Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Bird Story Time

It's the first week of school, and I'm excited and happy to be back at work in the library!

This year, we have both kindergarten and first-grade story time each day. I'm going to offer adaptations and multiple book choices because there is a very wide difference between what a 5- and a 6- year old is capable of understanding and doing. The story time lesson and format is the same. Enjoy! Please feel free to offer your own ideas below in comments or email me.

Introduction:
Welcome Song (To The Tune of London Bridge Is Falling Down)
Welcome to the library, library, library. (clap along)
Welcome to the library, please come inside and read. (clap, motion "inside" "read")
 
Finger Play: This is Big
Expectations: 4 finger-rules of the library
  • 1: Keep a quiet voice (1 finger to mouth like “shh”)
  • 2. Eyes on the story & speaker (make 2 with fingers, hold to eyes)
  • 3. Be sure to listen (3 fingers, big ears on either side of head)
  • 4. When we move in the library, use walking feet (4 fingers are the ground, other hand makes 2 fingers “walk.")

Mystery Bag: Stuffed bird that makes a bird call. The mystery bag gets passed around to all the students. Prompt them to think of words to describe the mystery object (hard/soft, light/heavy, bumpy/smooth, whatever comes to mind!)  

This stuffed animal was hilarious: when a child finally, accidentally, squeezed it hard enough to make its sound, he would JUMP in surprise! Then, all the other kids had to try to make the sound, too.

Word of the the Week
English: Bird
Spanish: Pajaro (PAH har row) (1st grade, notice similarity to parrot)
ASL: right hand as letter G, pinch twice to look like beak open/close


Resources:   Kevin Henkes’ BIRDS
*Jeremy Tankard GRUMPY BIRD
Scott Beck PEPITO THE BRAVE
Jonathan Allen I’M NOT CUTE
*Mo Willems THERE IS A BIRD ON YOUR HEAD


Action Rhymes: Little Birds, Little Birds
Little Birds, Little Birds...
jump up and down
don’t make a sound
tip-toe to me
bend your knees
peep peep peep
sleep sleep sleep
fly to the leaves
sit down, please!


Finger Play: TWO LITTLE BLACKBIRDS (one video here.)

Song: 5 Little Ducks
5 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away
mother duck said quack quack quack quack
4 little ducks came running back
(repeat to...)
NONE of the 5 little ducks came back
 
Sad mother duck went out one day, over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said quack quack quack quack
And all 5 ducks came running back!


Imaginative Play:  
Remember, birds don’t have hands: pretend to be a bird…
splashing in a bird bath eating seeds at a feeder
building a nest flying south
feeding a baby bird sleeping in a nest


Extentions: Go Bird Watching!  Count.  Name colors.  Group by sizes.  Take pictures.
Collect feathers for class collage.


Thursday, April 30, 2015

Show and Tell Letter Ideas

It's Thursday night and your kid needs to bring something that starts with the letter K to school in the morning... no, you can't bring "Kick me for not thinking of something sooner."

Years of experience have gotten me these ideas.  Some are pretty straightforward.  Others are "abstract" or able to be expressed by an action (that's not a cop-out, is it?)  Don't forget how easy it is to print off a picture of an object, or bring a book with the item on the cover or in the title.  Teachers understand.


A:   Alligator, Apple, Apricot, Astronaut
B:   Binoculars, Book, Bubbles, Buttons
C:  Coconut, Cotton Ball, Cup, cookie cutter
D   Dominos, Dinosaur, doily
E:  Egg carton, Egg beater
F:   Flashlight, feather, flower
G:  Gold Medal, Golf Ball, Ghost, Glitter, Gloves
H:  Helicopter, horse, Hammer (yes, I sent my kid to school with a hammer), hat
I:    Insect, Iron (take a magnet and things that do/don't contain iron) Itchy, iPod (old one!)
J     Jelly (Homemade, gift for teacher, highly appreciated!), Jump Rope
K:   Kite
L:   Lettuce, lantern, Lincoln Logs,
M:  Money (coins), medal, metal, mask
N:   Needle (big plastic knitting needle), Noodle, napkin
O:   Orange, ostrich feather, Obama (picture of, not the actual guy) Ornament
P:    Popcorn (for the class, big hit!), puppet, pen/pencil, plate, pillow
Q:   Quarter
R    Ruler, Rock, recorder
S:   Spoon, seashell, soup can, socks, sugar or salt or spices
T:   Triceratops, turtle, T-shirt
U:   Urchin
V:   Vegetables, View-Finder, Voter's Registration Card, Vitamin (bottle, no pills inside)
W:  Watermelon seed packet,
X:   Xylophone, Xray,
Y:  Yellow Bell Pepper
Z:   Zebra, Zero


