D is for Dots and Spots (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Action: Introduce Letter D for DOTS

Book: “Put Me in the Zoo”

*I was so excited to use this book, and it just didn't interest the kids as much as I had hoped it would.  I still love the book and I did base my craft off it.

Action/Flannel: Crazy Traffic Light by Rob Reid

*The preschoolers went wild over this!  They had so much fun telling me the different colors and doing all the actions that went along with each color. So much fun!

Credit: Literacious

Book: Look Out, Ladybug! (With puppets)

*The preschoolers enjoyed seeing the ladybug puppet fly around behind me.  This book is a really cute book, and the ending is very funny!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Ladybug Song

*I was very excited to use this, and made a big ladybug to place all the dots on as we counted.  Sometimes it depends on the day, but the preschoolers weren't into this very much.  I still thinks it's a great counting song!

Credit: Classroom Freebies

Fingerplay/Flannel: Robot Hiding Game

Robot, robot, are you under the {red} dot?

Action: 

Give out dots to kids to place in big black and white dog after reading “Dog’s Colorful Day.”

*I forgot to take a picture of this, I apologize.  I took our big black and white dog puppet, and wrapped him up in tape.  Then all the preschoolers received a dot cut out of construction paper.  I went around with my dog and everyone got to place their dot on my dog.  They loved it!

Today we had games, and to view them just click here!

Our craft today was from the first book we read.  I sketched out the animal, and the preschoolers glued down the grass and all the dots.  Below is what our animal looked like.

Extra Books:

Can You Make a Scary Face?

Dot
Lots of Spots

Not Quite Black and White

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Action: Introduce Letter D

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story”

Book: Dog’s Colorful Day

*This is my go-to book for colors, dogs, dots, anything that fits in that theme.  The two's really enjoyed it!

Action: Zoo Animal Cards

Fingerplay/Flannel: Robot Hiding Game

Robot, robot, are you under the {red} dot?

Book:  Look Out, Ladybug! (With puppets)

*The two's loved seeing the ladybug and other puppets pop up behind me!

Action: 

Give out dots to kids to place in big black and white dog after reading “Dog’s Colorful Day.”

*I forgot to take a picture of this, I apologize.  I took our big black and white dog puppet, and wrapped him up in tape.  Then all the preschoolers received a dot cut out of construction paper.  I went around with my dog and everyone got to place their dot on my dog.  They loved it!

Today we had games, and to view them just click here!

Our craft today was from the first book we read.  I sketched out the animal, and the two's glued down all the dots.  Below is what our animal looked like.

Extra Books:

Can You Make a Scary Face?

Dot
Lots of Spots

Not Quite Black and White

September Sensory Bins and Games

It's game time again!  This month I tried to center my games around the letters A-D and the themes we did with those letters. 

We had a lot of fun with our games, and my favorite find was the sponge balls!  I ordered them online, and the kids went bonkers playing with them!  Since they worked out so well, I ordered another pack of them.  They are so much better than beanbags and much more affordable.

1.) Crayon Bowling
The kids love bowling, and we did a color and artist theme at the beginning of September.

2.) Rabbit Color Matching
I found a wonderful rabbit pom-pom game online, which you can find the template for here.  But I wanted to use something besides pom-poms, and I found the wonderful sponge balls, so I thought I'd give them a try.  They were such a fascinating ball to the kids!  I just took an empty box, cut out my holes, printed out the rabbits taped them down.  The kids really enjoyed this game.

3.) Dog Number Matching & Sensory Bin (Preschool Only)
The kids love digging through bins, and I've found that Easter grass works wonderfully!  I took our dog bones, and put them in four different bowls.  We matched the bones to the cute little dogs, and did numbers 1-4.  I found this wonderful printable here.

4.) Letter Matching Game & Sensory Bin (Preschool Only)
I try to have out a lot of sensory items for the preschoolers, and this was a really fun one.  The kids really impressed me because they had no trouble at all matching the upper and lowercase letters.  I found this great printable here.

.) Ladybug Matching & Sensory Bin (Two's Only)
I wanted to make sure I had more than plenty of bins out for the two's to dig through.  I ended up putting out four bowls of Easter grass, with the cute little bugs hiding in the grass.  I taped down six leaves onto the chairs.  I've found the two's do better if I have the games lower where they can reach them better.  They did a wonderful job matching the colors.  I found this cute game here.

