Dinosaurs - Virtual Storytime

I continued the "Velociraptor Appreciation Day" (April 18th) theme into my storytime for the following week, since I had come across a new book I really wanted to use, and an older one I hadn't seen before that I really like. Plus, let's be honest, I love dinosaurs as much as the kids do.

Dinosaurs! - Family Storytime

Yes, dinosaurs again. I never outgrew my childhood fascination with dinosaurs and paleontology, so I have to do at least a couple of dinosaur programs every year. [Plus it gives me another chance to wear my dinosaur dress and earrings!]

Last year I finally got the chance to do a whole big month-long Dinovember program that included passive programming, storytimes, a school-age STEM program, a dinosaur hunt, and social media campaign, and had hopes of doing it again this year on an even grander scale. However, our previous social media person left, and our social media situation is currently a mess, to put it bluntly. Without having the social media component and promotion, Dinovember really wouldn't be the same, so I decided to scrap it for this year and just do a dinosaur storytime.

We started with a "Hello" song, and warmed up with "Hello, Everybody" which has lots of fun motions. I then gave an introduction and we talked a little about our favorite dinosaurs. Then I led into our first book with "If You're Ready For a Story".

I chose a relatively new book, I Love My Dinosaur by Giles Andreae for our first story. This books shows a boy and his pet dinosaur as they go through their daily activities, and of course the dinosaur has to sleep with the boy so he (the dinosaur) won't be scared. Short, simple text combines with Emma Dodd's bright, bold, uncluttered illustrations with heavy outlines.

We followed that with one of my favorite songs that the kids always love doing:

Five Little Dinosaurs

(to the tune of "Five Little Ducks")

One little dinosaur went out to play,

Out in a giant swamp one day.

She had such enormous fun,

She called for another dinosaur to come.

"OH, DINOSAUR!"

(put hands to mouth and call, then slap thighs to sound like running)

Two little dinosaurs....Three little dinosaurs....Four little dinosaurs....

Five little dinosaurs went out to play,

Out in a giant swamp one day.

They had such enormous fun,

They played all day til the day was done.

Then the mommy dinosaurs called,

"Oh, little dinosaurs! It's time to come home!"

(slap thighs to imitate running home)

Next I read a great pop-up book, Dinosaur Stomp by Paul Stickland. All the dinosaurs are getting ready to go to the big party in the swamp! 

Pop-up books are always a big hit, and the pop-ups in this are engaging, without being too intricate or delicate (thus easily damaged), and Stickland's dinosaurs are a nice blend of cartoony without being completely unrealistic, and have very engaging facial expressions. The text is short and simple, so this is a good all-ages choice.

Then we got a chance to practice our dinosaur stomp, and more as we pretended to be dinosaurs with this song to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus":

The Dinosaurs Go...

Tyrannosaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar.

Roar, roar, roar. Roar, roar, roar.

Tyrannosaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar,

All day long.

Pteranodon goes flap, flap, flap...

Mosasaurus' tail goes splash, splash, splash...

Triceratops goes munch, munch, much...

Brontosaurus goes stomp, stomp, stomp...

I had initially planned to read We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins as I have not had a chance to use it yet, but I was afraid it might be too long, so I switched and read Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food. 

With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought it was a great time to talk about good table manners and trying different kinds of foods, and the kids are almost all familiar with this series and love it. It has relatively short rhyming text that has a nice rhythm and cadence when read aloud, and Mark Teague's illustrations are wonderfully realistic. I especially like how he hides the scientific name of each dinosaur within the illustrations.

We ended with a closing song, and I put out our extra large toy dinosaurs (pictured below from last year's Dinovember, from Lakeshore Learning) for them to play with, and an optional fold-and-cut 3-D dinosaur craft to make, with "Wee Sing Dinosaurs" playing in the background.

Optional Craft

Back in the summer I did a preschool dinosaur program with multiple stations, one of which was making this simple 3D dinosaur from cardstock using this free printable file from Krokotak, which proved to be surprisingly popular. I had a lot leftover, which meant a ready-made storytime craft! All I had to provide was crayons to color it and scissors to cut it out, then they just had to fold along the dotted lines.

