Cuddle Up with Teddy preschool storytime plan

Last month we encouraged the preschoolers to Cuddle Up with Teddy at our teddy bear themed preschool storytime. You can get my planning sheet by clicking here.

For the craft we made teddy bears out of the letter B. Here's the PDF of the craft.

Winter Wonderland preschool storytime theme

We recently had a winter storm that left us with a lot of snow.  What better time to share my Winter Wonderland storytime plan?  Please note, to view the file, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

 

All ready for the fun to begin!

Party Palooza Preschool Storytime Plan

Today's my baby sister's birthday.  In honor of her birthday, I decided to share the storytime plan from my birthday week.  Yes...we had a birthday themed storytime in honor of MY birthday.  Because it is all about me and my day. ;)

 You can download a PDF of the Party Pallooza storytime plan by clicking here.

For the craft we made pigs in party hats (click for PDF of the craft).  The kids enjoyed the storytime, craft...and the treat I shared (since it was my birthday, I wanted to give them a little something extra).  There were smiles all around. 

Please note, to view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Boo to You preschool storytime plan

It's fall, which means preschool storytimes are back in session.  I've had only a handful of storytimes over the past few months, as most have been presented by Miss Brindi. 

Since it is nearly Halloween, I'm sharing my Halloween themed storytime plan.  We called the storytime, Boo To You. (click for the pdf of my plan).  In addition to having a craft for the kids, I also gave each one a little treat (idea from here).

Candy Corn Collage

Five Little Pumpkin treats

 Please note, to view the PDF file, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Going Green Preschool Storytime Plan

 April 22 is Earth Day.  In celebration of it, we had a Going Green themed for preschool storytime.  While I did find many books on the green lifestyle, I wasn't finding many fingerplays and songs that I felt the children would enjoy.  So I shared the books on my handout and as a display in the room, and instead did a frog themed program.  

You can get my Going Green storytime plan by clicking here. 

 

When I was looking for a craft, I came across several using paper plates.  Doing those would require lots of coloring or painting, or having green plates.  I didn't want to do that, since I can have a fairly large group of preschoolers.  Instead I decided to make my own template in MS Publisher and copy it onto various shades of green paper.  You can get my template by clicking here.

Please note, to view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here). 

Here is my sample, along with all of the curled tongues, dotted eyes, and copied templates.  

 

Why I blog storytime plans

There is a reason I blog my plans for preschool storytime.  Actually, there is more than one reason, but recently I was reminded just how helpful it is.

As a supervisor, I feel unapologetic about checking my work email while not a work.  I usually check it before getting ready for the day, mostly to delete junk email, but also so I have an idea of what I am going into that morning. One recent Thursday I was glad I have this habit!

Thursdays are usually my late day, so a bit after 10 a.m. I started getting ready to be at work by 11:30.  It was then that I pulled up my work email on my iPhone and saw that one of my staff reported off sick that morning.  It just happens that her location had preschool storytime scheduled for 11:30, which meant someone needed to cover the program.  Knowing that another employee had toddler programs and wasn’t available, and that there was limited staff at our Main library due to vacations, I knew that left two people who could cover: me and L.  L, however, was at a branch twice the distance as me.  I had a couple of errands I planned to run before work, but those took a backseat. 

 

I hurriedly got ready for the day, all the while considering what I could do for storytime.  I had one planned for the next day, but all the supplies were at my office – nearly 30 minutes from home.  Instead I decided to do a general “Storyteller’s Choice” and skip a craft this week.

 As I drove to work I called the branch and asked a circulation staff member to pull two books I was certain sat on their shelves.  By the time I arrived – around 11:10 – I had pulled up a blog post for a recent storytime and saved the image of the handout to my iPhone.  I then airdropped it to my iPad so I had easy access to the songs and fingerplays.  This saved me a lot of time, as I didn’t need to turn on a computer, log in, go to the shared drive, and then print out the handout.   Instead I was able to set up the storytime area and pull a third title to read.

We sang.  We danced.  We shared stories.  The dozen or so children who attended enjoyed a full thirty minute program, and were more than happy to play afterwards in lieu of a doing a craft.  And I’ve never been so grateful that I have this blog.

                       

Zoo to You Preschool Storytime Plan

Animal themed storytimes are always fun.  This was true for a recent one I presented called Zoo to You.  The kids enjoyed acting like various animals one might see in a zoo, and we all had fun singing zoo themed songs.

For the craft we made monkey masks.  I found the masks here (click for link) and copied them on cardstock.  The children colored their masks, cut them out, and glued them on an extra large craft stick.   

