[Last week I officially started my MLIS program, which is going to take up a significant amount of my free time, so in order to keep blogging somewhat regularly, I'm going to have to simplify things a bit. The posts that summarize my 2-week rotations with the Storytime-To-Go program have been taking a significant amount of time to write because I use so many books. So I've decided I'll have to drop the descriptions of each book and just list the titles and authors.]
This rotation was "Things That Go", featuring stories about cars, trucks, trains, boats, firetrucks, construction vehicles, and more. I saw an average of 5 groups a day, and read 2-3 stories and did 1-2 songs/activities with each group, in addition to our "story song" to begin and our Letter-Of-The-Day. This week I chose to use the letter "Gg" since in both the words "things" and "that" start with the "th" digraph rather than a simple "t" sound.
The Books
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| (Click on the picture to see the full-sized version.) |
The Bus Is For Us by Michael Rosen & Gillian Taylor, (after all, we were on a bus)
Maisy's Book of Things That Go by Lucy Cousins, (pull-tab pictures that move)
Zoom! by Diane Adams & Kevin Luthardt, (roller coaster)
Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham, (a classic, lots of animals)
Giant Pop-Out Vehicles by Amelia Powers, (good for ages 1-3)
Bunnies On The Go by Rick Walton & Paige Miglio, (rhyming text gives clues)
Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera, (a book you can sing)
Go-Go Gorillas by Julia Durango & Eleanor Taylor, (repetitive line, rhyming text)
Ducky's Key Where Can It Be? by Jez Alborough, (lift-a-flap, good for younger kids)
Night Light by Nicholas Blechman, (lift-a-flap, guess the vehicle by its lights)
I'm Dirty! by Kate & Jim McMullan, (did not seem to flow very well)
Machines At Work by Byron Barton, (did not hold interest, too simple)
Sheep In A Jeep by Nancy Shaw & Margot Apple, (fun, good for younger crowd)
Off We Go! by Will Hillenbrand, (cute, but needs a little more text to flow well)
Mighty Truck by Chris Barton & Troy Cummings, (superhero truck)
Supertruck by Stephen Savage, (not pictured, another superhero truck)
The Activities
All the activities I used this time ended up being songs, though most of them had a fair amount of movement. I still need to develop some some flannel board or other activities to go with this kit in the future.
Hurry, Hurry
Hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck!
Hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck!
Hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck!
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!
Hurry, hurry, climb the ladder!
Hurry, hurry, climb the ladder!
Hurry, hurry, climb the ladder!
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!
Hurry, hurry, spray the water!
Hurry, hurry, spray the water!
Hurry, hurry, spray the water!
Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!
[I would start by saying we were going to pretend to be firefighters, and we were at the firehouse and got a call that there was a fire. Then I would ask them what we needed to do next to lead into each verse, acting out each action. Once the fire was out, we would often get another call, as they loved this song and wanted to do it over and over.]
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Down By The Station
Down by the station,
early in the morning.
See the little puffer-bellies all in a row.
Hear the station master,
Calling, "All aboard!" now.
"Puff, puff"; "Toot, toot!"
Off they go!
[Follow up with the children pretending to be trains, going in a circle,
saying "Chugga, chugga; chugga, chugga, Whoo-whoooo!]
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Driving Around In My.....
Driving around in my little red car,
Driving around in my little red car,
Driving around in my little red car,
Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep!
[Repeat, saying saying different colors, types of vehicles, and sounds.
For example, "Driving around in my big yellow bus....honk...." or "Driving
around in my little blue police car.....whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo".]
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The Wheels On The Bus
(of course we HAD to do this one since we were on the Storytime Bus!)
The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round,
'Round and 'round, 'Round and 'round.
The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round,
All through the town.
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish....
The doors on the bus go open and shut....
The driver on the bus says, "Move on back"....
The babies on the bus go "waaa, waaa, waaa"....
The mommies on the bus go "shhh, shhh, shhh"....
The daddies on the bus say "I love you"....
[Act out each motion with your hands]
How It Went
Overall, it went well, although I found that I got a little bored with it by the end, which is an occupational hazard with doing outreach and doing so many storytimes with the same theme. I liked using the books that showed various types of things that go the best, and Maisy's Book of Things That Go, Bunnies On The Go, and The Bus Is For Us seemed to be the most well-liked by the kids. They especially appreciated The Bus Is For Us since we were on the Storytime Bus! They also really liked Zoom! and noticed right away how at first the dad was excited and the boy was nervous, but then Dad started getting scared and/or sick, and the boy started to enjoy it. They appreciated the humor in this turn of events and liked the dramatic descriptions of the roller coaster movements.
Some books that just didn't seem to work as well, at least for me, were Machines At Work, Night Light, Off We Go, Might Truck and I'm Dirty! (which was a surprise as I really like using her dinosaur books I'm Big! and I'm Bad!). For the most part, these just didn't seem to flow well enough to keep the audience engaged. Night Light became frustrating and many lost interest as they almost never guessed right.
They liked all the songs, but the ones they seemed to really enjoy the most were "Hurry, Hurry" and "The Wheels On The Bus". Most groups would ask to do "Hurry, Hurry" over and over, and I even heard one little boy singing it this week when we had moved on to the next theme of "Pets". I think they like the faster pace and pretending to be a firefighter, particularly spraying the water. Some of them would get a kick out of "spraying" me or their teacher. They all knew "Wheels On The Bus", so that really boosted participation, and of course they appreciated the relevancy since they were on the Storytime Bus.
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