Thursday, January 12, 2023

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

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