Five Dinosaurs

Sing to the tune of “Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play”
by: Katie (Recipe for Reading) 

Five dinosaurs went out to play
hold up five fingers
Over the hills and far away
move hand up and down
Mama dinosaur said “roar, roar, roar”
Roar!
But four dinosaurs came running to the door
make a sad face and hold up four fingers

Continue until no dinosaurs are left on the board.
Then sing…

No dinosaurs went out to play
Over the hills and far away
Mama dinosaur said “roar, roar, roar”
And…
ALL the dinosaurs came running to the door!

I printed the dinosaurs on different colored paper and then laminated them.  I put a piece of velcro on the back and those dinosaurs were ready for fun!
The kids really enjoyed the flannel board and song.   It doesn’t matter how you sound, singing always gets their attention!

Copyright 2012 Kathleen Lawson

Ok, so it is after Valentine’s Day, but I finally had the time to post this after a very busy week.  Better late than never!  And, kisses are good for other days than just Valentine’s Day, right?

Seven Kisses
I have seven kisses that I want to give away.
Who should I kiss this Valentine’s Day?
I think I’ll kiss my________!

I put my kisses on the flannel board and also used puppets in the puppet theater as I said the rhyme.  Sallie (the best library volunteer!) was in charge of the puppets and I gave the puppets a Valentine’s Day kiss. 

I had to kiss a spider, wolf, bee, duck, Mr. Mouse and then I blew kisses to the kids! This was a great success as the kids got a real kick out of seeing who popped out of the theater next.  I extended my kisses to seven instead of five to make things go a bit longer.

I drew the “kiss” and printed it off of colored stock paper.

 This rhyme came from Storytime Secrets blog.  She put her kisses on a flannel board and put pictures of family members (mommy, daddy, etc.) on the board as she said the rhyme.  Check out her site for more great Valentine’s Day ideas!

Mr. Mouse had a valentine for me!  And, he asked me to be his valentine…of course, I said yes!  This got everyone excited to read books about Valentine’s Day.

Book

Flannel Story

Eddie the Elephant’s Valentine’s Day Card

This story was adapted from a Valentine’s Day story on Notes from the Story Room blog.   

Eddie the Elephant is so excited for Valentine’s Day.  He makes a beautiful card to give to one of his friends at the Valentine’s Day party.  But, when he gets to the party, he can’t decide which friend to give his card to.  He has only one card and five friends.  Eddie comes up with a great solution.  He cuts his card into five hearts and then has a valentine for each of his friends!   All of his friends were so happy!

Activity

“Heart Song”
Sing to the tune of “Mulberry Bush”

Here we go ______ around the room
Around the room, around the room
Here we go ______ around the room
On St. Valentine’s Day!

 Actions we used were hopping, clapping, stomping, sliding, blowing kisses, hugging and at the end…sitting down so we could read the next story!

Book

Flannel Story/Puppet Show

Seven Kisses
I have seven kisses that I want to give away.
Who should I kiss this Valentine’s Day?
I think I’ll kiss my________!

I had to kiss a spider, wolf, bee, duck, Mr. Mouse and then I blew kisses to the kids! This was a great success as the kids got a real kick out of seeing who popped out of the theater next.  I extended my kisses to seven instead of five to make things go a bit longer.

I put my kisses on the flannel board and also used puppets in the puppet theater as I said the rhyme.  Sallie was in charge of the puppets and I gave the puppets a Valentine’s Day kiss. 

 This rhyme came from Storytime Secrets blog.  She put her kisses on a flannel board and put pictures of family members (mommy, daddy, etc.) on the board as she said the rhyme.  Check out her site for more great Valentine’s Day ideas!

Closing

Skipped our normal “Silly Dance Contest” song and instead went with a Valentine’s Day themed…

“If You Love Your Friends and You Know It”

If you love your friends and you know it, clap your hands.
If you love your friends and you know it, clap your hands.
If you love your friends and you know it, and you really want to show it
If you love your friends and you know it, clap your hands!

