Let's Explore Rain!
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Note: I have learned a few things since I began these outreach storytimes. One of the major lessons I learned is that I need to do LESS books, and longer books towards the beginning. More songs, fingerplays, and other activities involving props are a good way to mix things up and get the wiggles out. Enjoy!
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Hello song: Wave Your Scarves (Hello)
This is another great tune that I've borrowed from Jbrary. Of course, I adapted it as a "hello" song. What a great way to get kids up and moving even at the start of storytime! We went through the song twice, because during the first round, we still had lots of newcomers showing up. It gave them a chance to grab a scarf and find a spot. Also, I liked starting the storytime with my prop, because then everyone can just grab it on their own as they come in, and there's no rush mid-storytime to hand out the prop, which usually results in chaos (especially with a large group)!
I had the kids to hang onto their scarves for pretty much the first half of storytime, and told them to sit on them during the stories, and they actually followed the direction quite well (was afraid they might be a distraction, but not too bad)!
I've started using this warm-up at the beginning and often times throughout storytime, when the children get wiggly and need to refocus on listening to a story (especially after a song)! It goes like this: 1. Eyes watching (make glasses around eyes with your hands) 2. Ears listening (put hands behind ears) 3. Voices quiet (point to mouth) 4. Body calm (Give yourself a hug) 5. Caring hearts (Put hand over heart)
I found this idea on the Jbrary blog (where, well, I pretty much learn about everything cool and awesome, and end up borrowing everything!), in a post that talks about kindergarten teacher wisdom, and one of the kindergarten teachers uses this "mantra" with her kids. It really works well for calming everyone down, and my regulars have just about got the hang of it so that I only need to ask them for numbers and they know what to do!
I absolutely love the illustrations and message in this book. This is the same illustrator who worked on Last Stop on Market Street, which I am also fascinated with. Bold, colorful and beautiful. The illustrations really get the message across that just because it is a rainy day doesn't mean you have to be grumpy about it (or anything else for that matter)! There are few words, but they were thoughtfully placed throughout the vibrant pages. I did quite a bit of talking, and adding interpretations, because I knew there were some families who couldn't see the pages well. If it was just me and a child reading quietly together, I wouldn't need to add so much of my own explanations when reading, but I felt storytime definitely called for a more thorough description of what was going on throughout the story. Overall just really wonderful.
Song: Rain on the Grass
A cute little rhyme from Jbrary, as usual, and a great way to use the scarves. This song is great because you can incorporate lots of different weather into it - not just rain - but also snow, leaves, sun.
This is a great book for not only talking about how rain makes plants grow, but also for talking about the 5 senses. The animals talk about how they can "see, smell, feel, taste, and hear" the rain. Then, after it rains, they say they can't "see, smell, feel, taste, and hear" the rain anymore, but they can use their senses to perceive what the rain has brought (tasty fruit, cool mud, etc.). I also like how the book uses animal species that aren't normally talked about in picture books (baboon, for instance), which helps build vocabulary, and uses big bold font that you can see across the room!
Stretcher song: We Wiggle and Wiggle and Stop!
This is such a good little tune for getting the wiggles out. I've learned that by mid-storytime, it's a must! As Dana and Lindsey (Jbrary) mention in their video, it's a great song to teach kids how to follow directions. When I first started using this little stretcher in my storytimes, it took the kids a few tries to actually "stop" when I say "stop", but many of my regulars now know just what to do - it's great! Also, during this particular storytime, since we were using scarves, I had them wave their scarves as one activity (we wave and we wave and we stop). Many giggles during this little wiggle release!
You may remember this little activity/stretch from my very first post, in which I used shaker eggs to go along with this little mantra. The mantra originates, to my knowledge, from a storytime video posted by the New York Public Library in which the librarian did a little wiggle release that goes: "wiggle your hands way up high / wiggle them way down low / wiggle them side to side / wiggle them on your shoulders / wiggle them on your head / wiggle them on your belly / and then put them all to bed".
Now, for this storytime, I had them use their scarves. So it went like this: "wiggle your scarves way up high / wiggle them way down low / etc..." This is a great stretcher!
Very few children haven't read a Maisy book - so this was a hit! I used it right after the stretchers because I knew it would draw their attention back to reading. There are lots of interactive pulleys in this simple weather book, with bright and colorful illustrations, as usual for Maisy, which also catch children's eyes and pull them into the book!
This is such a fun song! We didn't use all of the American Sign Language like Jbrary does in their video, but we used some. For the umbrellas, we held our scarves over our heads. But for everything else we used the signs from the video. I didn't tell the kids it was ASL, because I'm often afraid that I'm doing the signs slightly wrong and I don't want to teach the wrong thing, but maybe in the future (without scarves, using all of the ASL) I will deliberately explain that these are signs. We went through this song twice - it was a hit!
I really like this book. It rhymes, is short, and makes you remember how much fun playing in the rain was when you were a little kid. There are also parts that you can have the kids say with you - "plip plop, drip drop" - I only wish that the book was bigger so that the kids could see the illustrations better! Really wonderful, otherwise.
Song: Little Raindrops
A really quick song that gets kids up and moving! They also get practice understanding sounds: little raindrops = patting your knees, bigger raindrops = clapping your hands, giant raindrops = stomping! A really fun and interactive song.
Unfortunately, everyone was just too wiggly (and I ran out of time) for this one. Oh well, next time! Probably should have eliminated a book or song from this storytime.
I told the kids that it was time for the sun to come out now that we're at the end of storytime! Such a happy classic little folk song (original by Rafi, but I just followed Jbrary's video). One family told me they recognized it from Barney. I'm really glad they could recognize and follow along!
Goodbye Song: Bread, Butter, Marmalade & Jam
Instead of "hello" we simply substituted "goodbye". Definitely turning into a favorite -- I get lots of giggles with this one!!
Handout:
- storytime plan / song lyrics
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