September New Books 2018

*Oh my goodness, this book is the best dragon book!  If you're not familiar with Tom Fletcher's books, then go right now and read them!  Go!!!!!!!  This book is one of the best interactive books I've read, and it's really hard to find a cute dragon book.  Trust me, this one won't disappoint!


*I am always looking for a well illustrated version of the song we all know and love.  This book doesn't disappoint!  I do have to say I haven't listened to the music that accompanies this book.  All of the other books from the Cantana learning series have had fabulous music, so hopefully this one will be just as good as the others!


*I love bedtime stories, and we all know the song "Six in the Bed".  Can you tell I love the Cantana learning books?  They are so good!  Again, I haven't listened to the music that goes along with this book, but I'm hoping there are some cute pig sounds!

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: Make a Pig

*My preschoolers love to tell me what I'm doing
wrong on my flannelboard, so today they helped
me make a pig! To see this fabulous idea in action,
check out the link below. Trust me, I didn't
come up with the idea, but I have done other animals
after finding this wonderful flannel!
Credit: Miss Mary Liberry

Book: Bathtime for Little Rabbit (Special guest doing ASL)

*This book is always great for storytime, and the
preschoolers loved doing all the actions
along with me.

Fingerplay: Five Bars of Soap (Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes)

Five bars of soap and not one more.

{Puppet} took one and then there were four.

Four bars of soap for everyone to see.

{Puppet} took one, and then there were three.

Three bars of soap, we’re almost through.

{Puppet} took one, and then there were two.

Two bars of soap, having lots of fun.

{Puppet} took one, and then there was one.

One bar of soap, sitting all alone.

{Puppet} took it, and then there was none.

*I edited this and decided to have puppets take the
bars of soap.  You can also do five rubber ducks
instead of soap. Stand up and act like each animal!

Book: Dini Dinosaur (With Flannel)

*Dini Dinosaur is a must read-aloud when I'm doing a bath theme!  I have a flannelboard that I use,
and the kids always get a kick out of seeing it.

Fingerplay: 5 Rubber Ducks (Use puppet stage)

5 rubber ducks came out to play,

Battling the waves in the tub today.

Along came the splash that sent one to shore,

And then he couldn’t play anymore.

4 rubber ducks…3 rubber ducks…2 rubber ducks…

1 rubber duck came out to play,

Battling the waves in the tub today.

Along came the splash that sent him to shore,

Now no rubber ducks can play anymore.

*The preschoolers went crazy over this!  What I did
was have five rubber ducks on the puppet stage
behind me.  The preschoolers and I would wave our
arms up and down while we said: Battling the
waves in the tub today.  When we said: Along came
the splash, we threw our hands up in the air.
At this point, my volunteer behind me took the spray
bottle and squirted water over the puppet stage.
Credit: Felt Board Magic

Book: Barnyard Banter

*I love to have my volunteer behind the stage with our duck puppet.  As I'm reading this book, we go along making all the animal sounds.  When I read the line "Where's goose", except I will replace that with "Where's duck?", my volunteer will pop up the duck puppet.  The preschooler will scream and shout out at me there's the duck!  They absolutely love this!

Our craft today was a torn paper piggie!

Credit: Living Life and Learning

This month we also had games, and you can check
them out here!

Time for Two’s Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Dini Dinosaur (With Flannel)

Fingerplay: Five Bars of Soap

Five bars of soap and not one more.

{Puppet} took one and then there were four.

Four bars of soap for everyone to see.

{Puppet} took one, and then there were three.

Three bars of soap, we’re almost through.

{Puppet} took one, and then there were two.

Two bars of soap, having lots of fun.

{Puppet} took one, and then there was one.

One bar of soap, sitting all alone.

{Puppet} took it, and then there was none.

*I edited this and decided to have puppets take the
bars of soap.  You can also do five
rubber ducks instead of soap.
Credit: (Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes)

Fingerplay/Flannel: Barn Hiding Game
*We hunted for a rabbit behind many different
colored barns.

Book: Barnyard Banter (With Duck Puppet)

Fingerplay: Wishy Washy Song (Tune:  London Bridge)

The cow jumped in the mud, in the mud,

in the mud.  The cow jumped in the mud.  

Now he’s dirty.

…pig rolled, …duck paddled.

WHO DO WE CALL TO WASH THE ANIMALS?  MRS
WISHY-WASHY! (ADDED THIS)

The cow washed in the tub, in the tub, in the tub.  
The cow washed in the tub.

