Jingle Bell Rock (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Book: Dinosaur vs. Santa

*I've never done this book before in storytime, and I was surprised because the kids were super quiet. I don't know if it was the book? We had our special guest with us, doing ASL, and he couldn't make it last month, so it might have been that possibly? Sometimes something new added in can be a wonderful thing to the preschoolers or it can completely scare them, you just never know. Either way, I love this book series, it just didn't go over well for whatever reason.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

(Next year I might change this to five little elves.)

Book: Click Clack Ho Ho Ho

*This book seemed to go much better than the previous read-aloud, thankfully! I like to use puppets with this one, so that might have helped.

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!

*I added a few lines from a Mailbox edition.

Credit: Library Village

Book: Don’t Push the Button A Christmas Adventure

Extra Read-Alouds:

We didn't have a craft today because it was our party!  But we did have games and you can check them out here!  We won't have storytime two weeks due to the holidays and our library being closed on Tuesday.  Please come back and check out my blog!

Time for Two's Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas

*This is my favorite book to read to the two's, because I will feed flannel Christmas trees to my puppets as I read. As usual, the two's went wild as they saw my puppets appear. This had an added bonus because each time I took a tree off the flannelboard, we would count our trees. I love to sneak learning into a book but make it fun for the kids.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Gingerbread Man Hiding Game

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

Book: Dear Santa (Use big cards)

*I love this book, but it's so small to use in storytime. So, I decided to make a large version of it! I took a normal size piece of paper and copied what was behind each present onto it. Then I made each present from the book, and velcroed it over the surprise inside the present. This way, I could literally lift the present off the piece of paper and reveal what was inside to the two's. They absolutely loved seeing me pull the present off the paper and show what was underneath!

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!

*I added a few lines from a Mailbox edition.

Credit: Library Village

Extra Read Alouds:

We didn't have a craft today because it was our party!  But we did have games and you can check them out here!  We won't have storytime two weeks due to the holidays so please come back and check out my blog!

December Games and Sensory Bins 2018

All of our games this month were centered around my favorite time of year...Christmas!!!

1.) Feeding Santa Cookies

This was by far the most popular game!  I wanted to make this a learning game, so I made different colored hats for my Santa, and most of the kids matched up the cookies to the right Santa without me telling them to.  The kids really loved taking the cookies off the baking sheet too!

Credit: Teachers Pay Teachers

2.) Christmas Tree Color Matching (Two's Only)

This game went over really well with the two's, but I apologize for the glare in the picture.  What I did was hide the presents in a big box, with cut up green and red streamers. (See picture below for the bin I used.)  I've learned that I need to use a big in to let the two's dig through, that way they don't tend to make too big a mess out of things!  The two's were able to dig the presents out of the box and matched them up to the correct tree.
Credit: Teachers Pay Teachers

3.) Christmas Tree Light Counting (Preschool Only)

For this game, there are little stars with numbers on them, one through five inside the bin.  Each tree has a certain number of lights on it.  The preschoolers would match each star to the right Christmas tree.  They did a wonderful job matching the numbers!
Credit: Teachers Pay Teachers


4.) Christmas Tree Pom-Pom Push

This is a wonderful game to use, and all it takes is a shoebox, construction paper and pom-poms!  
Credit: The Activity Mom

5.) Christmas Putt-Putt
I didn't save a picture, but I got this game here, if it's still available.  My kids adore playing putt-putt and this came with six things to putt through, along with four putters and balls!

Christmas Cookie Day (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Book: Cow Loves Cookies

*This is such a fun book to use in storytime, especially when you feed the animal puppets food! I loved when the preschoolers caught on that we repeated all throughout the book "The cow loves cookies!"

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Which House?”

      Gingerbread man, quiet as a house.

      Where are you hiding, behind which house?

