Penguins – Preschool

Opening Song

Clap everybody and say hello!
Clap everybody and say hello!
Clap everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Stomp everybody and say hello!
Stomp everybody and say hello!
Stomp everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Jump everybody and say hello!
Jump everybody and say hello!
Jump everybody and say hello!
No matter what the weather!

Books

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Waddle! Waddle! by James Proimos
Penguins! by Liz Pichon
Blown Away by Rob Biddulph

Flannel

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Baby Penguins

1 baby penguin makes a wish
(hold up 1 finger and point up)

2 baby penguins catch a fish
(hold up 2 fingers and clap hands)

3 baby penguins slip and slide
(hold up 3 fingers and slide hands around)

4 baby penguins run and hide
(hold up 4 fingers, then hide them)

5 baby penguins look around, calling “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!”
(hold up 5 fingers and shade eyes with hand)

Now they are found.
(add mama penguin to the board)
Rhyme: Miss Mary Liberry

Themed Rhymes

Penguin Song

I’m a little penguin
Aren’t I cute? (raise arms as if questioning)

I’m a bird
In a penguin suit (flap arms at sides)

My suit has thick feathers,
Black and white (turn around, show off outfit)

I can’t fly
But I swim all right (swimming motions)

I can waddle ’round
On my webbed feet (waddle)

Fresh fish are what
I like to eat! (eating motions)
Source: Abby the Librarian

Penguin Waddle

You put your right wing in,
you take your right wing out,
You put your right wing in and you waddle all about.
You do the Penguin Waddle and you turn yourself around.
And that’s what it’s all about!

You put your left wing in…
You put your right fin in…
You put your left fin in…
You put your beak in…
You put yourself in…
Source: Preschool Express

Penguins Jump!

Penguins jump, penguins dive,
(jump, then dive them to the floor.)

OK, penguins, look alive!
(stand or sit at attention.)

Penguins waddle, penguins walk,
(Waddle in place, walk in place.)

We don’t have any time to talk!
(Shake head “no.”)

Penguins slip, penguins slide,
(Slip and slide from side to side.)

Come on penguins, show some pride!
(Puff out chest.)

Penguins snooze, penguins snore,
(Put hands to one side of head; pretend to sleep)

Wake right up and play some more!
(Wake up and wiggle all over.)
Source: Mentor Public Library

I’m A Little Penguin

I’m a Little Penguin
In the sea.
I can swim as fast as can be!
When I catch a fish, just look at me.
I’m as proud as I can be.
Credit: Step by Step — Penguin Theme

Activity Songs

Doing the Penguin by Sesame Street
The Penguin Song by Carole Peterson

Take Home Craft

My shape penguin was inspired by a craft on Homemade Life.

Closing Goodbye Song

See you later, alligator

See you later, alligator (Wave goodbye)
In a while, crocodile
Give a hug, ladybug (Hug yourself)
Blow a kiss, jellyfish (Blow a kiss)
See you soon, big baboon
Out the door, dinosaur (Point straight ahead)
Take care, polar bear
Wave goodbye, butterfly (Wave goodbye)

Observations

My preschoolers were pretty awesome at this storytime. They had a blast doing their waddles and we totally worked up a sweat with the dance songs. What is even more awesome is that this storytime fell on Penguin Awareness Day.

Penguins – Toddlers

Opening Song

Well Hello Everybody, Can You Touch Your Nose

Well hello everybody, can you touch your nose,
Touch your nose, touch your nose?
Well hello everybody, can you touch your nose,
touch your nose?

Well hello everybody can you touch your toes,
touch your toes, touch your toes?
Well hello everybody, can you touch your toes,
touch your toes?

Well hello everybody, can you rub your tummy,
rub your tummy, rub your tummy?
Well hello everybody, can you rub your tummy,
rub your tummy?

