DOOR 2 DOOR STORYTIME

EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACY SKILL: Print Awareness & Narrative Skill

BOOKS TO DISPLAY

Two at the Zoo by Danna Smith   
Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
Zoo Ah-Choooo by Peter Mandel
ABC Zooborns! By Andrew Bleiman & Christ Eastland
Stop Snoring, Bernard!  by Zachariah OHora 
Beautiful Buehla and the Zany Zoo Makeover by Gary Hogg  
Going to the Zoo with Lily and Milo by Pauline Oud
Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo by E. S. Redmond
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead  
The Zoo I Drew by Todd H. Doodler

BASIC TIMELINE

1. Intro
2. Read-a-Loud Book
3. Read-a-Loud Book
4. Music & Movement Song
5. Read-a-Loud Book
6. Music & Movement Song
7. Read-a-Loud Book
8. Craft

READ-A-LOUD BOOKS

My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

 

ACTIVITIES

Music & Movement Song: Goin’ to the Zoo (w/ Shakers & Eggs)

Music & Movement Song: 5 Little Monkeys (w/ Shakers & Eggs)

 

CRAFT: Flamingo!

For this week’s zoo related craft I decided to spotlight flamingos.  I purchased two sets of light pink paper plates from The Dollar Tree ($2), and two packs of pink chenille stems (pipe cleaners) from Michaels ($2). I created a template from scratch and used it for tracing purposes.   To make assembly easy on the preschoolers, I precut all of the pieces prior to storytime. I used a hole punch to create two holes at the base of the flamingo’s belly, near the thigh, so the chenille stems could be inserted. Crayons were provided so the children could color the beak and iris.

 

REVIEW:

This week I conducted three storytimes at two libraries. To make things easy on myself, I recycled my Bug themed storytime for GBL2—mainly because I had enough left over craft pieces to go around. I opted to go with a Zoo related theme for the back-to-back storytimes at MCL (main branch). The read-a-loud books were a huge hit during the first storytime session. The children loved the opportunity to act out the animal behaviors featured in Eric Carle’s book From Head to Toe, and had a lot of fun guessing what animal was hidden within the crates depicted in the book Dear Zoo.

Unfortunately, the mood was different during the second session. The atmosphere was more chaotic since a couple of parents and caregivers failed to adequately monitor their children, and the quieter preschoolers were less inclined to participate as a result.

Storytime crafts Door 2 Door Storytime early childhood literacy flamingo home school library narrative skill print awareness zoo