Below is my question along with replies. I hope you get find the ideas
helpful for the
forthcoming year. Thanks to all who submitted ideas.!
ORIGINAL QUESTION:
SInce the end of the school year is weeks away, are there any lessons you
discovered were a success, enjoyed by pre-K classes, and /or lessons you are
sure to present again? Themes? book characters? authors? concepts? Oral
Language? Creative Dramatics? Web sites used to gather lesson ideas?
I find myself having a loss of what to do with pre-kindergarten so any and
all ideas are appreciated. We have them scheduled for various lengths of
time and number of weekly visits and their attention span can be long or
short depending on different factors.
After a period of time, I will post a hit to the group. Perhaps there are
others who could benefit from fresh, tried, successful, great and new to us
lesson ideas for pre-K. Of course, they could be used with kindergarten.
I see the listserve as a cyber conference session when questions like this
are asked. All can benefit. I am not trying to get people to do the work for
me.
Thank you very much!
Robert Joyce
Virginia / Pittsylvania Co: Brosville Elem
School Librarian/Library Media Specialist
robert@gcronline.com
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REPLIES:
I have started incorporating familiar songs and Nursery rhymes each week. We
have an opening song and a closing song. I took a Litreacy Class that
focused on creating a classroom community.
------------------------------------------------------
Two lessons:
1. "Angus and the Ducks" book and United Streaming Video. The
children really like this story. Anticipating what is going to happen
to the scottish terrier, Angus. Our book is very old (1930's) pages are
torn and binding is falling apart. I talk with the children about book
care and show them pictures and talk about story. THen we watch the
video together. They really enjoy the suspense in the video. After the
video, I ask simple questions, like What color is Angus' collar and how
many ducks were there... Then I ask who has a dog, cat, hamster....? I
have pre-set all the stuffed animals in the media center up on the floor
leading to the non-fiction books on pets. I make sure that there are
lots of books about dogs and cats standing open so that the kids can
point out different pets from the book covers. The last part of the
lesson, is a little work paper I make up for the kids using Microsolf
clip art picture of a black scottish terrier. I use card stock and
punch holes on either side of the dog's neck. I have pre-cut red
ribbon, so that the kids can lace the ribbon and then tie a bow, working
on their she lace and bow tying skills. They really enjoy it and some
need more help than others. WHen I dismiss the children to get on line
at the door, I play "Duck, Duck, Angus" (like the "Duck, Duck, Goose
game) THe kids really enjoy waiting to see, if I am going to say Angus
when I tap them. Of course sometimes I intentionally say, Duck Duck
Goose and all the kids laugh.
On the work sheet story card I have all the credit for the book and
video and arrange it like a playbill. The kids take it home and can
practice making bows with their parents. (It is good for P.R. for the
media center also.)
2. "Caterpillar and the Polliwog" based on 1982 book by Jack Kend.
Bood and United Streaming Video. We talk about what caterpillars and
polliwogs turn into and then watch the video. It is so well done and
the children laugh at the silly catterpillar. After the video we recap
the story. I have a story card done for the children with a frog and a
butterly (Microsoft clip art). I also have a caterpillar and a polliwog
(Microsoft clip art) which are cut out as squares to be pasted on the
sheet with the corresponding animal that they metomorphosize into). The
kids can color the butterfly and frog in after they paste the matches.
I ususally just go around to each paper and put a dot of glue where the
cut out are to be pasted just before the class comes in while I am
putting the crayons and work out on the tables.
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repeat with preK (special ed) class is to read Pumpkin Pumpkin by
titherington and then have each child put a pumpkin seed in a cup to grow.
use that plant and story for three weeks. Send the plants home because
they grew so well.
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things that you will have to buy most likely but they are a tremendous help.
Lakeshore Learning has wonderful story telling kits: BROWN BEAR BROWN
BEAR, THE LITTLE MOUSE-BIG HUNGRY BEAR and THE RED RIPE STRAWBERRY, etc.
