Let's Explore Fall!
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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: I'm in the Mood for Singing
One of my favorite tunes, which has been growing on me, I often find myself randomly humming it when I'm not even at the library, haha. :) I love that you can swap out "singing" for "reading" and "listening" to mentally prepare all the little ones for what is ahead! I tend to mix up my hello songs that I do, but I have a rotation that I stick to, and this is one of them! Any way I can help the children find some sort of familiarity in my storytimes is good. Hopefully after doing my rotation of songs over and over, they'll begin to remember the lyrics (although many already have started to remember)!
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!
This is a fantastic book for fall! I love the repetition (We're coming to a mountain - a TALL TALL mountain. We can't go under it. We have to go over it! Come on, let's go!) as the kids in the book troubleshoot each block in the road they come to along their leaf hunt. There are some great opportunities to get your little audience involved in this story! First, I like to have them say and do the motions with me, as the kids in the book go through their obstacle (for example, "Climb, climb, huff, puff, We made it!" = we all stomp and huff and puff). Also, as I'm reading "We're going on a leaf hunt, we're going right away, Let's find colorful leaves..." I ask everyone to repeat the last phrase in that passage, which is repeated throughout the book, "What a wonderful day!" All the grown-ups (myself included!) love hearing the little ones saying such a sweet thing. :) Lastly, (as if this book didn't naturally lend itself to enough audience interaction opportunities!) I have the children repeat the type of leaves the kids in the book find, which are all words that children probably wouldn't normally hear, giving me a chance to build up vocabulary; for example, leaves from the hickory, birch, maple, etc. tree.
Song/Rhyme: 5 Little Leaves
I adapted this from the "5 Little Pumpkins" rhyme, to fit with my theme. Here are the lyrics I came up with: Five little leaves hanging in the trees, The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late." The second one said, "There's a chill in the air." The third one said, "But we don't care." The fourth one said, "Let's fly and fly and fly." The fifth one said, "I bet we can, if we try!" Ooooo! Went the wind, and out went the light. And the five little leaves flew out of sight!
I also used props with this. When everyone arrived, I had them take 2 cut-outs of leaves (maple and oak, cut from my Ellison Machine dies). When the "flew out of sight" we dropped the leaves to the floor and everyone really loved that!
This is another wonderful fall book, with beautiful, bold, recognizable illustrations, and simple/minimal text. At the beginning of the book, it was really fun to ask "who loves the fall?" because everyone shouted "ME!" :)
Stretcher/Activity: Wiggle Your Leaves Way Up High!
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 leaves that I passed out. So it went like this: "wiggle your leaves way up high / wiggle them way down low / etc..." This is a great stretcher!
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!
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!
When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a great storytime book. However, I was slightly wrong. Although the book's lyrics and illustrations are simply enchanting, it is not a book that children are easily engaged with. I lost a lot of attention spans while reading it, and realized I probably should have either saved it for an older crowd or not read it at all during storytimes.
Song: Autumn Leaves are Falling Down
Another lovely song, borrowed from Jbrary. It is to the tune of "London Bridges are Falling Down" and there are 4 verses. For the first verse (falling down), I have them just take the leaves and float them down to their toes; second, the wind blows them round and round -make circles with the leaves; for the third they actually drop them from way up high (drifting gently to the ground); and for the fourth, we mime a rake and rake them up!
This is a really sweet book with simple, minimal rhyming text, and gorgeous mixed-media illustrations. I only wish it was a little larger in size! Fernandes also has 3 other kitten books, for the other 3 seasons of the year, which I can't wait to find and read!
Song: The Leaves on the Trees
This song is somewhat similar to "Autumn Leaves are Falling Down" - but that's okay with me! It is to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus". Since we had leaf props, I used my red and orange leaves for the first verse. For the second verse, "twirling down" they dropped the leaves. And for the third "the leaves on the ground go swish swish swish" we knelt down and swish the leaves with our hands. It worked well! I love adding movements and fingerplays to songs, even if they originally don't have them - any way I can get the kids moving and releasing energy!!
Unfortunately, time was up and plus, everyone was just too wiggly for this one. Probably should have eliminated a book or song from this storytime. (I wrote the same thing for my last storytime, but forgot! Definitely sticking to 3 or 4 books in the future - I got too ambitious!)
However, this is another Steve Metzger title (he wrote the first one I read this storytime) and it looked like so much! I already could envision all of the opportunities to engage with my little audience during this book. Even though I didn't end up reading it, I did show it to the grown-ups afterwards and explained what a great book it was, just so they know! :)
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
