Fall Leaves Craft Storytime

Red and yellow, orange and brown,
All the leaves are falling down.
Days are nippy, nights are clear,
Summer's over - autumn's here!

Despite the fact that it was approaching 80 degrees this morning, we celebrated the turning of the leaves at Make-and-Take Storytime today.

I read the above three books and with Steve Metzger's We're Going on a Leaf Hunt I included the following flannel pieces :

Isn't that skunk just the most adorable little guy??
I took him right out of the pages of the book.

We also shared the following action-song (tune = "Wheels on the Bus" or "Five Little Ducks", you're pick!)
The roots of the tree grown down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
The roots of the tree grow down, down, down
Deep in the forest
(we wiggled our fingers from shoulders to toes)
The trunk of the tree grows stout, stout, stout
(arms make a circle and grow out-out-out)
The bark on the tree grows tight, tight, tight
(hug yourself!)
The branches of the tree grow out-out-out
(arms up high)
The wind blows the branches back and forth
(wave arms back and forth over head)
The leaves on the tree come tumbling down
(wiggle fingers up high to down low)



Our craft was super easy (which was great since I had a few 2-year-olds in attendance)
Each child had a tree, a blue background, a glue stick and strips of red, yellow, orange and brown construction paper. Everyone ripped pieces of paper for the leaves and stuck them to the tree (including some leaves "falling down" and on the ground).
At the end, each picture was mounted on a piece of heavy white cardstock and I attached the copy of the poem for a final presentation.
Voila!

A Squadron of Squirrels

It was all about the little furry grey guy with the question mark tail today ...
And man, I felt like I had a room full of squirrels -- the kids were SO crazy restless!
Fortunately, I planned a shorter storytime ...

 We started off with a "guess the theme" poem (adapted from a poem on the Scaredy Squirrel website) :
There is a little furry guy
Who lives outside my door,
I've often seen him try and try
To steal from the birds' seed store.

He has a question mark for a tail
And an overcoat of grey,
He sits up straight to eat a nut
And likes to tease and play.

Scampering around is where you'll see 
Him playing night and day,
But if we run around his tree?
He goes the other way!

We sang a jazzed up version of "Grey Squirrel, Grey Squirrel" and I incorporated different types of squirrels (grey, black, fox, flying, red) ending with that super-fast red squirrel found in Northern Minnesota. Of course our song went faster and faster as our tails (backsides) went faster and faster -- too cute!

The big hit, however, was the SQUIRREL PUPPET (thank you, Folkmanis!) which I pulled out for my flannel counting rhyme, "Five Little Acorns" (adapted from Katie at Storytime Secrets)

(this could be sung to the tune of "The Fishy Song")
Down around the corner by the big oak tree
Sat five little acorns looking so yummy,
Along came a squirrel with a big bushy tail,
He took one acorn and ran off down the trail.
(continue until there are no acorns left)
last time (slower) :
Down around the corner by the big oak tree
There were no little acorns left to see ...
Along came a squirrel with a big bushy tail,
Took one look, said "Rats! None left!" and ran off down the trail.