All of the pieces come with the kit. read the story out loud....then we
retell the story. Also, Dr. Jean cds are wonderful,
(website---drjean.org ). They have songs that can be connected to many
books. If you read WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT by Rosen, there is a song
that takes you thru a peanut butter river, candy factory, jello song etc to
find a bear. You might compare WE'RE GOING ON A LION HUNT by David Axtell
to the bear hunt book.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I used to serve an elementary school, K4 - 6th grade. I always had success
when I included movement in my storytimes for the youngest classes. They
absolutely loved acting out Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. By the
time we gave everybody a turn being either a little monkey, Mama, or the
doctor, they were reciting the whole rhyme with me. For that activity I
simply made tags for all the characters and hung them around the children's
necks. They quickly caught on to what each tag said, even though they
couldn't officially "read" the words. I remember reading Rumble in the
Jungle and having them stand and act out some motion to go with each
animal--stomping with the elephants, arms-out soaring with the birds, etc.
They also enjoyed very much repeating a refrain from any story with me (like
"hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of
cats" from Gag's Millions of Cats, and "'Not I,' said the cat, 'Not I,'
said the dog, 'Then I'll do it myself,' said the little red hen" from The
Little Red Hen ).
As you have no doubt discovered, fairy tales and other stories with
interesting plots don't hold the interest of most little ones. They simply
don't have the vocabulary and intellectual sophistication to handle anything
but the simplest story lines. Very simple concept books are good for
them--big/little, hot/cold, colors, shapes, etc. As they are introduced to
numbers and letters in their classroom, you might reinforce those concepts
with number and alphabet books and with cut-out letters and numbers from the
Ellison machine. I always grabbed any story that involved things we could
count. On the rare occasion that I had some assistance during these
sessions, I sometimes did an art project after storytime--cutting out shapes
and gluing together a picture, making a mouse out of a heart, etc. That's
messy and time-consuming, though, with the littlest ones.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Read the story by Eric Carle - From
Head to Toe, 1997
"I can do it!" is the confidence-building message of this book. As young
children copy the antics of Eric Carle's animals, they'll learn such
important skills as careful listening, focusing attention, and following
instructions. Just as alphabet books introduce letters and simple words,
>From Head to Toe introduces the basic body parts and simple body
movements - the ABC's of dancing, gymnastics, and other sports
activities. (from Eric Carle's website)
After reading the book divide the class into groups of two and have
each group mimic one animal in the book and then took a picture with the
digital camera. print the pictures, added text about what animal each
group was doing, bound them
together in the same sequence as the book and displayed them with the
book during open house. Give the book to the teacher of the
pre-school class for the students to enjoy all year!
------------------------------------------------------------------
focus on author studies with the younger kids - for example, Eric Carle, or
Audrey Wood. Leo Lionni was another popular one. Maurice Sendak, Denise
Fleming, Corduroy books, Dr. Seuss, Jan Brett. Curious George, etc., etc. A
lot of these authors have websites with coloring sheets or activities posted
related to their books. My situation may be slightly different in that
almost all of our PreKinder are ESOL and so they're not familiar with the
English picture book classics so a lot of what I do is just to introduce
these books to them because they don't see them at home.
In prek, focus on author, illustrator and then the various authors. I
don't feel that our students are really ready for more advanced concepts,
esp. when it's presented in English.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
a new book coming out in May called Preschool Favorites: 35 Storytimes Kids
Love published by ALA Editions. It's got everything.... book suggestions,
fingerplays, songs, crafts,flannel board patterns, and more.
----------------------------------------------------------------
the book Storytime Slam by Rob Reid (he has a column in Library Sparks
magazine) has been invaluable this year. I work with 3's, 4s, and 5s. His
book is organized by theme and includes books, crafts, songs and
fingerplays.
---------------------------------------------
1. Have you seen the Gossie and Gertie books by Olivier Dunrea?
2. Tape recorded your own voice reading a story such as Make Way
for Ducklings or Rosie's Walk? (use a bell to ding between pages)
3. Borrowed Big Books from Kindergarten teachers? (Such as Have
You Seen My Cat by Eric Carle?)
4. Tried using the Beatrix Potter web site or Clifford Web site
and had kids participate in playing a few of the online games and
listening to the stories being read aloud? Both Clifford and Beatrix
Potter sites also have coloring pages and dot-to-dots to print out. DP
you have an LCD projector?
5. To Market, To Market ? By Anne Miranda (so funny!)
6. How about the Mercer Mayer wordless books from the 1970's- A
Boy, A Frog and a Dog etc! Pancakes for breakfast by Tomie De Paola-
also wordless. (Get kids to predict what happens next...)
7. Raffi songs to read books and Raffi CD's- use chart paper to
write out the words to the songs. 5 Little Ducks, Baby Beluga, Where the
Watermelons grow ( a favortite!)etc! Lots of fun!
