Eric Carle Storytime - Outreach Visit

We took a break from regular storytimes at the end of May, and that meant I didn't get to do my usual weekend family storytime. Fortunately, I still had my monthly outreach visit, which just happened to fall on June 3rd, the exact day Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar was released 50 years ago! 

Since I did a caterpillar theme last month, I decided to do an Eric Carle-themed storytime this time. His books cover a nice range as far as length/amount of text, which would work nicely for the broad range of ages I see on my visit (18 months - 5 years). I pulled several different books to take:

(click  to see larger)

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Pop-Up Book - the star of the show!
• 1, 2, 3, to the Zoo - Short and simple, good for younger kids, with counting and animal identification as animals ride a train to their new home at the zoo.
• From Head to Toe - Another short and simple one that's great for younger kids, animals & colors, movement (I'd advise skipping the donkey kick page).
• The Very Busy Spider - Slightly longer, but repetitive
• Hugs & Kisses for the Grouchy Ladybug - one of the newer ones, feelings and animals

I ended up using only two of them as I did not see all four classes due to scheduling conflicts and misunderstandings at the preschool. I was able to see the toddler class, and the 3-year old class.

Toddler Class

I started with my "Hello" song, and then we sung "The Wheels On The Bus" which they really got into, and used the same tune to sing a song about different animal sounds/movements with miscellaneous animals (I took inspiration from what was on their shirts).

Then I read From Head To Toe, which proved too long for some of them, but I did have a few who stuck with me until the very end. This is such a challenging age to do, especially in a day care setting! I ended with my "Hands Go Up" closing song, then explained our summer reading program to the teachers and gave them a class reading chart.

As I left several said "bye" and one little boy said "Bye, see you tomorrow". They are so adorable, and really participated well today.

3-year old Class

This class increased by at least 50% last month, and with so many newcomers and such a large class, I had a lot of trouble with them last month and never could get them to settle down and ended up cutting it short. So I was kinda dreading them this time around, but they did much better; still need a little work, but better!

They were overly chatty and not listening at first, but after I did the "if you can hear my voice, clap one time; if you can hear my voice, clap two times; if you can hear my voice, clap three times" thing, getting lower each time, they finally settled down. I explained the summer reading program, then I explained that it was The Very Hungry Caterpillar's 50th birthday, and showed them my pop-up book, which kept their attention. Most of them were familiar with the story, and those that weren't quickly caught on, and they would say the "he was still hungry" part each time, and name the foods. I also explained how it should be a chrysalis instead of a cocoon (moths come from cocoons, not butterflies).

Our time was up, but since I had to cut them short last time and they were being good, I went ahead and read one more, again selecting From Head to Toe to give them a chance to move around. I ended with a closing song, and then got mob hugged in an attempt to keep me from leaving, because they wanted me to stay and read more stories. A much better outcome than last time!

Dr. Seuss On The Loose 2019 - Outreach Storytime

I thought I had done my previous Dr. Seuss-themed storytime last year, but as it turns out it's already been 2 years! I had an outreach visit today, and since it was just two days after Dr. Seuss's birthday, I decided to go ahead with that theme.

I would be seeing ages 1 through 5 on this visit, so I had to plan a wide range to be sure I had stuff that would work for the age of each group. I took several books, but ended up only actually using two, Mr. Brown Can Moo and Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! Both were written by Ted Geisel, but only the first was published under the "Dr. Seuss" name, while the second was a collaboration with another writer friend and published under the name "Rosetta Stone".

I also had two special songs prepared:

Dr. Seuss Is On the Loose

(to the tune of "BINGO")

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it.

Cats, hats, eggs, and ham,

Cats, hats, eggs and ham,

Cats, hats, eggs, and ham,

This is how we know it.

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it.

Grinch, Sneetches, Turtles, and Wockets,

Grinch, Sneetches, Turtles, and Wockets,

Grinch, Sneetches, Turtles, and Wockets,

This is how we know it.

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it.

The Lorax, Things, Fish, and Whos,

The Lorax, Things, Fish, and Whos,

The Lorax, Things, Fish, and Whos,

This is how we know it!

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how er know it.

Cats, hats, eggs and ham;

Grinch, Sneetches, Turtles, and Wockets;

The Lorax, Things, Fish, and Whos;

This is how we know it!

And I had these little stick puppets to go with it:

Green Eggs and Ham

(to the tune of" London Bridge")

I don't like green eggs and ham,

eggs and ham, eggs and ham.

I don't like green eggs and ham,

Sam-I-Am.

Would you like them here or there,

here or there, here or there?

Would you like them anywhere? 

Green Eggs and Ham.

I don't like them here or there,

here or there, here or there.

I don't like them anywhere,

Sam-I-Am!

You should try green eggs and ham,

eggs and ham, eggs and ham.