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Cookie Story Time

COOKIE
Who doesn’t love a cookie?  Let’s take time to play, read and write while we celebrate the cookie. Have a glass of cold milk nearby and let’s get started!
Some Great Cookie Stories
  • “Cookies” from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. Barnes & Noble, 2008,  originally (C) Harper Collins, 1971.
  • If You Give a Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.   Random House, 1988.
  • Cookies: Bite- Sized Life Lessons by Amy Krause Rosenthal, Harper-Collins, 2006.
  • The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins, Greenwillow, 1986.
  • A Mess In The Kitchen = Desastre en la cucina by Isabel Muñoz, Scholastic, 2012.
INTRODUCTION
a. Welcome Song:  Welcome to the Library (To “London Bridge is Falling Down.”)
Welcome to the library, library, library.
Welcome to the library, please come inside and read.
We’re glad to have you here today, here today, here today.
We’re glad to have you here today, today’s a special day.


b.  Welcome  Fingerplay:  Making Cookies
I am making cookie dough. (hold out arms in a circle, like a bowl) 
Round and round the beaters go. (roll hands)
Add some flour from a cup. (shake a pretend cup)
Stir and stir the batter up. (stirring motion)
Roll them, cut them nice and neat. (rolling pin motion)
Put them on a cookie sheet. (place pretend cookies)
Bake them, count them 1-2-3. (counting motion)
Serve them to my friends for tea. (take a bite!)


c. Library Expectations- “4 finger rules” of the library: (source M. Lynn)
Quiet (1 finger to mouth)
Watch me! (2 fingers to eyes)
Listen to stories and directions (3 fingers cup ears)
and Always walk (4 fingers make floor, 2 walking on it.)


d.  Mystery Bag:  cookie cutter (small, sharp, hard.. what words can you use to describe it?)


e.  Word of the Week:  (Forms a cornerstone of the lesson, aids in understanding and connecting text themes)
  1. English cookie
  2. Spanish galleta (guy-ETTA)
  3. ASL (American Sign Language http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi) hold your left hand down like a plate.  Make a little mound with your right hand and press it on the plate three times like this… cookies on a plate!


STORY TIME  (List is at the top of the post)
Pre-Reading: Does this book look like it could happen in real life?  What book does it look like it’s going to be (genre)?
READ:  predict events just before they unfold.  Confirm/deny predictions from pre-reading.


Reflection:  For Frog & Toad, retell steps Frog and Toad took to keep themselves from eating cookies.  Did their strategy work?  What would YOU have done to keep from eating all the cookies at once?


Extension Activity : COOKIE JAR CHANT (From Musical Games, Fingerplays and Rhythmic Activities for Early Childhood by Wirth et al. Parker Publishing,1982, page 170.)


(This is a traditional  “Who stole the cookies” rhyme with clapping.  Success of this activity depends on the size and age  of your group- it’s a better activity for older kids?)

cookie.JPG
C:\Users\mlynn\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Word\photo.jpg


Joke:    What kind of keys do kids like to carry around?  COOKIES


POEM:  Who Invented Cookies? by Joan Bransfield Graham (pg 36) in Poetry Friday Anthology, Pomelo Books, 2012.)


Read poem, pantomime actions, do other activities from “Take 5” list.


WRITING ACTIVITY:  Cookie Book
We librarians free-formed 100+ of these in brown construction paper to look like cookies but still open like a book.  Kids wrote “My Cookie” or just “Cookie” on the inside, then decorated the outside.  Type-A story-time adventurers may use the hold-punch to make perfectly round black (raisin)and  brown (chocolate chip) dots to glue on the cookie.  The Type-B can put out a basket of crayons and encourage coconut (white) and M & M (multi) decor as well.




Check out books
Conclusion
  •   review what we did
  • review word of week in English, Spanish, and ASL
  • closing song (open shut them, open shut them, raise your hands up high.  Open, shut them.  Open, shut them.  Wave and say goodbye.)



Some Great Sites for More Ideas...






THIS WEEK’S TEKS:  1 a, c, f, g        Print Awareness
                                    2 b, c, e, i        Rhymes & Phonological Awareness
                                    3 a                   Phonics
                                    4 a, b               Prediction & Reading Strategies
                                    6 a,c                 Story Elements & sensory details
                                    7                      Poetry
                                    8 a, b               Retell Stories, Story Elements
                                    9                      Author’s Purpose
                                    10  d              Predict, Evaluate & Retell Stories
     14 writing literary texts
                                    18 a                 Oral & Written Conventions
                                    20 gather evidence from text sources, use pictures & writing together
                                    21 a, b             Library Procedures
                        RC(fig19) a,b,d,f,e       Read Assorted Literature, Generate Questions, Whole Group
       Research, Predictions/Inference, Pair Fiction & Non-Fiction, Retell
       and Summarize Stories, Reading Comprehension
                                    n/a                   Book Selection