How It Went

This was probably one of the best family storytimes I've had in a while. I had a slightly larger than usual crowd, and had quite a few older kids instead of just 2-3 year olds, which is always a big help. The best thing of all was that all the older kids came and sat in the floor right in front of me!

That may not sound like a big deal, but I have been shocked at how hard it is to get people to move in closer so they can see the pictures and hear better. It is so much easier to keep their attention when they sit close, and easier to engage and interact with them. 

All the books and songs went well, and they had a great time making their own dinosaur and playing with the toy dinosaurs afterward.

Dinosaurs - Toddler Storytime

Once again I volunteered to sub for storytime at another branch, this time it was the toddler storytime. My family storytimes have a varying range of ages and often are more of a toddler storytime, and I do an outreach visit once a month that includes the toddler classes, but this was my first official toddler storytime.

Because the request came fairly late, I didn't have a lot of time to plan, so I fell back on a favorite theme that I thought was sure to be a hit - Dinosaurs! Who doesn't like dinosaurs? And of course anything that involves roaring is usually a sure thing! This was actually easier than planning either the baby time, which I was completely unfamiliar with, or my family storytime, since I could plan for a more specific age range (18-36 months), rather than baby thru school age, so didn't need to have as many back-ups or "Plan B"s.

I did it similar to my usual storytime, but only planned on doing 1-2 books, and added more songs and movement, and bubbles and music at the end instead of a craft. I started with singing "Hello, My Friends, Hello" as I passed out the sheets with all the songs on them, then introduced myself and gave my welcoming spiel, encouraging them to not worry about their child moving around as long as they didn't block the book or infringe on someone else's personal space, and to feel free to leave early if need be, or step out and come back.

Then we sang my new favorite beginning song I got from Jbrary. I like this song for the younger kids especially, because it has movement and encourages participation, and you can do as many or few verses as you like and incorporate different actions/body parts:

Hello, Everybody

Hello, everbody, can you touch your nose?

Touch your nose, touch your nose?

Hello, everybody can you touch your nose?

Touch - your - nose?

(pat your head, rub tummy, clap hands, stomp feet, take a seat)

In the past, I've found that the younger kids tend to be warm up more and be more engaged when I start with familiar children's songs, particularly the ABC's, and that's how I begin my outreach toddler visits, so I figured I would do the same today, and amp it up a notch by showing how the ABCs can be song to other songs, which helps break up the letters in different ways, so "LMNOP" doesn't always get lost in the middle.

So we started with the traditional way, which is to the tune of "Twinkle Little Star", and I mentioned it could also be sung to London Bridges, Mary Had A Little Lamb, This Old Man; Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; and Row, Row, Row your boat. I decided to do it to the tune of "This Old Man", and we sung the first verse of that first, to get the tune in our heads:

This old man, he played 1; he played knick-knack on my thumb.

With a knick-knack, paddy-whack, give a dog a bone!

This old man came rolling home.

Then we sang the ABCs to that tune.

After that, it was time for our story, which we led into with three verses of our story song, clap your hands, find a seat, and say "Shh".

I chose an oldie but a goodie that I knew they would love, Snappy Little Dinosaurs, which is a wonderful pop-up book that is perfect for preschool and under. The illustrations are very bright and bold, with a heavy black outline, and the pop-ups really get their attention and make it fun. The name of each dinosaur is given, along with a short rhyming text, and it ends with the ferocious daddy T. rex with his massive jaws open wide!

These "Snappy Little..." pop-up books are so great to have in your storytime collection, with this one and the "Colors" one being the best. Sadly, they are out of print, but sometimes you can get a good deal on a good-condition used one.

SInce we talked about the colors of the dinosaurs while reading the book, I used that to segue into doing two scarf songs with our birghtly colored scarves. As I handed them out, I asked the kids to identify the color if they were older, or just said the color as I gave it to them. I originally had just planned one scarf song, but since I know they like them so much, I added a second, similar one. Both I found at Jbrary (of course).

We Wave Our Scarves Together

(to the tune of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow')

We wave our scarves together;

We wave our scarves together.

We wave our scarves together,

Because it's lots of fun.

