Storytime: Button Up for Winter Weather!

greenshot test froggy

 Bundle up with this program for warming up on a cold winter’s day

Fun interactive program of stories and songs 

incorporating early literacy and numeracy skills, sequencing,
vocabulary (unusual animals), following directions, 

plus an indoor snowball fight to use up some cooped-up energy!

 Entrance Music: “Belly Button” by Joe Scruggs on his album: Late Last Night

Book: Froggy Gets Dressed – Jonathon London (kids act out motions and shout out “FROGGY...Have you forgotten something?”) (Alt. for young kids: Bear Gets Dressed: A Guessing Game Story – Harriet Ziefert, Other great underwear-themed titles: Bear in Long Underwear -- Todd H. Doodler, Naked by Michael Ian Black (kids LOVE!)

Froggy clearly had trouble wearing clothes – so do these animals…Flannel: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing – Judi Barrett (Cut out from a book whose spine had broken -- made it easy for us to as a Q&A: animal identification, reasoning—why wearing clothing would be a problem for the animal, vocabulary development – animal names, “suspenders”)

Action Song: This is the Way… (sequencing: getting dressed) (Tune: “Mulberry Bush”)

This is the way we put on our coat,
Put on our coat, put on our coat,
This is the way we put on our coat,
To play outside in the snow.
Continue with other articles of clothing…
(Could also use: Action/Sign Language Song: When It’s Cold Outside from “Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs”) 

Here’s another animal looking for something warm to wear…but she makes some mistakes...
Book: A Hat for Minerva Louse – Janet Morgan Stoeke  

Action Song: We Dress Like That (mention concept of "piggy-back songs" Source Unknown, Tune: “Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes”—repeated several times)
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.
In wintertime we dress like that,
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.

Participatory Storytelling: The Mitten by Jan Brett

Act out story with puppets (old lady, boy) and masks from www.janbrett.com – you can draw an enormous mitten on a white plastic tablecloth with thick black marker, place it on the floor and have adults hold down the corners while the Iibrarian narrates the story and the children (holding laminated masks from the Jan Brett website), step on and huddled together, at the “aachoo” we all jumped off and threw the tablecloth into the air! 
Other versions here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-storytimetheatercraft-jan-bretts.html

The Mitten Song

Thumbs in the thumb place
Fingers all together
This is the song we sing when it's mitten weather
It doesn't matter whether
They are made of wool or leather
Thumbs in the thumb place
Fingers all together

Singable Book: Frosty the Snowman – Steve Nelson
Snowmen don’t need coats to go outside, but people do!

Action Song: I’m a Little Snowman (Sung to: “I’m a Little Teapot”)
I’m a little snowman, short and fat
Here is my broomstick, here is my hat
When the sun comes out, I’ll melt away
Drip, drip, drip, I’m a puddle today!

Young group so skipped : Flannel/Song: In the Freezer (Song on Joe Scrugg’s “Traffic Jams”) lyrics to this and additional winter songs here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/singalong-winters-day.html

Close with Activity: indoor snowball fight using plastic bag snowballs, to the music “Sleigh Ride”, track #5 on album 20th Century Masters: Season's Greetings- The Millennium Collection
Making snowballs for the program:
1) Gather a white plastic grocery bag into a long, skinny tube-like length with the handles on one end.
2) Fold the length in half, then in half again.
3) Wind a rubber band around the middle until it is tight.
4) Trim both ends to remove any folded areas.
5) Make 2 or 3 vertical cuts in both ends.
6) Then fluff out pieces
Idea courtesy of:  Susan Dailey, librarian, speaker and author of "A Storytime Year" 

Other possibilities: 

Book: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat – Simms Tabeck (folk tale with great cut-out reveals; briefly mention Caldecott Award) (Optional, show another version of same tale: Something from Nothing – Phoebe Gilman)

Another Joe who has a problem with buttons...

Action: Hi, My Name is Joe & I work in a button Factory (traditional, left-right identification)
Hi my name is Joe & I work in a button factory.
One day, my boss said “Joe, are you busy?”
“I said “no”” – so he said “Turn this button with your right hand” (do this)
Repeat: left hand, right foot, left foot, head…finally
I said YES!!!!!!”

