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?

Pre-K and Kinder Storytime Knuffle Bunny

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This week for Kindergarten and Pre-K storytime, we are reading one of my faves, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems.  Let me just say, I love Mo Willems and everything he writes.  The man is genius.  Seriously.  Anyways, I like to share Knuffle Bunny with them because it won the Caldecott Award which is an award given to children's books for their illustrations.  The cool thing about these illustrations is that the background is a black and white photo and the people are in cartoon color.  Before we read it, I point out the title and what Knuffle Bunny is (a green stuffed animal rabbit) and tell them that this book won a special award for it's pictures.  Then I tell them to pay close attention to the pictures and let me know at the end of the story if they notice anything different or creative.  We read the story, blah blah blah.  They laugh, blah blah blah.  We talk about the pictures, blah blah blah.  Then I give them each a black and white picture of the story carpet in the library and crayons and they draw themselves in color in the library reading or listening to a story. 

2012-2013 Texas Bluebonnet Award Winner Postcards From Camp

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By now every librarian in Texas has heard that the winner for the 2012-2013 Bluebonnet Award is Postcards From Camp by Simms Taback.  (insert cheers here).  I was quite honestly surprised that this book won because the majority of kids at my school and in my district voted for Zita the Spacegirl.  But I am glad that Postcards won cause it's fun and interactive and quirky and I like that.  Anyways, it doesn't matter what I think because the beauty of the Texas Bluebonnet Award is that students get to vote and choose the winner. 

So, kudos to Taback (who died about a year ago :( ), librarians everywhere for encouraging a love of reading, and the one student at my school that voted for Postcards From Camp!

Each year we have a voting party and I'm always looking for some new ideas to stress out over and try.  In years past we have tried playing pictionary in small groups with the book covers but that didn't go over so well as I have a limited time and my students aren't very Pictionary savy.  I have also done book cover bingo, but that gets old after a few years.  So this year I kept it simple.  I printed up the book covers and cut them into puzzles.  When they came in, there was a puzzle at each table for them to work on while they waited to get some ice cream and vote.  Then I had a backdrop with bluebonnets on it and some of the book covers and they got to take their picture with the book they voted for "in the bluebonnets".  And that was it.  Boom!  30 minutes.  Done.  Obviously very low stress.  Another librarian friend of mine had a hotdog party and did a whole window display that said, "Hot Diggity Dog, you are coming to the Bluebonnet Party!" or something along those lines.  I thought that was pretty genius.  I could've done some other kind of theme to go along with one of the books.  So, I'm going to keep that in mind for next year.  We could do a whole Macy's Parade balloon theme or something.  (Can you tell I only know about one of the books for next year's list?)  Anyone else have ideas that worked well for you?

We All Go Traveling By Pre-K Storytime

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This week for Pre-K and PPCD storytime, I'm going to "read" one of my faves!  We All Go Traveling By by Sheena Roberts.  I love this book because it is one of those song stories and it has a cd that comes with it so all you have to do is play the song, turn the pages, and keep up with the hand motions/vehicle noises.  Here's how this storytime usually goes:

1. We listen to the story song as I show the book and we do some of the noises of the different vehicles as I see fit with each group.
2. I show them all of the vehicles (bus, truck, train, bicycle, airplane, car, shoes, and school house) and let them come up one at a time to put them on the board and we practice the sounds they make (which is part of the story song, so I don't have to make anything up)
3. We listen to the story song again as I show the book and by this time they are singing along and doing the noises and it is great fun!

To prepare for this storytime, I have scanned and printed out in color all of the vehicles from the back of the book and laminated them. 

One of these days I might get a little over-achiever-y and have them stand up in front of the rest of the group with actual items (like a horn for the bus or a steering wheel for the car, etc...) and let them make the noises.  One day...