Wheels On The Bus Pre-K Storytime

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The first storytime I do with our PPCD (Pre-K special needs class) is Wheels On the Bus.  It's simple, it's engaging, and it's familiar.  I have a big laminated school bus that I put on the easel.  Then we sing each part of the song while I turn the pages and I let them come up and put the different pieces on the bus (wheels, wipers, driver, people, horn, baby, and parents).  Then once everything is up, we go back to the beginning of the book and sing it all again.

Book Tasting

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I got this super awesome and wonderful idea to do a book tasting in the library with my 3rd and 4th graders from here:
http://www.mrs-lodges-library.com/2012/04/book-tasting/#.UjNnzbVQGSo
I love love love this lady (Mrs. Lodge's Library) and her blog is FANTASTIC!  She has tons of ideas that I think are brilliant and love to use in my own library.  This is one of them.  I have the class come in and talk about what it means to taste something.  Then I tell them they are going to take a taste of a book...and they look at me weird because they know where those books have been...
But once I explain it, and they get it, it goes really well.  Every time.
With 3rd graders, I picked easy chapter books that don't circulate very often and put them on the tables for them to look through.  My main goal there was to show them that there are other books to check out besides Captain Underpants, Wimpy Kid, and Junie B. Jones.
With 4th graders I assign them to a column of shelves and give them a shelf marker to peruse their assigned spot.  I think it is good for them to concentrate on one specific spot and really look at what is there.
Both grade levels did great with this activity and in every class, there is always someone who either found a book they thought was boring or uninteresting on the cover but after reading the back they liked it, or they found a book with a cool cover that didn't seem very interesting to them once they read the back. This is also a great lesson in not judging a book by the cover.

Dr. Seuss Bingo

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I know Dr. Seuss' birthday was a month ago, but I thought I'd post this anyways.  For his b-day, we played Dr. Seuss Bingo.  I created a powerpoint with some of his characters and well known quotes from their books.  Then I made bingo cards with those same character pictures.  The quote came up first and I read it out loud to them to see if anyone knew which book it was and then had the picture come up. Since the picture on the powerpoint was the same as the picture on the bingo card, it was easy for the kiddos to see which one it was.  And since the bingo cards only had 9 squares on them, we did blackout (where they have to have all the spots filled in on their card to say bingo).  It was super fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  I did it with kindergarten and 1st grade. 

Click here for the Seuss Bingo Powerpoint

Click here for the Seuss Bingo Cards

Have fun!

Dinosaurs Love Underpants Pre-K Storytime

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A few weeks ago for Pre-K and PPCD storytime, we read Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort.  This is a fun book about how dinosaurs became extinct and you would never guess, but it is ALL because of cavemen wearing underpants and dinosaurs wanting them.  So the dinos fight each other for them and then they all die.  The best part about this story are the colorful underpants everyone wears.  So I printed out a black and white underwear pic from google (shhhh...don't tell) and then colored them to match the patterns of the ones in the story.  You should have seen the look on my principal's face when she walked by and saw me coloring underwear.  Priceless!  Anyways, I pass out the undie pics before we start the story and as we are reading, if they see the one that matches in the story, they come up and tape it to the board.  Fun! :)

One Duck Stuck Pre K and Kinder Storytime

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Last week for Pre K storytime, we read One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root.  I have done this with Kindergarten in the past and it has worked really well with them so I thought I'd give it a try with Pre-K.  It went...ok.  Not bad, just ok.  I made pictures of the animals in the story that try to help duck get unstuck from the muck and put them on popsicle sticks.  Then I make a "mud puddle" out of brown butcher paper to lay on the floor.  As I read, the kid with the duck stays up front on the mud puddle and each animal that tries to help comes up and pretend pulls on the duck to get him unstuck.  It is REALLY important that you tell them to pretend pull on them.  Otherwise you'll have broken arms and bloody noses and ducks that aren't stuck in the muck and your storytime will be an epic fail.  J/K.  But for reals, you do have to tell them to pretend pull or the duck gets unstuck every time and that is counter-productive.  My favorite part of this story is the chant on each page where duck says, "Help! Help! Who can help?" And I have the students say it with me.  If there is one thing I have learned about little kids, they love a good fun chant.  Anyways, this is just a really good read aloud even if you don't have all the props to go with it. 

Who Took The Cookies From the Cookie Jar Pre-K Storytime

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This week for Pre-K, I have no idea what their theme is, so I just came up with something on my own.  We are going to read Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar by Bonnie Lass & Philemon Sturges.  Normally I would do some sort of story sequence and students would come up with pictures of the animals and just tape them to the board.  But I am really kind of tired of that and also of the kids that whine that they don't get a turn.  I like to be fair and I can't remember who I chose last time or the time before and so on and so forth, so this time, everyone gets to participate.  In the story, skunk goes around to about 9 different animals to see who took the cookies and in the end discovers it was the ants and they left a trail to a picnic.  I went into clipart and printed off pictures of all the animals and then a bunch of ants.  So if they don't get an animal, they get an ant.  Then I'll draw a T chart on the easel with "yes" on one side, and "no" on the other side.  As we read the story, when it gets to their animal, they will come up and put it under "yes" or "no" if that animal did or didn't take the cookies.  Ta-da!  Easy, fun, and EVERYONE gets a turn.

Marvin Redpost Kidnapped At Birth

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One thing I love to do with 2nd grade is introduce them to chapter books.  Some of them are already at that reading level by the time I get around to this lesson, but it is still fun and they enjoy it.  Also, I feel this intrinsic need to introduce students to beginning chapter books other than Junie B. Jones, Captain Underpants, and Wimpy Kid.  Each time they come to library, I read two chapters out loud to them and then we have a little discussion.  And this is also awesome because it is 5 weeks of lesson plans that I don't have to worry about... :) Here are the chapters and the discussion questions I ask:

Chapters 1 & 2 - Do you think Marvin is Prince Robert?  Why or why not?
Chapters 3 & 4 - If you were a prince or a princess, what would you have your servants do for you?
Chapters 5 & 6 - If you thought you were royalty, how and when would you tell your parents?  What do you think they would say?
Chapters 7 & 8 - What are some things you would not be able to do anymore if you were a prince or a princess?
Chapters 9 & 10 - What do you think now?  Could Marvin still be Prince Robert?  Why or why not?