Story Time: Here Fishy, Fishy

This week at my outreach stops we did a fish story time.

We Opened: Open Them, Shut Them

We Read: 

Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins
Fish Had a Wish by Michael Garland

We Hung Out with a Puppet:

I bought a fish puppet that talked to the kids about life as a fish. The fish could really say anything he wanted, those little ones just LOVE to see the puppets I bring each week. The fact that today's fish was a clown fish didn't hurt as everyone wanted to take turns hugging "Nemo".

We Played and Sang:

Fingerplay: "Five Little Fishes" (Storytime Katie)

Five little fish swimming by the shore
One got caught and then were four
Four little fish swimming in the sea
One got caught and then there were three
Three little fish swimming in the blue
One got caught and then were two
Two little fish swimming in the sun
One got caught and then there was one
One little fish swimming straight for home
Decided he would never again roam.

(Each time a fishy got caught we clapped our hands, the kids would hold their hands "mid-clap" in anticipation.)

Song: Did you ever see a fishy (Childhood)

(tune "Did you ever see a lassie")

Did you ever see a fish, a fishy, a fishy
Did you every see a fish swim this way and that?
Swim this way and that way, and that way and this way?
Did you ever see a fishy swim this way and that?

(This was  a nice "calm" song and the puppet swam back and forth while we sang it. By the second round the kids were slowly rocking back and forth which made it perfect at the end.)

Action Rhyme: Gertie the Goldfish (Everything Preschool)

Gertie the Goldfish goes
smack, smack, smack (make kissing sounds)
She looks at me and goes
smack, smack, smack
She doesn't laugh, doens't sing
doesn't do anything
Just blows big kisses like
smack, smack, smack

(This was a great rhyme to do after Pout Pout Fish)

Action Song: I'm a Little Fishy (made up by me)

(Tune: "I'm a Little Tea Pot")
I'm a little fishy shiney and green
Swimming in the ocean's my favorite thing
When it's time for swimming I wiggle my fins
What a big ocean I live in!

(A fun song for the end)

We Closed: If You're Happy and You Know It

iStories: Jack and the Beanstalk

Here's What We Did::

Shake My Sillies Out

Read: Beanstalk

(a fun modern version)

Song: so silly and fun. I made it up to the tune of "I like to eat apples and bananas" although I've seen other versions out there so many I had heard it somewhere before :)

I like to plant, plant, plant

Plant in my garden

I like to dig, dig, dig

Dig in the ground

I like to put, put, put,

seeds in those holds

I like to water, water, water,

water those seeds

I like to see, see, see

see them grow

The plants will grow, grow, grow

grow out of the ground

Then we can pick, pick, pick

Pick some yummy veggies

... we were having fun and went on to cutting, chopping, cooking, and eating our veggies.

Read: Jack and the Giant by Jim Harris

the parents were cracking up!

Dance Party: Hokey Pokey

Pretend Play: Go on Jack's adventure - we mimed the story as I recited it

Read: The Giant and the Beanstalk by Diane Stanley

Action Rhyme: Garden Snail

Play: Whose Toes Are Those

Closing: Touch Your Nose (action poem)

iStories: Space

Here's What We Did::

Shake My Sillies Out

Read: Wubbzy in Space

Dance Party: Space Dance/The Gummy Bear Song

Action Rhyme: Bend and Stretch

Bend and stretch, reach for the stars

There goes Jupiter, here comes Mars

Bend and stretch and reach for the sky

Stand on tip-e-toe, oh so high!

Humpty Dumpty (the app is called Rhymes and is VERY well done)

Read: Oobie's Space Adventure

Media: NASA app and talk about asteroids

Action Poem: Come to the Moon!

Do you want to go up with me to the moon (pointing up)

Let's get in our rocket ship and blast off soon! (climb in, seat belt, blast off)

Faster and faster we reach to the sky (jump and reach)

Isn't it fun to be able to fly? (hands out)

We're on the moon, now all take a look (look around)

Sit back down, and I'll read you a book (sit down)

Read: I want to be an astronaut by Brian Barton (to morning group)

Read: Moustranaut by Mark Kelly (to evening group)

Matching Game: Monster Match

Closing: Touch Your Nose (action poem)

iStories: Robots

Here's What We Did::

Shake My Sillies Out YouTube Video

We started by reading Pete's Robot on the iPad - this book is really cute and the kids really loved it. I wasn't sure about the lack of artistic illustrations, but they were really perfect for the story.

Learn the Robot Dance (the kids were still doing this the next week)

Action Rhyme: I'm a Shiny Robot

(by Lizz the Librarian, to the tune of I'm a Little Tea Pot)

I'm a shiny robot big and strong (make muscles with arms)

Here is my laser eye (telescope with hands from eye)

Here's my extendo arm (stretch arm out)

When I'm confused I spin around (spin around)

Then I fall onto the ground (fall)

Read: The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot by McNamara

such a cute story!

