Here’s a post I wrote, but forgot to actually post!  This is from a storytime I did in September.

If you follow my blog, you’ll know my system has storyboxes: kits with everything in them (books, songs, dvds, craft ideas, etc.) that you’d need to do a storytime.  I was feeling uninspired when thinking about putting together a storytime, and decided to use a storybox.  The storybox we had was CHICKENS!  And, after searching this blog it seems I’ve never done a Preschool Storytime before!  Storyboxes to the rescue!

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song*

MOVEMENT: “Clap Your Hands” from Wiggleworms Love You by Old Town School of Folk Music

BOOK:

Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clark, illustrations by Garry Parsons

MOVEMENT:
If You’re a Chicken and You Know It
(to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”)
If you’re a chicken and you know it flap your wings: flap flap!
(hands near armpits, elbows out, flap “wings” twice)
If you’re a chicken and you know it flap your wings: flap flap!
(hands near armpits, elbows out, flap “wings” twice)
If you’re a chicken and you know it, and you really want to show it
(hands near armpits, elbows out, flap “wings” twice)
If you’re a chicken and you know it, flap your wings: flap flap!

Other Verses:
Fly up high: fly fly (jump up in air)
Scratch with your feet: scritch scratch (drag one foot along ground, then other)
Go peck peck: peck peck (Make a beak with hand, tap it on the other hand)
Say bok bok: Bok! Bok! (say bok bok)
Settle into your nest: settle settle (sit down and wiggle bottom)

FLANNELBOARD STORY:
Five Eggs and Five Eggs

Five eggs and five eggs, that makes ten (hold up 2 hands)
Sitting on top is the mother hen. (fold one hand over the other)
Crackle, crackle, crackle; what do I see? (clap 3 times)
Ten fluffy chickens, as yellow as can be! (hold up and wiggle ten fingers)

BOOK:

Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher, illustrated by Mark Fearing

VIDEO:

“The Red Hen” from 20 Stories for Spring  Based on the book by Rebecca emberley and Ed Emberley

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over*

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:


 

Book: Chickens to the Rescue by John Himmelman
Book: Peepsqueak! by Leslie Ann Clark
Book: Scary Mary by Paula Bowles
Book: Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke
Book: Little Chicken’s Big Day by Katie Davis and Jerry Davis
Book: The Wolf’s Chicken Stew by Keiko Kasza
DVD: “Rosie’s Walk” from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom …and lots more learning fun!
DVD: “The Most Wonderful Egg in the World” from Giggle, Giggle, Quack … and more funny favotires
Flannelboard: Little Red Hen

HOW IT WENT:
I was really glad we had the storyboxes on hand to help me get in the mood for storytime.  While I used some of my own ideas for the storytime, it was nice to have something to jump-start my ideas.  A week prior to this my coworker actually did a wolf and fox storytime — it turns out there is a lot of overlap between wolf and fox stories and chicken stories.  So, while some of those may have been go-tos for me, I didn’t use them because I didn’t want to repeat what he had done.

It was a pretty small group today — I think because it is finally not sweltering outside anymore.

ATTENDANCE: 17 (adults and children)

*To see the words to these movements and activities I use frequently, please visit my A-capella Movements Section on my Storytime Movements and Music Page