book encore!

Both storytimes this week were a total success! I am so glad to have my storytime groove thing back. Before I went into storytime I reminded myself to take it slow, enjoy the moment, and if I felt frantic, which I didn't, to ask everyone to breathe with me. I enjoyed every minute of both storytimes and I didn't let my worry about everything going smoothly get in my way.

This week's theme was all about animals.

Books we read (We made it through all three books in both storytimes today):

Don't Wake Up the Tiger by Britta Teckentrup



My first storytime was huge so I modified the book a bit and took charge of touching the tiger's nose and belly, but still included the kids by asking where their noses and bellies were. My second storytime was smaller so I was able to go around and give everyone a chance to touch the tiger's belly and nose. This book was a huge hit in both storytimes. I really took my time with the books today (yay!), and at one point I noticed most of the kids in the first storytime were laying on their bellies with their chins resting on their palms. They were utterly absorbed in all three books. I'm not sure I've seen a better group of listeners.

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Before I read this I told everyone how excited I was about this book because of its flaps. Because this is more of a toddler book I wasn't sure how the older kids would feel about it. Well, the older kids had a great time guessing the animals and the younger kids adored the flaps. Even with a few hints the older kids were stumped a few times, which made me feel better about choosing this book.

Five Fuzzy Chicks by Diana Murray and Sydney Hanson

I cannot even begin to tell you how much the kids loved this book. Oh wait, yes I can. When we finished reading this book a boy asked me if we could read it again. Really! A book encore. I love how much fun this book is to read aloud. It flows and rhymes so so well. There are also lots of opportunities to make animal noises, including whispering "cluck cluck," which everyone loved doing. 

Parachute Play: Same as the last few weeks. In the second storytime I had the shaker eggs ready because I started the storytime with one kid, and in the first ten minutes the number grew to eight. The kids loved the shaker eggs and I didn't forget to add the shaker egg activities to my slide. 

Songs:

In the first storytime one of the kids asked to sing Row Row Row Your Boat, which was perfect because we didn't have much time left. In the second storytime the kids asked for Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, which went ok enough.

Goodbye Rhyme: While doing the goodbye rhyme today I ran out of animals during the first storytime.

I felt a little like this on the inside:

But I asked the two kids which animals they wanted to choose to say goodbye to again. I then asked them if they could remember the rhymes from earlier and they did.

WHEW. I will say I've been brainstorming a couple more animal options so I have some back-ups in case this happens again.

Cute moment of the day:

I chose Larry the crow as my puppet greeter this morning. I came out of the office with him and the very first boy, who was just barely at the walking stage, saw him and shrieked with happiness. Larry the Crow gave a throaty CAW (probably my best caw to date) and the boy plopped right down on his bottom, kicking his feet and shrieking with happiness.