Or flannel/prop song (to tune: “Mary Had Little Lamb”) (memory-sequencing)
Joseph had an overcoat, overcoat, over coat…it got old and worn.
So he made a little jacket etc. ..continue thru button…lost button…then he made this little song….

1A few more buttons...
Book: Press Here – Herve Tullet (kids press the dots and are thrilled with the changes, cause & effect, numeracy, left-right identification, patterns)

along with a cat... YouTube Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons – Eric Litwin  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7va0beuK58

Hand Stamping Music: “Belly Button” by Joe Scruggs on his album: Late Last Night

Another great title (longer): The Trouble With Trolls - Eve Bunting

CDPL 1/2/2023

Pre-School Storytime: Tap Those Shoes!

A fun and interactive storytime that includes the days of the week, letter awareness, colors, numbers, singing, pretend play, and a touch of empathy.
Includes the five EECR2 practices of: Talk; Sing; Read; Write; Play

 

Music as people arrive: “Blue Suede Shoes” #7 on album “Blue Suede Sneakers: Elvis Song for Kids” (on lots of other albums as well.)  “The Other Shoe” #11 on Joe Scrugg’s Album “Late Last Night”

Have kids write (or help write) their names on the whiteboard as they arrive.  Sing “Hello to …so glad to see you.”

Look around at shoes/boots in the room, talk about who has what, similarities, types -- optional …chart numbers

Book: My Best Shoes – Marilee Robin Burton, paintings by James E. Ransome.(days of the week, ends with favorite footwear “feet”)

Write the letters B O O T S  on the white board – what does it spell? (writing, letter awareness)

Action Song: “Boots” by Laurie Berkner on her album Victor Vito (also on other albums), clap out/point out the letters and act out the actions: stomping black boots, brown boots, frog boots, daning boots, rain boots. 
(If not available, sing “Skip, Skip, skip in your shoes….skip in your shoes my darling
2. tie your shoes, I will too…3. buckle…4. tap… 5. slip on… 6. Skip… “

Book: New Old Shoes – Charlotte Blessing – a pair of sneakers tells how they go from a young boy in America to kids in Africa (mention “Shoes for Shoes” – Mane Stream collecting )  (This is a little long for the younger set, skip if much of the audience is less than 4-5 years old – similar message is in DVD below.)

Flannel/Song: There’s a Hole in the Bottom of my Shoe (cumulative song/memory awareness)

Song/Flannel: “Hole-y Shoes”   (variation on “There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea”)
Lyrics: There’s a hole in the bottom of my shoe (2x)
There’s a hole (2x) There’s a hole in the bottom of my shoe.
2. There’s a rock in the hole in the bottom of my shoe…
3. There’s a mouse on the rock in the hole in the bottom of my shoe…
4. There’s a gnat on the mouse on the rock in the hole in the bottom of my shoe…
5. There’s a spot on the gnat on the mouse on the rock in the hole in the bottom of my shoe…
6. There’s a speck on the spot on the gnat on the mouse on the rock in the hole in the bottom of my shoe…
7. Get them out of the bottom of my shoe…

Talk -- Guessing Game/Interactive Book: Whose Shoe? – Margaret Miller (wkrm) or could use Whose Shoes? – Stephen R. Swinburne or Shoes, Shoes, Shoes – Ann Morris

Singable Book: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes – Eric Litwin (colors, taking upsets in stride, sight words…kids can “read” along)

Action: Hokey Pokey   -- You put your left shoe in (left/right awareness, body parts)

Book: Shoes – Elizabeth Winthorp (wkrm) or Whose Shoes? – Anna Grossnickle Hines

DVD: Those Shoes – Maribeth Boelts (Nutmeg Media) – a boy longs for a pair of the “in” sneakers but his family can’t afford them. 

