I is for Iguana

Hello there! Today it’s icy and cold in Oklahoma. A good day to start something new. I had a great Storytime this week and I have really been wanting to share my experiences with others who may be looking for ideas. So here we go.... This week at Preschool Storytime we had our Valentine Party or our “I Love You” party as I called it since we had reached the letter I in our alphabet quest. We started as we usually do on the rug. My opening song is always “If You’re Happy And You Know It”. It’s routine and it also gives stragglers a chance to make their way in and not miss out on anything. We talked about the weather. Today was Windy, Cloudy AND Rainy. We have been doing “Show and Tell” where the kids can bring in something that starts with the letter we are working on to show the other kids. Today 2 kids brought in something to share- one an iceberg (toy) and the other some instructions for an incubator! How fun! I have a little Box with small miniatures in it such as shaped erasers and small toys which I am hoping to use later for an activity of some sort. For the letter ”I” all I could find was a couple of ice cream cone erasers. We sang our ABC’s and then added to the Zoo Phonics we are learning. This week was “Innie” InchWorm. I grabbed a Mom and together we read “Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse” by Lindsay Barrett George. This is such a fun book and with 2 people reading it you can really distinguish between the two mice. I also read my favorite insect book- “I Love Bugs”.

We did a finger play today. Kids LOVE fingerplays- more than I thought they would when I first started doing storytimes. So I add one whenever I can. Today was an old favorite- “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” After Rug Time we went to the tables for my planned activities. I have a passion for fine motor skills activities so that’s what we normally do- usually 2 or 3 things. Since we started working on the Alphabet, we have been making a page for an ABC Animal Book out of each letter. I cut out the letter and all of the pieces with my Cricut and the kids put them together. Today was an iguana made from the letter I.

I also made an I-Spy wall putting the lower case letters we have learned on a piece of butcher paper. I gave each kid about 6 stickers with the matching upper case letters for them to cover the lower case ones. I was happy that I found heart stickers for this activity that I borrowed from The Measured Mom.

Then we played 4 in a row (or Bingo) from the printables I bought from Preschool Mom. We used Very Berry Cheerios for this activity- healthy and yummy. After Bingo we proceeded to have our party. Each kid brought in valentines to put in their friends’ boxes. I asked the moms to have their kids sign their names but leave them blank for “To” as our attendees vary from week to week or we may have visitors or new children- which we did! Cookies and real juice boxes made it a party. I send home “homework” (super fun printables that I scour the internet to find) for the kids to continue their learning through the week. I also bring in lots of fun books they can check out to read to their kiddos. Imogene’s Antlers was one of those.

I read this last week at an outreach Storytime. I think it’s adorable, but I am not sure the kids caught everything so I skipped it today. I also found ”The Itsy Bitsy Spider“ by Iza Trapani.

Who knew there were other verses? This one was my backup in case I needed another title. But since we had our party I didn’t need another book. Another thing we are doing with our Alphabet Storytimes is my version of a Word Wall. Letter Recognition is such an important pre-reading skill. So, I have asked the moms to have their children look for letters in their everyday and cut out words (from labels or magazines) that start with the letters we've learned so far. Here is a picture of our Word Wall to date. Notice that "I" is a little sparse.

This was a much longer post than I intended. I will try to streamline them in future. THanks for visiting! I'd love to hear your thoughts. Especially for Alphabet Storytimes J-Z! Blessings~ Angel