Outreach Storytime

Today I did a storytime at a local day care center. I (personally) don't do a lot of outreach programs because it works best for the library if we do them Monday and Tuesday morning and I'm usually on the night shift those days.

But Not Today! Yay! It was a for a large group of 2-5 year olds and they specifically requested puppets. I don't do puppets. BUT! I sucked it up, brought the puppets and had a really good time and got a great idea for  some puppet-action to include in my preschool storytime on Thursday. Read more to find out!

Where is Thumkin?


The Aunts Go Marching by Maurie J. Manning

This one's a FAVORITE of mine and sadly out of print. I don't do it a lot at storytime because we don't have that many copies left. One of the nice things about outreach? You don't need extra copies for people to check out afterwards. This is a book you sing and has a great "rat a tat tat, rat a tat tat, ba-rump, ba-rump, ba-rump" repetition as a little girl marches to town with all of her aunts. The kids caught on to the song and the "rat a tat tat" within the first verse and it was SO MUCH FUN. Why oh why oh why oh is this book out of print.

Hickory Dickory Dock

Going to Kentucky:

Oh, we're going to Kentucky, we're going to the fair
To see the pretty ladies with the flowers in their hair
Shake it baby shake it! Shake it if you can
Shake it like a milkshake and shake it once again
Roll it to the bottom
Roll it to the top
Turn around and turn around until I holler STOP!

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? By Mo Willems

This one was great! Because there's no breaking of the fourth wall. Pigeon tends not to go over really well in my storytimes because the kids don't fully understand that they're supposed to talk back to the Pigeon. Now, that would not have been an issue with this group, BUT it's good to remember for other groups.

Wheels on the Bus

Grand Old Duke of York

"Hi, Pizza Man!" by Virginia Walters, illustrated by Ponder Goembel

Another storytime favorite that's long out of print and hard to do because of lack of copies. But it's animals noises! Delivering pizza!

Apple Tree

Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree (with an alligator puppet!)

AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR PUPPETS!

SO, the only thing I ever really go with puppets is the Wide Mouthed Frog, because we have the puppet kit. I usually just read Keith Faulkner's The Wide-Mouthed Frog, but act it out with puppets.

Today, the kids were in a talky mood, so when the Wide Mouthed Frog declared that he ate flies, they all said EWWWW! And so I started ad-libbing a bit. And the puppets got into arguments over which was tastier, flies or slugs. And then when the frog jumps away, the alligator said "good thing I just ate all those monkeys and aren't really hungry!"

It worked really well. I've written up a script because I think I'm going to end it with the alligator going to eat the monkeys and follow it with "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree" instead of doing that one first. Like I said, I'm planning on doing this again on Thursday, so I'll post the script then (if it works.)

Comin' Round the Mountain

Every Little Cell is Happy