Farm

 Opening: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Do Cows Meow?

Fingerplay: 5 Little Frogs

5 little frogs go hop, hop, hop.

STOP!  Did one little frog hop away?

Continue to zero

Book: Five Little Chicks

Fingerplay: “If You’re Happy And You Know It”

Put your finger on your knee, on your knee.

Put your finger on your knee, on your knee.

Then turn yourself around,

Stamp your feet upon the ground,

And put your finger on your knee.

Continue: Head, foot, etc.

*Disclaimer: This is not my original idea, but kudos to the one who came up with it!

Hiding Game: Pig Inside Barn

Book: Barnyard Banter

Video: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Craft:

Extra Books:

Pigs and Pancakes

 Preschool Storytime

Opening: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: I Spy on the Farm

Fingerplay:
Farmer Brown had 5 green apples, hanging on the tree

He plucked one apple and he ate it hungrily,

Leaving 4 green apples, a-hangin’ on the tree.

…Continue counting down to 1 green apple…

Fingerplay:

Three little pigs, rolling in the mud.

Going squishy, squashy, squishy, squashy, if felt so good!

Farmer took one pig out and cleaned him up nice!

Now there are 2 pigs rolling in the mud!

Continue until zero pigs left.

Book: Do Cows Meow?

Fingerplay:

Five little frogs went hop, hop, hop

STOP!!!!

Did one of my frogs hop away?

Let’s count them again!

Fingerplay:

If you like to eat an apple, clap your hands! (Repeat)

If you like to eat an apple, lick your lips and make 'em smackle.

If you like to eat an apple, clap your hands.

-Stomp your feet, rub your tummy

Book: Barnyard Banter

Fingerplay:

Put your hands up high.  

Put your hands down low 

Put your hands in the middle and wiggle just so 

Put your elbows in the front.

Put your elbows in the back. 

Put your elbows to the side and 

QUACK, QUACK, QUACK

Flannel:

I love apples, so good to eat!

Sweet red apples can't be beat!

I love apples, so good to eat!

Funny yellow apples can't be beat!

I love apples, so good to eat!

Green apples can't be beat!

*For this I hand out different colored apples to the kids and I will do the rhyme above to call for each apple to be placed on the flannel board.

Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Pignic

August 11, 2022

Two’s Storytime

Opening: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: I Spy on the Farm

Fingerplay:
Farmer Brown had 5 green apples, hanging on the tree

He plucked one apple and he ate it hungrily,

Leaving 4 green apples, a-hangin’ on the tree.

…Continue counting down to 1 green apple…

Fingerplay: Farm Animal Movement Cards

Book: Do Cows Meow?

Fingerplay: Pig in Barn Hiding Game

Action: Farm Animal Movement Cards

Fingerplay:

Five little frogs went hop, hop, hop

STOP!!!!

Did one of my frogs hop away?

Let’s count them again!

Book: Barnyard Banter

Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Palooza of Pigs

 Book: Pig the Tourist

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Piggies Jumping on the Bed

Book: Pig and Pug

Fingerplay: Farm Action Cards with Puppets

Book: What This Story Needs is a Pig in a Wig

Pajama Party (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

*Normally, the kids are very excited but manageable for storytime. I don't know what it was about this particular day, but it was wild and woolly! It could have been our number of kids, which was way above normal, or the fact that we were all in our PJ's. I don't feel like this time was a total flop, but I do feel like I could have done a lot better with it. Do you ever feel that way? I do love all the books I read, but might have changed the second book, looking back on it. That's one of the main reasons I keep this blog, for reflection back on what did and didn't work. All that being said, Pajama storytime is a favorite theme of mine and I will definitely be repeating it!

Opening: Big Books

Book: Ten Pigs in Bed

*For this, I have ten pigs that I prop up on my puppet stage behind me. As I'm reading, my volunteer will take down a pig. This is set to the traditional song "Six in the Bed." When things disappear behind me, the preschooler go crazy screaming at me, and they didn't let me down!

Flannel: Five Cozy Blankets

5 cozy blankets with patterns galore,

1 covered Rabbit and then there were four.

4 cozy blankets as snuggly as can be,

1 covered Raccoon and then there were three.

3 cozy blankets with dots red and blue,

1 covered Fox and then there were two.

2 cozy blankets made just for fun,

1 covered Bear and then there was one.

1 cozy blanket left out in the sun,

It covered Owl and then there were none.

Credit: Flannel Board Fun

*One thing I will do differently with this the next time is have five actual blankets instead of the flannelboard sets I used. I would like to take my blankets and physically cover up the puppets with the blanket. I think the preschoolers would love this!

Book: Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC

*I was so excited to read this book, especially because I've never read it before in storytime.  After I read the title and asked the preschoolers to tell me the letters on the cover, it got very interesting.  Two or three preschoolers had to sing the alphabet song to me, and I think that kind of got everyone a little distracted.  Still, I think this is a wonderful movement book to use.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Fingerplay/Flannel: What’s That Noise?

Credit: Librarian vs. Storytime

Our craft today was a sleeping bear! I apologize, I tried to give credit for the website where I found this craft, but the website wouldn't work for me.