Actions we used were blow a kiss, jump up and down, said “I love you” and then we gave a hug!

Great Valentine’s Day Books

The Best Kind of Kiss by Margaret Allum
Big Hugs, Little Hugs by Felicia Bond
Where’s My Hug? by James Mayhew
If You’ll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant
How About a Kiss for Me? By Todd Tarpley
Mouse’s First Valentine by Lauren Thompson

Craft

We made a lion magnet out of hearts like the one in the book we read:

My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall

Idea also came from Story Time ABC’s.  She made her lion craft into a lion stick puppet.  We used different shapes of hearts to create the craft.  I had leftover hearts that our volunteer had cut out for decoration in the library so it worked out perfect!

Based on the book My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall.  Inspiration also came from Kay Leigh, Lisa Springer and her library staff, and Sarah Hay!

One of our volunteers was kind enough to cut out hearts for us at our local elementary school–the school has been generous enough to let us use their Ellison die cut machine.  She folded a piece of construction paper in fourths and cut out the heart.  When she unfolded everything, we ended up with a solid heart, another thin cut heart and a type of heart stencil.  We used the heart type stencil for the border on this bulletin board.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Five little raindrops
hold up five fingers
Dancing on the walk
dance hand up and down
Pitter patter, pitter patter, that’s the way they talk.
pat hands on legs to make a pitter patter noise
Out comes the yellow sun, shining in the sky
raise arms up like the sun
And away goes one raindrop
hold up one finger
Bye, bye, bye!
wave goodbye

We actually did this last year for our rain themed story time and it was a lot of fun.  The kids enjoyed counting down the raindrops as they went bye, bye, bye!  Check back for more ideas as I am planning on posting the entire rain theme!

“Oh What A Miracle”  Walter the Waltzing Worm

Mr. Mouse was hiding in a blanket.  He was just so comfy and cuddly that all he wanted to do was read books about cuddles, snuggles and blankets!

Book

One More Hug for Madison by Carolina Jayne Church

Madison keeps asking her mother for just one more thing before she goes to bed.  Will she ever be able to go to sleep?  The kids LOVED this book!

Flannel Board

Five Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed
One fell off and he bumped his head
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said…
No more monkeys jumpin’ on the bed! 

Action Rhyme

Sewing a Quilt
I have a needle (pretend to hold a needle)
And I have some thread (pull thread off a spool)
And I have a pair of scissors (pretend fingers are scissors)
To sew a quilt for my bed (pretend to sew)
Each piece of fabric I’ll cut into a square (pretend to cut)
Then I’ll sew them together (pretend to sew)
To make a quilt for my teddy bear!  (hug self like a bear)

I found this rhyme from Perry Public Library though I changed the last line to make a quilt for my teddy bear instead of make a quilt for the fair.  I just thought the kids would relate to making a quilt for their teddy bear a little bit better than a quilt for the fair.

Book

Snuggle Up, Sleepy Ones by Claire Freedman

The illustrations in this book are beautiful!  We said “goodnight” to the animals on each page.

Action Rhyme

Teddy Bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs
Teddy bear, teddy bear, comb your hair
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight!

Song

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.

**I have also been doing another story time at one of our other locations.  At the other location I read:

Flora’s Blanket by Debi Gliori

Such a cute story!  Flora just can’t sleep until she finds her special blanket.  Her whole family tries to help.  Where is her blanket hiding?

Piggies by Audrey Wood and Don Wood

This book worked well for the younger crowd I had at this location.  They loved seeing what the little piggies were doing, and at the end we kissed our piggies goodnight!

Closing

“Silly Dance Contest” Jim Gil .  This is a hit with the kids every time!

Craft

We created a cute paper quilt.  Please see my Quilt Craft post for specific details.

Before and After

I cut a piece of yellow construction paper in half and drew dotted lines on to look like stitching (made a template and then ran the pieces through the copy machine).  I punched two holes at the top and ran yarn through so the kids would really feel like they were “sewing” a quilt.  Small shapes were cut out and glued on the paper.  Some of the kids chose to color their quilt as well.  It was a cute craft and a lot of fun!