You should try green eggs and ham,

You might like them!

I do! I like green eggs and ham,

Eggs and ham, eggs and ham,

I do! I like eggs and ham,

Sam-I-Am!

These were short 15-20 minute sessions each, due to time constraints, though I prefer to do 30 minutes for preschool and up. I used a very short "Hello" and "Goodbye" song, and only read 1 book and did several songs for each.

1-Year Olds 

For the 1-year olds, I started off with a couple of familiar childhood songs, "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Little Star", then did one verse of our story song before reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? because it is very short and sweet, and I knew that the kids would like identifying the animals and making their sounds. I followed that with "Dr. Seuss Is On the Loose" and the "ABC song" before closing. 

2-Year Olds

I did the same thing with the 2-year olds, accept I did the "Green Eggs and Ham" song instead of "Twinkle Little Star".

3 & 4-Year Olds

With this group I did the "Hello" song, and "Dr. Seuss Is On The Loose", then the story song. I read the longer Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! to this group, than sang the "Green Eggs and Ham" song, followed by the "Good-bye Song".

How It Went

It went pretty well considering this was only my second visit (and only my second time doing storytime with 1 & 2 year olds), and because of time constraints we had to combine two 2-year old classes (much to the dismay of the teachers) and the 3- and 4-year old classes.

The babies were so cute, except for the 3 that were obviously sick and not feeling well and should have been at home. One little guy looked up when I came in and gave me a huge smile and very enthusiastic "Hi!". He is so friendly and happy and adorable, I just wanted to squeeze him (I didn't). Not all participated, but most still seemed to enjoy it, and I love seeing them.

Despite the teachers' predictions of disaster, the combined 2-year old classes did just fine. While there were a few that wandered around the periphery, most actually sat and participated and listened for most of the time, and had a great time. They'd had enough after 15-20 minutes, but they're TWO! I was perfectly happy with how it went.

I enjoyed getting a chance to read a longer story with the older kids, and they were much more familiar with Dr. Seuss, his books, and his characters than the others, so it was more fun and meaningful for them. One boy didn't appreciate the "Green Eggs and Ham" song and asked if we couldn't just read it instead, LOL! Several of them said they had seen me at the library before. I'm so glad I'm getting to do a little outreach! It just has a different vibe and I've really missed it. I'm just going to have to convince them to let me stretch it out just a few more minutes for the older kids...

Dr. Seuss On The Loose!

I've always loved Dr. Seuss, I think since I first saw the original animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I never get tired of seeing it, even though my kids always groan, roll their eyes, and complain when I recite all the words and sing the songs). I love the nonsense words, the imaginative creatures and contraptions, and the rhyme and rhythm; as an adult I appreciate the greater message in many of his works, too.

Given all that, you'd think I would have done a Dr. Seuss storytime before, but the reality is most of his books are too long for a preschool storytime, so I have only used one them before, and even then I skipped pages. But, this year since my storytime fell just a day after his birthday, I decided it was time to give it a try, and I did manage to find some books that were either short and simple, or could be easily shortened.

We started with an explanation of why I was wearing a giant red and white striped hat, which some did recognize as "the Cat's hat". I talked a little about Dr. Seuss and how he wrote many, many children's books that were full of silly words, strange creatures, and funny happenings, and that every year we celebrate reading during the week of his birthday, and mentioned some of the more well-known books and characters. Then we sang our welcome song and our story song.

For our first book I read Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! I chose this one not only because it was short and simple and I knew would be fun as a read aloud, but because it is not one of the more widely known Seuss books, which I wanted to avoid in case they had already read the better known ones at school, plus I wanted to introduce something new. 

This story has a lot of repetition that will have the kids join in telling Marvin to "Please go now!", and laughing at all the funny ways the narrator suggests Marvin might go.

After that, instead of reading Green Eggs and Ham, I told them we were going to do something a little different since most of them already knew it and *sing* it. I got this cute song from Miss Meg's Storytime:

"Green Eggs and Ham"

(to the tune of "London Bridge)

I don't like green eggs and ham,

eggs and ham, eggs and ham.

I don't like green eggs and ham,

Sam-I-Am!

Would you like them here or there,

here or there, here or there?

Would you like them anywhere?

Green eggs and ham?

I don't like them here or there,

here or there, here or there.

I don't like them anywhere,

Sam-I-Am!

You should try green eggs and ham,

eggs and ham, eggs and ham.

You should try green eggs and ham.

You might like them!

After that we read Would You Rather Be A Bullfrog?, which was illustrated by Roy McKie and published under a different pen name, Theo. LeSieg. For those who may not know, "Dr. Seuss" was the pen name Theodor Geisel used for books that he both wrote and illustrated. For the books that were illustrated by others, he used a different pen name, usually "Theo. LeSieg", which you might notice is his abbreviated first name with his last name spelled backwards!