Action Music: Robot Pokey

(found here, to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It)

If you're a Robot and you know it ... 

Clank Your Coils (clap your hands)

Clunk Your Gears (stomp your feet)

Press Your Buttons (beep, beep)

Read: Wodney Wat's Wobot by Helen Lester (I read this one to the morning group, which is younger)

Read: Robot Zot by Jon Scieszka (to the evening group, which is a 4+ audience)

Play Game: Robot Match

Closing: Touch Your Nose (action poem)

This was the most successful iStories I've done. The kids and parents LOVED it! They were still talking about it the next week and the parents all invited their friends. We went from averaging between 15-20 to having 33 the next week! Amazing!!

iStories: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

A GREAT session!! We had 18 in the morning session (no childcare groups either, just families, those child care groups are good for numbers though :) ) and a sad 5 in the evening session. My new goal is to create a plan for advertising so more people know we are providing a story time to accommodate school-age kids and working parents. 

Here's What We Did::

Shake My Sillies Out

(they LOVE this one - plus the little worm video we watch is pretty funny)

We started by reading half of the book "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" on the iPad. 

We then finished the "physical" version of the book. The kids really seemed to like the change in format and I think it further concreted the idea that what we are doing on the screen is a book. 

Hokey Pokey

Humpty Dumpty (the app is called Rhymes and is VERY well done)

Danced to Pop Goes the Weasel

Yoga Poses: A, K, W (we had to do standing poses because I wore a skirt without thinking it through)

Then we looked at some pages of the book in the Imag-n-o-tron and talked about what it would be like to be in a tornado (which one little girl called a windy potato, because the words really do sound alike to a four year old).

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (even though I thought this book was funny, it was a flop with both groups)

Closing: Touch Your Nose (action poem)

And the winner is ...

Caldecott awarded a medal today, it's just a little thing (hahaha, no it is like an Olympic Gold medal for best picture book of the year!) ... and guess who won?? 

Okay, don't guess, it is This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen!

(check out the NPR article here and the ALA's page here)

Caldecott Winner

I've used this book with all age groups - although the elementary kids get the biggest rise out of this one. I love using it to talk about how they know what is going on so they start to make some connections between pictures and words, plus the language they need to discuss books.

... okay, I'm really just a total Fan Girl of Jon Klassen's, both of his written/illustrated books are fantastic!! (plus the illustrations he has done for others are brilliant). Speaking of ...

Honor Books

Mac Barnett is another one of my favorites and between his story and Jon Klassen's art, this book was bound to be a favorite. I'm used to Mac Barnett's jokes and funny books - but this fairy tale is sweet and lovely! In my guesses for the Caldecott winner this year I was debating between this one and This Is Not My Hat. 

My library does not have this book (insert sad face here), but I've so been wanting to read it! Hopefully we will be getting it soon. 

Now, I understand why this is an honor book, but I didn't enjoy it that much. 

This is such a sweet, funny book about two friends. Because it is longer I've only read it to the elementary group, but they really enjoyed it. 

I'll be really honest here and say that I hadn't even heard of this book, so I can't make any judgment calls until I've looked at it (or, at least, I won't)

Baby and Toddlers: It's Not Easy Being Green

Our first Baby/Toddler outreach programs happened last week. I visit three groups, one combo class for kids ages 0-3, one class for 0-18 months, and one for 18-24 months. The first group is at a parenting teen high school, so I have all the parents in the room. The second two are at a low income child care center.

All the groups loved the storytime! I read all three books to each group, including the youngest group who sat the most still out of all of them!

Here's What We Did

Open Them, Shut Them
 
The Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly (they LOVED this book)

Action Rhyme: Monster, Monster, Turn Around (just added "monster" in place of "teddy bear")

Monster Monster, turn around
Monster, monster, touch the ground
Monster, monster, reach up high
Monster, monster, touch the sky
Monster, monster, find your nose
Monster, monster, find your toes
Monster, monster, find your knees
Monster, monster, sit down please

Where's the Green Sheep by Mem Fox
-- this book is long, longer than you think it is ... I skipped some pages in the middle

Little Bo Peep - with puppets
-- I just had a picture of Little Bo Peep on a stick and then a lamp puppet. One little boy came up and hugged the lamb in the middle of the story - precious.
 
Peekaboo Baby by Sebastien Braun

The Lamb Went - puppet doing actions with my arm as the "props"
The lamb went - around the corn
under the haystack
up the hill and down the hill
over the fence
through the door
just to say hi to you

If you're happy and you know it ... clap your hands, smile really big, wave goodbye

The story time lasted about twenty minutes which is perfect for this age.