How are you feeling?

This week's story time theme was Feelings featuring the letter F.  It worked out well with Valentine's weekend coming up that we could talk about feelings but not have to be all mushy and gushy (which is fine, just some years it us nice to do something else too).

We looked at our letter F and talked about some of the words that might begin with an F like Firetruck, Fireworks, Flowers, Frog, and then we had the Faces.  Face starts with F, but then we discussed what might make your face change, and talked about different feelings and how your face would look with each one.

The first book that we read was My many colored days by Dr. Seuss.  This was a great book for feelings as it pairs different feeling with colors and discusses how we don't feel the same each day.  The kids enjoyed yelling out the colors.  Older kids might enjoy trying to guess the feelings that will go along with the colors, but for the toddlers we just worked on the colors.

Of course the most classic feelings song is If you're happy and you know it so we danced to the version by MFLP Band.  In this rendition the kids stomp there feet when they are mad along with clapping hands, patting knees, beeping noses, and shouting Hooray.  The actions accumulate as you go, so the kids have multiple things to do with each verse.  It is slow enough that the toddlers could easily follow along and it a nice alternative to the traditional one that they all know.

The second book that we read was Anna Dewdney's Llama, llama, mad at mama.  Little llama is not happy to be drug along on mama's shopping trip.  He was perfectly happy playing at home.  As the errands drag on Llame begins to lose his patience and then his temper.  He flings items from the cart in a rage at mama.  Mama explains she doe snot like errand either and they both clean up, finish the shopping and get a treat.  (Personally, I think little llama is rather lucky to get the treat after the fit he throws.)  The kids were really able to relate to this story - even though they all claimed that they never behaved this way.

We followed the llama book with Angela Russ's Shake your boom boom.  This is a fun, up-beat song that you can use with scarves, bells, shakers, or sticks - whatever you want to use for a 'boom boom.'  We generally use the shakers.

After shaking our boom booms we did another song, this one about how Old MacDonald is feeling.  I found the song on Jen in the Library's blog.  I changed the names of the feelings a bit from what hers were, but the song went like this:

Old MacDonald felt so happy, HA HA HA HA HA.
And when he's happy he goes like this HA HA HA HA HA.
With a HA HA here and a HA HA there,
Here a HA, there a HA, everywhere a HA HA.  
Old MacDonald felt so happy, HA HA HA HA HA.

Repeat with:
Mad: NO NO NO NO NO
Sad: BOO-HOO BOO-HOO HOO
Silly: NA NA NA NA NA

I put up the faces one at a time and the kids told me what they thought he was feeling.  They got most of them rather quickly, the Silly one was a little troublesome.

Our final book was My heart is like a zoo by Michael Hall.  This was a great one to use to tie in Valentine's day.  All of the illustrations are made from hearts and the book talks about different ways the heart can feel.  All of the comparisons are made to animals, so there are things like 'silly as a seal' 'crafty as a fox' 'brave as a lion,' etc.  The text is simple and the illustrations are very colorful.

We went with a simple Valentine craft for the week.  There was paper, some cut into hearts, doilies, sequins, stickers, and markers for the kids to make a valentine of their own design.

We found a cute activity sheet for the kids, though I am not sure any of them grabbed one.  It has half a face and the kids are supposed to draw a picture of how they are feeling.  Hopefully they took it home and talked about it some!  They did seem to check out more of the displayed books than normal, guess the grumpy books just draw them in.

Feeling Grumpy Story Time

It seems that around March is a rather Grumpy month.  Many of us are ready for spring to come (especially this year with the extra cold weather we have had) but March likes to hold on to the cold and snow creating grumps all over the place.

So, for this week's preschool visit I decided that I would do stories about being Grumpy.  I discovered that there are several great books for kids with a grumpy theme.  Lots of authors must be hanging around with grumpy preschoolers.  And, since weather leads to much of the grumpiness around here, I threw in a song about rain and my snowmen flannel board.  Little id I know that as I was doing story time we would be able to watch rain turn to snow, I could not have planned it better!  (I am probably the only person around here who was happy to see more snow.)

I have been starting off my visits with A new way to say hello from the Exercise Party album, so we began with that.

Our first book was the Pout-pout fish by Deborah Diesen.  I love this book.  It features Mr. Fish, a pout-pout fish with big pouty lips who thinks that it is just his nature to be pouty.  With a pout like his he just can't help it, and no amount of cajoling and cheering up from his friends will change him.  I really like that this book has a repeating refrain by Mr. fish about why he is pouty and it ends with three gloomy 'bluuubbbs.'  It is catchy enough that many of the kids were saying it along with me by the second or third round.  Mr. Fish does cheer up in the end, but you'll have to read it to see how.

We followed Pout-pout fish with the song If you're happy and you know it by the MFLP Band from the album Apples and Bananas.  This version has the kids clap their hands, pat their knees, stomp their feet (for this verse they sing 'if you are mad...'), beep their nose, and shout 'hooray.'  At the end of each verse you also add the previous motions, so at the end you shout, beep, stomp, pat, and clap.  It is a nice little twist to the version they all know.

The second book that we read was Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard.  In this story bird wakes up grumpy (all of the kids claimed that they did not wake up grumpy).  Bird is even too grumpy to fly, so he starts walking.  His friends see him walking and decide to join him (I have no idea why because he grumpily tells each one that he is walking, but it is a good opportunity to discuss how to speak to your friends - especially when bird starts yelling).  However, bird discovers that doing things with his friends causes him to forget to be grumpy.

After reading Grumpy bird we sang Carole Peterson's version of Singing in the rain.  It was rather appropriate since it was raining when we started this morning.  (I did this song before during a drought and it was raining as we ended the song, so I am wondering if the rain might be my fault...)  This song mashes Singing in the rain with motions like form Dr. Jean's Tooty-ta, so very fun and active.

Our third book was Crankenstein by Samantha Berger.  This book came out late last year and was a favorite with my kids at home.  It features a little boy who looks very Frankenstein-ish and who says 'mmmmwwwwhhhhhheeerrr' or something like that, when he becomes Crankenstein.  The book explains all the things that might bring out Crankenstein, like; waking up, rain, melting pops, long lines, a cold Halloween, etc.  Luckily, Crankenstein goes away once he meets another Crankenstein - which is hilarious.  The kids really enjoyed that spread.  The one class especially liked how the pictures of the author and illustrator had been 'zombie-fied.'

We followed Crankenstein with the song Toes, knees, shoulders, and head by Kimmy Schwimmy.  Obviously it is like head, shoulders, knees, and toes backwards.  Between verses kids can point to or move other body parts.  Another fun twist on a classic.  I like those as the kids basically know what to do, but it is still new and a little different.

The last 'story' that we did was my Melting snowmen flannelboard.  Since we had snow in the forecast we tried to preemptively melt it away.  However, as we were doing the rhyme we could see the rain turning to snow.  I'm really starting to feel like I have some kind of weather power.  The kids liked this one so much that we did it twice - so bring on more snow!  You can see the snowman rhyme and how I made the flannel here.

To end my visit we did the Banana song by Carole Peterson.  The real title is B-Bananas (you can find it on her album Stinky Cake) but all the kids ask for the banana song as soon as they see me.  My toddler crowd has started to do the same thing.  We do it every week.  It is just that fun.