Books

24880135 389361

Waddle! Waddle! by James Proimos
Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere! by Bob Barner

Flannel

IMG_1021[1]

Baby Penguins

1 baby penguin makes a wish
(hold up 1 finger and point up)

2 baby penguins catch a fish
(hold up 2 fingers and clap hands)

3 baby penguins slip and slide
(hold up 3 fingers and slide hands around)

4 baby penguins run and hide
(hold up 4 fingers, then hide them)

5 baby penguins look around, calling “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!”
(hold up 5 fingers and shade eyes with hand)

Now they are found.
(add mama penguin to the board)
Rhyme: Miss Mary Liberry

Traditional Rhymes

This is Big Big Big

This is big big big
This is small small small
This is short short short
This is tall tall tall
This is fast fast fast
This is slow slow slow
This is yes yes yes
This is no no no
Source: Mel’s Desk

Bubble, Bubble Pop!

One little red fish
Swimming in the water,
Swimming in the water,
Swimming in the water.

One little red fish
Swimming in the water,
Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble…POP!

Verses: Increase the number and change the color
Source: Mel’s Desk

Themed Rhymes

Penguin Song

I’m a little penguin
Aren’t I cute? (raise arms as if questioning)

I’m a bird
In a penguin suit (flap arms at sides)

My suit has thick feathers,
Black and white (turn around, show off outfit)

I can’t fly
But I swim all right (swimming motions)

I can waddle ’round
On my webbed feet (waddle)

Fresh fish are what
I like to eat! (eating motions)
Source: Abby the Librarian

Penguin Waddle

You put your left wing in…
You put your right fin in…
You put your left fin in…
You put your beak in…
You put yourself in…
Source: Preschool Express

Activity Songs

Doing the Penguin by Sesame Street
The Penguin Song by Carole Peterson

Take Home Craft

My shape penguin was inspired by a craft on Homemade Life.

Closing Goodbye Song

The Goodbye Train is Leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot.
Oh the goodbye train is leaving, the goodbye train is leaving
Oh the goodbye train is leaving see you soon, toot, toot

Observations

A pretty fun storytime. For Waddle, Waddle I had the kids waddle in their seats and then throw out their arm and thrust out their chest for belly slide! I had a few kids hollering belly slide later.

Sensory Playtime (November 2015)

November was our second Sensory Playtime and boy, was it a blast! We once again had five stations, but we primarily focused on touch.

Our first station was shredded paper. This was very cost effective but messy! It was probably the favorite station. The kids would bury themselves in the paper, throw the paper up in the air, and make mounds with it.

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Our second station was a messy pile of leaves. The kids again had a blast throwing the leaves up in the air. We did provide a painting of a tree. This offered kids the opportunity to place the leaves on the tree if they wanted. However, they were way more interested in tossing the leaves up in the air.

Our third station was sound bottles. The kids were able to shake them and stack them up. We caught a few kids wondering around with a bottle, but hey, at least they were developing their senses!

Our fourth station was sticky paper. My coworker discovered this idea and we absolutely loved it. We talked about different kinds of tape to use and decided on contact paper. Duct tape seemed too harsh. We saw different ways our patrons interacted with this station. Young babies walked/crawled over it. Older kids would try and pick it up with their hands. We have tagged this one to do again, but maybe put out little items that the kids could stick and unstick stuff to the paper.

Our final station was ice cubes. I froze a bunch of toys into the ice, and the kids objective was to try and melt the ice to get to the toy. These are very cheap toys, so if a toy walks off with a child, it was not the end of the world. Surprisingly, this might have been the second favorite station. I had several of the older kids tell me about it.

American Girl: Maryellen Larkin (December 2015)

Sigh, our last American Girl for 2015 was Maryellen Larkin. I thought it would be appropriate to include her for one of our 2015 sessions, as she is the newest Beforever Doll. I immediately decided to do a 1950s Christmas. I knew that poodle skirts were essential and since Ms. Larkin wanted snow, we would give her snow.

