This week is Thanksgiving week! Our library does not do storytimes for specific holidays and I didn’t want to do another themed storytime. I wrote a post for the ALSC blog about storytime structures and decided to try out a flow storytime.
Books we read
I Spy With my Little Eye by Edward Gibbs (baby, toddler, and family storytimes)
Rumble and Roar: Sound Around the World by Sue Fliess (family)
Bear Says “Thank You” by Michael Dahl (baby and toddler)
All for Pie, Pie for All by David Martin (family)
The Thank You Book by Mo Willems (family)
Songs we sang
The more we read together – with ASL
The more we read together, together, together
The more we read together the happier we’ll be
Because your friends are my friends
And my friends are your friends
The more we read together the happier we’ll be
Credit: Jenifer Strauss from Library of Michigan webinar archives
Pat-a-Cake
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can!
Roll it, pat it, mark it with a B
Then put it in the oven for baby and me!
Movement activities we did
Can you pretend?
Let’s hear you roar like a lion
Let’s see you jump like a frog
Let’s see you snap your jaws like a crocodile
Let’s hear you howl like a dog
Pretend you’re an elephant with a big, loooooong, trunk
Pretend you’re a monkey swinging through the trees
Let’s see you jump, jump, jump!
And now you’re a mouse.
Credit: I got the idea for this one from Handley Regional Library
Craft
I wanted the kids to think about what they are thankful for and decided to make a turkey and have the feathers say things they are thankful for. I made the shapes in Microsoft Publisher and made an example turkey so they could see how the shapes made a turkey. They had a lot of fun with it and it was really cute to listen to things they were thankful for. My favorites were “meat sticks”, “scissors”, and of course, family members.
My flow
With the family storytime, I started with our hello song and the more we read together song which is how I am always going to start our storytimes now.
After that, I read Rumble and Roar. I told them we just listened to lot’s of sounds which is one of our senses. I asked if anyone knew any other senses like taste, touch, etc. and then asked what we do with our eyes. We followed that with reading I Spy With my Little Eye.
We then did the activity Can You Pretend? because we read about different animals and I thought it would be fun to pretend to be animals. After that I said we pretended to be animals and I wanted to pretend to make a cake so we said the rhyme Pat-a-cake.
Next, was the book All for Pie, Pie for All because we just baked a cake and next we would read a book about baking and eating pie! Our last book was The Thank You Book and I said that the pie story reminded me of a holiday that was coming up and they all yelled Thanksgiving! I said this time of year is about being thankful for things and we finished with that book. I asked everyone if they had things they were thankful for and then handed out the turkey craft. They all had fun and I really enjoyed doing this flow format because I got to choose books that I loved, not just books that fit into a theme. They take a bit longer to plan, but I think I will structure my storytimes like this more often.
Have you done a flow storytime? How did it go?