Wishy, Washy.

…pig…duck.

The all jumped in the mud, in the mud,

in the mud.  They all jumped in the mud

they are dirty again.

*I love doing this with the kids, and to make it more
interactive, we all stand up and jump!  
I have a box covered with brown fabric, and my
volunteer will have my animals "jump" into the mud.
 So much fun!

Credit: Making Learning Fun

Extra Books: Moo Peekaboo

Our craft today was a torn paper piggie!

Credit: Living Life and Learning

This month we also had games, and you can check
them out here!

September Sensory Bins and Games

Below are our games and sensory bins for September!  This month most everything was centered around the farm.

1. Barn Shape Matching

*The kids did a wonderful job matching the shapes to the correct barn!
Credit: From ABC's to ACTs

2. Pig Alphabet Matching



*For this game, I made my own mud splatters, and decided to spell out P-I-G.  I was able to download the pigs for free, which I included the link below.  The preschooler group was the only group that did this game, but they matched the letters very well!
Credit: The Kindergarten Connection

3. Barn Sponge Ball Matching


*Both of my storytime groups adore the sponge balls that I have, so I wanted to come up with a farm game to use them with this month.  I have different colored barns that are made out of construction paper.  I just taped them onto a big box I have, and the kids just push them through the opening!  They loved it!

4. Crayon Matching

*Both groups love digging through the butterfly petals, so this time we had crayons hidden inside.  The crayon boxes are taped to a bulletin board, and they are just recycled boxes covered up and made to look like crayon boxes.

All of the games went over extremely well this month, with very little clean-up involved.  I'm really impressed with how well the preschoolers are matching the letters.  I'd like to start doing some word matching with them, so hopefully that will happen soon!

How to Hide a Lion (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay/Flannel: Kangaroo Guessing Game

*I have no idea where I found this, so if it's your brilliant idea, please speak up! I have this guessing rhyme I read off, and hide the items inside kangaroo's pouch. I place my big kangaroo onto the flannelboard, and read the rhyme to the kids and see if they can guess the item I'm describing before the item is pulled out of kangaroo's pouch! Normally the kids love guessing games, but for whatever reason this time they didn't enjoy it as much.

Book: Tiny Little Fly (With puppets)

*I have read this book before in storytime, but I've never gotten such a wonderful reaction to it!  My volunteer put up a fly that I made and each puppet that appeared during the story.  We stomped, rolled and swatted at that tiny little fly!

Fingerplay: Five Ferocious Lions

Deep in the jungle, what did I hear?

Five ferocious lions, roaring loud and clear.

“ROAR” said the lion.

“SCAT” said I.

And one ferocious lion said GOODBYE! (Remove lion and repeat until zero.)

*For this precious flannel, my volunteer made for me five, big lion to place up on my puppet stage. We stood up, roared at the lions, and chased them all away! I would love to give credit for this, but there was no link for it, just a picture uploaded on pinterest.

Book: Do Not Open This Book! (With Puppets)

*This book is so much fun to act out with puppets!  Once again, I had my volunteer behind the puppet stage, and we had lots of trying to get all the puppets back inside my book.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Lion Hiding Game

Lion, lion, where can you be?

Shout out a color on the count of three!

*Below is a picture of the flannelboard I made a while back for a jungle theme. I'm always afraid the kids will get tired of looking for things, but thankfully they never do!

Action: Jungle Animal Action Cards

Our craft today was a lion! The most precious thing about the craft was we had two families stay late, making their craft. Two of the boys chased each other around, roaring like lions! That makes me feel extra good when I know they really enjoyed what they made.

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay:If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Tiny Little Fly (With Puppets)

*My volunteer put up a fly that I made and each puppet that appeared during the story.  We stomped, rolled and swatted at that tiny little fly!  The two's went crazy over everything, which made this a wonderful read-aloud.

Fingerplay: Five Ferocious Lions

Deep in the jungle, what did I hear?

Five ferocious lions, roaring loud and clear.

“ROAR” said the lion.

“SCAT” said I.

And one ferocious lion said GOODBYE! (Remove lion and repeat until zero.)

*For this precious flannel, my volunteer made for me five, big lion to place up on my puppet stage. We stood up, roared at the lions, and chased them all away! I would love to give credit for this, but there was no link for it, just a picture uploaded on pinterest.

Song: Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree (With Puppets)

Book: Where’s the Giraffe?

