Feeling Sick, February 23rd and 24th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out.

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? by Jane Yolen.

Poem: Curing the Hiccups by Marilyn Singer from Rolling in the Aisles: A Collection of Laugh-Out-Loud Poems.

Book: Parts by Tedd Arnold.

Song: Chicken Pox from Caillou’s Favorite Songs

Book: Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Willems. We practiced sneezing with the children before reading the story and had them sneeze with us whenever Elephant sneezed.

Song: If You Chance to Meet a Frown

If you chance to meet a frown,
Do not let it stay.
Quickly turn it upside and smile that frown away.

Book/Song: The Lady with the Alligator Purse adapted and illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott. We passed out lyrics to the parents.

Take Home: We gave each child a pouch with a tissue inside.

by Robyn

Happily Ever After, February 16th and 17th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out

Book: Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox.

Rhyme: Hey Diddle Diddle We used a moon and a cow puppet, then used the wrong prepositions, the cow jumped into the moon, under, thru etc. This one gets lots of laughs.

Book: Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, we used a chicken puppet.

Rhyme: Little Miss Muffet, we used a puppet and a plastic spider.

Rhyme: The Itsy Bitsy Spider (action).

Book: The End by David LaRochelle.

Rhyme: The Noble Duke of York (action).

Rhyme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sign language).

Book: The Foggy, Foggy Forest by Nick Sharratt.

Activity: Jack B Nimble, we used a candlestick prop and had kids jump over it.

by Patrick and Robyn

Things That Start with B, February 9th and 10th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out.

Book: (BOY, BALLOON, BAD) That’s Good! That’s Bad! by Margery Cuyler

Song: Bingo.

Book: (BROWN, BEAR, BIRD, BLUE, BLACK, BAA) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin, Jr.

Poem: (BAND-AID) Band-Aids found in Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein we used a puppet covered with band-aids to tell the poem. Note: some band-aids are difficult to remove!

Book: (BOX) Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

Song/Activity: (BUMBLE BEE, BUZZ) Buzz, Buzz, Buzz by Geof Johnson. For a boisterous alternative try Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner… Tape letter B “wings” on the back of each child and buzzzzz around the room!

Book: (BABY, BIG) So Big by Dan Yaccarino.

Book/Puppets: (BERTIE) Bertie was a Watchdog

Activity: Bubbles

by Robyn and Paul

Monkeys, February 2nd and 3rd, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out

Book: Where’s My Mom by Julia Donaldson

Fingerplay: Itsy Bitsy Monkey

The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree
(pretend to climb a tree).

Down came a coconut and hit him on his knee- OWWW
(make a fist and hit knee).

Out came a lion a shaken’ his mighty mane ---ANNND---
(frame face with hands to look like a lion and shake head).

The itsy bitsy monkey climbed up the coconut tree.

Book: Walking Through the Jungle by Julie Lacome (with puppets)

Song: Go Bananas on The Kerplunks

Story: Monkey Face (flannel board story)

Book: Sock Monkeys Do the Monkey Monkey! by William B. Winburn

Book: Banana! by Ed Vere

Activity: Monkey with a Coconut on The Sea, Beach, and Summer Stuff by Geof Johnson

by Debbie and Robyn

Teeth, January 26th and 27th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out.

Book: Clarabella’s Teeth by An Vrombaut.

Poem: The Crocodile’s Toothache, from the Shel Silverstein book, Where the Sidewalk Ends. We made a cardboard crocodile, which can be used on the flannel board along with a puppet to tell this poem.

Book: The Crocodile and the Dentist by Taro Gomi.

Song: Brush Your Teeth, from the Raffi cd, Singable Songs for the Very Young.

Book: Nice Try, Tooth Fairy by Mary W. Olson; illustrated by Katherine Tillotson. We made teeth for each of the animals and used puppets, the magnetic chalkboard, and the book to tell this story.

Song: Are Your Teeth . . .? sung to the tune of, Do Your Ears Hang Low? We did this song as a freeze song so every time we got to a picture of a tooth on the paper, we stopped singing and immediately froze.

Story: A Wiggly, Jiggly, Joggly Tooth by Bill Hawley; illustrated by William Joyce. Since this book is really small, we had the pictures scanned and printed out much larger.

Puppet Show: The Bear’s Toothache by David McPhail. We performed this story as a puppet show. It was delightful!

by Debbie and Paul

Getting In Trouble, January 19th and 20th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out.

Book: David Gets in Trouble by David Shannon.

Poem: Messy Room, from Shel Silverstein’s book, A Light in the Attic. As one librarian recited the poem, the other brought out all of the stuff mentioned in the poem.

Book: Ten Naughty Little Monkeys by Suzanne Williams; illustrated by Suzanne Watts. We used a doctor puppet to say the doctor’s lines, along with the actual book.

Song: Simon Says from the cd, Infinity, by Trout Fishing in America.

Book: Goldie is Mad by Margie Palatini.

Story: Getting in Trouble, from Dav Pilkey’s book, The Complete Adventures of Big Dog and Little Dog. We made shadow puppets, which can be used on the overhead projector in place of the actual book.

Song: My Sister Fights with Me, from the book, I’m Still Here in the Bathtub: Brand New Silly Dilly Songs, by Alan Katz; illustrated by David Catrow. We used two little girl puppets to sing this song.

Book: Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells.

Activity: Let’s Make Some Noise, from the Raffi cd, Everything Grows. We passed out musical instruments and danced around the room while the song played.

by Deanna, Paul and Robyn

Snow, January 5th and 6th, 2011

Begin by singing Raffi’s Shake My Sillies Out.

Book: Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London; illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz.
(We have a big book version of this story.)

Poem: The Snowball, from the Shel Silverstein book Falling Up. We use a snowball prop along with a pajama hat and bed to tell this poem. One librarian read the poem while the other acted it out.

Book: The Greatest Snowman in the World! by Peter Hannan.

Song: Once There Was a Snowman

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman,
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.
In the sun he melted, melted, melted,
In the sun he melted, small, small, small!

Book: The Snowball by Jennifer Armstrong; illustrated by Jean Pidgeon. (We use a
snowball prop along with characters, which can be used to tell the story in place of the actual book.)

Book: Sledding by David Martin; illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz. I made
some magnetic cut-outs that go along with the story which can be used on the magnetic chalkboard in place of the actual book.

Song: You Gotta Keep Warm from the compact disc Bananas in Pajamas Bumping and a-Jumping.

Book: Penelope in the Winter by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben.

Activity: Ice Skating! (We passed out mini-paper plates, which the children used to
skate around on while we played the song Skating, from the cd, Bananas in Pajamas Bumping and a-Jumping.)

by Paul and Robyn