I Know a Chicken! Storytime November 27-29

This week in story time, we had a lot of music and rhythm again.  As you get to know me better, you'll notice that I absolutely love having music as a huge part of story time, and I love trying out new things.

To get started, we learned a new song by the Laurie Berkner band called, "I Know a Chicken." You can check it out below:

This is an EGG-cellent egg shaker song--which is perfect, because our Wiggle Worms were able to make their very own egg shakers to take home with them.  Feel free to pull up this video for your family to all sing and shake along!

Our books this week included:

    

All of our kiddos received their very own DIY harmonica--if you weren't able to join us this week, please feel free to make one at home! Click here to get the instructions.

In Preschool Story Hour, we also read:

 

We also all made and decorated our own drums! Thanks for joining us this week, and make sure to check out these amazing books and activities in your free time.

What's a Flannelboard?

In storytimes, we often use the flannelboard for stories, rhymes, and/or songs.  I absolutely love using the flannel boards for a variety of reasons, and I'd like to share some of them with you.

First of all, what is a flannelboard?

A flannelboard is simply a board with a felt background.  We can cut out shapes and characters in felt, and the two naturally stick together, allowing us to further visualize our stories!

But we have the book--why would we need a flannel board?

My quick and easy answer is: participation! I love including the children in the story or song we are talking about.  This week, all of the children either helped place colored leaves on the board or colored turkey feathers.  Not only did this get them excited to help, it got them excited about the story/song, and we were able to work on our colors!

In the book, Supercharged Storytimes: An Early Literacy Assessment and Planning Guide*, the authors dive more into specific ways flannelboards help with literacy:

• Print Concepts: when we sing songs with a story, i.e. "Down by the Bay," "I Know an Old Lady," or "Five Green and Speckled Frogs," we can hand flannelboard pieces that relate to the song giving the child a chance to participate and make a connection between the visual and the words we are singing.
• Alphabetic Knowledge: Flannelboards give us the opportunity to make large letters that we can focus on and clearly display.  This can work with songs like, "ABCs" and "BINGO" (can turn the word/name into any five-letter word).

If you ever have any questions about flannelboards, do not hesitate to ask! Would you like to make your own? Check out the link here to get started!

*Campana, Kathleen, et al. Supercharged Storytimes: an Early Literacy Planning and Assessment Guide. ALA Editions, an Imprint of the American Library Association, 2016.

  

Free Play Versus Guided Play

There are so many ways children can play, and as parents and caregivers, we want to foster as much learning in our children's play as we can.  We hope to give you a few tips, and explain why we offer free play and guided play in our story hours.

What is free play? 

Free play is really what it sounds like.  Children are free to use the toys and materials that are available to create their own playtime. 

Why is free play important?

Free play may look like children acting silly and goofing off, but there are some definite benefits of free play. Did you know that children who take part in free play have improved academic outcomes?! In the article, "Kindergarten Scores, Storytelling, Executive Function, and Motivation Improved through Literacy-Rich Guided Play*," the authors discuss the differences between free play and guided play, and why they are so important, academically.

• Free play encourages creativity.  Free play allows children to come up with their own ideas of what shapes and materials might mean for their play.  The world is their oyster!
• Children are able to work on collaborative and social skills.  This includes sharing, but it also encourages children to work together to come up with an idea and take turns or assign roles to play it out.  Have you seen our video on Facebook? This is exactly what our preschoolers were able to do! 
• Free play encourages independence.  Children are able to entertain themselves when given the freedom to play and create.  This is particularly helpful when that growing load of laundry really needs to be folded!
• Children are also able to work on their motor planning skills. Children learn to plan what they will use their toys for and use different motor functions to play with new toys!

Free Play = Trains!

What is guided play?

Guided play is very similar to free play, but instead of letting the kids run free and create on their own, there are adults involved to gently lead the children in a certain direction. I really like this article by PBS that explains a little more what this involves.

I like this version of play, because it encourages parents and other adults to interact with their children by asking questions and encouraging their children to think about new ideas.  

In this play, talk about what you're playing with and how that might relate to academics.  If you're playing with trains, you might talk about the different types of trains, how trains are able to move on the tracks, and why some trains are faster than others.

Encourage counting, calling out colors, and more to work on these skills.  You can also encourage reading and writing in your play.

This is the part I love in story hour.  While we offer free play, it is important that Miss Cindy and Miss Kelsey join the children in their play.  Our scarves that we use for some songs can be used to review colors, to become hats, or to turn us into scarf monsters!

Our cars and trucks can be used to create stories, crashes, or for a discussion about the different types of vehicles we see every day.

The game, Hullabaloo, by Cranium or the DIY version is a great example of guided play! Together, explore different animals, food, shapes, colors, and more!

We hope this is new information for some and review for others! Either way, let them play! As the weeks progress, we will change out the things we play with and offer different types of options for all of our children.  Have a request? Let us know!

*Cavanaugh, Dena, et. al. "Kindergarten Scores, Storytelling, Executive Function, and Motivation Improved through Literacy-Rich Guided Play." Early Childhood Education Journal, vol. 45, no. 6, Nov. 2017, pp. 831-843. 

November 13-15 Story Hours

This week we learned about shapes, we marched like dinosaurs, we zoomed to the moon, and we witnessed stunts performed by cows and clams!

Feel free to place a hold on any of the great books we discussed this week!

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh tells the story of three mice who, as usual, are afraid of cats! Watch as they use different shapes and colors to hid from their feline foe.










Mooncraft by Frank Asch was our puppet show for the week.  In this story a bear desperately wants a bite out of the moon and builds a rocketship to make his dream come true!








Shape by Shape by Suse MacDonald is a fun guessing book using shapes and colors.