After our traditional powerpoint, we started on the poodle skirt and scarves. I knew this would take longer and wanted the kids to start immediately. I thankfully saved time by having all the felt already cut. The instructions called for a felt poodles, but I didn’t have the time to really cut out 30 plus poodles and went with snowflakes, flowers, and hearts. Thank you die-cut machine!

The girls were each were handed a skirt and scarf. Then each girl got to pick up to five felt pieces to go with their skirt and scarf. The longest portion of this session was the glue gun. I really do not allow the girls to handle the glue guns (I don’t want to explain to a parent how their child got a burn blister), so I rely quite a bit on the adults to assist. I also only had a limited amount of glue guns. I did fix this for future dates.

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Once their felt pieces were glued down, the girls then got to wrap their skirts and scarves for Christmas! I had three different Christmas wrapping paper out. I wasn’t sure if they would like this portion, but they loved it.

I was told by several parents/guardians that their girls were very excited to put their presents under the tree and were just as excited to open them on Christmas Day.

The second activity was snowflakes. Never doubt how much fun kids have making snowflakes out of paper. To throw in some extra excitement, I also did glitter! You either hate glitter or you embrace it! I embrace it and the more the merrier.

The final portion of this session was cookies! I ordered Christmas cookies from a local bakery and made lemonade. It was a great way to end 2015.

American Girl: Grace Thomas (November 2015)

I decided to change up my program for the month of November to incorporate a session for the girl of the year, Grace Thomas. I knew the kids would get a kick out of cooking, so I searched online for easy recipes for this specific program. Here is what we did:

No cooking program should ever be complete without a chef’s hat! I gave the kids the option of making the chef hat for themselves or their dolls. Most of the kids picked making the chef’s hat for the doll. This is where I got the instructions for our hats.

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My hat turned out ok.

After we made our hats we moved on to our apple pie crescent rolls. Everyone became super excited for our first recipe. I do recommend going heavier on the sugar and doing a test at home to figure out what works.

Our last activity was ice cream in a bag. This one was a bit trickier. I did a test run at home and everything went well. However, once at the library, the bags we were using kept leaking! I literally have no pictures from this segment because I was running around getting new bags to put the leaking bags into.

This month’s activity was super fun but exhausting.

Rhyming to Read: Soft Kitty and Dickery Dickery Dare

I’ve been failing at keeping up with my Rhyming to Read program, so there will be some backtracking. Our November Rhyming to Read focused on the Soft Kitty and Dickery Dickery Dare. I have noticed that when you go off the traditional nursery rhymes you have a harder time finding activities to with the kids. I try to make do with what I can.

I had to do Soft Kitty for our November Rhyming to Read! I got some good laughs from parents/guardians who are Big Bang Theory fans, and it was not a difficult rhyme to teach. This was my layout:

Introduction of the Rhyme:
Soft kitty,
Warm kitty,
Little ball of fur,
Happy kitty,
Sleepy kitty,
Purr, purr, purr

I sang it once through and then had everyone sing with it me. We sang it 3x through.
I then had the kids imagine they were holding a cat and sing the rhyme to their kitties.

Action Rhyme:
Can You Meow Like Me
Meow very loudly.
Meow like a giant cat.
Meow in a squeaky voice.
Meow like a scared cat.
Meow like a happy cat.
Meow like a sad cat.
Meow like an angry cat.
Meow in a whisper.

Fingerplay:
We counted each finger as a kitten and then sang this rhyme 2x through.

Five Little Kittens
Five little standing in a row,
(Hold up five fingers.)
They nod their heads to the children so.
(Bend fingers)
They run to the left; they run to the right.
(Run fingers to the left and then to the right.)
They stand up and stretch in the bright sunlight.
(Stretch fingers out tall.)
Along comes a dog who’s in for some fun.
(Hold up one finger from opposite hand.)
ME-OW! See those little kittens run!
(Let fingers run.)

We then hid our hands behind our heads, backs and tushies.

