Pizza Toddlertime!

Today was my Pizza Toddlertime

Song: Open shut them
book: The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza (with flannel pieces)
Fingerplay "Pizza Man" (to pat-a-cake)
Song: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Flannel Board: 5 leftover pizza slices
book: Pete's a Pizza
Song: If you want to eat some pizza clap your hands (on ukulele)
book: Hi Pizza Man!
Song: I am a Pizza! (on ukulele)
Song: What a Miracle (on ukulele)
This was a pretty good storytime. I had more kids than I have since Christmas (13). The hit was the song "I am a Pizza!" It surprised me a bit. Pat-a-cake was pretty popular also. Hi Pizza Man was the favorite book. Jake wanted bubbles oh well. I didn't have enough coloring sheets because I was thinking I would get 3-4 kids. Opps!
Asides were Phonological Awareness.

Crayons Toddlertime

My asides today were for Print Awareness. I ran my finger under some words in the book Meeow and the Blue Table to show how we can help children recognize that words have meaning.

Books

A Day Without Crayons - This one is pretty long so I did it first. I doubt one boy would have paid attention no matter what I read but the girls liked it.
Maisy's Rainbow Dream - Always a hit.
Meeow and the Blue Table - a new one, very toddlerish so I did an aside that this is the kind of books that work best for young toddlers.

Fingerplays

Five little crayons (2 of them)

Flannel Board Story

6 little crayons

Songs
Open Shut Them - Opening song

What Are You Wearing - action song
Box of Crayons - with rhythm instruments, cut it to 2 minutes. (a 4 minute song)
What a Miracle - closing song

I just had 3 kids and 3 adults until the last song when a child and dad stuck their heads in a joined in. It was hard to find crayon books that worked for toddlers so I mostly did colors.

Feelings - Toddlertime

Due to the snow, I only had 3 kids for feelings toddler storytime. I followed the same plan as I did with Early Head Start but I added the asides to the parents. I told them about phonological awareness. Both parents were new to storytime so I took time to tell them about our Early Literacy program. This group loved the fingerplay (see below) Frogs. We did it twice.

Outreach to Early Head Start and Head Start - Feelings

Today I had 2 outreach programs: 1. Head Start for ages 3-5 2. Early Head Start for ages 0-3 I used the same plan as yesterday's out reach but I changed a few things. For Headstart - I added If You're Happy and you Know It. I am not sure why I skipped it yesterday...just forgot I guess. The kids loved Jan Thomas' Can you Make a Scary Face? best.
I also used scarves rather than bean bags. I have a better song for scarves on our ipad which I have to use at Head start because when using CDs and boombox, the floor shakes so much the CD skips.
For Early Headstart - I used the same books but left out Grumpy Cat I also shortened Pete the Cat and the Magic Sunglasses due to lack of attention. We did extra finger plays and songs and all worked out fine.
EH had me in the cafeteria this time and it works much better. There are fewer distractions than in the classroom.
tomorrow - Toddlertime!

Preschool Outreach - Feelings theme

Today I went to a local preschool where I go every other month for a 1/2 hour storytime. It was raining so I put my ukulele in the car at the last minute. My theme lent itself to my uke because nothing makes me happier than playing my uke. Also, I had just played You Are My Sunshine yesterday I figured I could play it pretty well. The problem I have with playing any instrument that it ties up my hands and the kids will not do hand motions with me unless I do them in front of them. This happened today as well. I showed them the hand motions and sang and then we sang while I played. Not one kid was able to do the motions on their own. I am not surprised, just realize that playing uke for storytime works better when there are parents and caregivers to model the hand motions.
The books I read were: Grumpy Cat by Teckentrup Kids liked this one
Can you make a scary Face? By Thomas The kids loved this one.
Taking a bath with my dog and other things that make me happy by Menchin A little too basic for this group.
Today I Feel Silly by Curtis A bit too much of a repeat from the book before this one.
I did a game on the flannelboard where I put up a face and they guessed the emotion. I did this finger play:
Frogs
One, Two, Three, Four, Five [Hold up hand and count fingers.]
Five little frogs standing in a row
This little frog stubbed his toe [Point to each finger following the rhyme.]
This little frog said, Oh, Oh, Oh!
This little frog laughed and was glad
This little frog cried and was sad This little frog, so thoughtful and good, Ran for the doctor as fast as he could. (run your finger all over the place)
I was surprised how much they liked this one. We did it twice.

