For this storytime I figured we’d try to keep in line with our Summer Reading theme of Build a Better World and focus on all things building and construction.
Here’s what we did:
I always start with just about the same warm ups:
- Song – Top of the Morning
- This is a good song to warm up with because we stretch all the parts we will be using in storytime. Eyes, arms, legs, mouth, nose.
- Rhyme – Say Hello
- I love this rhyme. Everyone claps along and at the end we say hello how ever I tell them to. Loud, soft, quick, slow.
- Song – Tap Your Toes and Follow Me by Susan Salidor
- This is just a easy song with simple movements to get us warmed up.
- Movement Exercise – Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Now that we are warmed up we get moving with this classic. Do it three times faster and faster each time.
From here we get into our theme.
- ASL – Summer. Read. Build.
- I like to teach my my kids a few American Sign Language signs at the start of every storytime. This helps foster communication and with a large deaf community in our town it’s a great tool to have.
- Movement Exercise – Cranes
- We pretended we moved like cranes; reaching up high and low and all around. You can find the words at: Jen in the library.
- Story – Rex Wrecks It! By Ben Clanton
- Kids can always relate to building things and then knocking them down. I love this one because you know what’s coming and so do the kids.
- Song -Shake my Sillies Out
- By this time we were ready to get our wiggles out so I played this classic and we shook out all the sillies.
- Rhyme w/ Prop – Five Little Nails
- I made my own version from Mel’s Desk. This was such an easy and awesome prop!
- I made my own version from Mel’s Desk. This was such an easy and awesome prop!
- Flannel Board – Construction Countdown by K.C. Olson
- I actually created my own flannel board using the vehicles listed in the book. We counted 10 dump trucks, 9 cement mixers, etc. Counting is popular with this crew.
- Game – Sleeping sleeping sleeping all the children were sleeping
- This is a game my mom uses when she nannies. Basically, you put the kids to sleep:
- Sleeping, sleeping all my friends were sleeping. And when they woke up they were… (name an animal to act out).
- Don’t forget to turn them back to good boys and girls at the end!
- This is a game my mom uses when she nannies. Basically, you put the kids to sleep:
- Story – Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey
Rinkey and Tom Lichtenheld
- This is a longer one then I normally do but I cut down on how many vehicles we say goodnight to.
- Movement w/ Scarves – Toss Your Scarves
- Simple rhyme and lets us use our scarves more than once.
- Song w/ Scarves – Let’s Go Fly A Kite (yes the Mary Poppins song 🙂
- I pass out scarves and we pretend they are kites while we sing along.
Finally, I always end with the same three things:
- Movement Exercise – If You’re Happy and You Know It
- I tell the kids that I want to know how happy they are.
- Rhyme – Say Goodbye
- This is the same rhyme we started with, so the new guys are familiar with it by the end of storytime.
- Song – Goodbye, So Long, Farewell my Friends by Music Together
- I always put this one on as I go to open the door. Its a nice, slow, peaceful song to wind down on.
How’d it go: This one started off really great. We got a little fussy toward the end so I barely read any of Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and pretty much went straight to the scarf song. With a big crew like this it is good to have lots of songs and movements ready just in case we can’t sit still.
That’s all for now!
-M-
I love the sleeping, sleeping song! I’ll have to give that a try. I did a building theme a few months ago and also had plans to use Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, and we didn’t get through it either. Guess it’s just too long!
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Sometimes I really want to do a book but I have to rein myself in and find something shorter.
You don’t have to do the sleeping, sleeping as a song. It’s more of a pretend/imagination prompt. But if you want to sing it kudos to you!
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