Fingerplay/Flannel: Lion Hiding Game

Lion, lion, where can you be?

Shout out a color on the count of three!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Lion Hiding Game

Lion, lion, where can you be?

Shout out a color on the count of three!

*Below is a picture of the flannelboard I made a while back for a jungle theme. I'm always afraid the kids will get tired of looking for things, but thankfully they never do! Before I could even ask for a color today the two's started screaming out which door to look behind!

Action: We’re Going on a Lion Hunt

*This time we caught my lion puppet, much to the two's delight!

Our craft today was a lion!

Crayons and Colors (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: Birdhouse Colors Matching

Book: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

*Usually the kids know the song to sing along with this book. But this time, most of them didn't. I do have to say they all knew their colors very well, so that made reading the book lots of fun! There is a fun pattern to use with this book, and you can find it here!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Guessing Game

*For this game, I used the cards above.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Cat…..

*For this hiding game, I hid Pete the cat behind different colored shoes.

Book/Flannel: What Color is Bear’s Underwear?

*I was so excited to use this book, I even made a flannelboard bear and underwear to go along with it. But for whatever reason, the kids didn’t enjoy this near as much as I had hoped. I do have to say, this is still a very silly book!

Flannelboard: I Have a Crayon

I have a crayon, I’ll give it to you.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of blue.

I have a crayon, a lovely little fellow.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of yellow.

I have a crayon, it’s here on my head.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of red.

I have a crayon, we can draw a circle.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of purple.

I have a crayon, what do I see?

Here is my crayon, an orange one for me.

I have a crayon, the best ever seen.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of green

*For this fingerplay, we all stood up and acted like animals. Why? Because I fed each crayon to a different puppet. So each time the puppet appeared, we acted like that animal and I gave them a crayon!

Credit: Anne’s Library Life

Action: Crayon Changing

*Use paint cans and tell kids you’re going to change the colors of the crayons.  Do this like the story “White Rabbit’s Colors”, where you change out the crayons in each paint can.

LOVED! Would have watched me do this the whole storytime! I have included a picture below to show you what my paint cans look like. I have a hidden pocket inside each paint can, so that I can make my crayons "disappear". The kids think I'm magic, which is so awesome!

Book: Colors All Around

*Ialready done a lot in this storytime, but I'm glad I went ahead and read this book. In this interactive book, you do different things to make items fall down inside the book. I had these items cut out of paper, so that I could throw the items out onto the kids! For instance, when you tapped the pages of the book, and bananas fell down on the pages of the book, I threw out paper bananas onto the kids! This is always a big hit with the kids, and they loved it this time too!

Our craft today was two crayons inside their crayon box! We added the crayon box to our craft to have something to put our crayons inside.

Credit: Crafty Pammy

Extra Books:

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay/Flannel: Birdhouse Matching

Book: Cat’s Colors (Puts dots on cat puppet as you read)

*I was really excited to do this, but I had no idea the two's would have such a reaction to this! I had my volunteer hold out the cat puppet as I read this story. Cat goes around collecting colors all throughout this book. So I had each color cut out of construction paper. As I read the story, I would stick each colored dot onto the cat puppet. The two's went crazy over this! Such a wonderful reaction!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Cat…..

*For this hiding game, I hid Pete the cat behind different colored shoes.

Flannelboard: I Have a Crayon

I have a crayon, I’ll give it to you.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of blue.

I have a crayon, a lovely little fellow.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of yellow.

I have a crayon, it’s here on my head.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of red.

I have a crayon, we can draw a circle.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of purple.

I have a crayon, what do I see?

Here is my crayon, an orange one for me.

I have a crayon, the best ever seen.

Here is my crayon, my crayon of green

*For this fingerplay, we all stood up and acted like animals. Why? Because I fed each crayon to a different puppet. So each time the puppet appeared, we acted like that animal and I gave them a crayon!

Credit: Anne’s Library Life

Action: Crayon Changing

*Use paint cans and tell kids you’re going to change the colors of the crayons.  Do this like the story “White Rabbit’s Colors”, where you change out the crayons in each paint can.

LOVED! Would have watched me do this the whole storytime! I have included a picture below to show you what my paint cans look like. I have a hidden pocket inside each paint can, so that I can make my crayons "disappear". The kids think I'm magic, which is so awesome!

Our craft today was two crayons inside their crayon box! We added the crayon box to our craft to have something to put our crayons inside.
Credit: Crafty Pammy

Credit: Crafty Pammy