Here is my storytime plan (click for link). Please note, to view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Storyteller's Choice preschool storytime plan

Every few months my staff and I meet to choose themes for upcoming storytimes.  Usually we have little issue deciding on a theme for each week.  Those rare occasions when we aren't able to think of a great theme (that hasn't been used within the past year), we end up going with Storyteller's Choice (also called Storyteller's Favorites). Sometimes I use the same basic plan from a previous storytime, just changing the stories (click here for another Storyteller's Choice storytime).

This past week was one of those times.  The hardest part is deciding which stories to share!  The second hardest?  Deciding on a craft to go with the program.

Click here to download the Storyteller's Choice preschool storytime plan as a PDF.  Please note, to view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

I < 3 You Preschool Storytime Plan

Because another staff member and I take turns with presenting preschool storytime at her branch, I don't always get to do the Valentine's Day theme. This year I did.  What fun!
Click the link for the I < 3 Valentine's Day theme.

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

As I've mentioned recently, I have a Cricut Explore cutting machine.  I love using it for a variety of crafts - including for materials to use at work.  For the Valentine's Day preschool storytime craft I made bees and hearts on my Circut. I assembled the bees before the program, as we can have as many as 24 children - many younger three-year-olds.  I also wrote "mine." on all of the hearts.  Everyone enjoyed this easy and adorable craft.

Over the Rainbow Preschool Storytime Plan

As a general theme for St. Patrick's Day, we decided to go Over the Rainbow.  I incorporated a holiday themed book into my storytime plan (There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Clover! by Lucille Colandro), but mostly focused on colorful stories and rhymes. 

To download and view the full preschool storytime plan, click here. Please note, to view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Our craft was a fairly simple one.  Using a lovely sky blue colored paper, I copied this rainbow (click here for pdf) that I made a few years ago. The kids could then glue torn pieces of colored paper onto the appropriate bands.  The kids ha a lot of fun with it and several of the adults were thrilled that I incorporated the appropriate number of bands and included indigo.

The finished product.  I made some extras and put them out as a Make-and-Take.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub Preschool storytime plan

One recent storytime theme was splastastic!  For the Music Moment portion of my Rub-a-dub-dub preschool storytime I used the song Splish Splash from the CD A Child's Celebration of Rock 'n' Roll (from Music for Little People).  For the craft I found a fun bathtub coloring sheet.  I gave the kids dot markers and let them go to town making colorful "bubbles".

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Cold Weather Friends preschool storytime plan

Brrr!  I don't know about your area, but in my neck of the woods Old Man Winter has come!  It's been cold and snowy - and did I mention cold?

It's perfect weather for a Cold Weather Friends themed preschool storytime!

Look at these adorable penguins I made to use for this storytime!  I love having a Cricut (I have the original version).  I can make such fun things to use for work. These have magnets on the back.  A coworker used two of them for her toddler programs by clipping them in clothespins. For my five little penguins and their Mama I used the Christmas Cheer cartridge.

Since the large storytime board wasn't set up, and I didn't feel like dragging it out, I used the magnetic "lap board" I keep at my desk.  You might also know it as a metal cookie sheet. The kids loved the penguins!

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Uncommon Pets preschool storytime plan

 I enjoyed planning the Uncommon Pet theme.What a fun storytime! There have been a lot of books published in recent years that feature unusual pets.  My biggest problem with this theme was narrowing the choices down to only two books to read.

Usually I would choose three books to go with the theme, but our group this fall has been made up of a lot of young threes and even younger siblings. 

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Ouch! preschool storytime plan

This fall we tried a few new-to-us themes for storytime.  One was Ouch!.  There are a lot of lovely titles that fit this theme! For a craft, I gave each child a large paper doll die cut and a couple of band-aids.  If they wished, they could color a face, hair, and clothes on their person before putting the bandages on boo-boos.

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Happy Holidays Preschool storytime plan

My last storytime of 2014 was a holiday theme.  (Miss Brindi's was Santa Stories and fell the week after mine).  In honor of Christmas, during our Music Moment we rocked to Run Rudolph Run sung by Chuck Berry.  The kids had a blast making wreaths from die cut hands.

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Falling for Books preschool storytime plan

A couple of months ago we used Falling for Books as a storytime theme. It is a theme that we use every fall, but no one minds.  It's such a fun theme!

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

We Are the Dinosaurs preschool storytime plan

One of my favorite preschool storytime themes to do is dinosaurs.  We marched and roared and pretended that We Are the Dinosaurs with this fun program!

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Make New Friends preschool storytime plan

I was a little sad that I planned this storytime but ended up not being able to do it, since I came down with a virus that made me lose my voice.  Hopefully I'll be able to use the plan sometime in the future.  It's always fun to Make New Friends.

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Bunny Hope Preschool Storytime plan

We had a hopping good time with the Bunny Hop themed storytime.

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).

Mom's the Word Preschool Storytime Plan

Mom's the Word for this preschool storytime!

To view the files, you will need a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it free here).