Preschool Storytime 12-5-17

Hello again! You can view my Preschool Storytime hello and goodbye here. I like to begin and end consistently each week so the kids learn the songs and begin to fall into a routine, which will help them later on when they are in school.

Our first story today was We Are Best Friends by Robyn Newton. It is a board book, but more appropriate for preschoolers than for babies because it has a full verse of a rhyming poem on each page. It's fun to have the kids tell you what is on each page; the sets of best friends range from a fork and spoon, to milk and cookies, to salt and pepper. 

Next we sang my version of "I'm a Little Teapot," which comes with a bonus verse of "Two Little Blackbirds" to the same tune.

Here is the version of these songs I use.

And here is Jbrary demonstrating the same moves I teach the kids for both classic nursery rhymes.

After that mellow song, we did a very NOT-mellow song: "I Am a Robot." It is an instructed gesture song, asking the kids to jump, run, hop on one foot, etc., but it moves so quickly that a lot of them don't catch on. For this reason, I prefer to use this one as a get-the-wiggles-out helper instead of worrying about the instruction too much. And, keeping the structure looser allows plenty of time for the preschoolers to show me their amazing robot dance moves.

To calm back down for another story after that high energy exercise, I hauled out the "Hippo on the Bus" chant. I demonstrated it once, and then encouraged both kids and grownups to keep time by hitting their knees with open palms and chant with me as we did it two more times.

A hip, a hip, a hippotomous
Got on, got on, got on the city bus
And all, and all, and all the people fussed...
STOP SQUISHING US!
(On that last line, squish your cheeks in from both sides so your mouth looks funny and speech is distorted, as if you were being squished by a hippo)

Our second story was The Night Before Preschool by Natasha Wing. Since Christmas is coming up I thought this rhyming story would be a nice mention of the season without getting too heavy handed about a holiday not everyone celebrates. This book isn't holiday-oriented at all, except to borrow the rhythm of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The kids seemed engaged while I read this book, calling out things they saw on each page and telling me how they thought the kids in the illustrations were feeling.

After the story, we sang and moved to "Baby Shark" and "Peek-a-Boo." I like "Baby Shark" because it includes very easy, obvious movements (sharks of different sizes, swimming, sunny day, wiping your brow for "safe at last") that the kids catch onto quickly. As a bonus, the grownups always think Grandpa Shark, making a shark mouth with your fists because Grandpa has no teeth, is hilarious.

Click here to listen to the version of "Baby Shark" I use. (link to come)

Even though it's not exactly the song I use, here is a video of some kids acting out the song similarly to how I demonstrate it at storytime. 

And another bonus, here is an adorable Halloween version of the song that was a hit at our Spooky Singalong in October:

Even though I usually only use "Peek-a-Boo" with the babies, older kids also like to do it occasionally. Today I noticed a few in the group peek-a-boo-ing their parents and younger siblings. This song is just a fun one to have in your back pocket whenever you are around little ones because it's catchy, and once they get it they'll sing it to themselves or their sibling for hours. 

Click here to listen to the version of "Peek-a-Boo" I use. 

Then, we said goodbye to all our friends with a little sign language, a little more singing, and of course, bubbles.