(throw, twirl, etc)

Wave Your Scarf

(tune of London Bridges)

Wave your scarf up and down, 

Up and down, up and down.

Wave your scarf up and down,

Wave your scarf.

(left & right, fast & slow, 'round & 'round, to say goodbye)

In the last verse they are getting a chance to say "goodbye" to their scarves in preparation for putting them back in the bag, and I'm happy to say everyone did a great job of giving them back with no tears or objections!

Then I told them we were going to pretend to be dinosaurs with the next song:

The Tyrannosaurus Goes...

(to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus")

The tyrannosaurus goes roar, roar, roar;

Roar, roar, roar; Roar, roar, roar.

The tyrannosaurus goes roar, roar, roar,

All day long!

(pterandodon's wings go flap, mosasaurus' tail goes splash, triceratops goes munch, brontosaurus feet go stomp, velociraptor runs fast, fast, fast, etc.)

I had planned a possible second book, I Love My Dinosaur by Giles Andreae and Emma Dodd, but we were already out of time, and I was losing them, so I skipped it and went straight to the bubbles. It is a super cute book, though. The text and illustrations are simple enough for toddlers, but it would probably be perfect for 3 year olds.

Instead, I put my "Wee SIng Dinosaurs" CD on and blew bubbles, and gave hand stamps (dinosaurs, of course) to those that wanted them, and blew a few more bubbles since there were still a fair number of families hanging around. 

I left the music on for a couple of minutes while I put everything else away, and still had a few cute stragglers who were determined to hunt down and pop every last bubble, and one who stayed until I just couldn't wait any longer and had to stop the music so I could leave. If I had been working my normal shift and my home branch, I would've just left it on as long as there were kids listening/dancing to it, but it was actually my day off, and I needed to get home to work on a final MLIS assignment due Friday.

How It Went

I think it went fairly well, as well as a toddler storytime with a substitute presenter could go. Most of the kids didn't seem to preturbed that their usual storytime person wasn't there, but the son of our program manager was not happy at all that I was there instead of his Miss Meggan, though he warmed up a little once we got going. One little girl was there that also comes to my branch frequently and recognized me, so she was happy to see me at least.

Though many of the kids seemed to like everything we did, I did notice that surprisingly I started loosing them during the "The Dinosaur Goes..." song, which I thought they would love, but maybe it had just gone on too long for them. I also noticed I lost some during the attempt to show the ABCs could be sung to different tunes. 

In retrospect, I should have skipped the ABC song, and done either the scarf songs or the dinosaur song in its place. I think I did not have enough movement at the beginning, and then too much at the end. I wish we'd gotten to the second book, but I did not really expect to, and I think it probably would have been slightly too long for this crowd anyway.

But the one little girl who stayed until the bitter end when I finally had to unplug the music and leave did come up and give me a hug, so I consider it a success! Plus, I got to wear my dinosaur dress.

Dinovember Family Storytime

I chose to do Dinosaur themes for both my programs this month, which grew into a whole Dinovember campaign, and while I have favorite books for this theme, I challenged myself to use books I had not used before

I had a great CD of dinosaur songs, Wee Sing Dinosaurs, that my daughter used to listen to  in the car when she was a toddler. I started it playing in the storytime area about 15 minutes before storytime started, while I was getting everything else together. We started with our welcome song, followed by introductions and discussions of our favorite dinosaur.

Some of the kids were very wiggly and rambunctious, so I added a couple of extra verses (roaring and stomping) to our story song before reading our first book, Dinosaur vs. The Library by Bob Shea. I started with this one because it would involved lots of roaring, which I hoped would tire my audience out. 

Dinosaur loves roaring, and challenges all the other animals he meets. But when he goes to the library he learns roaring is discouraged and he must use his "inside roar". Dinosaur goes to storytime, but can he stay quiet through an entire story? Short, simple, fun, and interactive.

The kids were still wound-up, so I decided to do a very active song, where they could pretend to be dinosaurs.

The Dinosaur Goes....

(to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus"0

Tyrannosaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar;

Roar, roar, roar; Roar, roar, roar.

Tyrannosaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar, 

All day long.

Velociraptor goes run, run, run...

Triceratops goes munch, munch, munch...

Pterodactyl goes flap, flap, flap....