Extra Books:

Time for Two’s Storytime:

*Hopefully our crowd will pick back up, but my attendance has been dropping for two's. Ideally I love to have around twenty kids for two's storytime. To me, this is a great balance because the two's help each other feel comfortable and they seem to interact better with me and each other. For this storytime we had five show up and they all seemed to have a great time. When I have a low number of two's show up for storytime, they tend to get very shy and don't always interact as well as when I have a bigger number. But once we got going with the first story everyone seemed to have a good time.

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Ten Pigs in Bed

*For this, I have ten pigs that I prop up on my puppet stage behind me. As I'm reading, my volunteer will take down a pig. This is set to the traditional song "Six in the Bed."

Fingerplay/Flannel: What’s That Noise?

Credit: Librarian vs. Storytime

Book: Everyone Is Yawning

*My two's adore lift-the-flap books and this book doesn't disappoint!  We all had fun hissing, oinking and hooting like animals!

Flannel: Five Cozy Blankets

Credit: Flannel Board Fun

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Action: Six in the Bed

*Instead of singing the song again, I handed out teddy bears to all the two's. I have a big bed with velcro on it, that I stick to my flannelboard. The teddy bears have velcro on the back of them, so that they will stick to the bed. The two's love to put anything on my flannelboard, so this was a lot of fun for them.

Our craft today was a sleeping bear! I apologize, I tried to give credit for the website where I found this craft, but the website wouldn't work for me.

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!

Once Upon a Storytime (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Book: I Will Not Eat You

*This is such a fun book to read, especially when you use a dragon puppet! That's the fabulous creature hiding inside the cave, a dragon! The preschoolers loved making the animal sounds along with me as we tried to guess the animal hiding inside our cave.

Fingerplay: Dragon, Dragon

Dragon, dragon, turn around

Dragon, dragon, touch the ground

Dragon, dragon, fly up high

Dragon, dragon, touch the sky

Dragon, dragon, swing your tail

Dragon, dragon, shake your scales

Dragon, dragon, give a ROAR

Dragon, dragon, sit on the floor

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Book: Huff & Puff

*For this story, I decided I wanted to make some props for my pigs. So, I made a house for each pig, and taped them onto a box. Then I tucked the happy pig into the first house, and as we "blew" down the house, my volunteer literally knocked the house into the floor! Much to the kids delight. Then my volunteer would show the pig to my kids, with the unhappy pig facing out. When we got to the last house, we tried huffing and puffing with all our might, but we couldn't knock down that house! But instead, my volunteer pulled out a yummy chocolate cake for the wolf! Which is what happens at the end of the story. I've included pictures below of the houses I made so that you can see what I did. All the houses folded down, but I cut out the windows so that you can just tuck each pig inside the house.

*This pig is the grumpy pig, can you tell?  LOL!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Knights

Five little knights, fearless and brave,

Went dragon hunting deep in a cave!

They heard a loud ROAR

Shaking the cave’s floor!

So one little knight ran away!

(Four… Three… Two… One…)

*The kids loved stomping our feet and roaring like dragons. The best part was watching all the knights run away behind me!

Credit: Literary Hoots

Fingerplay/Flannel: Pancakes Hiding Game

*Pancakes, pancakes, not very big...

Are you under the purple pig??

Credit: Flannel Board Fun

Book: Not Your Typical Dragon

*This book is great to read, but it was the last one I read and it was a little long. The thing that helped the most was that I had the items inside the story cut out of construction paper. So, when Cripsin the dragon breathes out teddy bears instead of fire, I would throw out little paper teddy bears onto the kids. They loved all the items being thrown out onto them!

Our craft today was a castle!

Credit: http://terrific2s.blogspot.com/2013/08/fairy-tale-preschool-projects-for-2.html

Extra Books:

I dressed up as Snow White, here I am!

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: Huff & Puff

*For this story, I decided I wanted to make some props for my pigs. So, I made a house for each pig, and taped them onto a box. Then I tucked the happy pig into the first house, and as we "blew" down the house, my volunteer literally knocked the house into the floor! Much to the kids delight. Then my volunteer would show the pig to my kids, with the unhappy pig facing out. When we got to the last house, we tried huffing and puffing with all our might, but we couldn't knock down that house! But instead, my volunteer pulled out a yummy chocolate cake for the wolf! Which is what happens at the end of the story. I've included pictures in the post above.

Fingerplay: Dragon, Dragon

Dragon, dragon, turn around

Dragon, dragon, touch the ground

Dragon, dragon, fly up high

Dragon, dragon, touch the sky

Dragon, dragon, swing your tail

Dragon, dragon, shake your scales

Dragon, dragon, give a ROAR

Dragon, dragon, sit on the floor

Credit: Sunflower Storytime

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Knights

Five little knights, fearless and brave,

Went dragon hunting deep in a cave!

They heard a loud ROAR

Shaking the cave’s floor!

So one little knight ran away!

(Four… Three… Two… One…)

*The kids loved stomping our feet and roaring like dragons. The best part was watching all the knights run away behind me!

Credit: Literary Hoots

Book/Flannel: How to Dress a Dragon

*I made a flannel to go along with this story, but I have to say that the sock is missing from the picture below. But I did find the sock! It has returned to the dragon once again!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Pancakes Hiding Game

*Pancakes, pancakes, not very big...

Are you under the purple pig??

Credit: Flannel Board Fun

Our craft today was a castle!

Credit: http://terrific2s.blogspot.com/2013/08/fairy-tale-preschool-projects-for-2.html

Extra Book: