N is Night Before Thanksgiving (Two's)

Time for Two’s:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Book: 10 Fat Turkeys

*I love to read this story to the two's, because it's so much fun to see their reaction! You count down from ten turkeys to zero as you read this story. While I'm reading, my volunteer takes down a turkey from the puppet stage behind me. It took a few turkeys disappearing before the two's realized what was happening, but they loved doing the wiggling along with me in the book! This is great to help counting down with your numbers and it has a very cute repetitive phrase all throughout the book also.

Puppets: Feeding Animals

*Bear-Honey, Mouse-Cheese, Elephant-Peanuts, Cow-Grass, Cat-Milk, Pig-Apple

Fingerplay/Flannel: Turkey, Turkey

Turkey, turkey, come and play.

What color house are you in today?

Board Book: Where is Baby’s Turkey?

Action: Turkey Feathers

*We ended storytime with this fun flannelboard. You can make this a great learning activity by calling out for each colored feather. I have included a picture below of the turkey and his feathers.

The craft for our storytime is a shape turkey!  I have to say, we have some very cute turkeys!

Credit: Oriental Trading

Extra Books:

Preschool Storytime:

Book: 10 Fat Turkeys (Special guest doing ASL)

*Normally I get a much bigger reaction out of the preschoolers when I do this, but we only had 10 preschoolers today, so that will tend to dampen the reaction sometimes. I have ten turkeys propped up behind me while I'm reading, and my volunteer will take one down as I read. I have a picture below showing all my turkeys!

Puppets: Feeding Animals

*Bear-Honey, Mouse-Cheese, Elephant-Peanuts, Cow-Grass, Cat-Milk, Pig-Apple

Book: Dragons Love Tacos (Use Novelist App)

*I don't know if you've heard of the Novelist App, but it's amazing!!! This is the first time I've used it in storytime and I was so excited to use it with this book. Unfortunately, the kids didn't enjoy the sound effects. I did have two little boys that adored hearing the dragon sounds. I think if I had a bigger crowd they would have enjoyed hearing all the sound effects much better. I definitely plan on using this app again in storytime, I highly recommend it. It is utterly amazing!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Turkey, Turkey

Turkey, turkey, come and play.

What color house are you in today?

Puppets: Feeding Animals

*Bear-Honey, Mouse-Cheese, Elephant-Peanuts, Cow-Grass, Cat-Milk, Pig-Apple

Book: Bad Kitty Does Not Like Thanksgiving

*This book worked out wonderfully! I had little paper cut-outs of the food to throw out onto the preschoolers. Why? Because bad kitty ends up pulling all the food off the table. Every time that happens I throw out the paper food onto the preschoolers.

*The craft for today was the same one that the two's did. A cute shape turkey!!! We also had games today and you can check out all that we played here!

Extra Books:

Feeding Animals Food Fingerplay and Flannel

Fingerplay: "Feeding Animals Food"

I don't have a rhyme for this activity but what I did is I based it off Eric Carle's book:

I apologize because I am sure I found this online, and I can't remember where, so if you came up with this brilliant idea, then please say so!  What I did is make food to place on the flannelboard.  Then the corresponding animals will pop up and I ask the kids to tell me what food they are suppossed to eat.  Then I will feed the animals their food.  Quite often I will get the wrong food by mistake so that the kids can correct me.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm (Group and Two's Storytime SRP)

Group Storytime:

*I didn't present the preschool storytime this week, we had a wonderful guest visit us, Kindermusik!  It was amazing, and I am already having them visit us again in fall.  But below is my plan for the group I visited off-site and what I did for the groups that visited the library also.

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Farm Friends

Book: Sleepover Duck

*I had so much fun with this book! I had my volunteer behind the puppet stage, and the owl would pop up behind me all through the book. Why? Because the duck and cat in this wonderful book are looking for who made that "Hoo-Hoo"!

Action: Farm Animal Action Cards

Flannel Board:  Hide and Seek Mouse Behind the Barn

Book: Ten Red Apples (With apples and puppets)

*I haven't read this book to my preschoolers in such a long time, partly because it is long. But I fed my puppets an apple as went go along, and the preschooler went crazy over this! We clapped and shouted each time I read "Yippee! Fiddle-dee-fee!" That helped move the book along too.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Cowboys Jumping on the Bed

Book: I Spy on the Farm

*You just can't beat this book series for storytime, and the preschoolers loved telling me what farm animal was hiding in my book!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Farm Animal Mix-Up

*I love mixing things up on my flannel-board, and this time I had three farm animals. But I put them up, and the front and back half of my animals didn't match! The preschoolers loved telling me what I got wrong.

