New books October 2022

 

Dini the Dinosaur

 I absolutely love the book "Dini the Dinosaur", and I decided to make a flannel to go along with it.  All of the clothes are removeable so as you read the book, you can take them off and make the flannel interactive.  

Here is the book this is based on!

Summer Reading 2022

 Hello!

I have been a bad cookie, not posted on here since April!  I will get back to posting soon, I promise.  Here are some of the decorations in my library!

 My library was very fortunate to receive donations from a local school who made the octopus and the shark below!

 For every 100 minutes the kids log, they get to pick out a sea creature and stick it up anywhere in the Youth Services Department!  I wish we had done this before, the kids adore it!

 This is probably my favorite decoration to make just because its 3-D. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I love it!

 One of my favorite things, each scale on the fish equals 250 minutes.  This is an older picture, because we are over 50,000 minutes!!!

 Front display case and these jellyfish are amazing!  Extremely affordable on amazon and I love them!  I was very fortunate to be able to use the decorations donated from a local school for the display case!

 Ahoy mateys!  Until next time!

Update

 Hello!  Life has been a little crazy, I have had surgery and am recovering wonderfully!

I haven't updated this blog at all this year, and my goal is to try and get it going again this month.  Hang in there with me, I'll get back to some kind of normal soon!

Opposites

 To be fair, I wasn't expecting for the preschoolers to do so well with opposites.  They were amazing!!! I always hesitate when I do this theme, because I think its a hard concept to grasp.  I'm very grateful I did, they absolutely loved it!

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

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands! (repeat twice)

If you want to hear a story, if you want to hear a story.

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands!

Book: Go! Go! Go! Stop!

*For this book I have two signs to use, one saying STOP and the other GO. I just found some cute reversible foam signs online, and I think I'll buy them because I use STOP and GO a lot.

Fingerplay: Five Clean and Dirty Pigs (Only did four pigs)
Four pigs so squeaky clean, cleanest you've ever seen
One jumped into the mud
Landed with a big THUD! (make a big clap to some sound effect, if you want)
Then there were four clean squeaky pigs.
Repeat, counting down
One pig so squeaky clean, cleanest you've ever seen
He jumped into the mud
Landed with a THUD
Then there were no more clean squeaky pigs
Source: Mel's Desk via Storytime Katie

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Go Up and Down?

*This book is wonderful, as are all of Jane Yolen's books. The kids loved telling me what the opposite was and then watching me open the flap up to show them.

Fingerplay: Opposite Time

(Normally we’d use scarves, but instead we will use our hands)
I say up and you say…. DOWN!

Up! Down! Up! Down!

I say fast and you say…. SLOW!

Fast! Slow! Fast! Slow!

I say shrink and you say… GROW!

Shrink! Grow! Shrink! Grow! (Hunch down on floor, then jump up tall!)

I say stop and you say… GO!

Stop! Go! Stop! Go!

(Added the bold lines.)

http://missmegsstorytime.com/opposites-storytime/

Office Book: Opposite Surprise

*In this book we will learn our opposites.  There will be lots of surprises in this book!

Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This (Tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this.

We clap our hands for all our friends!

We wave goodbye like this.

We wave goodbye really fast,

We wave goodbye really slow.

We turn around and take a bow,

And then it’s time to go!

Credit: adapted from Storytime Katie

Extra Books:

New Books February 2022

 

This book covers so many subjects!  

Zoo, eating and silly too!

Seek and Count (Preschool Storytime)

Opening:  If You Want to Hear a Story, Clap Your Hands (Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It)

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands! (repeat twice)

If you want to hear a story, if you want to hear a story.

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands!

Book: One-Osaurus, Two-Osaurus

Fingerplay: Ten Kittens

Ten little kittens standing in a row (Palms facing forward, fingers extended.)
They bow their heads to the children just so (Bend fingers back and forth.)
They run to the left, they run to the right (Move fingers to alternate sides, wiggling fingers.)
they stretch up tall with all their might. (Also do high, low, behind, front, fast, slow.)
Along comes a dog, looking for some fun. (Fingers of one hand resting on thumb, move towards other hand.)
"Meow!" Away those kittens run! (As you meow, open both hands with fingers extended.  "Run" hands behind back.)