 

Action Song: pretend play “Late Last Night” #1 on album with that title by Joe Scruggs, optional “Wiggle in My Toe” #2  (optional shakey eggs)
Hand Stamping: “Blue Suede Shoes” #7 on album “Blue Suede Sneakers: Elvis Song for Kids”

Other possibilities:
Who’s Been Walking on My Floor – Symes – wkrm – save for farm
Belinda the Ballerina – Amy Young
Whose Shoe? – Eve Bunting – cute but a little long
Armadillo Rodeo – Eve Bunting – better for Kdg+
1, 2, Buckle My Shoe – Anna Grossnickle Hines – beautiful/young
Four Feet, Two Sandals – Karen Williams – Kdg+
There Was a Old Woman – Jane Cabrera

Optional Activity for 5+ – shoelace tying – the DVD Rock N Learn Getting Ready for Kindergarten has a section on this skill.
Didn’t use:
Flannel: Centipede Buys Sneakers (photocopied, source unknown)
Pete the Cat on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuHzYssjjGc

BWL 2.16

BWL 11.17:
10 a.m. 3-6 year olds:
Book: Shoes - Winthrop
Music/Pretend play: “Late Last Night”
Book: Whose Shoes? - Miller
Flannel/Song: Holey Shoes “There’s a hole in the bottom of my shoe…”
Book: Pete the Cat : I Love My White Shoes -- Litwin/Dean
DVD: Those Shoes

Craft: Design your own shoes (materials: cardboard, markers/stamping markers, colored construction paper scraps, gluesticks, scissors, hole-punchers, yarn, tape (for yarn ends so kids could practice lacing), stickers -- let each child choose 4 then asked "how many will that give you for each shoe - most pre-schoolers figured out the answer "two" -- then recommended website bedtimemath.org)

4:30 p.m. STEAM afternoon group mostly 2-6 year olds (not the K-4 crowd expected)

Book: New Old Shoes – Charlotte Blessing --> booktalked:  Four Feet, Two Sandals – Karen Williams – Kdg+
Flannel/Song: Holey Shoes “There’s a hole in the bottom of my shoe…”
Book: Shoes, Shoes, Shoes – Ann Morris
Music/Pretend play: “Late Last Night”
Book: Pete the Cat : I Love My White Shoes -- Litwin/Dean
Book: It's Shoe Time  - Brian Collier (difficult, even K's & 1's didn't get the shoe jokes, don’t use next time)

Booktalked: Ben Franklin’s Big Splash: the Mostly True Story of His First Invention – Barb Rosenstock –> then encouraged them to engineer or design their own shoes (2D or 3D (had MakeDo available)) – enjoyed seeing the kids create with found materials.

 

 

Pre-School Storytime: Button Up for Winter Weather!

 

Bundle up with this program for warming up on a cold winter’s day
(and we’ve had a lot of them this year!)

Fun interactive program of stories and songs for ages 3-6

incorporating early literacy and numeracy skills, sequencing, vocabulary (unusual animals),

following directions, learning left & right,

plus an indoor snowball fight to use up some cooped-up energy!

 

Entrance Music: “Belly Button” by Joe Scruggs on his album: Late Last Night

Book: Froggy Gets Dressed – Jonathon London (kids act out motions and shout out “FROGGY...Have you forgotten something?”) (Alt. for young kids: Bear Gets Dressed: A Guessing Game Story – Harriet Ziefert, Other great underwear-themed titles: Bear in Long Underwear -- Todd H. Doodler, Naked by Michael Ian Black (kids LOVED, ended with this book in 2015- use again in 2018))

Action/Sign Language Song: When It’s Cold Outside from “Pick Me Up: Fun Songs for Learning Signs”) or  Action Song: This is the Way… (sequencing: getting dressed) (Tune: “Mulberry Bush”)
This is the way we put on our coat,
Put on our coat, put on our coat,
This is the way we put on our coat,
To play outside in the snow.
Continue with other articles of clothing…

Froggy clearly had trouble wearing clothes – so do these animals…Flannel: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing – Judi Barrett (Cut out from a book whose spine had broken -- made it easy for us to as a Q&A: animal identification, reasoning—why wearing clothing would be a problem for the animal, vocabulary development – animal names, “suspenders”)

Action Song: We Dress Like That (mention concept of "piggy-back songs" Source Unknown, Tune: “Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes”—repeated several times)
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.
In wintertime we dress like that,
Boots, jacket, scarf and hat, scarf and hat.

Here’s another animal looking for something warm to wear…but she makes some mistakes...
Book: A Hat for Minerva Louse – Janet Morgan Stoeke  (Other mitten possibilities: The Mitten by Jan Brett (http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-storytimetheatercraft-jan-bretts.html, One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George)

Glove Puppet/Numeral Cards: Five Little Snowmen all in a Row (numeracy)
Five little snowmen all in a row,
Each with a hat and a big red bow.
Out came the sun and it stayed all day.
And one of those snowmen melted away. 4,3,2,1…

Action Song: I’m a Little Snowman (Sung to: “I’m a Little Teapot”)
I’m a little snowman, short and fat
Here is my broomstick, here is my hat
When the sun comes out, I’ll melt away
Drip, drip, drip, I’m a puddle today!