Book: Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? (With puppets)

*For this book, I have a big flannel cookie jar, with then cookies stuck to it. As I'm reading, I feed a cookie to each animal. The preschoolers love seeing all the animals take my cookie!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

Book: Cookie’s Week

*Don't you love the cute little cat hanging off the title of the book?  This book is very simple but oh so cute!  I have little paper cutouts of all the items from this book.  Because Cookie the cat gets into a lot of mischief!  For instance, Cookie knocks clothes out of the closet, so I have little paper cutouts of clothes that "rain" down onto the preschoolers, much to their delight!

Our craft today was a letter to Santa complete with cookies glued on!

Extra Book:

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? (With puppets)

*For this book, I have a big flannel cookie jar, with then cookies stuck to it. As I'm reading, I feed a cookie to each animal. The preschoolers love seeing all the animals take my cookie!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

Fingerplay/Flannel: “Which House?”

      Gingerbread man, quiet as a house.

      Where are you hiding, behind which house?

Book: Cookie’s Week

 I have little paper cutouts of all the items from this book.  Because Cookie the cat gets into a lot of mischief!  For instance, Cookie knocks clothes out of the closet, so I have little paper cutouts of clothes that "rain" down onto the two's, much to their delight

Our craft today was a letter to Santa complete with cookies glued on!

Extra Book:

How to Catch an Elf (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Book: Here Comes Santa Cat

*I read this book every year, and it never, ever gets old! I am a firm believer in
keeping your storytime fresh and changing your books out. BUT, and yes,
I meant to type that in caps, this is an exception! I have to use this book every
year because it's just precious!!! My boss actually reads this book because I
have to act out the part of Santa Cat! This year was one of the best years
because we have a lot of new families. I have all the props to go along with the
book, so that makes it a lot of fun too! If you've never read this book I highly
recommend you checking it out!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Rudolph’s Nose

*I don't know where I got this fingerplay, but for this wonderful action we start
out with Rudolph's nose red. We will do some action that rhymes with red, like
stomping our feet and shaking our head. Then I will change out the nose to
yellow and we will shake like a bowl of JELLO! The preschoolers loved doing
the actions, but they all kept wanting to change the nose back to red!

Book: How to Catch an Elf

*This is a really cute rhyming book which shows you trying to catch an elf!
The best part of this was I told the preschoolers we were going to try to catch
an elf inside the book. Well, I was already dressed up like an elf by this point,
and a little girl in front of me stood up and said "Well, I'm going to catch you!"
So, she did! Then another girl popped up and threw her arms around me too!
I was afraid I had started a stampede of kids running towards me, but they
settled down to listen. This is a really cute read aloud, but I think they were just
a little too wound up to listen by this point.

Action: Catching an Elf

*To end storytime I wanted us to catch an elf! So, my volunteer had an elf
puppet up behind me, on the puppet stage. I was using a butterfly net to
“catch” elf. Let me set the scene for you. I was dressed up in my elf costume,
a sweater dress, complete with jingle bells on it, and big elf house shoes, with
two very large jingle bells on the end of each shoe. So, I would run around
multiple times trying to "catch" my elf. One little girl told me to "sneak" up on
the elf, so I said okay! I started to tiptoe, and said "Oh no!", that won't work.
Why? I had forgotton about the jingle bells on my shoes! Everyone in the room
laughed quite loudly at that, and many thought I had planned it. Let me
promise you, I didn't, but at least it looked like I had!

Our craft today was a cute little paper elf!

Credit: Glued to My Crafts


Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Click, Clack, Ho, Ho, Ho! (With puppets)

*I love reading this book to the two's and today was the best reaction I've ever
received! I like to take a box and turn it into a chimney by covering it with red
paper. As I read, my volunteer will take my puppet and stick them inside the box
upside-down, like they are stuck! The two's laughed and their parents laughed
so much at the puppets! It was such a glorious reaction to the book, I am so
glad
that I read this to them!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Gingerbread Jumping on the Bed

Book: Don’t Push the Button: A Christmas Adventure

*This is a great interactive book to use with the two's and today they really
surprised me! Right when I opened the book up and showed the button to them
something happened that's never happened before. I had an adorable two run
up
to me and press the button inside the book. I playfully said to him, "Don't push
the button!" Of course, the game was on to press the button again, so we had
a fun time of him trying to press the button! This just set the mood perfectly to
read this book!