Book: Kittens Grow Up to be Cats by Cecilia Minden

Dance Song: Copycat Me by The Learning Station

Craft:

We then switched gears to Dickery Dickery Dare.

Introduction of the Rhyme: Dickery, Dickery Dare,
Dickery, Dickery Dare,
The pig flew up in the air;
The man in brown
Soon brought him down,
Dickery, dickery, dare.

We sang through it 3x through.

Book: Piggies by Audrey Wood

Action Rhyme:
Dickery, Dickery Dare,
(crouch down low and start to bounce)
The pig flew up in the air;
(jump up in the air)
The man in brown
Soon brought him down,
(start to crouch again)
Dickery, dickery, dare.

I gave the kids a pig on a stick and they were able to fly their pigs into the air. The kids loved jumping in the air with their pigs.

Song: Pig on Her Head by Laurie Berkner.

American Girl: Josefina Montoya (October 2015)

I resumed my American Girl series after our summer reading program and boy, was I excited for what I planned for October. Día de los Muertos! My brain exploded with ideas. I knew Josefina would perfect for this with her storyline.

I started off with my traditional powerpoint. I briefly touched on Josefina losing her mother and how she most likely celebrated Día de los Muertos. I also discussed the customs and traditions celebrated today.

Our first craft was to make a calaveras mask for the participants and their dolls. I found this template. I printed off both the flower and heart mask and downsized the original mask to fit the dolls. I put out markers, sequins, and glue for decoration tools. I saw some pretty cool masks.

Our second craft was nesting dolls. I wanted a craft that would be slightly more modern. I also liked that it correlated with the decorating of the graves on Día de los Muertos.

To add an extra bit of flair to the program, I also incorporated face painting. I choose a simple design and had my two helpers keep to this one choice. At first no one was getting up to get their faces painted, but soon there was a line with ready participants. Here is an image of my helper’s makeup.

I wrapped up the event with some hot chocolate. My research showed that hot chocolate or champurrado are popular drinks during this holiday.

This might have be my favorite session yet. The girls had a blast and it went very smoothly.

Sensory Playtime: October 2015

My library has been granted the great opportunity to offer our community a sensory playtime. A local private school generously donated money to help us get started and we are running with this chance. Since we did not know what to expect, we aimed for different stations that could entertain a small or large crowd.

Station 1: Mirrors for Sight

I placed out different mirrors for the kids to dress-up and see themselves. This was a double whammy, as it promoted sight and imagination. Not to leave the super young out, I had two large sheets with baby mirrors.

Station 2: Pots and Pans for Sound

What child doesn’t like making sweet music with their parents’ pots and pans? I had different shapes and styles of pots. I also provided different type of utensils for the children to bang on the pots and pans.

Station 3: Digging for Treasure (Touch)

Kids LOVE sand and what better sensory activity than for little hands to dig into sand for buried treasure. We had all sorts of items buried. There were toys, shells, and little gadgets. Sand digging is also great for developing muscles in the hands.

Station 4: Spaghetti for Touch/Taste

I made three different batches of spaghetti. One batch had absolutely nothing on it. The second batch had olive oil on it, and the last batch had orange extract with olive oil. This offered the kiddos the opportunity to feel the difference between the spaghetti. My first participants also got the chance to taste it before everyone’s hand were in it.

Review
This was a smashing success! 113 people showed up!!! Since we went larger with our stations, parents/guardians could spend as little or as much time at each station. Some people went methodically and were done in 30 minutes while others jumped around. It was very common to see one child playing in the sand and the next minute putting a tiara on in front of the mirror.

The overall favorite was spaghetti! I had one child who did not want to share the spaghetti and would continuously hug it to her chest. Another child actually rolled in it! His mom just stripped him down and put new clothes on him right before they left.

Check out some images from the event:

Some Recommendations

Buys LOTS of tarps. This can help keep the mess to minimum.
Only have one messy item. I had two stations and they were a MESS after everyone left.
If you do food, put out small quantities for parents/guardians to take for their child. My spaghetti was only good for one tasting session before it became a germ fest of little hands.