Songs - Open Shut them, Oh what a miracle, If you're happy and you know it, You Are My Sunshine, and Bean Bag Alphabet (Palmer)

We also sang Happy Birthday when the teacher told me someone had a birthday. I played in on my uke but I really messed it up. Oh well!

body part toddler time

I got 2 kids and 2 adults.

I changed my plan a bit and added Eric Carle's Head to Toe. The girl who is about 30 months did well listening to the stories and doing the fingerplay. The boy (20 months) only paused from exploring the room for brief periods. He loved the bean bags and decided to keep them for a while. I added Body Rock by Hap Palmer and skipped Body Talk. I didn't do Head Shoulders Knees and Toes or Akien Drum since my opening and closing songs are also body parts songs.

Here is what it looked like:

Open shut them

Book #1 – My octopus arms by Baker

-I like the ending of this one.

Book #2 - Head to Toe by Carle (big book)

Action Song-Hokey Pokey by Hap Palmer

-everyone liked this...this is my favorite version

Book #3 – Here are my Hands by Bill Martin Jr.

-Not much interested, a bit of a dud.

Finger Play

On my Face

On my face I have a nose (point to nose) 

And way down here, I have ten toes. (point to toes)  I have two eyes that I can blink (blink eyes)  I have a head to help me think (put hands on head)  I have a chin and very near (point to chin)  I have two ears to help me hear (put hands to ears)  I have a mouth with which to speak (point to mouth)  And when I run I use my feet. (pretend to run in place)  Here are my arms to hold up high (put arms up high)  And here’s a hand to wave goodbye (wave) 
-The girl liked doing this so we did it twice.

Book #4 – We’ve All Got Bellybuttons by David Martin

- this story is too much like Head to Toe, I felt like I was repeating myself.

Dance – Bean bag Boogie by Learning Station and Body Rock by Hap Palmer  

-they both loved these

Closing song – Oh what a miracle

Early Literacy tips:


1)Vocabulary is knowing the names of things, not just things, but concepts, feelings, and ideas. Researchers have found that children with a large vocabulary, to have heard a lot of different words, find it easier to read when that time comes


2)Go ahead and use words that are unfamiliar to your child. Don’t replace words in books that they may not understand, just explain them.


3)The first time you read a book you can read that book from start to finish. Read it again and stop and talk about the pictures. This will help increase vocabulary.


Coloring sheet:

Body Parts Toddlertime

Tomorrow I have my first Toddlertime since before Christmas.

Toddlertime is for ages 18-36 months. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep everyone on the same page especially if I have a wide range of ages. All of them are mobile so I make sure I have activities that allow for moving around, books that aren't too long, and songs that have motions.

Here is my plan to tomorrow:

Toddlertime – Body Parts

Open shut them

Book #1 – My octopus arms by Baker

Finger Play

On my Face

On my face I have a nose (point to nose)
And way down here, I have ten toes. (point to toes)
I have two eyes that I can blink (blink eyes)
I have a head to help me think (put hands on head)
I have a chin and very near (point to chin)
I have two ears to help me hear (put hands to ears)
I have a mouth with which to speak (point to mouth)
And when I run I use my feet. (pretend to run in place)
Here are my arms to hold up high (put arms up high)
And here’s a hand to wave goodbye (wave) 

Book #2 – My nose your nose by Walsh

Action Song/fingerplay – Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Akien Drum

Book #3 – wake up, me!

Dance – Body Talk by Kids in Motion

and Bean bag Boogie

Closing song – This is the way

Things will change and that is what I will be recording for my use in the future.