P is for Pig

Letter P Storytime day was a couple of weeks ago. It was a great time. I told the families to come in their pajamas for a party as we kicked our summer off! I felt a little funny in my pajamas at work, but it was fun!
We started off at the rug with...you guessed it- "If You're Happy & You Know It".
There were some cool things for "Show & Tell" (which I can't recall right now).
We read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do You Hear?" by Bill Martin.

I brought out the small parachute today and a couple of stuffed animals. We "rocked" them to sleep by bouncing them slowly. We went a little bit faster as they started to snore and finally we woke them up by bouncing them fast! The kids loved the parachute as they usually do. I really need to pull that out more often!
Next we did a "Pocket Alphabet" Activity. I made some pockets with my Cricut and printed and cut out some fun library cards I found at Sweetly Scrapped. I cut the upper case letter on the pocket and the lower case letter on the card and gave each child a couple of cards. We went through the alphabet and each child out their card in the pocket. I wish I would have had the time to laminate them beforehand so they would have been easier to stick in the pocket, but it was a great fine motor activity.

We forgot to go through our Animal Phonics today but we would have added "PeeWee Penguin" had we done it.
Lastly at the rug we read Pete the Cat, I love My White Shoes" by Eric Litwin and James Dean.

I wish more books were like this one. Pete the Cat really engages the children.
Off to the tables for fine motor work. We made a pig from the letter P.

Then I pulled out the playdough and these so cool alphabet playdough mats from This Reading Mama. I made 3 batches of playdough months ago (red, blue and yellow) and I was so happy when I pulled it out and it was still soft! This is a great recipe from I Heart Naptime!
Here are 2 of the mats that my granddaughter used.

We had Pirate Booty for a snack.

And I sent them home with some fun worksheets and a copy of "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" By Scieszka.

This storytime was one of my favorites so far!

O is for Owl

This week at the library is our stress relief storytime. I do my storytimes on the odd Tuesdays. So, I am actually a week late posting about our Letter O storytime. Let's see if I can remember what we did.... (insert smiley face here since I have no idea how to do that.)
Of course we began with my ice breaker song. They think it's my favorite song. "If You're Happy and You Know It".
Everyone brought something for Show and Tell time! Among those items we had an orange, an Owl, an otoscope, orange marker and my grandson came up and pointed to me- his Oma (it's German for Grandma and what I go by).
I talked about opposites and read the book Octopus Opposites by Stella Blackstone.

Then we played a game where I gave each child a laminated card which they had to match to someone else's card as the opposite. This was a free printable I found at Playdough to Plato. Then we read Little Owl's Orange Scarf by Tatyana Feeney.

This is a favorite book of mine and I read it whenever I get the chance. It's just the right length and adorable.
We added to our Alphabet Zoo Phonics- Olive Octopus. It's taking us longer and longer to say these each week, but I think it's worth it. I even had one mom tell me her little guy has been going around the house chanting the zoo phonics. These comments make my day!
We moved on to the tables where we worked on our Letter O animal- an owl of course.

I put out some sequins and bottles of glue along with this octopus printable from "A Little Pinch of Perfect"

Then I got out the shaving cream and let the kids make the letter O in it. Some kids were not crazy about putting their fingers in shaving cream and others loved it!

That's all we did. I did send home some great worksheets. I know some people aren't crazy about worksheets, but I try to find super fun ones like mazes and color by numbers. Some of my moms homeschool so I started the worksheets to give them something to have at home to reinforce what we learn at storytime.
The book they took home was "The Other Side" by Jacqueline Woodson.

I'll be back next week with the letter "P"!
~Mrs. Angel

N is for Narwhal

Storytime was a blast this week with a great group of kids. There were thirteen altogether. Of course we started out with our opening song "If You're Happy & You Know It". Afterwards we had "Show & Tell". There were ninjas, a nail, nuts, necklaces and my personal favorite- NOTHING. I really think that "Show & Tell" is my favorite new thing that we started with the alphabet series.
On to our Alphabet Phonics. This week we added "Nigel Nightowl" to the list.
I shared the book "Too Much Noise" by Ann McGovern.