This book asks repeated questions about would you rather be this or that? Some are expected, like would you rather be a dog or a cat, but others are silly, like would you rather be a table or a chair? Kids will enjoy giving their opinions, though may have trouble explaining why. Both this book and the next one are easily shortened since each spread is independent as there is no overall story, and I did shorten both.

The next book, Oh Say Can You Say? brings back memories for me! When my daughter was little, Suess was one of our staples, and while I can read this book pretty easily and somewhat fast, my husband never could. He always got tongue-tied and frustrated! So, my daughter would frequently torture him by asking him to read it, knowing that he hated it but couldn't ever say "No"! 😂 

I wasn't sure how these would go over with the younger kids I had, so I planned on skipping several of them for sure, and just playing it by ear. I introduced it by explaining what tongue-twisters are, and had them try a couple of the classics: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," and "She sells seashells by the seashore." Then I started with the longer ones in the book. I could tell the kids weren't really getting it, or at least didn't find it amusing, so I stopped after three.

After this we sang a song I had intended to do as part of the introduction, but forgot (Oops!). When I first saw this song on Melissa's family blog, "Mel's Desk", it only had one verse, but I made up two additional verses in order to add more Seuss characters. I printed out pictures of each character, laminated them, and put on popsicle sticks for visual aids. Prior to singing the song, we went through and identified each character.

"Dr. Seuss Is On The Loose!"
(to the tune of "Bingo")

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it:

Cats, hats, eggs and ham,

Cats, hats, eggs and ham,

Cats, hats, eggs and ham,

This is how we know it!

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it:

Grinch, sneetches, turtles, and wockets,

Grinch, sneetches, turtles, and wockets,

Grinch, sneetches, turtles, and wockets,

This is how we know it!

Dr. Seuss is on the loose,

and this is how we know it:

The Lorax, Things, fish, and Who's,

The Lorax, Things, fish, and Who's,

The Lorax, Things, fish, and Who's, 

This is how we know it!

(click on thumbnail for a larger image)

Our last book, Because A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo! is probably one of the most often overlooked of Geisel's books because it was written under the pen name "Rosetta Stone". To my knowledge, this is the only book he published under that name. He collaberated with illustrator and friend Michael Frith, and the name was supposedly to honor Geisel's wife, who's maiden name was Stone.

This is a great cause-and-effect story that starts simply with a little bug sneezing, which sets of an incredible chain of events leading up to total chaos! It will get a lot of laughs, but is also good exposure to the idea of cause-and-effect and consequences. This is one of my favorite Seuss stories, and one of the most overlooked (another is The Big Brag, which is also not very well-known).

I had one last activity, also from Mel's Desk and Hummingbird Educational Resources, that features the most adorable props ever! It is a fingerplay that is not specifically "Seussical", but is about cats putting on hats, with the hats being in the style of the Cat-in-the-Hat. 

"Five Cats In Hats"

One little cat on a sunny day,

put on his hat and went out to play.

Two little cats as the sky turned dark,

put on their hats and went to the park.

Three little cats when the sky turned blue,

put on their hats and went to the zoo.

Four little cats by the kitchen door,

put on their hats and went to the store.

Five little cats on a sunny day,

put on their hats and then all ran away!

I forgot to take step-by-step pictures to show the construction, but I found a printable stripe background at Vintage Digital Stamps (a scrapbooking site), and one page was more than enough for five hats. I simply cut short strips of the paper and used a glue stick to glue them into tubes that would easily fit any of my fingers. 

Then I used a punch (forgot to check the size, maybe 1"?) to cut circles out of card stock. I cut an "X" in the center of each with an exacto knife, bent the pieces up and glued to the inside of the striped tubes (Melissa has a photo showing this). I didn't realize until later that my hats have too many stripes. They should have 3 red stripes and 2 white stripes, but they looked too short that way to me, so you may want to look around for a background with slightly wider stripes.

Then we did our closing song and passed out stickers, and I surprised them with a little something extra! My manager gave me a bunch of headband-style Cat-in-the-Hat hat's that she had leftover from a big program last year to give them ($1 for package of six at Target!).

How It Went  
Everything went well and we had a lot of fun! They all started giggling as soon as I walked in with the big hat on, and asking me why I was wearing it. Most of them were familiar with at least some of Seuss's books or characters. They really liked Marvin K. Mooney and Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!, and Would You Rather Be A Bullfrog was okay, too. Oh Say Can You Say didn't seem to interest or entertain them, so I didn't force it, but they did at least get an introduction to tongue twisters.

