I only had about a week to prep for this one and I am still fairly new at planning storytimes, so I went with something I thought would go over really well for my last week of this storytime session and that was things that go. I knew a lot of fun books on this topic, and I already knew a couple of songs that would work so really I just had to find a few songs and a rhyme for my flannel board idea.
Like I said last week, the storytime is geared towards preschoolers, but since this is the only storytime age group we are currently offering until summer, a LOT of toddlers show up. I think I had more toddlers than preschoolers last week so I tried to pick books that would entertain and engage both age groups.
Books We Read
What Kind of Car Does a T-Rex Drive? By Mark Lee
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Pete the Cat the Wheels on the Bus by James Dean
Supertruck by Stephen Savage
Songs We Sang
Open shut them
Open shut them, open shut them.
Give a little clap, clap, clap.
Open shut them, open shut them.
Put them in your lap, lap, lap.
Credit: https://supersimple.com/song/open-shut-them/
Zoom zoom zoom
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon.
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon.
If you want to take a trip
climb aboard my rocket ship.
Zoom, zoom, zoom
We’re going to the moon.
In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Blast off!
Credit: Jbrary
Hurry hurry, drive the firetruck
Hurry, hurry, drive the fire truck (x 3)
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
Verses: Turn the corner, Put the Ladder up, Spray the Fire Hose
Credit: Jbrary
Flannel Board
I wanted to do a car flannel board that focused on colors and I found this post on Storytime Katie’s blog that had car flannels and I kind of just made up my own activity about asking which color each car was and then sang:
Driving around in my little red* car (x3)
Zoom, zoom, zoom
I changed the color for whatever color car I had put up. Then I had us count all the cars that were on the board.
Credit: https://storytimekatie.com/2015/06/19/flannel-friday-cars/
How it Went
I was unsure of the first book because it was the longest one of my selections and last week, the group seemed to have a waning interest after a few minutes. They LOVED the dinosaurs though and every time a new dinosaur came onto the page, they would all giggle and ask why a dinosaur needs a car. Every time the dinosaur drove away in a car they would ask “how does he even fit in there, that is so silly!” With the pigeon book, the children were adamant about not letting the pigeon drive the bus and would scream “NO” every time he asked if he could drive or even just steer. With the Pete the Cat book, they all sang and did movements with me for each action, and it seemed like a lot of families had this book at home because many of them knew what was coming next.
The songs were very fun, and I think next time I will try to include at least one song where they have to stand up and move around a little bit more. I would definitely read every one of these books in a storytime again because they were so engaged which makes it more fun for me and them. Especially with the flannel board, they were very excited to help me name the colors and count so I will continue coming up with flannel board activities. If I do transportation again, I would love to include a nonfiction picture book, but I couldn’t find any I loved with the short amount of time I had to plan so any suggestions are appreciated!