C is for Counting, 1,2,3! (Two's)

*This was a very big group, with 36 kids!  They were quite active, so we stopped a bit early today.  But still a good storytime!

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book/Flannel: Where’s Bear?

*I love the "Bear & Hare" series, and I did skip a few pages in this book.  The two's seemed to enjoy hunting for bear and hare all throughout the book.

Fingerplay: Three Little Butterflies 

            Three little butterflies, saying “Howdy-do!”

            One flew to {puppet}, and that left two.

            Two little butterflies, snoozing in the sun,

            One flew to {puppet}, and that left one.

            One little butterfly, all alone.

            It flew to {puppet}, and that left none.

*Instead of butterflies we used bumblebees that flew away to our puppets.  

Fingerplay: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

*Our mouse was hiding behind a barn today.

Fingerplay: Animal Movements

*Stood up and acted like different animals.

Book: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons

*This is one of my favorite counting books, and not only because I love Pete the Cat.  I have all the buttons that go along with Pete cut out of construction paper.  As I'm reading the book, when I come to the part of the button popping off, I will throw out paper buttons onto the kids.  They go crazy over this!  I could hardly get them calmed down after the first button popped to keep on reading, they loved it so much.

Our craft today was the hungry caterpillar, and the kids glued down the food, face and legs.

Below is a picture of our caterpillar.

Credit: A Spoonful of Learning

C is for Camping Out (Preschool)

*I have to admit, I wasn't super excited about the camping theme, but as I planned this storytime I became more and more enthused.  This ended up being a very enjoyable storytime!

Opening: Big Books

Action: Show Letter C

Book: Goodnight Underwear (Bear in Underwear)

*This was my first time reading a "Bear in Underwear" book, and I was a little nervous that the kids and parents wouldn't like it.  Boy, was I wrong!  Right away the kids laughed hysterically at bear in  his underwear.  I'm sure it helped that I had my big bear puppet wearing Dr. Seuss underwear behind me as I read the book!

Flannel: Blankets On My Head (Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes)

A blanket on my head, a blanket on my head, hey ho, I’m cozy-o, a blanket on my head.

The wind blows tonight, the wind blows tonight, hey ho, I’m freezing-o, the wind blows tonight.

(Repeat until you get to five blankets.)

Five blankets on my head, five blankets on my head, hey ho, the wind doesn’t blow.

Take these blankets off my head!!!

*The kids loved seeing me with blankets on my head, especially when the last blanket covered my face!  I was only brave enough to do three blankets.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Hunt for Bug Under the Rug

Credit: Mel's Desk

Book: One-Dog Canoe 

*This was a fun book to read, and I wanted to make this more interactive.  So I took some empty boxes that I use to retell stories with, that are already wrapped in white paper.  I printed out all the animals from the story,the red canoe and taped each one to a box.  As I was reading, my volunteer stacked each animal on top of each other.  By the end of the story, we had quite a tower of animals going on!  The best part was when all the animals fall out of the canoe.  Why?  All of the boxes were knocked off my table!  Some of the kids were shocked and others absolutely loved it!

Fingerplay: Insect Animal Flash Cards

Credit: Click here to view the flash cards.

Skit: Fishing

*This is something we do quite often in storytime, where the kids help me go fishing.  I have a puppet stage up behind me, covered in water.  I tell the kids I'm going to catch a fish, and to let me know when they see it.  My volunteer will pop the fish up when I have my back turned, but I never turn around in time to see that fish!  I will then catch everything from a sock to an empty candy wrapper before I catch the fish.  But not the big giant fish the kids see, but a little tiny fish they haven't seen.  The best part that happened was when I showed the kids my empty bag of M&M's and asked them if they ate my candy.  I was only joking with them, and a little girl came up to me and said that she did!  I thought I was going to lose all my compsure right there!  The kids went crazy screaming and shouting every time they saw the fish pop up!!!

Our craft today was a cute little owl!  The kids glued everything down and  had star stickers to add.  We decided to use scrapbooking paper for the wings.  Pictured below is what our owls looked like.

Credit: B-Inspired Mama

B is for Bears' Picnic (Preschool and Two's)

Preschool Storytime

*This theme was so much fun to plan!  I had really good attendance and the kids were very engrossed during all the books.  That makes it worth it!

Opening: Big Books

Opening: Spell Bear

*The kids loved spelling out bear!  So much fun!  

Book: Bears’ Big Breakfast

*Everybody loved seeing the puppets pop up behind me! Of course, we had to feed bear some berries, not once but twice!