Extra Book:

Time for Two’s Storytime:

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Farm Friends

Book: Ten Red Apples (Feeding animals apples)

*I don't think I've ever read this book to the two's, partly because it is long. But I fed my puppets an apple as we went along, and the two's went crazy over this! We clapped and shouted each time I read "Yippee! Fiddle-dee-fee!" That helped move the book along too.

Action: Farm Animal Action Cards

Flannel Board:  Hide and Seek Mouse Behind the Barn

Book: Do Cows Meow?

Fingerplay: Farm Animal Dancing

Our craft today was a cow, and the two's went crazy over this!

Extra Book:

Build a Better Zoo (Group Preschool Storytime and Two's)

Build a Better Zoo

Opening: Big Books

Action: Guess Zoo Animal

*I used some zoo animal rhymes from a board book and had the kids guess what animal I was describing. Then I held up the animal I printed from clip art to show them.

Book: Mouse Count

*I love telling this story! I use ten finger puppets and a big snake puppet. The kids really enjoyed watching my snake pick up all the mice by its mouth and place them inside the jar.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Silly Bananas

*I really wanted to use this flannel, but I couldn’t find it! You can find the words and example for it here.

Fingerplay: Zoo Animal Action Cards

*The kids loved standing up and acting like zoo animals!

Book: Dear Zoo

*I made my own big version of this book, which you can download here. What I did was laminate the animal, and then cut out the box that goes over each animal, and laminate it. Then I used velcro to place the box over the animal. That way I could pull the box off the animal to show the kids, then place it back to use the next time I tell the story. The kids loved seeing me pull the boxes off the animals to show them what the zoo had sent!

Flannel: Animal Sounds Mix-Up

*I decided to change this up and put the wrong sound with the animals and have the kids correct me.  The kids went crazy telling me what animal belonged with what sound!  We did lion, bird and snake. There is a really cute song listed with this idea that you can sing too. I found this here!

Book: Near and Far

*I was so excited to use this book in storytime, but the kids were not overjoyed with it like I hoped they would be. I still really like the book but probably won't use it again.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Feed Animals Food at Zoo

*Today we fed our bear, monkey and elephant food. The kids loved it!

Fingerplay: Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree

Fingerplay/Flannel: Little Snake, Are You Behind the {Red} Cake?

*I ran out of time to do this great hunting game, but you can view it here.

Build a Better Zoo

Opening: Big Books

Book: Peek-a-Boo Zoo

*The kids loved this book and really loved seeing our animal friends visit us!

Fingerplay: Zoo Animal Action Cards

Book: Dear Zoo

*I made my own big version of this book, which you can download here. What I did was laminate the animal, and then cut out the box that goes over each animal, and laminate it. Then I used velcro to place the box over the animal. That way I could pull the box off the animal to show the kids, then place it back to use the next time I tell the story. The kids loved seeing me pull the boxes off the animals to show them what the zoo had sent!

Flannel: Little Snake, Are You Behind the {Red} Cake?

*I love this hunting game, and the kids really enjoyed hunting for our snake! You can see this wonderful idea here!

Fingerplay/Flannel: Feed Animals Food at Zoo

*Today we fed our bear, monkey and elephant food. The kids loved it!

Book: Do You Know Noses?

Fingerplay: Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree

Fingerplay/Flannel: Feed Gorilla

*We ended storytime by dancing around with our bananas and then feeding them to our gorilla!  You can see the adorable gorilla and check out other great ideas to do here.

Extra Books:

Who is Smiling?

For our craft today we made a paper bag zebra!  The kids went crazy making their zebras dance around!  I forget how much the kids love paper bag crafts, but I really need to do more of them.

Turkey Trot (2's)

Opening: Big Books

Fingerplay: If You Want to Hear a Story

Fingerplay: Five Little Turkeys

Five plump turkeys sitting on the ground.

The first one said “Oh my we’re getting round.”

The second one said, “I smell a pumpkin pie.”

The third one said, “But we won’t cry.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s trot, trot, trot.”

The fifth one said, “Quick, don’t get caught!”

In came the farmer and he turned on the light

And five plump turkeys trotted out of sight!

*I didn't get a chance to do this fingerplay, but I wanted to have five turkeys propped up on my puppet stage. When we came to the end of the rhyme, then I would have the volunteer trot my turkeys out of sight. Here is where I found this great rhyme!

Book: Run, Turkey, Run!