This was the first time I have used a flannel or magnet board to tell a story instead of reading it. Having recently attended an early literacy training led by Saroj Ghoting, I was inspired to share this book as she did. She was so nice to email me helpful tips on how to put it together.

I practiced for days.
This book was a little longer than my normal choices, but the kids seemed to enjoy it as they listened attentively and helped out with the animal noises when it was time.

I read part of "A Nest is Noisy" by Dianna Hutts Aston, but by this time the kids were ready to move on to activities so we did.
Our Alphabet Animal was a Narwhal.

After the Narwhal we did a printable I found online at Adventures in Tutoring and Special Education. I bought these cute little ink pads on Amazon and the kids used their fingers to put the correct number of eggs in the nest.

I usually have a mixed age group as there are a few homeschool families. I welcome the older brothers and sisters with their preschool sibling. For the older kids there was a printable in which they had to add the correct number of eggs. I hope to find more activities like this one. Great fine motor work!
We ended with a necktie that they could color. Here are a couple of my storytime kids wearing their ties.

Aren't they cute? The kids loved the ties which I added a piece of elastic to so they could actually wear them. I did cut the ties out beforehand to help save time. Thank you, East Coast Mommy, for this free printable.
Our giveaway book this week was Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. I didn't have a book with N in the title, but I figured this one would work since it was a "Name".
Looking forward to the next few weeks.
Blessings~
Mrs. Angel

M is for Mouse and Monsters

I was so very excited for the letter M. We had a lot to do in our hour!
I met the children at the door with one of my mouse puppets.

A puppet greeting is so much fun I have decided to do it every week if possible.

Today we started with our usual opening song- "If You're Happy & You Know It" and immediately followed that with "Show & Tell". Lots of creative thinking as we had a moose, magnet, milk jug, mug, monkey, McDonald's drink, My Little Pony and a picture of Mom (loved that!).
Each week I bring out a small box full of little items. This week my box held a mitten, monster and little gold mouse.

We did all of our Alphabet Phonics. Zoo Phonics letter M was Missy Mouse.
We talked about the weather.
And then we did our flannel board activity. It was difficult to choose activities as there are so many cool books, flannel board ideas, fingerplays and activities to choose from for this letter.
I finally decided on "The Polka Dot Monster" which I found at Storytime ABC's. I hand drew and cut out my own felt monster.
"Polka Dot Monster"
I'm a little monster friendly and bright.

I won't give anyone a fright.

I love polka dots but I have none.

So step right up and give me red ones.




I'm a little monster friendly and bright.

I won't give anyone a fright.

I love polka dots but I only have some.

So step right up and give me orange ones.




Continue until each color has been added.


then sing the last verse:
I'm a little monster friendly and bright.

I won't give anyone a fright.

I love polka dots and I have lots.

Thank you for my colorful spots.

Today's books were

Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly- If you aren't familiar with this book it is fun! The pages are diecut and as you turn the pages the monster's face appears and then disappears as you tell the features to go away. It's short and sweet. The kids love it.

Dining with Monsters was a backup and we didn't get time to read it, but the pages fold out of this counting book as you count how many bugs and things these monsters dine on. It's also short and fun.

Mice by Rose Fyleman is illustrated in Lois Ehlert's unique fashion and was a crowd pleaser. The moms especially loved it.

I Can Teach My Child came up with an adorable alphabet monster made from baby wipes. I found this idea a few years ago and immediately started collecting my milk and other bottle caps. A few weeks ago I started punching circles and cutting letters. I wanted each family to be able to take home a monster. I came up with several games to use with him.

Inside each monster is a set of 52 caps with upper case and lower case letters. I neglected to get a photo. Will have to add that later.
We used the alphabet monster for our first activity. I drew the caps out one by one and the kids colored in the letter to match the cap. I found this printable on ABC's of Literacy. I didn't use it for the intended purpose, but it worked.

Next we made our Alphabet Animal. This week was a mouse. The photo is a little dark. Sorry.

