DOOR 2 DOOR STORYTIME

EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACY SKILL: Letter Knowledge, Vocabulary & Narrative Skill

BOOKS TO DISPLAY

Dog Eared by Amanda Harvey
Elmer by David McKee
Emily’s Balloon by Komako Sakai     
Close Your Eyes by Kate Banks  
Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert
Eggs and Legs: Counting by Twos by Michael Dahl
Green Eyes by A. Birnbaum   
When the Elephant Walks by Keiko Kasza
Rabbit Ears by Amber Stewart
Whose Ears? By Jeannette Rowe

BASIC TIMELINE

1. Intro
2. Rhyme
3. Read-a-Loud Book
4. Flannelboard
5. Rhyme
6. Read-a-Loud Book
7. Action Rhyme
8. Flannelboard
9. Read-a-Loud Book
10. Craft

READ-A-LOUD BOOKS

Ugh, Eggs! by Sarah Arnold
My Elephant by Petr Horacek
First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

ACTIVITIES

Rhyme: 5th portion of Animal Alphabet Rhyme

E is for elephant.
He finds eight small eggs.
Out pop tiny eagles who escape through his legs.
He rides a train engine looking over the edge.
Then he finds every eagle near an extra high ledge.
He helps them to eat, even dries off their tears.
At the end of the evening he makes nests with his ears.

Flannelboard: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Rhyme:  Two Little Eagles (modified version of Two Little Blackbirds)
Two little eagles sitting on a hill,
One named Jack, one named Jill.
Fly away Jack, fly away Jill.
Come back Jack, come back Jill.

Action Rhyme: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (via Scoutsongs.com)

Head and shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes
Head and shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes
And eyes and ears
And mouth and nose
Head and shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes

Flannelboard: Five Elephants in the Bathtub (via Artfelt.net)

One elephant in the bathtub going for a swim.
Knock, Knock,(Clap twice with “Knock, Knock.”)
Splash, Splash, (Slap knees twice with “Splash, Splash.”)
Come on in! (Motion with both hands to come in.)

Two elephants in the bathtub
Going for a swim.
Knock, Knock,
Splash, Splash,
Come on in!

Three elephants in the bathtub
Going for a swim.
Knock, Knock,
Splash, Splash,
Come on in!

Four elephants in the bathtub
Going for a swim.
Knock, Knock,
Splash, Splash,
Come on in!

Five elephants in the bathtub
Going for a swim.
Knock, Knock,
Splash, Splash,
It all fell in!

CRAFT: Letter “E” Elephant!

For this week’s Letter “Ee” Craft, I drew my version of the ubiquitous E/Elephant. I scanned the original and printed multiple copies. Then, cut them out before storytime. To spice things up, I added pieces of curly bow ribbon (left over from the dragon mask craft) to the end of the elephant’s trunk by using a hole punch and taping the ends to the underside of the print. Extra stability was provided by gluing the print on top of colored construction paper. Each child chose their ribbon colors, and used markers and crayons to individualize their craft. Each week, these preschoolers take advantage of the opportunity to personalize their crafts. I’m always so excited when their colorful creations look very different from my version.

REVIEW:

I presented this storytime to 19 preschoolers from the CDC at GBL2 on Thursday. Overall, this was a pretty successful storytime. The children really enjoyed My Elephant, and had a lot of fun guessing which animal came next in First the Egg. The action rhymes went well. We performed Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes twice. The best part was Five Elephants in the Tub…the children were delighted and shocked when the tub collapsed, and I knocked all the flannelboard pieces to the ground. The craft was a big hit too. As time goes by, the children’s letter knowledge is growing and they are becoming more adept at discerning the letter shape from the creature.

Storytime crafts Door 2 Door Storytime early childhood literacy elephant home school letter E letter knowledge library narrative skill vocabulary