*I love reading this book at Thanksgiving, but it ended up being a little long for this age group. The kids did love patting their legs and stomping their feet.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting near a door:

{Alligator} took one, and then there were four.

Four little pumpkins sitting near a tree;

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

Three little pumpkins, with nothing to do;

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

Two little pumpkins, in the pale {November} sun,

{Horse} took one, and that left one.

Being alone wasn’t much fun,

Until {Snake} took him, and then there were none.

*We fed our animals pumpkins today, and the kids really enjoyed it.

File Folder Game: Turkey Hunt

*This is such an adorable file folder story, and the kids got very excited seeing the turkey change colors before them. Here is where I found this.

Book: Who’s Hungry? By Hacochen

*This is a really cute book to read. The kids enjoyed it, but were a little restless by this point.

Puppets: Feeding Animals

*Click here to see what I did with this activity.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Turkey, Turkey

Turkey, turkey, come and play.

What color house are you in today?

*We ran out of time today to hunt for our turkey.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Turkey Feathers

*The kids had a blast helping turkey with his feathers! I have a turkey I place on the flannelboard, but he is featherless. I pass out different colored feathers, and then ask the kids to place them around my turkey. Always a big hit with the 2's.

*For the craft today, the kids got to make their own turkey finger puppet, which is below. Here is the website where the idea came from.

Games:

Scarecrow Knockdown

The kids had a blast getting to stack the scarecrow up and knocking him down over and over again!

*Monkey Banana Toss

The kids got to toss bananas into the monkey's mouth that we had taped to a round laundry basket.

*Pumpkin Soup

*This was the favorite game of the day! I took a cauldron and put a couple of inches water in it. Then I dumped foam gourds and pumpkins inside. The kids got to scoop out the gourds and pumpkin with a ladle and place them in the bowl. Then do it all over again!

F is for Fine Day for a Picnic (Preschool and Two's)

                           

Preschool Storytime

Opening: Big Books

Book: Should I Share My Ice Cream?

*I have never read this book in storytime, but I am so glad I did! My volunteer made two ice cream props, which really made this story come to life! As I'm reading, I'm carrying my ice cream around, because I am acting out the part of elephant. If you're familiar with the story, elephant loses his ice cream, so my ice cream prop has a detachable top. Of course, my ice cream top goes rolling right to a preschooler! Thankfully they bring it right back to me, and the story goes on! I highly recommend using this story during your storytime, but make sure you use props!

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!

*Tuck items into picnic basket that you have on flannelboard.

Action: Feeding Animals
*For this fun and great learning activity I put up lots of different foods onto my flannelboard. Then I have the corresponding puppets "pop" up behind me and I ask the preschoolers what I should feed each animal. Its a great way to teach the preschoolers what each animal would like to eat. They just love seeing me feed my animals!

Book/Flannel: Ants at the Picnic (Put ants on puppet stage, have take food as you read.) 

*This is a book I use every year, even though I don't like to make a habit of using a book yearly. But this time the reaction I got from the preschoolers literally blew me away! The ants in the story arrive on each page and "carry" the food away. So, I have my food propped up behind me on a puppet stage. My volunteer has some ants that come up and take my food away as I'm reading. My thought process was if I didn't get a great reaction this year then I wouldn't keep this on my list for next year. The preschooler screamed and shouted at those pesky ants and kept shooing them away with their hands to go away! This is by far the best reaction I've ever gotten from the preschooler with this book, which made me very happy.

Fingerplay/Flannel: Food Hiding Game in Notebook

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: Don’t Feed the Bear!

*This is another new book that I wasn't too sure about, but an older little girl made it all worth it for me. Each sign in the book has the most precious sayings written on them, and I wasn't going to read each one, because this was at the end of storytime and quite frankly, the preschoolers were getting restless. But, she was sitting closer to me and she read off each sign in the book for me! I've never had that happen before and it was the most precious thing ever!

Fingerplay: Five Hungry Ants (Use ants from picnic story?)  

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! 

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

*My favorite thing to do with this is have little black dots cut out of construction paper. When you get down to the end of the fingerplay, I throw out the "pepper" on to the preschooler! Utter chaos!

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

Our craft today was ice cream!  So delicious looking, don't you think?
Credit: Glued to my Crafts

Extra Books:

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: Who’s Hungry?

Action: Animal Action Cards

Book: Guess What? Sweets and Treats

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: Food Hiding Game in Notebook

Fingerplay/Flannel: Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

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!

*Due to my misplacing of the craft, imagine that! The two's did a different craft than the preschoolers did. Thankfully the loved it, so everything went over great!

Extra Book: