Fall Into Storytime

STORYTIME FOR: Berwyn Public Library (Outreach)

Hello/Goodbye Song

We Say Hello/Goodbye Like This (with ukulele)
(Tune: The Farmer in the Dell)
D                                                          A7
We wave hello like this… with our friends in storytime, we wave hello like this.
D                                                         A7
We clap hello like this…with our friends in storytime, we clap hello like this.
D                                                           A7
We stomp hello like this… with our friends in storytime, we stomp hello like this.

Why These Books?

Mouse’s First Fall, by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Buket Edogan – This is a sweet, simple book that talks about the excitement of fall, as well as colors and shapes.  Kids love looking for Minka’s tail when she’s hiding.  It’s really great for younger three and four-year-olds at the beginning of the year.

I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen – I have to confess, this is my favorite storytime book.  Possibly ever.  I paired it with fall books, because we can talk about forest animals that are common during the fall.  The humor in this is dry, but kids don’t miss it.  One of my groups this week giggled every time the bear asked, “Have you seen my hat?”  They love the repetition, the drama, the mystery.

The Busy Little Squirrel, by Nancy Tafuri – This is another sweet book, and a great way to end a storytime.  It has bright colors and an assortment of animals.  I like to ask the kids to make the animals sounds when they come up.  For example, the frog says, “Croak, croak.”  There’s also repetition here (“He was so busy!”), which encourages the kids to predict what the squirrel is doing.

Stretchers

All the Leaves Are Falling Down (tune: London Bridge)
C
All the leaves are falling down,
G                   C
falling down, falling down.
C
All the leaves are falling down,
G       C
I see [color] ones.

Pass different colored felt leaves to each kid, make sure they know what their color is. Then sing about each color, and have the kids put their leaves on the felt board.

Here Comes a Bear, by the Wiggles (#8 on Let’s Wiggle CD)

Have the kids act out the motions of each animal.

Animal Bag

Pull animal puppets out of a bag.  Ask questions like, “What noise does this animal make?”  This activity leads really well inot The Busy Little Squirrel, where there are a lot of animals that make different noises.

How It Went

Each group I visited responded very well to this storytime.  Only a couple sang along with me, but the others were still involved in acting out the songs (hello/goodbye, as well as the felt).  They really liked being able to come up and put leaves on the felt board.  I did the Wiggles song and the animal bag consecutively, so they were able to move around and talk before the last story.  Next time, I might read slower to give them the opportunity to talk about what they see on the page.  Overall, I was very pleased and I had a lot of fun!