Book: One Sheep, Two Sheep

Fingerplay: 5 Little Bugs

*For this I have three large bugs I've made, picture below. You can do this a number of ways, put the bugs up on your flannelboard, or attach them to rulers and wave them around. I've also give volunteers or staff helping me a bug to hold up also.
3 little bugs were flying through the air (make motions with hands)
Buzzing around without a care
Along came a frog with a hippety-hop (Hop up and down)
GULP! GULP! GULP! (snap hands together)
One bug was caught!

Book: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This (Tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this.

We clap our hands for all our friends!

We wave goodbye like this.

We wave goodbye really fast,

We wave goodbye really slow.

We turn around and take a bow,

And then it’s time to go!

Credit: adapted from Storytime Katie

Put Me in the Zoo (Preschool Storytime)

 Opening: If You Want to Hear a Story

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands! (repeat)

If you want to hear a story, if you want to hear a story,

If you want to hear a story, clap your hands!

Book: Get Out of My Bath!

Action: Cow Hiding in Barn

*I have many hiding games, so you can click here to see them all!

Action: Farm Animal Movement Cards

*For this I have different farm animals with actions.  I will hold up each card, ask what animal it is.  After that we will make the noise of each animal and do an action.

Book: Dini Dinosaur

*For this I have a dinosaur that goes on my flannelboard.  He has clothes that I take off as we read the book. I really need to make a much bigger version of this.  The one I currently have is very small!

Fingerplay: 5 Rubber Ducks

*For this I like to put up rubber ducks on my flannel.  If the kids are receptive, I will have my volunteer spray "mist" as the ducks jump into the water.  If not, then you can replace the ducks with a big puddle of water on the flannelboard.

5 rubber ducks came out to play,

Battling the waves in the tub today. (wave fingers around)

Along came the splash that sent one to shore, (throw hands up high in the air)

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. (wave fingers around)

Along came the splash that sent him to shore, (throw hands up high in the air)

Now no rubber ducks can play anymore.

Credit: https://missmaryliberry.com/2012/03/23/flannel-friday-5-rubber-ducks/

Book: Do Cows Meow?

Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This (Tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this.

We clap our hands for all our friends!

We wave goodbye like this.

We wave goodbye really fast,

We wave goodbye really slow.

We turn around and take a bow,

And then it’s time to go!

Credit: adapted from Storytime Katie

Hiding Games

 I don't know about you, but my preschoolers absolutely LOVE hiding games!  I've made several over the last few months and I made them portable.  What I mean is, they will stick to a flannelboard or a ruler.  I take a standard ruler, cover it in paper, and velcro the hiding game to it.  This way I can have something fun to take to outreach programs without having to carry a big flannelboard.  I have pictures below of the hiding games I've made that open up to reveal the item.  Let me know if you have any others you'd like to see, I'd love to make them!

One more thing, I have velcro on all of my hiding games.  This allows me to change out the item we are looking for each time.

Barn Hiding Game:

For this game I made three red barns before I realized I wanted them to all be different colors.  Instead of making more, I put shapes on the top of each barn.  As you can see, this barn has....a pig inside!

Dog Hiding Game:

For this game I made three different colored doghouses.  I have to admit, this one took a little while to make but I love it!

Leaf Hiding Game:

For this game I made three different colored leaves.  As you can see in the second picture, that small black square is my velcro.  I have velcro on all of the items that I hide and using velcro makes them easier to swap out.  I also laminate all of the pieces I use to make them sturdier.

Tree Hiding Game:

For this game I made three different trees with numbers on them.  You can easily change out the numbers for shapes or letters.

Apple Hiding Game:

For this game I made three different colored apples.  This is one of my favorite because the kids love seeing the purple apple!

Color Changing Monster:

I love making items double-sided because it amazes the kids when the see the item change!  For this I feed my monster different food and flip him over to show the kids that he turned that color!  I also have grapes and strawberries.