Dinosaur Craft Storytime

I love having the opportunity to do craft storytimes with older kids (ages 4-8) during the summer -- not only do we get to make cool and fun things, but I get to read books that otherwise I would be unable to read to my toddlers & preschoolers because of the length. Such was the case today!

Books We Read :
Inside-Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro (a good introduction)
When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach, fantastically illustrated by David Small -- this is one of my favorite dinosaur books, but due to the length I usually can't read it at storytime.
T is for Terrible by Peter McCarty

Dinosaur Flannel :
Since I did not have time to turn this into a prop with flannel pieces, I had to take the lazy man's shortcut and use images printed onto cardstock. Worked just great - and now I plan to turn this into a full-fledged flannel rhyme for future use!

(to the tune of "Little White Duck")
There is one dinosaur, stomping through the trees,
One dinosaur, eating all he sees,
He took a bite from a mountain top
And along came a friend with a CRASH! BANG! PLOP!
Now there's two dinosaurs, stomping through the trees,

Two dinosaurs, eating all they see ...

Dinosaur Craft :

I got this out of a fantastic book titled Paper Scissors Glue by Catherine Woram. G

ood, easy crafts for kids in preschool and early-elementary. We made a 3-D dinosaur using cardstock, scissors, markers and stickers. Fun, cute and easy!

 

Buggy Bugs

Today at storytime was all about BUGS -- not insects, mind you, because included were stories about spiders, centipedes, snails and worms.

I love doing a bug-themed storytime because I always do the following repeat-after-me chant, learned years ago at Girl Scout Camp :
Flea!
Flea, fly!
Flea, fly, flow,Mos-qui-to!
Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion
Oh, no more calamine lotion!Itchy, itchy, scratchy, scratchy got one on my back-y, back-y,
Owie, owie, zowie, zowie, wish he'd go away!
Quick! Get the bug spray!I think he went that-a-way!Sh ... sh ... sh ... sh ... shhhhhhh .......

We also read the following "buggy" books :
Sitting in my box by Dee Lillegard
(one of my favorites, now sadly out of print)
I love bugs! by Emma Dodd
Gotcha! by Gail Jorgensen
Big rig bugs by Kurt Cyrus

I then shared the book prop for "Sam's Sandwich" by David Pelham

Finally, I created this flannel for today's storytime. The idea was "borrowed" from Miss Mary Liberry and worked just absolutely fantastically with my enormous summer crowd :

Five little caterpillars and not one more,
One spun a cocoon and now there are four.

Four little caterpillars sitting on a tree,
One spun a cocoon and now there are three.

Three little caterpillars with a big job to do,
One spun a cocoon and now there are two.

Two little caterpillars basking in the sun,
One spun a cocoon and now there is just one.

One little caterpillar knew her work was almost done,
She spun a cocoon ... and now there are none.

 BUT ...

One cocoon opened up underneath the sun.
Now there's a beautiful butterfly - that makes one!

Another cocoon opened up with the morning dew,
There's another beautiful butterfly and that makes two!


                                                       Yet another cocoon opened up in the shade of the tree,
                                                       That makes another butterfly - now there are three!

                                                       One more cocoon opened up spreading her wings galore,
                                                       There's another butterfly -- that makes four!

                                                       The last little cocoon opened up, feeling so alive,
                                                       That makes another butterfly -- at last there are five.