Mosasaur goes splash, splash, splash....

Brontosaurus goes stomp, stomp, stomp.....

For our second book I choose Dinosaurs Galore, the pop-up version of Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland. This is another short simple book illustrating contrasting terms. 

I try to include a pop-up book in storytime as often as I can because the kids really love them, and they don't get to see them very often. I love the cute illustrations and simple text that you can expand upon if desired, and the pop-ups help keep them engaged.

We followed that with one of my favorite flannels that the kids always seem to enjoy:

Five Little Dinosaurs

One little dinosaurs went out to play,

Out on a giant fern one day.

He had such enormous fun, 

He called for another dinosaur to come:

"Oh, Diiiiiinosaur!"

(pat hands on knees to imitate running)

Five little dinosaurs went out to play,

Out on a giant fern one day.

They had such enormous fun,

They played all day til the day was done!

And then the mommy dinosaurs called, 

"Oh, Little Dinosaurs!"

I had planned on a third book, and had 3 great options: Three Little Dinosaurs, Thesaurus Rex, and Dinosaur Stomp (another pop-up), but somehow we ran out of time. So we did our closing song and I put the Wee Sing Dinosaurs CD back on for them to listen to while they did the optional craft or just hung out and played.

Craft

The craft was a very simple one, given the young age of the audience. I cut out capital letter "D"s in several colors, which would be glued to a piece of paper and used as the body of a dinosaur. Crayons, markers, scissors, scrap paper, and googly eyes were provided so they could design whatever kind and color dinosaur they wished. Below are my two examples and a few crafts the kids made.

How It Went

The kids seemed to enjoy the songs and books that we did, and loved talking about dinosaurs, but there was one child in particular that kept constantly interrupting and trying to talk over me and everyone else. It was a little frustrating, and no matter how I asked him to stop, he couldn't help himself.

I still trying to find my groove with this storytime, which really surprises me since I had done literally several hundred storytimes before I moved over here. But, my prior experience was in outreach storytimes, which are in a much more structured and controlled environment in the classroom. I'm used to having everyone sit roughly in a semi-circle in front of me, so it's easy for everyone to see and hear, and I can easily hear them and read their body language.

But at this library, I cannot get the families to move in close enough. Instead, they sprawl out as far away as possible it seems, so I don't get the same feedback or feel as connected with them. I've asked them to move closer and sit on the floor in front of me, but they just won't. They don't want to sit in the floor, and insist on sitting on top of the built-in storage bins around the perimeter of the storytime area, or at the tables and chairs that are actually just outside the storytime area. It really prevents storytime from being all it could be, but I'm not sure what to do to get them to move in closer.

We Love Dinosaurs!

I think almost everyone is fascinated by dinosaurs as a kid, and some of us never outgrow it. I had a serious interest in paleontology, but realized it wasn't the most practical career choice. But I still love dinosaurs, and do at least one round of dinosaur stories every year.

We started with our welcome song, then I introduced the topic, and quickly moved to our story song before they could get too worked up since they were all sitting so nicely when I got there.

For our first book I choose one that is kind of silly and always attention getting, Ten Little Dinosaurs by Pattie Schnetzler and Jim Harris. I love this book! It is fun to read, and has wonderful illustrations, and counts down from 10 to 0 with rhyming quatrains, but best of all, it is big spherical wiggly eyes that really bring the dinosaurs to life. Each page has die cut holes for the eyes to fit through, so each dinosaur has them. The kids love this! It is a bit of a pain when it comes to shelving or stacking this book, but so worth it! There are other versions without the wiggle eyes that would be more practical for shelving in a circulating collection, but for an office or personal collection, I would definitely want the eyes!

I followed that with the "Ten Big Dinosaurs" counting song to count up to 10, then back down, for extra counting and fine motor practice.

Ten BIG Dinosaurs

One big, two big, three big dinosaurs,

Four big, five big, six big dinosaurs,

Seven big, eight big, nine big dinosaurs,

Ten big dinosaurs!

They all lived a long, long time ago,

They all lived a long, long, time ago,

The all lived a long, long time ago.

Now there are no more.

