Storytime this week was a wee bit crazy. The theme was 'boxes,' which I've been saving up for a while. Before the library opened I turned our activity space into a fort made with furniture, boxes, and some sheets and flashlights from one of the library's system-wide kits. We have a handful of really great system-wide kits we often use - duplos & dinosaurs (a great combination), legos, games etc. We also have a forts & flashlights kit, which we've used at my location before with great success.
The fort survived two storytime crowds and appeared to be a big hit. I will definitely do it again.
Books we read:
Big Box Little Box by Caryl Hart and Edward Underwood
This was the clear winner of the day. The first storytime loved it, and though the second storytime was crazy (unlike my first two storytimes of the season), they were able to get involved with the story somewhat. We had a lot of fun talking about shapes and colors with this book and looking for the mouse and cat too.
What To Do With a Box by Jane Yolen and Chris Sheban
This book wasn't nearly as big a hit as the first book, but the kids still enjoyed it. The second storytime named the dog "Bassy," which was pretty adorable.
Activities:
Downward Dog Yoga Pose: The first storytime enjoyed this, but the second storytime loved it. I would say about 90% of the kids were able to do the pose with ease. We spiced things up a big and wagged our tails (bums) and barked heartily.
Fox in a Box: I made a magnetic version of the felt one on AnnesLibraryLife and didn't have much success with it when I tried it out last year. It was a big hit this time! Both storytimes enjoyed this, and even though the second storytime was a little grabby, we were able to complete a couple rounds of the game.
Parachute play: Because the instruments weren't a big hit this season, I brought out the parachute early. My hope was to change up the big activity every 2-3 three weeks, but we'll spend four weeks with the parachute unless they grow bored with it. We sang a song I cobbled together from a myriad of sources in addition to writing some of it (ahem, wombats sitting down on their bottoms).
The Animals on the Bus
The fish on the bus swim round and round X3
The fish on the bus swim round and round
all through the town.
The birds on the bus go flap, flap flap...
The seals on the bus slide back and forth...
The horses on the bus stand tall and high...
The kangaroos on the bus all jump, jump, jump...
The wombats on the bus sit down on their bottoms...
The lions on the bus go swish with their tails...
The mice on the bus go run and hide...
When the mice run and hide that's the cue for all the kids to run under the parachute. This never grows old.
I tried yet another version of "Ring Around the Rosy," but like the other versions, it failed. I will be bringing out the bean bags next week for popcorn to replace what I had hoped was the perfect "Ring Around the Rosy." No matter. Not everything can be awesome.
Songs:
We sang "Row Row Row Your Boat," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "The ABCs" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" in the first storytime because we had a little too much time left over. The same thing happened in the second storytime too so we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." No weird song choices this week (kind of a bummer), but more importantly no hokey pokey.
Cute Moments:
The little boy who adores the buffalo in the goodbye rhyme came this week! He brought his stuffed buffalo and his buffalo gave a high-five to my greeting puppet, which was a monkey.
Watching kids enjoy the fort this week in addition to older siblings helping younger siblings get in and out of the fort was the highlight of my week.
Learning Moments: I had some tough learning moments this week. I foolishly forgot to include another parachute activity even though I was trying something new. Next time I'll be more prepared.
Also, during the finger fiddle meditation/fingerplay a boy roared so loud he made another little boy cry. So next time we will have a conversation about how we still need to use our indoor voices to roar.
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