BOOKS TO DISPLAY

The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark by Deborah Diesen
I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle
Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae
Over in the Ocean: in a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist
The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson
How to Hide an Octopus and Other Sea Creatures by Ruth Hellers
Rub-a-Dub Sub by Linda Ashman

BASIC TIMELINE

1. Intro
2. Read-a-Loud Book
3. Finger Puppet Rhyme
4. Read-a-Loud Book
5. Flannelboard
6. Read-a-Loud Book (…if time allows)
7. Craft

READ-A-LOUD BOOKS

The Hungry Shark by Tamia Sheldon
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
The Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway

ACTIVITIES

Finger Puppet Rhyme: What is a Whale?

A whale is not as small as us.
Most whales are bigger than a bus!
A whale is not a fish in the sea.
A whale breathes air like you and me.
A whale can’t walk upon the ground.
A whale must swim to get around.
A whale is a mammal just like me.
But its home is in the deep blue sea

Source: Artfelt

Flannelboard: Five Little Fishies in the Sea

Five little fishies in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can’t catch me
you can’t catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Four little fishies in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can’t catch me
you can’t catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Three little fishies in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can’t catch me
you can’t catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Two little fishies in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can’t catch me
you can’t catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea

One little fishy in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can’t catch me
you can’t catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! that fish up
right out of the sea
Now Mr. sharky is lonely can’t you see.

Source: Everything Preschool

CRAFT: Porthole!

I thought it might be neat to have the kids create their own portholes, and used similar porthole crafts from  craftypinkanchor.blogspot.com and teachergonecrafty.blogspot.com as inspiration. With the exception of the rivets, I drew everything myself.  I cut the porthole frames out of old file folders. Although, brown paper bags would suffice. The rivets, seashell and octopus were not precut—which didn’t pose a problem in this instance, given the small size of the storytime group, and number of adults with scissors who were literally willing to lend a hand. In the future, it would make more sense to pre-cut everything, or add the octopus and seashell to the seascape so the porthole background prints as one single, piece.  Lesson learned.

REVIEW

I performed my first, post-graduate storytime session for a small group of children which consisted of four little boys (ages 4-6) at GBL, located in a teensy tiny, rural town. I was terrified, so I appreciated the small storytime group. Overall, the session went well, but I need to practice projecting my voice!

Storytime crafts fingerplays flannelboard marine ocean porthole sea