.  Then I ask the kids what toppings they would like to have sprinkled down upon them, and the chaos ensues!

Our craft today was a taco!  The kids got to choose from an array of toppings!  I apologize, I can't seem to find my photo of the craft, but you can visit the website below where I found it at.

Credit: The Multipy-Abled Classroom

Extra Books:

Watermelon Seed

Ten Hungry Pigs

Hi, Pizza Man!

Black Belt Bunny

Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes

Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner

That’s Not Bunny!

Book: I am Bat (With puppets taking cherries off puppet stage.)

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Song: Spaghetti Legs  (CD Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes)

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Storytelling: Very Hungry Caterpillar

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Snake

Credit: Storytime in the Stacks

Fingerplay: Pancakes (Feed to puppets)

*For this fun fingerplay, I fed pancakes to my puppets!

Credit: Storytime Source Page

*Oh my goodness, don't you just love the little fangs sticking out of bat's mouth?  Now, I admit, this book is very simple, but so adorable!  Bat loves his cherries that he has inside his book, and nobody is allowed to touch them or take them!  Different animals pop up inside the book and steal his cherries.  But at the end, the animals bring him back a pear!  I had my volunteer behind me with the cherries propped up.  As I read, the puppets would take my cherries.  But of course, the puppets popped up and gave me back a pear!  The kids were very enthusiastic in letting me know when my cherries disappeared and who had taken them.

Flannel: Pizza Toppings

*I don't remember where I found this, but I have four round pizzas printed out.  I've laminated them and put velcro on them.  Next I printed out about forty individual pizza toppings.  These I've laminated and placed velcro on the back of also.  I handed out all the toppings and had the kids place these onto my pizza.

Action: Turn Kids Into Pizza

*This action is based on the kids book "Pete's a Pizza" which I recommend you check out!  I have my pizza toppings cut out of construction paper.  Then I ask the kids what toppings they would like to have sprinkled down upon them, and the chaos ensues!

Our craft today was a taco!  The kids got to choose from an array of toppings!  I apologize, I can't seem to find my photo of the craft, but you can visit the website below where I found it at.

Credit: The Multipy-Abled Classroom

October New Books

October is starting out wonderfully with new books!  I had to include a picture out of one of them, and you'll see why I did!

Hooray for Books!

Oh my gosh, I love this author and all the quirky little animals he uses.  Be sure to look at each and every page, because the illustrations make this book!  I think this would be wonderful to use for a friend, animal or library themed storytime!  Why? Check out the ending of the book...

Flashlight Night

This book really took me by surprise, but in such a good way.  When children read books, their imagination goes wild and takes them places outside the pages.  This book shows you just what kids see when they are playing with their flashlight.  It rhymes, and though there are only a few words to each page, the simplicity is perfect.  The illustrations are breathtaking, and will take you on an adventure that you won't soon forget.

Poor Louie

Oh, poor Louie!  This book wasn't at all what I expected it to be, which was a very good thing!  Louie runs away from home because he's being invaded by babies!  Does he like this?  You'll have to read the book to find out!