Look and See Storytime
Scott Bahlmann
Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi
Book: Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? – Bill Martin Jr.
Song/Sign: Let's Take a Little Walk
from Pick Me Up! Fun songs for learning sign.
(I introduced the concept of sign language, and we practiced the signs we'd use in the song [walk, see, tree, butterfly, bird, squirrel, apple]. It's a simple song, essentially a single verse repeated where the things you see in the tree change.)
Book: Hattie and the Fox - Mem Fox
(I intended to use Where's Tumpty by Polly Dunbar, but my co-worker used it the week before for an Elephant theme...so I found this last minute and I love it! It fit the theme so well and is just a charming story.)
Activity: Matching Game
(I had different colored shapes cut out, each child got one. I would say whether they should match the color or the shape that I held up, and if what they had matched, they would raise theirs as well. Simple, but the kids seemed to like it and it's edumacational!)
Book: Duck! Rabbit! – Amy Krause Rosenthal
(I'm still not sure how I feel about this as a storytime book, I've used it a couple of times and the kids are engaged...I just don't connect with it I guess.)
Flannelboard: Why the Frog Has Big Eyes –
adapted from the book by Betsy Franco
(see the full version here)
(Done as a quasi-puppet show, with two dimensional characters who could move their eyes and blink. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.)
Book: I Spy With My Little Eye – Edward Gibbs
(Simple book with huge pics. I'm a fan.)
Song: Bear Went Over the Mountain
(Did a variation where the bear finds something on the other side of the mountain, and then they go over the mountain, a chain that could go endlessly! I used the pairings from my 'Hunting We Will Go' set.)
The Bear went over the mountain,
the bear went over the mountain,
the bear when over the mountain to see what he could see.
He saw a goat in a boat there, he saw a goat in a boat there,
he saw a goat in a boat there, and that is what he saw.
The goat went over the mountain, the goat went over the mountain,
he goat went over the mountain to see what he could see.
(Continue with as many creatures as you'd like. I finished with the bear in a chair.)