Lost & Found

2008-03-01T14:37:00.008-05:00

I pulled this book off our new picture book shelf and made my story time around it. Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers is the story of a boy who meets a penguin and tries to help him find his way home. The boy tells stories to the penguin the whole way to the South Pole. He leaves him there on an iceberg, but as the boy rows back home, he realizes that the penguin wasn't lost - he was lonely. The pictures are charming; the kids particularly liked the final illustration, which shows the boy and the penguin in their rowboat with a pod of whales (some argued that they were sharks) swimming along underneath them.

I picked three other stories to go along with it: Small Bear Lost by the always-child-friendly Martin Waddell, The Stray Dog by Marc Simont, and another new-ish book, Below by Nina Crews. My colleague recommended this last book, which her 3-year old daughter requests often. It is illustrated with photographs of Jack, the boy, and Guy - an action figure who explores the mysterious area under the stairs. This was a big hit with the story time group - they particularly enjoyed the drawings of what Jack imagines might be under the stairs.

Two other titles good stories within this theme are The Pocket Dogs by Margaret Wild and Lucky Socks by Carrie Weston.

Opening Song

2008-02-07T11:13:00.001-05:00

I was tired of the same few songs I had been using to open my Cradle to Crayons program (with 1-3 year olds and parents or caregivers), so I made up a new one which I am using this session. It is very simple and seems to work well with the parents. I printed out two copies of the song on legal size paper and I hang them on the wall behind me each time so the parents can follow along. They have caught on quickly and sing along with me. To the tune of "Frere Jacques"*:

Time for stories
Time for stories

Songs and rhymes
Songs and rhymes

Ears ready for listening (point to ears)
Ears ready for listening

Eyes can look (point to eyes)
Eyes can look

Then I go straight into two rhymes which I do at the beginning of every storytime for the 9 weeks, following the opening rhyme. The repeated rhymes I am using this time are:

Two little dickey birds
Sitting on a cloud
One named soft (say it softly; bring one index finger up in front of you)
One named loud (say it loud; bring up the other index finger)
Fly away soft (hide first hand behind back, then hide other hand on next line)
Fly away loud
Come back soft (bring back first finger, then the other on next line)
Come back loud!

The kids really enjoy this one and like getting to use their soft and loud voices. (If you, like one of my C2C parents, are wondering what a dickey bird is, merriam-webster.com defines it only as "a small bird.")

The second rhyme I use is more physical (do what each line says):

I put my arms up high
I put my arms down low
I put my arms out to the side
And then I let them go.

We flop our arms down on the last line and now I launch into a book. The first week of the session, I did each of the two above rhymes twice so people could learn them. After the first week, I do them once or twice, depending on the mood of the group and whether there are any new people that week who need the repetition to learn them. If the kids seem to be really into the dickey birds rhyme, we will repeat that, or if the group didn't participate much on the first time through the arms up high rhyme, I will do it again and encourage everyone to stretch way up high, out to the side, etc.

I also end the session with the same rhyme every time for the 9 weeks. This time I am using one I believe I borrowed from Babies in the Library by Jane Marino. Also to the tune of "London Bridges" - I have the children and parents wave while singing:

Goodbye, goodbye
See you soon
See you soon
See you soon

Goodbye, goodbye
See you soon
On another day!

Sometimes we do "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" before going straight into this goodbye song. I base it on the mood of the group that day.

*Thank you to Anonymous for pointing out that I meant to say "Frere Jacques" rather than "London Bridges" here. I can't believe none of the Cradle to Crayons parents have noticed that I have been telling them the wrong tune when we sing that song every week.

Story Time @ PPL

Lost & Found

Opening Song