Ten big, nine big, eight big dinosaurs,

Seven big, six big, five big dinosaurs,

Four big, three big, two big dinosaurs, 

One big dinosaur!

Next up was another fun book kids always love, Snappy Little Dinosaurs by Dugald Steer. If you don't already know, the Snappy Little... books are a great series of pop-up books on many different subjects. I think they are currently out of print, but you could try buying used copies, just look for sellers that have high ratings and clearly describe the condition of the pop-ups. 

This book has big, bright pop-ups, along with the scientific names for each dinosaur and a rhyming text. Sometimes I read the text, sometimes I just show the pictures, have them repeat the name, and talk about the type of dinosaur (which is what I did this time).

We followed that with a song, and then an action rhyme, that let us act like dinosaurs:

The Dinosaur Goes...

(to the tune of "Wheels On The Bus")

Tyrannosaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar;

Roar, roar, roar; roar, roar, raor

Tyrannsaurus rex goes roar, roar, roar;

All day long.

The pteranodon's wings go flap, flap, flap....

The velociraptor goes run, run, run....

The brontosaurus' feet go stomp, stomp, stomp....

The mosasaurus' tail goes splash, splash, splash....

The triceratops goes munch, munch, munch....

____________________

Long Ago

Dinosaurs lived long ago.

Some walked, 

Some swam, 

And some flew, you know.

Some were big,

Some were small.

Some were gigantic,

V-e-r-y tall!

Our last story was Dinosaurs After Dark by Jonathan Emmett and Curtis Jobling. Little Bobby is in bed when he hears a noise outside. When he looks outside, he sees a dinosaur walking by! Bobby rushes out and follows him downtown, where there are dinosaurs everywhere. First they want to eat him, but then decide to let him play for a while first.

 A cute story with bright, simple illustrations with black outlines, and a twist at the end. The kids may not get the twist at the end, or may not agree on what it means, but either way it is still a cute story that they will enjoy.

I finished up by re-iterating that dinosaurs are now extinct, and all we have left is their fossilized bones. I explained that "fossilized" meant the bones had been changed to stone, and went on to tell them that bones weren't the only fossils that dinosaurs left behind; there are also fossilized eggs, and fossilized dinosaur......POOP! I told them it even had a special name, "coprolite", and reminded them since it was fossilized that meant it had turned to stone, so it wasn't messy or stinky anymore.

Then we sang our closing song and passed out stickers.

How It Went

Today was an awesome storytime! Probably one of the best in a while. When I got there the kids were all seated and waiting for me, very calm and quiet, and they did a much better job listening today than the last couple of times. Of course with a theme of Dinosaurs, they did get a little loud out times, but were never out of control.

The LOVED the Ten Little Dinosaurs with the big googly eyes and all the sillyness, and cracking up laughing hysterically everytime I turned the page. The also laughed at how each dinosaur was called a silly name, like "bonehead" for Pachycephalosaurus and "nut brain" for Stegasaurus, and I paused to explain how those names were based on characteristics of each dinosaur. 

Snappy Little Dinosaurs was a big hit, too, with the pretending to be scared as each one popped out at them. They didn't really see the twist in the ending of Dinosaurs After Dark, but enjoyed the story anyway. And they had a lot of fun acting like dinosaurs with the songs and rhymes.

Dinosaurs, And More Dinosaurs

Thursday ended our two-week rotation of "Dinosaurs" with the Storytime-To-Go program.  And not a day too soon, as my voice was getting hoarse from all the roaring!  As usual, we visited several different daycares and provided storytime for about 20 different groups.  I used 2 or 3 books and 1 or 2 songs/activities with each group, after starting with our letter of the day (Dd) and opening song.

The Books

Snappy Little Dinosaurs by Dugald Steer is probably my favorite of all the Snappy books.  Kids love the brightly-colored pop-ups and the rhyming text.  The name of each dinosaur (and pronunciation guide) are at the bottom of each page.  I first see if anyone knows the name of the dinosaur, then ask everyone to say it together.

I'm Big! by Kate and Jim McMullan is another favorite of mine, because it has action and lots of opportunities for interaction. Most kids will get caught up in helping the main character find his pack, and advising him whether to run, hide, or fight.