American Girl: Julie Albright (April 2015)

Alright, work has been extremely busy with summer reading program, and I have fallen off the wagon with updating. I’m going to try and catch up by doing at least a post week (hopefully two).

My final American Girl program was focused on Julie Albright. I figured we could end the spring series with some disco dancing, pet rocks, and tie-dying.

I did my traditional opening with a brief powerpoint about the Julie’s era, the 1970s. After introducing Julie, I then talked about how popular pet rocks where during this time. I gave a brief history about how pet rocks got started. I then let the kids and their adults loose to paint their own pet rocks.

After our pet rock project, we moved on to tie-dying (how could we not). There were quite a few chuckles from the older crowd. I would have loved to actually tie-dye shirts, but coffee filters are just as fun. I had the crowd decorate their coffee filters (each person got three) and then my helpers walked around and spritzed each filter with water. We saw some really groovy combinations.

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We finally ended with a mini party. I served Doritos and root beer to the kids. I always knew that Doritos was popular, but who knew how crazy the kids would go for their own batch. I actually had to give five girls Oreos because I ran out of Doritos. Next time I will buy three party bags instead of just two! I then threw some ABBA on and let them have their own dancing party.

Candy Explosion!!!!

Our theme for Spring Break this year was candy! We had a performer who did a Willy Wonka performance, we showed the original Willy Wonka movie, and a program focused completely on candy. This was my special program. It was entitled, “Candy Explosion” Eat candy, make things with candy, and decorate with candy! It will be a Candy Explosion!”

My coworker and I try to actively avoid registration programs, but I knew this program could easily get out of hand and limited my registration to only 25 kids. All my spots were gone by February! I also had a lengthy waiting list right before the program.

I outlined program as:

Experiments
Crafts
Candy

EXPERIMENTS
1. The kids and I did several experiments. Our first experiment was to chew spearmint gum for at least two minutes. We then ate a piece of orange. We talked about why spearmint affects our taste buds.

2. We placed jolly ranchers on ice cubes to see how the ice would melt:

3. We tried to make taffy boats. The kids really did not grasp the idea of how to make a boat out of taffy. I had to show a few of them what I meant. Others just wanted to eat their taffy:

4. We tested colors. We dropped an orange or yellow m&m into water. The kids tried to mix the colors. We explained how the density of the colors does not allow the colors to mix.

5. Our final experiment was to place a lemon drop into some water. We talked about how the bubbling signified acid.

CRAFTS
Once we were done with the experiments we transitioned into our craft section. Our department has a TON of old candy and this was a perfect way to get rid of the candy. I set-up a little store and each child got to go shopping for their pieces. They then created their own artwork.

FOOD

I finally rewarded the kids with candy they could actually eat! I felt a little bit bad that I was returning these kids back to their guardians completely sugared up. However, the kids had a blast.

SOURCES

Candy Experiments by Loralee Leavitt
Candy Experiments 2 by Loralee Leavitt

LIBRIONYIAN

LiBrionyian – n. the ramblings of a librarian named Briony

Author: bdzb

Penguins – Preschool

Opening Song

Books

Flannel

Themed Rhymes

Activity Songs

Take Home Craft

Closing Goodbye Song

Observations

Penguins – Toddlers

Opening Song

Books

Flannel

Traditional Rhymes

Themed Rhymes

Activity Songs

Take Home Craft

Closing Goodbye Song

Observations

Sensory Playtime (November 2015)

American Girl: Maryellen Larkin (December 2015)

American Girl: Grace Thomas (November 2015)

Rhyming to Read: Soft Kitty and Dickery Dickery Dare

American Girl: Josefina Montoya (October 2015)

Sensory Playtime: October 2015

American Girl: Julie Albright (April 2015)

Candy Explosion!!!!