The liked all the songs and activities, especially the fingerplay with the little Seuss hats. I could tell they were a little disappointed that I didn't have any for them. I wish I did, but that would have just been too time-consuming, unfortunately. They were all excited about their hats, especially the teacher! She took a group picture, then took them up one or two at a time for individual pictures as well! This class and teacher in particular are always SO appreciative of everything I do and the little things I'm able to give them every once it a while. It's no wonder I love going there! 💗

I'm hoping to add a picture of them to this post because they were just so cute, but I'm still waiting for permission... In the meantime, here's one of me and my very own Cat-in-the-Hat, Toby!

(He's actually freaked out about my hat, not his. He's a scaredy cat, and it always scares and disturbs him when any of us wear hats!)

Ready For Fun? - A Jan Thomas Preschool Storytime

So I did something a little different today...instead of a traditional subject theme, I ended up going with an author theme.

I had been forced to cancel my scheduled storytime visit last week due to a severe cold and sinus infection, and rescheduled for this week, which meant it had been longer than usual between visits. I've noticed when this happens that the kids are more restless and wiggly than usual. On top of that, it's the first week of summer vacation, which has made everyone more wiggly and restless all week. So I knew I needed to choose books that were shorter and particularly fun and engaging, and with this group, that usually means books that are very participatory with lots of movement.

I immediately though of Jan Thomas (who is more fun than that??), but how to decide on one? I knew Can You Make A Scary Face? was great in storytime, but I was also dying to try out some of the others I haven't used yet. Then I thought, "why just pick one?" and decided to try a whole Jan Thomas storytime! 

After our welcome song, I explained all of our books today were written by the same person, Jan Thomas, who writes really fun and silly books.  Then we sang our "story song" and read the first book, Can You Make A Scary Face? 

I choose to do this one first because I know it works well, and I liked starting with the up and down and up again, and doing the chicken dance. The kids really liked this book and made some great scary faces! After we finished with the book, we did the chicken dance one more time with some recorded music.

I choose Is Everyone Ready For FUN? for the second book because it also has a lot of opportunities for movement: jumping, dancing, and wiggling along with the cows on Chicken's sofa, and it ties in with the chicken dance from the previous book.

The kids really had fun with all the movements with this book as well; the wiggling seemed to be their favorite, though. They also thought it was cute when they all piled up to nap on the couch, with the biggest cow on bottom and the smaller cows on top, and the chicken on the very top. 

Since this story featured a chicken, I knew this was a good opportunity to do Laurie Berkner's "I Know A Chicken" with shaker eggs. 

I've used this song before, and everyone loves it! It has a very catchy tune, and it is a call-and-response type song, where the audience repeats each line after the singer, so it is very easy to sing along with, and lots of fun movements with the shaker eggs. I go straight from home to this daycare, and had not planned far enough ahead to bring the shaker eggs home with me, so my son had to help me scramble and improvise some shaker eggs with the few plastic Easter eggs I managed to find in the attic. I filled them with rice and he taped them closed for me, and they worked just fine in a pinch.

For the last book, I chose something a little quieter, without any movement. Instead of being silly, The Doghouse is suspenseful, with a surprise ending. Cow, Pig, Duck, and Mouse are happily playing ball outside, until their ball rolls into...the doghouse...oh, the horror!  Who will be brave enough to go in the doghouse to retrieve their ball?? 

One by one, Mouse volunteers each of the other animals to go in after the ball, and one by one, they go in the doghouse. And don't come back out!  After Duck disappears, Mouse calls after him to come out. Dog appears and says Duck can't come out because he's having Duck for dinner!! When Mouse finally peeks in he sees all of his friends enjoying a nice dinner party with Dog.

Having recorded music reminded them of the last time I used recorded music, which was with our "Dinosaur" theme when we did Laurie Berkner's "We Are The Dinosaurs", and they asked to do that one again. Since I had it handy on my phone, we did that one as well. Then we sang our closing song and passed out stickers.

How It Went
The kids really liked all of the books, but I'd say Can You Make A Scary Face? was the favorite movement story. They really got drawn into the suspense of The Doghouse, and were sure all of the animals had been eaten by the dog. There were several audible gasps when dog said that he was having Duck for dinner! None of them guessed the surprise ending, though they tried to pretend like they did. I think they were hoping for some kind of dramatic rescue, though.

As usual, "I Know A Chicken" with the shaker eggs was a big hit. Most enjoyed the "Chicken Dance", but I noticed a few did not participate, though a few couldn't stop, either.

I liked doing this theme, since Jan Thomas books are so fun, and great for storytime. They are short, very engaging and interactive, and I really like the brightly colored illustrations with the heavy bold outlines. I think the simplicity and high contrast of this style really helps engage younger kids and hold their attention. I did feel like it was a little bit frenetic, and in retrospect I think it would have been a little better if I had some calmer, quieter activities in between the two books that had so much high-energy movements. But it all went well, that's just one thing I would tweak if I were to do it again.