(I used to teach Kindergarten before becoming a librarian 4
years ago. I have tried all of these books, but don't have any plans
handy.
I use a lot of music with the little ones and keep a CD player close by.
I also use a Disney CD for them to play Guess that Tune game- match the
movie)
8. Made puppets with paper bags or popsicles sticks or masks
from Jan Brett's site to act out: Town Mouse, Country Mouse?
9. Last but not least, I play the game What's Missing with
approx 10 objects related to a theme or holiday. Sometimes I use books
also. I line up the items and we list them or repeat them aloud and
then everyone shuts and covers their eyes and turns around until I pull
out 3 objects and put them in a pillowcase. All the objects are covered
with a blanket and I say "No Peeking" or I can't call on you...... Lots
of fun.
---------------------------------------------------------
I get some really good ideas for story time themes from Library Sparks.
Mailbox for preschool and kindergarten have neat ideas to go with books that
I adapt for my storytimes too. I also cull little songs and fingerplays,
to go with my stories, from Mailbox, Library Sparks, etc. Some of my very
favorite PK stories (and I have various props, puppets, flannels, etc. to go
with them) are:
Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer---I have a George puppet. We retell the
story with two students acting out George's mother and the doctor (with
finger puppet and disguise that come with the puppet). The rest of the
class is George's voice. I coach the parts and they have a ball!
GoAway, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberly. I got some ideas for this from
Mailbox. I drew the face, following the pattern of the book, on several
overhead transparencies, one for each feature. We retell the story as I add
pieces one on top of the other until we have created the monster. Then we
shout at him to go away! When that doesn't work, we "unbuild" him....like
in the story. I usually read Another Monster at the End of the Book by
Stone (with voices of course!) in this same lesson. Another crowd favorite!
Mouse Paint by Walsh. I copied some mice cutouts onto good construction
paper, then cut them out. I use clear plastic cups and either bath fizzies
or food coloring (the bath fizzies worked really well...I think the color
was more concentrated) in to make the colored "paint." Then we act out the
story with the mouse cut outs. When you dip them, the color absorbs into
the construction paper and they turn out really cute! Sometimes I give them
out to some of the best listeners as they leave.
White Rabbit's Color Book by Baker. They LOVE this book. I have some
colored (red, yellow, blue) paddles that came with something (I don't
remember what???) I use them on the overhead to mix the colors and see how
the primary colors make the secondary colors. (you could make some with
colored transparencies) Lots of K kids already know this. My PK kids
thought this was MAGIC! I usually do this book when I do rainbows and read
What Makes a Rainbow? by Swartz. It's one of those "special" books that
doesn't circulate, so I am sure to share it with them.
Goin' on a Bear Hunt by Rylant. I've made props for each sound effect.
Pompoms from the $ store for grass. Water bottles half full and taped shut
for the river, pencils and butter tubs for forest, wet plastic wrap for the
mud, paper towel tubes for the swirling snow/wind. After we've read the
story, we reinact it using the sound props. (Hint: I've found they get less
distracted and make their sounds at appropriate times if I give the same
sound effect to people sitting beside each other.)
Very Hungry Caterpillar by Carle. After reading the story, I have a sock
puppet sewed to a large camouflage drawstring bag. When I put my hand in, I
have a small butterfly finger puppet on my finger. (they don't know this,
of course) I have flannel pieces made about the size of a felt square of
each piece from the story. I have an egg and a leaf. Everything has a
hole/flap cut into it that my hand (and puppet) will fit through. I pass
out the food pieces to all the students sitting in a circle. Then I retell
the story and they hold up the pieces I need to "eat". The caterpillar
munches right up to them and all you hear are giggles! Once all the pieces
are eaten, the caterpillar looks HUGE on my arm and I pull the bag over my
hand to make the cocoon/chrysalis. Finally, the butterfly emerges, just
like the story and the kids again think....magic!
Those are just a few of my favorites. I do tons more....that I get story
pieces from magazines or worksheets. I color, cut and laminate then use on
the magnetic board or flannel board. They love anything that has props or
puppets. Like in winter I read Bear Snores On holding a bear puppet (also
from the $Store), snozing on my shoulder til he woke in the story....then I
made him act out the story as I read it. They were in a trance! I like to
mostly get a theme from the story then find songs, poems or fingerplays to
go with and some kind of prop. These kids also LOVE popup books. I have
several that are just for storytime. I don't let them get checked out. So
they really see those as a treat!
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