Wiggle Yourself Silly!

I decided to do a program that just included dancing and music.  Some of my co-workers have done them in the past with great results and it’s really easy to do.  The nice thing was there was barely any prep for it.  You just pick some songs you like, write out a list and you’re done!  Unless you decide to do a craft, then you might have a little more to do.

First we started with The Itsy Bitsy Spider By: Dr. Jean.  I love this version because she puts her own little spin on it by including the big fat gorilla and a teensy weensy ant going up the water-spout.  She’s a clever woman.

Next I passed out dancing scarves and we danced to Spin Again By: Jim Gill.  SO MUCH FUN.  And lots of dizzy kids.

Since they already had scarves our next song was My Bonnie By: Jim Gill.  This is a really fun song too, very tricky, but fun.  Every time he says a word that begins with the letter “B” you had to put your arms up, and when he said another word than began with “B”, you had to put them down.  The kids caught on real quick.

Next we did the song Bubblegum By: Dr. Jean.  Of course everyone’s favorite part is when we go super fast.

Next was Your Face Will Surely Show It By: Jim Gill.  It was funny to see the different faces the kids did.

Next was Poison Ivy By: Jim Gill.  I figured a lot of the kids might not know what poison ivy is, so I asked them.  Surprisingly several kids knew what it was, and I explained it to the others.  This is a silly song that is fun too.

I passed out egg shakers for Shakin’ Everywhere By: Jim Gill. 

And last but not least, we danced to good ol’  Tooty Ta By: Dr. Jean.  A very silly song that is hilarious to watch.

We also made a quick craft.  Everyone made dancing ribbons to take home and dance with!  I wanted to encourage them to dance at home, so I figured that was the prefect way.  We just used crepe paper and sequins to decorate it with.  Easy as can be!

Overall it was a great program and so so easy to do!  My age range was 2-5 year olds and that was perfect because everyone had a great time.  I’m definitely going to do more music and movement programs.

Alphabet Storytime! “E” is for…

This week we talked about the letter “E”!  I am starting to get sad that next week will be our last storytime for a month, but then I decided it’s ok because I need that time to prepare MORE storytimes to share.  First we learned the signs for elephant, egg, eat, and earth.

We sang our welcome song.

We played Little Mouse, Little Mouse.

The first book I read was The Pigeon Finds  Hot Dog By: Mo Willems.  I had to read this one because our craft tied in with it.  And yes, I have been doing a lot of Pigeon books this session, but I enjoy them and so do the kids.  Plus, now they’ve heard several stories of the Pigeon so they feel like they know him 🙂

Cover from Amazon.com

Next we sang and danced to Shakin’ Everywhere By: Jim Gill.  For this one I passed out egg shakers and it was a blast!  I really, really love egg shakers. 

Read How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food By: Jane Yolen.  Her books are always a hit with the kids.

Cover from Amazon.com

 Next we danced to Tooty Ta By: Dr. Jean.  I love to do this song because it’s one of the silliest I know.  AND it’s entertaining for the parents to watch their kids, haha.

We ended with our goodbye rhyme.

Our craft this week was cool!  The kids got to pick something that their Pigeon found.  They came up with some pretty creative ideas.  Kites, donuts, peaches, penguins and of course, purple balloons just like mine.

Alphabet Storytime! “D” is for…

Last week we talked about the letter “D”!    First we learned the signs for dolphin, dog, duck, and dinosaur.  I love incorporating sign language into my storytimes.  The kids love learning it and I love teaching it.  Hmm, maybe I’ll do some sort of signing class?  We will see. 

We sang our welcome song Can’t Wait to Celebrate By: Jim Gill

Next we did “Little Mouse, Little Mouse”.  I was going to try to explain how this works because I realized I never did, but Seth is going to post a video on his blog next week and it will be spectacular!

We read Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late By: Mo Willems

Cover from Amazon.com

After that we danced to The Silly Dance Contest By: Jim Gill.  I passed out dancing scarves for this one just to make it a little more exciting to dance and the kids all loved it.  I would definitely recommend using dancing scarves.

Then I read Duck on a Bike By: David Shannon.  You really can’t go wrong with a David Shannon book.

Cover from Amazon.com

Then we did our felt board rhyme, Five Little Ducks.

We ended with our goodbye rhyme!  And here it is because I realized I didn’t ever share it either.

On my face I have a nose, and way down here I have ten toes.  I have two eyes that I can blink, and I have a head to help me think.  I have a chin and very near, I have two ears to help me hear.  I have a mouth that I use to speak, and when I run I use my feet.  I have two arms to hold up high, and here’s a hand to wave goodbye!

I just love that little rhyme!

Our craft this week was coloring a dog with a doghouse, courtesy of the Ellison die cuts 🙂

Pirate Party Madness

Well things are finally beginning to wind down from our Summer Reading Program.  Our library only participated for 4 or 5 of the 9 weeks (due to the move) but it definitely felt like that long.  A few weeks ago I did a pirate party for school aged kids and let me tell you, KIDS LOVE PIRATES.  But I mean, who doesn’t love pirates right?  At least the fake ones in stories.  We began the party by reading How I Became a Pirate By: Melinda Long.  The kids of course loved that story.  Then the madness began…

We made some fun foam pirate hats from Oriental Trading.  Now let me just say, I’ve used my fair share of stuff from OT and I would say about 40% of the time the quality of it is pretty good.  I was very impressed with these pirate hats.  They had foam pieces that stuck on them and they actually stayed stuck on!

Next we played “pin the parrot on the pirate”.  That was a lot of fun, but there were so many kids that it took some time to have every child participate.  I think I’m going to put “pin the blank on the blanks” away for a looong time.  I say that to myself every time, then I find something that is cool and fits my theme well.  NO MORE!

This next game was so much fun.  We played keep the cannonball up.  Basically I gave everyone a black balloon and it was their “cannonball” so they had to keep it in the air as long as they could and if it fell on the floor, they had to pop it, like a real cannonball.  The only problem here was we didn’t blow the balloons up enough so they were really hard to pop.  Luckily, Seth was there to save the day and pop the balloons for all the kids.  I had a piece of paper inside each balloon that either said, winner, or sorry.  If they got a winner one, they got to pick a pirate duck to keep.  Man, did those kids love pirate ducks.  I didn’t think they would be such a big hit.

Next we did a treasure hunt in the library.  The kids definitely had a lot of fun with this.  I made a treasure map and had different places to find in the library.  When they found the place there was a sticker for them to put on their treasure map.  The last place was to come back to the program room and get their treasure, a pirate pencil.

Last but not least was our snack.  We made treasure maps!  They all loved them!  They each had a square tortilla, cheese to sprinkle on, olive pieces to make a trail, green bell pepper pieces and a pretzel stick to make a palm tree, and  red bell pepper pieces to make an “X” to make the spot.  They turned out very cute.  Here is the one I found online that inspired me.  Cute huh?

So that was my awesome pirate party!  Hope you enjoyed reading about the all craziness.  Oh and I need to send a special shout out to Seth for being awesome and helping with the madness and reading the story in his awesome pirate voice.  Go Seth!