Fingerplay: Black Bear

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Black bear, black bear reach touch the sky.

Black bear, black bear jump up high.

Black bear, black bear show your claws.

Black bear, black bear paw around.

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a dinosaur?  No? Then…..

       How about some berries!

Book: Ants at the Picnic

*For this story I place all the food up behind me on a puppet stage.  Then my ants appear and take away the food as I read the book. There was lots of screaming and hollering as the ants took my food away.

Flannel: Bears’ Feast   

*The kids loved telling me all the food baby bear brought back wasn’t the correct food. This was a really fun story to make and tell.

Credit: Storytime in the Stacks

Fingerplay:“We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathbub!  No?  Then…

       How about a sandwich and a cookie!

Book: Where’s Bear?

*The kids went crazy shouting and screaming when the big bear puppet popped up behind me.  At the end the bear puppet held the teddy bear out to me. I didn't expect the kids to be so enthused with this book, but I was so happy that they were!

Fingerplay: Ants (From Book: 1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes: a Sourcebook & DVD)

One ant, two ants, three ants, four.

Our picnic is their grocery store.

Five ants, six ants, seven ants, eight.

They are crawling on my plate!

TAKE OFF PLATE:  Eight ants, seven ants, stomp around.

Six ants, five ants, on the ground.

Four ants, three ants, on the run!

Two ants, one ant, no more fun!

*We ran out of time for this really cute fingerplay. What I did to prepare for it was velcro eight ants to a paper plate. That way I could pull the ants on and take them off easily.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bear Hiding Game

Little bear, little bear, are you hiding under there?

*My kids love hunting for things! We ran out of time for this, but it's still a great one to use!

Credit: Jbrary

Fingerplay: Five Hungry Ants

Five hungry ants marching in a line, (hold up five fingers)

Came upon a picnic where they could dine. (eating motions with hands to mouth)

They marched into the salad, (march in place)

They marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper…

Uh oh! That was a mistake! (hands to face with shocked expression)

A..a..a..choo!

(Throw small black circles on kids to represent pepper)

Four hungry ants... (and so on counting down

http://www.literaryhoots.com/2017/05/flannel-friday-five-hungry-ants.html

*This was so much fun to do! I had little black circles cut out, and I threw these out on the kids when we got to the part where the ants sneezed!

Credit: Literary Hoots

The kids made ants carrying a watermelon! They turned out so cute!

Extra Books:

Bare Bear

Bear Wants More

Help! The Wolf is Coming!

Jo MacDonald Hiked in the Woods

Moose Tracks!

More Bears!

The Most Perfect Spot

Time for Two’s Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a dinosaur?  No? Then…..

       How about some berries!

Book: Bear’s Big Breakfast

Fingerplay:  “We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathtub?  No? Then…..

       How about a cookie!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Bear Hiding Game

Little bear, little bear, are you hiding under there?

*My kids love hunting for things! We ran out of time for this, but it's still a great one to use!

Credit: Jbrary

Book: Ants at the Picnic

*For this story I place all the food up behind me on a puppet stage.  Then my ants appear and take away the food as I read the book. There was lots of screaming and hollering as the ants took my food away.

Fingerplay: Fingerplay: Black Bear

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground.

Black bear, black bear reach touch the sky.

Black bear, black bear jump up high.

Black bear, black bear show your claws.

Black bear, black bear paw around.

Black bear, black bear turn around.

Black bear, black bear touch the ground

Action: Feeding Animals

Fingerplay:“We’re Going on a Picnic”

       We’re going on a picnic, a picnic, a picnic.

       We’re going on a picnic, what shall we bring?

       How about a bathbub!  No?  Then…

       How about a sandwich and a cookie!

Action: Feed Bear Berries
*I ran out of time today to have the kids feed my bear berries.

Fingerplay: Five Hungry Ants

Five hungry ants marching in a line, (hold up five fingers)

Came upon a picnic where they could dine. (eating motions with hands to mouth)

They marched into the salad, (march in place)

They marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper…

Uh oh! That was a mistake! (hands to face with shocked expression)

A..a..a..choo!

(Throw small black circles on kids to represent pepper)

Four hungry ants... (and so on counting down

Credit: Literary Hoots

*This is a wonderful fingerplay to use, but I ran out of time to do it.

The kids made ants carrying a watermelon! They turned out so cute!