Early Literacy Storytime - Down on the Farm

"Shake Your Sillies Out" - Raffi - opening song 

Peek-a-Moo - Marie Torres Cimarusti, Stephanie Petersen

"The Animals on the Farm" (to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus")

Barnyard Banter - Denise Fleming 

EARLY LITERACY ASIDE: When reading with your child, run your finger under the words or phrases as you read. This helps them understand that you're reading the text and not the pictures. 

Next was a drawing story using an upper-case E, a lower-case e, an M and two Ws. Connect the letters and you have a pig! 

EARLY LITERACY ASIDE: Writing and practicing making letters supports your child's awareness of print. Also writing - including scribbling - helps develop letter and print awareness. 

"Old MacDonald Had a Farm"

The Farm Yard fingerplay

"If You're Happy and You Know It" - closing song

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I did a few things differently this time.... I figured we'd have another large group and we did: 62 toddlers and 49 adults. Before the program, I placed CAUTION tape on the floor so that the kids and adults would not get too close. I also did the opening song first before making my announcements/expectations, which helped a lot. This went much better than last week, but I still need to do more activities that are more participatory. 

Early Literacy Storytime - Dogs

We're doing programming a little differently in our system in 2014, focusing on Early Literacy, preparing children for success in school. This involves several components, but I'll only touch on a few of them here. As this was our branch's first Toddler Time (18 months to age 3) and my first attempt in using Early Literacy asides (tips), I made a lot of mistakes and made a lot of modifications on the fly. We also had a very large group: 68 toddlers and 45 adults. 

"Shake Your Sillies Out" - Raffi - opening song

Five Little Puppies fingerplay

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

Next I did a drawing story about a girl and her pretend friend, which is a good drawing story, but probably ran a little long for this group. Still, I think they enjoyed it. 

EARLY LITERACY ASIDE: When you draw stories with your child, you're giving them the opportunity to create their own stories, which helps stimulate imagination and creativity.

The next book was a non-fiction (we call 'em "factual" books in our programs) book on puppies. Again, this was a large group and I was starting to lose them, so I only focused on a few pages, pointing out a few facts about puppies. 

EARLY LITERACY ASIDE: Adults, don't forget about factual books like this. The more facts your child knows about a wide variety of subjects, the greater their background knowledge for school.  

"Bingo" song

Before we started the song, I pinned to the wall a large sheet with each of the letters in 

B I N G O. We said each letter and drew them in the air together before we sang the song. 

EARLY LITERACY ASIDE: Singing slows down language to help your child become familiar with letters and words. 

:"If You're Happy and You Know It" - closing song

Coloring sheet

Again, I made a lot of mistakes this time around, first of all talking too much (although I did feel I needed to explain a bit about how our programs have changed). I always start each program with my expectations for the program to the adults, but after this week, I'm going to do the opening song first to get everyone's attention, then give my expectations. 

Also I only did one (or one and some change) book this time, since I sensed I was losing them. I'm going to try to do two books next time, but am prepared to scrap one of them if necessary. With over 100 people in the program, you really have to keep it moving, moving, moving. I will also have a "take home" sheet with some activities.