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.

Going Buggy!

My goodness ... summer sure makes it difficult to write blog posts! What with all the additional programs I'm hosting at the library, it's been over two months since I wrote a storytime post.

But ... without further ado, I present a Buggy Storytime!

Books We Read
"I Love Bugs!" by Emma Dodd
"Soup for One" by Ethan Long
"Waiting for Wings" by Lois Ehlert
"Buzz, buzz buzz! went Bumblebee" by Colin West

Naturally, we did the Buggy Pokey complete with antennae, stingers, wings and creepy crawlie feet.
I also sang "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee" with the squished up bee being presented at the end (see? all clean!)
My favorite repeat-after-me chant was performed as well -- the Mosquito Chant (perfect for Minnesota) which goes something like this :
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 ...
Shhh ... shhh ... shhh ... shhh ... shhhhhhhhhhhhh ......
Got him! 

Finally, in Minnesota we don't seem to get too many fireflies during the summer (not hot enough?) but I do like this flannel, based on the book "Ten Flashing Fireflies" by Philemon Sturges.

What do we see on a summer night?
Five flashing fireflies burning bright!
Catch one twinkling like a star,
Now there is one firefly in our jar.

Catch another over by the tree
Now there are two fireflies in our jar.

Catch one hiding in the bush
Now there are three fireflies in our jar.

Catch one landing near our door
Now there are four fireflies in our jar

Catch  one flying high in the sky
Now there are five fireflies in our jar.

Open the jar, for it's much more fun
To watch them fly away one by one.
Fly up and out and say good-bye,
Fly away, fly away, firefly!
One ... two ... three ... four ... five ...
Now there are none.
(many thanks to my fabulous co-workers Tami and Janet for coming up with this flannel)

H is for Hat!

OK, I must confess that the main reason I wanted to do a hat-themed storytime is because I wanted to read this book :

 At first I was a bit hesitant about reading this book in storytime, but it went over so well -- I don't know if it was my storytime families or the way I read the book or the (very) brief warning I jokingly gave before reading the book, or my cue to the kiddos to "look for the red triangle hat in the book" so they could figure out what was going on ... either way, it was great.

Ho-hum, here's the rest of what we did today :
Books Read
"Twelve Hats for Lena" by Karen Katz
"The Magic Box" by Katie Cleminson (it features a magician's hat)
"Which Hat is That?" by Anna Grossnickle Hines

I dutifully sang "My hat it has three corners" ...

And finally shared this paper-folding story :

I told it with a bit more pizazz and used a very large piece of paper so I could actually put the hats on my head as I told the story. I also pre-folded the paper so the creases were in place for easier storytelling.

At the Circus!

Bring on the dancing ponies and the acrobats! Today at storytime we went to the circus.
Not surprisingly, many kids in attendance had never been to the circus before ... I think it's a dying art.

But in any case, I whipped out all the stops for a circus-themed storytime.

Books We Shared :

Circus  by Lois Ehlert (warning : you may trash your voice if, as I did, you read this in a ringmaster's voice -- ack!)

Circus Parade  by Harriet Ziefert

Wolf Won't Bite  by the one-and-only Emily Gravett
Circus 1-2-3  by Megan Halsey

Flannel Story :
"Clancy the Clown"
super easy flannel story to make -- could also be used in a shapes-themed storytime.

Clancy is a circus clown.
He loves to make people laugh.

Before the circus begins
Clancy always puts on his clown face.

He starts with his clown eyes ...
Then puts on his clown mouth ...
And adds his crazy clown hair ...
And finally his clown nose!
(put on the blue square).

Wait a minute ... that's not right, is it?
(then put on each nose -- green triangle, large yellow circle, small purple dot -- until finally, in frustration, you ask the kids what his nose looks like. Finish the story by adding the red clown nose)
Now Clancy knows his nose ... and you do too!

Draw-and-Tell-Story
I loves me a good draw-and-tell story. The trick is in finding ones that aren't too complicated to draw or too involved to tell a good, simple, SHORT story. This is one of the better ones.
"At the Circus"
Joey and his dad went to the circus.
When they entered the big top, the first thing they saw was the big arena.

Joey and his dad sat on one side of the arena. They could look across and see lots of other people.

The band began to play at the top of the arena.

They could see a conductor leading the band.

Finally, the lights all went out until one spotlight lit up the ringmaster in the center of the arena.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Welcome to the greatest show on earth!
For your entertainment, we have dancing, prancing horses!"

"And for the brave of heart we have fierce lions jumping through hoops of fire!"

"High overhead we have the daring young man on the flying trapeeze ... watch as he swings across the crowd from side to side ..."

When Joey got home, his mother asked him if he liked the circus.
"Yes! There was a band, and dancing horses, and lions jumping through hoops of fire, and even acrobats flying over our heads! But what I loved the most about the circus was ..."
ask kids to answer
"The CLOWNS!"

Finally ... Spring!

Spring has been a long time coming here in Minnesota. When I originally planned for storytime on this date, I thought we'd be well underway with birds, flowers and green grass. Instead, the last of the snow is slowly melting away. Still, it was time to celebrate all things spring this morning at storytime.

Books We Shared :

Wake Up, It's Spring!  by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Spring is Here  by Will Hillenbrand (complete with a snoring bear ...)

Forever Friends  by Carin Berger

I do not consider myself a super crafter ... but when I saw the instructions for creating these flannel rabbit fingerpuppets online, I could not help myself and accepted the (internal) challenge to make five of these little guys to use at storytime.



Of course I had a song/rhyme that went with these little fuzzy guys ...

tune = "Five Little Ducks That I Once Knew" 

(can be found on Raffi's CD More Singable Songs)

(spoken) :

Once upon a time there were five bunnies.

They lived with their momma in a tree stump.

One day ...

(sung) :

Five little bunnies

One spring day

Went to the carrot patch

Far away.

Momma bunny called
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

stomp foot on ground

But only four came back to their stump ...

count all the way down until there are zero bunnies

last time :

Sad mother bunny

One spring day ...

Went to the carrot patch

Far away ...

Momma bunny went ...

thump ... thump ... thump ... thump ...

and ALL of her bunnies came back to their stump!!

I considered (briefly) using a large rabbit puppet for the mother but realized I needed both hands free to remove the bunnies behind my back one-by-one and (more important!) put them back on at the end.

For those crazy enough as I was to pursue this "craft" here is a link to the template :

Felt Bunny Finger Puppets

If you put in the time, I promise you will NOT regret it!

Body Parts (but not zombies ...)

"The head bone's connected to the ... neck bone, the neck bone's connected to the ... shoulder bone"
We shared stories today all about the different parts of the body.
No storytime on body parts would be complete without "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" so that was the active part of storytime today.

Here is what else was shared :

Books We Read :

We've All Got Bellybuttons!  by David Martin
Thank You For Me by Marion Dane Bauer
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
The Long-Nosed Pig by Keith Faulkner
The Pig's Picnic by Keiko Kasza (book prop)

I shared the silly song "Tony Chestnut" -- here is a cute video from Britain demonstrating how to sing the song. I didn't leave parts of the song out, as demonstrated here, but rather went faster and faster resulting in much hilarity and hitting of nose.

Finally, I shared one of my all-time favorite books about body parts, Head, Body, Legs which is a folktale from Liberia re-told by Won-Ldy Paye. I have always thought this book a bit long for storytime, and have always felt it lended itself better when told as a story rather than read from a book. So, I created a flannel to accompany the story.