I found these monster stamps on Zulily and the printable on The Measured Mom.

With so much to do I ended up sending home the next printable along with a couple of snack size bags of M&Ms. I can't find the link at the moment...sorry.

Our free book was Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears which is A West African Tale written by Verna Aardema and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon.

That was all for today! M was magnificent!
See you for N!
~~Mrs. Angel

I officially changed the name of my blog to Storytime Angel! This is where I am in life right now. I am doing something I love and enjoy. When you love something you want to share it!
So this will be my place to share all things Storytime related!
Let me know you've been here by leaving a comment.
~Mrs. Angel

Pre-Reading Skills

Pre-Reading Skills are so important to a child in preparing him or her to learn to read. Since I began my storytime adventure 7 years ago I have earned a wealth of information that I wish I had known when my own children were growing up. The most important element of pre-reading skills? READ to your child. Read books, read signs, read everything you can and take every opportunity to read with your child in their early years- birth to school age. AND beyond. Nursery rhymes, finger plays and songs are important as well. There is a lot of great information out there on the web and I would like to share a little with you now so you can explore on your own. Give your child a head start.

Growing Like a Read
Our own library system has their own program called Growing Like a Read or GLAR for short. We hand out book bags with free materials to parents and caregivers to help them with literacy skills at home. It's a great program and the above link will give your a wealth of information.

Stay at Home Educator
SAHE is really on top of her game and has broken down early literacy into 4 components which she goes into great detail in her posts in The "Big Four" Preschool Literacy Instruction series. On her site "you will find fun and engaging preschool literacy activities that span all the components of preschool literacy instruction, from emergent literacy skills to learning how to read and write."

K-12 Reader
This link takes you to an article comparing the terms "phonemic awareness" and "phonological awareness"- a pre-reading skill.


ABC's of Literacy
In easy to understand language this blog breaks down the 5 pre-reading skills your child needs to be a successful reader.

This Reading Mama
In the above link, one of my favorite resource sites, THis Reading Mama, goes into detail on book and print awareness giving you lots of tips. Also check out her series on preparing your child for Kindergarten!

There is a wealth of information on the internet. I hope some of the above links are helpful to you!
Thanks for stopping by!
Mrs. Angel

L is for Lion

It's a windy day here in Oklahoma. A good day for storytime as our numbers show. We had sixteen children at Storytime today. We are growing. After our opening song and singing our ABC's, we had show and tell with a leaf, lincoln log, lion, legos, Loves a Lot carebear, lotion and more. I sent a Newsletter home today with an overview of our next several months. I shared how much I love show and tell. Getting these kids up on front of the "class" at such an early age has to be good, right? Primary Public Speaking!
We read 2 books today, neither of which were the perfect "L" storytime books in my opinion. I will be looking for other choices for next time. I read "How Does a Dinosaur Say I Love You" by Yolen and "Yoo Hoo Ladybug" by Mem Fox.

I like both books as I love the "How Does a Dinosaur" books and Yoo Hoo Ladybug is adorable, but the kids were itching to look more closely at the pages.
We also went through our Zoo Phonics adding Lizzy Lizard to the lineup.
I had lots of activities for us today including a Letter L Lion for our ABC book.

We used legos for a couple of activities including these Lego Alphabet Pages from Little Bins for Little Hands.

Sorry for the glare but I laminate everything. No sense in making it twice!
I also had some Lego activity cards for the older kids to try.

I love this idea for a portable activity! What a great project for long road trips. Thank you to the folks at Fun At Home with Kids for coming up with a free printable for this activity! They even have some cards you can color yourself to customize. All of the Legos came from our Lego League Junior kits which I was able to borrow from our service center.
Lastly for the younger kids I had some Ladybug clip cards for some great fine motor work.
(I can't seem to find the link at the moment for these printables.)

I gave each family a copy of Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora and a set of "L" worksheets- fun ones!
It was a little chaotic today. Next time I might just put some Legos out for the kids to enjoy. Sometimes I way overthink things!
Have a blessed week. See you for "M"!
Mrs. Angel