K is for Koala

Storytime today was lots of fun with lots of kids! We had a total of 15 little ones in attendance. I greeted each one at the door with our cool Folkmanis Koala puppet.

Then to the rug....we started out with our opening song "If You're Happy & You Know It". Next we talked about the weather which was Rainy, Cloudy AND Windy here in Oklahoma!

Show and Tell brought 2 Katana swords, a kangaroo, a Lego knight and Lego king as well as a koala. I think Show and Tell is one of my favorite things about our alphabet storytime series. Anyone who brings a S&T item comes up and they tell the group what they brought. The rest of the kids repeat the name of the item and then we thank the Show and Teller and clap for them. It's great to see a shy kid get up and share. I think it helps them come out of their shell a little.
We read 2 books today. Pouch by David Ezra Stein is a sweet book about a baby joey who explores the frightening world outside of his momma's pouch and My Kitten by Margaret O'Hair written in rhyme which is all about the daily like of a kitten.

I brought in lots of other books for them to choose from for checkouts- books about kings, kites, kids, kittens, kangaroos, knights and kisses.

My magnet board activity was 5 Little Kites from Storytime Katie.

Five Little Kites
One little kite in the sky so blue,
Along came another, then there were two.
Two little kites flying high above me;
Along came another, then there were three.
Three little kites, just watch them soar,
Along came another, then there were four.
Four little kites, so high and alive
Along came another, then there were five.
Five little kites dancing across the sky,
What a sight to see, way up so high!

I printed a pattern and paperpieced my kites together then laminated them for durability. They are one of my favorite sets I have made so far.

Off to the tables for some fine motor skills activities.
Our Letter K activity today was a Koala.

We also did a matching key activity similiar to this one from Desert Crafter. I had a ton of keys in my craft cabinet. I traced the ones I had several of and made a template dividing a sheet of paper into fourths and putting a different traced key shape in each section and laminated them of course. Then I gave them a variety of keys which they had to put in the right section.

I found some foam King's Crowns in our bog box of "All Things Foam" so I pulled those out for the kids to decorate. Here is one my crafty little granddaughter made.

Our last activity was a set of kites that I cut out, laminated and punched a hole in the end. The kids then added a chain of colored paperclips for the tail. Of these activities I would say the keys were the hit. One child asked if he could take a key home and so I ended up letting a bunch of my keys go. We may not repeat that activity. :-)

Each family took a copy of Koala Lou by Mem Fox home along with a set of "K" worksheets and puzzles.

We have an inventory of books left over from a literacy grant that I have been giving away. Koala Lou is one of those. These are some great books and have been well received by the parents.
That's all for K. I will be back next week for the Letter L!
Blessings~
Mrs. Angel

J is for Jellyfish

Time for letter "J"! We started out as we always do singing "If You're Happy & You Know It". The kids were a little wound up so I used my magic transition poem/fingerplay- "Open Them/Shut Them". Open them. shut them, Give a little clap Open them, shut them Put them in your lap. I start out in a normal tone and slowly lower my voice so I am practically whispering by the end. It's magic, I am telling you. Most groups are quietly sitting waiting for storytime by the time we finish. With some groups I will use this poem a few times. We talked about the weather and then did 2 jumping nursery rhymes- "Jack Be Nimble" and "Jack in the Box". We read 2 books today- "Jar of Happiness by Ailsa Burrows and "Jump" by Scott Fischer.

Jar of Happiness has an "Oma" in it which is German for Grandma. This is what my own grands call me and I enjoyed reading it- a cute book with a great message. Jump is a classic and whenever we got to the word JUMP I had the children shout it. They really enjoyed that one. For Show & Tell today some of the kids were very creative jumping and jumping jacks were a couple of their offerings. We also had Jello, 2 jumpropes, Jacket, Jack in the box, a jet, and juice. I cut out some jellyfish with my Cricut and laminated them for the magnet board activity- "Five Little Jellyfish". 5 little jellyfish swimming by the shore, the first one got lost and that left 4. 4 little jellyfish swimming in the sea, the second one swam far, far away and that left 3. 3 little jellyfish in the ocean so blue, the third one took a seahorse ride and that left 2. 2 little jellyfish swimming in the sun, the fourth one took a dive and that left 1. 1 little jellyfish swimming all alone, called it a day and that left none! I did not use them, but 2 other books I would recommend for this letter are "Rumble in the Jungle" by Andreae and "Peanut Butter Jellyfishes" by Cleary- both are super fun.

Next we moved to the tables and started out with a game- "Bugs in a Jar" with printables from Measured Mom. I brought in a foam die and the kids took turns rolling it with everyone adding that amount of bugs to their laminated jar.

After bugs we moved on to jewels. I gave each child a strip of adhesive backed jewels to put in their letter J however they wished. The kids were so creative.

We finished with our alphabet book addition- J is for jellyfish. All of the pieces were given to the kids and they had to put them together. I used double sided paper which had a floral print on one side. Some of the kids chose this side for the jellyfish. There were some pretty jellyfish for sure! Next time I will try to get pictures of those little masterpieces instead of just my own sample.

Each week I have also been giving away a book for them to take home. Following the J theme they received "Journey Home" by McKay.

They also received a small packet of "homework" to practice their Js. And that was all for this week. Looking forward to letter K! Have a blessed week. Mrs. Angel