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.

*Here is where I found this adorable fingerplay.

Our craft today was a cute little paper elf!

Credit: Glued to My Crafts

Ten Red Apples (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: Apples

I love red apples, they are so sweet!

Let’s find a red apple so we can eat!

*I wanted to do something interactive with the preschoolers to open up, and came up with this rhyme at the last moment. Don't you love when that happens? I made different colored apples out of construction paper, and told the preschoolers the rhyme above. Then I proceeded to hold up the wrong colored apple until you I got to correct red apple. The preschoolers screamed and shouted at me until I got to the red apple! It was so much fun!

Book: Terrible Plop

*This is my first time reading this book in storytime, and it went really well! It's a bit lengthy, but it rhymes, so that helps with the flow of the book.

Fingerplay/Flannel:

Acorn, acorn, where do you hide?

Are you under the _____ leaf?

Let's peek inside!

*The preschoolers love hiding games on the flannelboard, so to make this fit with our theme we hunted for an apple.

Credit: Literary Hoots

Book: Shake the Tree

*I was so excited to use this book, I even made a flannel for it, which I've included a picture below. I had plans to hand out dancing scarves to the preschoolers, so that we could shake the scarves like a tree as I read. But I was afraid that would be too distracting, so instead we just shook our arms from side to side. Sadly, the preschoolers didn’t enjoy this book near as much as I’d hoped.

Fingerplay: Tree Shakers (Use Scarves)

Everybody shake high and low,

Shakin’ like a leafy tree.

Everybody shake high and low,

Shaking’ like a leafy tree.

Stretch, stretch, stretch,

Stretch out your branches.

Bend, bend, bend,

Bend in the breeze.

Shake, shake, shake,

Shake all around now.

Stretch, stretch, stretch.

Everybody shake high and low,

Shakin’ like a leafy tree….

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Apples

Five golden autumn leaves,

High up in the tree.

The wind blows,

The leaves shake,

And one falls down to me.

Falling, falling,

Falling down,

Falling, falling,

Falling to the ground.

*For this flannel I placed apples onto my flannel tree. As I tell the fingerplay, I take one apple off my tree. Then, I will have paper apples "rain" down onto the preschoolers, much to their delight!

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

For our craft today we made an apple pie! Then we gave them brown strips cut out to put over the apples to look like crust.  After that, we had cotton balls glued onto white circles to represent cool whip.

  

We also played games today!  To see what we did click here!

Extra books:

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Apples and Robins

*I only read parts of this book, and in the beginning the two's did great with it.  For some reason, they lost interest near the end.  I don't know if it was me, the book or just this storytime.  Still, I highly recommend this book, it's a great book to use for a shapes or apple theme!

Fingerplay/Flannel:

Acorn, acorn, where do you hide?

Are you under the _____ leaf?

Let's peek inside!

*The preschoolers love hiding games on the flannelboard, so to make this fit with our theme we hunted for an apple.

Credit: Literary Hoots

Flannelboard: “Five Little Apples”

Five little apples hung in a tree

The farmer wasn’t looking.

So guess who came to eat?

A rabbit! Munch, munch, munch!

(Mouse, crow, turtle, bat)

Now the tree is bare

There are no more apples there

But when next fall comes around

Guess who’ll be there! The rabbit, the mouse, the crow, the turtle, and the bat!

Credit: Storytime Secrets

Book: Tap the Magic Tree

For our craft today we made an apple pie!  Then we gave them brown strips cut out to put over the apples to look like crust.  After that, we had cotton balls glued onto white circles to represent cool whip. 
 

We also played games today!  To see what we did click here!