I'm Bad! is another fun book by the McMullan's, starring a fierce T. rex on the hunt for food, but not having much luck.  In the end, it turns out he's just a baby.  There are ways to make it interactive, by asking the audience to act out some of the actions, and to find dinosaurs camouflaged in the forest.

Dinosaur Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland has very simple text with only 2 words on each page, showing contrasting terms, such as "Dinosaur fierce; Dinosaur meek" , and great illustrations.  This is a good choice for younger preschoolers, but may bore older ones.

I came across Rotten and Rascal by Paul Geraghty while shelf-reading one day and was instantly drawn to the dark humor and alliteration of the text.  The story can serve as a good anti-bickering lesson, but is probably better suited for older kids.  It's always interesting to see how long it takes the kids to figure out what happened.

Simms Taback's Dinosaurs is relatively short without a lot of text, and has fold-out pages that gradually reveal a potion of a picture of a dinosaur along with a clue to it's identity.  This is particularly good for kids who already know some dinosaur names, or following another book that teaches them the names.

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton is a very simplistic introduction to how dinosaur bones are dug up, taken to a museum, and assembled.  I think both the text and pictures are too simple for preschoolers and up, but I do like that it's a good way to introduce a discussion of paleontology and fossils.

In Bernard Most's If The Dinosaurs Came Back a young boy imagines what it would be like if the dinosaurs came back.  I like to preceed this book with a brief discussion about how the dinosaurs are extinct, and who would like it if they were still around.  At each scenario the boy imagines, you can ask the kids if they would like that or think it would work.

Shape By Shape by Suse MacDonald is a great little book that uses cut-outs to gradually build a dinosaur one shape/facial feature at a time.  While this is a great book for shapes, I decided I don't really like using it with a dinosaur theme, because it gives away the ending when you're already talking about dinosaurs.  I also don't like the inaccuracy of the teeth, which some kids will catch.  Brachiosaurus was a plant-eater, and did not have sharp, triangular-shaped teeth.

In Tyson The Terrible by Diane and Christyan Fox, three young dinosaurs are playing when they hear the pounding of large footsteps coming nearer.  Fearing it is the rumored "Tyson the Terrible", they hide, only to see a very small, young Tyrannosaurus crying because no one will play with him.  The three friends invite him to play, laughing that they were afraid of such small dinosaur, until they meet his brother.


The Activities
I had several different activities with this theme, including songs, rhymes, a flannel board, and comparing footprints.  The most popular was Laurie Berkner's "We Are The Dinosaurs":

 ____________________

"Ten Big Dinosaurs"
(Hold up fingers as you count)

One big, two big, three big dinosaurs,

Four big, five big, six big dinosaurs,

Seven big, eight big, nine big dinosaurs,

Ten big dinosaurs.

They all lived a long, long time ago.

They all lived a long, long time ago.

They all lived a long, long time ago.

Now they are all gone.

Ten big, nine big, eight big dinosaurs,

Seven big, six big, five big dinosaurs,

Four big, three big, two big dinosaurs,

One big dinosaur.
___________________

"Dino Ditty"

Hungry dinosaur a stompin' with his feet, singing
Dino ditty, ditty dum, ditty doo.
Lookin' all around for something good to eat, singing
Dino ditty, ditty dum, ditty doo.
He's huge (He's huge), He's strong (He's strong),
He's huge, he's strong, won't be hungry very long.
Dino ditty, ditty dum, ditty doo

Hungry plesiosaur swimming in the sea....looking around for yummy fish to eat....
Hungry pterosaur flying in the air....looking for food, but he doesn't want to share....
*Source:  First verse modified from Perry Public Library, 2nd & 3rd verses are original by me.

 ____________________

 

"Five Little Dinosaurs"

(use with flannel board, sing to tune of "Five Little Ducks Went Out To Play")

 

One little dinosaur went out to play,

On a giant fern one day.

She had such enormous fun,

That she called for another dinosaur to come:

[Raise hands to mouth and loudly call "Oh, Diiiiiinosaur!"

Slap hand on thighs to sound like running footsteps.

Repeat, counting up to five.]

Five little dinosaurs went out to play,

One a giant fern one day.

They had such enormous fun,

That they played all day until the day was done!