Crash, Splash, Moo is a brand new book featuring a clam, a monkey, and a cow doing different stunts and it's up to you to figure out if they will crash, splash, or moo!










We tried out a new game this week--let Miss Kelsey know what you thought about it! If you've ever played Hullabaloo by Cranium, we did the homemade version.  This is a simple game to make at home! All you  need is colored paper, scissors, and markers!

Cut out large shapes of your choice, and on each shape, draw a food, an animal, or a musical instrument (or choose your own topics!).  Spread your shapes on the ground, and give your little ones instructions such as "hop to a shape with food on it" or "tiptoe to a triangle." Watch as your kids learn to recognize shapes, colors, and more!

Unfortunately, Preschool Story Hour was canceled this week due to the snow closure of Bremen Public Schools.  This is a good reminder for all caregivers--if Bremen schools are ever on a delay or closed, story hour for the day will be canceled as well! Stay inside and stay warm and safe!

Lastly, remember next week is Thanksgiving and there will be NO story hour for the week.  We will see you back at the end of the month!

November 6-8 Story Hours

This week in Wiggle Worms, we had a range of great books--from some classics, to some newer stories. You can place holds on any and all of them!

Thank you to all of our families that braved the cold to get to story time! For those of you who were unable to make it to story time, please feel free to check out our story time books and sing our story time songs!

If you didn't catch the video earlier this week, here is the new song that we learned in story time that we will be using for the rest of the month!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is an excellent choice to work on sequencing with your child.  Watch as the caterpillar eats one thing after another--and learn counting along the way!






Lionel in the Fall by Stephen Krensky was one of our choices for our puppet shows.  This story is wonderful to show how two friends can work together towards the same goal.  There is also a great countdown to leafy jump!









Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard teaches us all a lesson about being grumpy and how friends can be the best medicine! Follow Grumpy Bird on his walk through the forest as his friends work tirelessly to walk by his side.








 Tickle Monster by Edouard Manceau is a fun monster book similar to Go Away, Big Green Monster! Only in this story, we must tickle the monster to make his body parts move in to a new picture that isn't quite so scary.  We tried this story with the flannel board, and it was so fun letting the kids guess what each part of the monster would become in our new picture!







Our Wiggle Worms got to make their own monsters by blowing paint and adding some finishing touches.  Check out their creations!

In Preschool Story Hour, we added one more book, and let the kids experiment with a couple of monster projects:

  We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is another oldie, but goodie that teaches children sequences, but also adds some fun action! Swish through the grass, squish through the mud, all on your way to hunt a bear!

Our Preschool Monster Makers made our monsters disappear using water, markers, and coffee filters!

Check out the resource we used:

We had a little extra time, so we decided to make some paper bag monsters as well!

Book Review: Rosie Revere's new series!

If you are like me, and you love all things science, I have a new fantastic series for you!

Andrea Beaty has delighted us with three incredible and inspirational stories of young girls that refuse to sit idly by.  They prefer to fix things, make things, and show the world what they are capable of.  Now, Beaty has begun an early reader chapter book series that combines these lovely girls.  

Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters

by Andrea Beaty

Rosie Revere (Engineer) joins her friends, Iggy Peck (Architect) and Ada Twist (Scientist)  to assist the Raucus Riveters in a new challenge.  

Rosie is tasked with creating a machine that will help one of the Riveters paint in a local contest--only every experiment has its flops.  Rosie and her friends must work together to try, fail, learn, and try again.  

Failure is not the end--it is only a stepping stone to the solution!

I love that this book has strong girl characters, it references history (the Riveters during WWII), and focuses on friendships.  If you love solving problems, hop on board and join Rosie in her newest task!

This book is great for our young readers who are just starting to get in to chapter books.  This book has short chapters and illustrations to make the book flow more smoothly for our early readers.

Try the original picture books by Andrea Beaty and learn the backstory of our famous characters!

Click on any of the titles or book covers to put a hold on them from our catalog!

    

Rosie Revere, Engineer        Ada Twist, Scientist           Iggy Peck, Architect

October 30-November 1 Story Hours

This week, we talked about rhymes and sequence--if you have a favorite nursery rhyme, please share!

Literacy/Developmental Skill: Some nursery rhymes help children develop narrative skills.  Those skills will later help them understand what they read.  Giving children aids, like flanelboard pieces helps them to remember the sequence of a story and makes it easier for them to retell the story in the correct order.

Some of our nursery rhymes for this week:

Buckle My Shoe

One, Two, buckle my shoe

Three, four, shut the door

Five, six, pick up sticks

Seven, eight, lay them straight

Nine, ten, a big red hen!

This Little Piggie

This little piggie went to market

 This little piggie stayed home

This little piggie had roast beef

This little piggie had none

This little piggie cried, "Wee, wee, wee"

All the home

Jack be Nimble

Jack, be nimble

Jack, be quick

Jack jumped over the candlestick 

(For this one, I particularly like to change what we do--jumped fast, jumped slow, walked around, etc)

Here are our book picks for this week!

    

       Row, Row, Row Your Boat          One, Two, Buckle My Shoe      

               by Annie Kubler                         by Salina Yoon                   

 Old MacDonald Had a Truck
by Steve Goetz

We had some time to free play, as well as play with some spooky sensory bins full of "guts" and "eyeballs!"  Some of the kids dressed in costume to celebrate Halloween, and we passed out some treat bags for anyone interested.

In Preschool Story Hour, we also read a few more favorites!

   

After the Fall                           Clip-Clop  

by Dan Santat                      by Nicola Smee

We will see you next week! We will be talking more about sequencing, and learning one of my favorite storytime songs, "Going to the Moon."  Check out the video below to get a sneak peak!