Singable Book: Frosty the Snowman – Steve Nelson
Snowmen don’t need coats to go outside, but people do!

Flannel/Song: In the Freezer (Song on Joe Scrugg’s “Traffic Jams”) lyrics to this and additional winter songs here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/singalong-winters-day.html

Book: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat – Simms Tabeck (folk tale with great cut-out reveals; briefly mention Caldecott Award) (Optional, show another version of same tale: Something from Nothing – Phoebe Gilman)

Another Joe who has a problem with buttons...
Action: Hi, My Name is Joe & I work in a button Factory (traditional, left-right identification)
Hi my name is Joe & I work in a button factory.
One day, my boss said “Joe, are you busy?”
“I said “no”” – so he said “Turn this button with your right hand” (do this)
Repeat: left hand, right foot, left foot, head…finally
I said YES!!!!!!”

1/2015: Or flannel/prop song (to tune: “Mary Had Little Lamb”) (memory-sequencing)
Joseph had an overcoat, overcoat, over coat…it got old and worn.
So he made a little jacket etc. ..continue thru button…lost button…then he made this little song….

1/2015: A few more buttons...
Book: Press Here – Herve Tullet (kids press the dots and are thrilled with the changes, cause & effect, numeracy, left-right identification, patterns)

along with a cat... YouTube Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons – Eric Litwin  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7va0beuK58

1/2016 – no other “snow” storytime, so instead showed Snow by Uri Shulevitz on Live Oak PPR DVD Favorite Fables Collection.

Close with Activity: indoor snowball fight using plastic bag snowballs, to the music “Sleigh Ride”, track #5 on album 20th Century Masters: Season's Greetings- The Millennium Collection
Making snowballs for the program:
1) Gather a white plastic grocery bag into a long, skinny tube-like length with the handles on one end.
2) Fold the length in half, then in half again.
3) Wind a rubber band around the middle until it is tight.
4) Trim both ends to remove any folded areas.
5) Make 2 or 3 vertical cuts in both ends.
6) Then fluff out pieces
Idea courtesy of:  Susan Dailey, librarian, speaker and author of "A Storytime Year" 

Hand Stamping Music: “Belly Button” by Joe Scruggs on his album: Late Last Night

Another great title (longer): The Trouble With Trolls - Eve Bunting

See also carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-storytimetheatercraft-jan-bretts.html &
carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/01/let-it-snow-winter-storytimecraft-ages.html

1/13
1/15  long, so didn't do everything above.
1/16  combined snow and bundle up so didn’t do Press Here or Youtube of Pete the Cat and his Groovy Buttons

1/17  Story/Craft:  (abridged version also done for PJ time)
Book:  Froggy Gets Dressed by Jack London
Action/Sign Language Song: When It’s Cold Outside from “Pick Me Up
Acting Out with Puppets – Jan Brett’s The Mitten carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-storytimetheatercraft-jan-bretts.html
Book: A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke
Flannel: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing
Action Song: Boots, Jacket, Scarft & Hat
Book: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Tabeck (Caldecott—> Mock Caldecott tomorrow), mentioned folk tale, other versions including Something for Nothing by Phoebe Gilman (good for close read together, mice making things from scrap cloth)
Action: “Hi My Name is Joe & I Work in a Button Factory”
Book: Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Flannel/Song: Joe Scrugg’s “In the Freezer”
carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/singalong-winters-day.html
Craft: Make creative snow creatures in the spirit of Ehlert’s book (flat cardboards, white paper & scissors to cut out, gluesticks, markers, stickers, shapes, and other stuff to decorate) Also had take home cut out puzzle of the pieces to make “Something from Nothing.” This is similar: storytiming.com/2011/07/15/flannel-friday-something-for-nothing-or-joseph-had-an-overcoat/

DVD: Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman playing while crafting.

The Good for Nothing Button
by Mo Willems
Yellow Bird shares an ordinary button that does nothing with Red Bird and Blue Bird, and they are delighted to find that pressing it makes them happy, which is something.