Anyway, here's the Setlist*-
'Hello Everybody'
Welcome: I already had my FF turkey up on the board when the kids came in, so I asked them if they had any idea what kind of stories we'd be reading today. 'Thanksgiving' and 'turkey' were the top answers ('Survey says!'), so I asked them who was going to eat turkey? ham? mashed potatoes? squash? rolls? pumpkin pie? - and interspersed what I was and was not going to be eating. I told the kids that we would be learning all about how the turkey got his colorful feathers (a flannel DISASTER because I didn't know about it before I made the turkey I made!) and make a colorful turkey ourselves.
Wiggles
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
(Sorry to not include the cover - it's giving me formatting issues that are driving me NUTS...)
Meh. I might be riding this story too hard. We did Old Lady Fly during the Bug storytime and Old Lady Bat during the Halloween storytime... and I have (C)old Lady Snow waiting in the wings for winter storytimes.
This story is SO cute. The kids are excited to pile into a bus to go on a field trip but once they get there and learn about the fate of their new friends, they hatch a plan to save lives - just in time for Thanksgiving. I thought this one would go over SO well, but it was a big flop with the kids...
Flannel: Tom Turkey's Colorful Tail Tale
A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman
I liked this story, too... clever turkeys make it so the townspeople end up eaching shredded wheat for their Thanksgiving feast (maybe funny because a) I know what that is and b) I actually like it). Again, flop-a-roo. I think the story was too long and the kids were just ready to be done.
Craft - Hand Turkeys with Feathers
White paper, black marker... trace little hands. Color palms brown, add googly eye and use glue stick to add feathers. Voila! turkeys! This went over very well.
I did two storytimes on Wednesday - one for 4-K and a drop-in. They were both lightly attended because of the holiday, but it really threw off the dynamic of the drop-in. At one point, I was reading to a room of noise - parents chatting and kids literally running around in circles. For the first time in storytime, I felt sad and frustrated.
BUT, I learned a lesson. I will most likely cancel storytime during a holiday week like Thanksgiving. My Thursday storytime kids didn't get a make-up and lost out on the whole turkey theme, so next year, I might do Thanksgiving stories the week before Thanksgiving and then cancel storytime for everyone that week... and extend the whole schedule by one week.
Too drastic?
1 comments:
When I used to do Toddler Times, I had one right before Thanksgiving too. I figured two-year-olds wouldn't understand the concept yet so wouldn't be over-excited. Wrong! It was the worst one I ever had. From then on I avoided having a program before Thangsgiving. I rarely do programs in December either because people are too busy to show up.
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