If it's a small group, I let the kids put the pieces on the board.  At the end, we name each dinosaur.  I also had to explain what the fern frond pieces were before we started. [I inherited these pieces, but you could easily make your own using clip art or coloring pages as templates, then use a pen to add the details.]

____________________

"Dinosaurs Lived Long Ago"

(movement rhyme)

Dinosaurs lived long ago,

Some walked,  (walk in place)

Some swam,  (pretend to swim)

Some flew, you know!  (flap arms)

Some were big, (hold hand up about shoulder height)

Some were small, (hold hand about a foot above floor)

Some were GIGANTIC,  (hold arms out very wide)

And VERY tall!  (stretch and hold hand as high as possible)

*Source:  Perry Public Library

_____________________



Footprint Comparison Activity

Triceratops Footprint

I found a printable template for a life-size triceratops footprint on the website for Schleich, a company that sells action figures but also has several downloadable activities.  I printed out the 12 pages of the template, taped them together, then cut it out.  After that, I traced around it onto bulletin board paper and cut that out.  I laminated both the template and the final piece to help them last longer.  Then I cut out a bunch of footprints the size of the average 4-year old child's foot from craft foam.

First I would lay the dinosaur footprint out without telling the kids what it was and see if they could guess.  The green color would throw them off at first (which was not intentional, just what I had handy) and they would guess "leaf".  When I told them it wasn't a leaf, then some would usually say "footprint" and I would ask what kind and they would usually say "dinosaur footprint".  I would then ask what dinosaur they thought made it, and most would say "T. rex".  Then I would tell them it was a triceratops footprint, and ask how many of their footprints did they think would fit in a triceratops footprint.  After that, I would hand them each two of the foam footprints and let them come up and place their footprints in the triceratops footprint, and at the end we would count them  (I made 24 kid footprints, which fit with room for probably 6 more).

You could also let the kids stand on the dinosaur footprint to see how many would fit, but since I needed the footprint to last through many storytimes, I choose to use the foam cutouts to extend the life of the triceratops footprint.

How It Went

This theme was a lot of fun.  I would say the books that were the biggest hits were Snappy Little Dinosaurs, I'm Big!, and I'm Bad!  I also go a great compliment from one of the teachers at our newest preschool, who told me I had a "really nice reading voice."  Laurie Berkner's "We Are The Dinosaurs" was by far the biggest hit of the songs and activities, with groups often asking to do it 2 or 3 times.  I like using the simple "Ten Big Dinosaurs" as well, because it works on their fine motor dexterity and counting both up and down, which is more challenging.  They were all amazed at how many of their footprints could fit inside the dinosaur footprint.  One thing I was surprised by is the "Dino Ditty" kind of fell flat, though when I've used it before, the kids loved it.  Go figure.

I tried to work in some discussion of carnivore verses herbivore, different kinds of dinosaurs, and fossils and paleontology.  One thing that was kind of funny was that a couple of stories featured pteranodons and pterosaurs, and the kids would often try to correct me and argue that they were pterodactyls and I would have a hard time convincing them that there were other kinds of flying prehistoric reptiles besides the pterodactyls.  They also laughed and though I was joking when I said that some dinosaurs were the size of a chicken.  They just could not wrap their heads around the idea that not all dinosaurs were huge.  I also got a lot of giggles and "Ewww" when I told them that in addition to fossilized bones and eggs, that there is also fossilized dinosaur poop!  (It's called "coprolite," by the way). 

There were three days I ended up going to the daycares myself and going into the classroom rather than having the bus, and I was surprised at how some of the classes acted like they had never been to storytime before and had no clue how to act, just because we changed the location, while others were perfectly fine.  (Staff, too!  I had two aides sitting in the back playing cards at one daycare).  One day was because the bus was in the shop, and the kids were very concerned about it's well-being.  Once I assured them that it would be fine and we would have it the next time, one little boy asked me where my "husband" was, meaning our driver (who is easily old enough to be my father)!  He got a kick out of that when I told him.  I told him the kids assume we are a couple, like Santa and Mrs. Claus. :)

Now, I'm off to make some tea to sooth my throat.  I've got to remember to pace myself with the roaring!