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.