Check out my Snuggles, Cuddles and Bedtime! theme as well as my related flannel board Five Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed.  

Five Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said…
No more monkeys jumpin’ on the bed! 

I LOVE story time props/flannel boards that I can re-purpose!  This particular flannel board was actually a combination of two others I had created.
Bed:  Originally created for Five Little Monsters Jumping On the Bed.  I cut out the bed  from two large pieces of construction paper.  The quilt was actually a piece of scrap material I had–I simply stapled it to the bed frame to make it look a bit more rumpled!
Monkeys: Were from my Monkeys flannel board titled Red Monkey, Red Monkey (a rhyme that is similar to the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle).   The monkeys were made from clip art that I enlarged and printed on different color paper.  I laminated them since I have used them for several different stories.  I taped the monkeys to the bed and pulled them off one at a time as we sang the song.

I am slowly but surely working on posting my previous story times so at some point I will post both of those flannel boards!

“Riding In My Train” (Tune was Ten Little Indians)
I’m riding in my little ______ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Chugga-Chugga, Toot, Toot!

We moved our arms like train wheels and raised our arm to sound the train whistle at the end.  I traded out the different color trains on the board as we sang.  I printed out a train pattern on different colored paper, cut it out, put a small piece of velcro on the back so I could use it on the flannel board and…voilà, an easy flannel board activity!  Squidoo.com has great links for train coloring sheets and patterns.

I adapted this song from storytimekatie’s rhyme Drivin’ In My Car.  It is a great action rhyme/song–use it for a Cars theme or for a Colors theme as she did!

Opening

  “Oh What a Miracle”  Walter the Waltzing Worm

Mr. Mouse was hiding  in the story time box dressed as a train conductor.  In fact, he was hiding  in a large train conductor’s hat…and he had one for me to wear as well!

Book 

This was a last minute find, but a great one.  Lots of animal noises for the kids to have fun with and kept them guessing as to what Meeow was making–a train out of little chairs!

Tag Board Story

Told as a tag board story instead of reading the whole book because it was a bit too long for the crowd I had.

Activity

“The Wheels on the Train” (to the tune of “Wheels on the Bus”)

1. Conductor on the train says “all aboard”
2. Whistle on the train goes toot, toot, toot
3. The Wheels on the train go clickety-clack
4. The Crossing Gates go clang, clang, clang
5. People on the train go bumpety-bump 

Book

This was a great book to get all the kids involved.  Every time I read “clickety clack” I had the kids say it with me and clap their hands.  It was a great book as you can really start out quiet, get really loud and then get quiet again.  Loved it!

Flannelboard/Activity/Song

“Riding In My Train” (Tune was Ten Little Indians)
I’m riding in my little ______ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Riding in my little _____ train
Chugga-Chugga, Toot, Toot!

We moved our arms like train wheels and raised our arm to sound the train whistle at the end.  I traded out the different color trains on the board as we sang.
I adapted this song from storytimekatie’s website!  It is a great action rhyme/song I have also used it for cars as she did.

Prop Story

The Animal Train 

Not really sure where the story came from exactly.  I found it in a random folder!  I will keep you posted once I figure out the source.  Basically the story is about a train who happens to pick up many NOISY animals along his journey.   He happens to pick up a sheep, a pig, a cow, a duck and a chicken.  As he picks up each animal the train gets louder and louder until they reach their destination.  The paper I found with the story was very simple, just basically the train picking up the animals and going through a tunnel.  Of course, I embellished quite a bit and definitely played up on the animal noises.  The kids were happy to join in!  I made stick puppet masks and put an elastic at the bottom so I could fan the pieces out as I told the story.

Closing

We ran out of time so I went right into the craft!

Craft

A super simple craft!  I drew a basic train and printed it on stock paper.  I cut  paper towel rolls for wheels (with slits in the wheels so I could slide them on the train).  The kids simply colored and then played!