Since Learn & Grown with Rhythm & Flow and Shake, Boogie, and Bop are so high energy, I like to start these programs with a more mellow good morning song than other storytimes. I like this one because it has built-in movements and stretches.
Warming Up Motor Skills: "Open, Shut Them"
On this song we do the movements described in the lyrics: open our hands, close our hands, clap three times, put our hands in our lap, creep our fingers up to our chin, and don't let them in our mouths.
This is where the rest of the storytime comes in. And then...
Goodbye: "Until We Meet Again"
Before singing this song at the end of Learn & Grow, we learn a vocabulary word: clave. Clave is a type of rhythm used mostly in Afro-Cuban music, characterized by it's three-two beat. When I teach the word to preschool-age kids, I have them count to three, pause, and count to two, then do it again with clapping. The Out of the Box goodbye song is to a clave pattern, so after we learn what the word means, we practice clapping the clave pattern as we say goodbye to our friends.
In Shake, Boogie, and Bop, I stick to my usual American Sign Language signs as we sing the song.
 |
| Friend(s) |
 |
| Meet |
 |
| Goodbye |
Bubbles!
The last thing I do at every storytime is blow bubbles. The kids go crazy over them! I play the same songs every time so they get to know that after we say goodbye, we have bubbles for the duration of two songs, and then storytime is over until next time. Our regulars know this is the way it always goes, which is a great introduction to establishing routines in other aspects of life as they grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment