
It was all about trees and the seasons in today’s preschool storytime. We read about a very selfish tree and we played along with a magical tree. There was also a draw and tell story we shared called The Sheltering Tree and a flannel board with a green palm tree on a red rock in the middle of the ocean! Here are the books, songs, flannel board, draw and tell story, action rhymes and video we shared.
Books We Read
Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson is an interactive story that requires a little magic from the audience. A few taps here, a little jiggling and shaking there, some clapping, some whooshing and we see a tree sprout leaves, bud blossoms, bear fruit, change colors, lose its leaves, lay bare in the snow and begin to sprout leaves again. Our mutual magic making brings our tree through all four seasons and back again. A beautiful story about the cycles of nature and the magic of trees!
Nicoletta Costa’s The Little Tree That Would Not Share is a book about a selfish young tree who does not want to lose its beautiful green leaves. During spring and summer the tree grows a beautiful canopy of leaves but is not willing to have any creatures sit on its branches or lounge beneath its shade. Of course the change in seasons brings a rude awakening for the tree as it loses all of its leaves in the fall and is completely bare during winter. Bereft and worried that its sick, the tree gets some sage advice from a crow. The crow teaches the tree a valuable lesson about sharing and being a part of the cycle of nature.
The Sheltering Tree – A draw and tell story.
The Sheltering Tree: A Draw and Tell Story
Credit: Linda Meuse – Notes from the Story Room
As you tell this story, you are drawing the tree branches, the stump and the snow on the tree’s branches. When your tree is finished you talk about the fir tree’s important work – that of protecting the forest animals from the snowy winter night. After that heartfelt discussion, you slowly open the flaps to reveal the animals hiding for cover within the tree’s inner branches.
Below is the sequence for the story:
A little fir tree stood in the forest.
(1) Although it was not very big it stood out because the trees around it had lost their leaves and their branches were bare.
(2) The little tree’s needles were still green and thick.
(3) The little fir knew it had to stand firm in the wind because it had an important job to do.
(4) Darkness had come and it began to snow.
(5) The snow started to cover the little tree’s branches.
(6) But the tree did not let them bend.
(7) The tree stood tall in the snow.
(8) Draw snow on the bottom part of the tree.
For the winter version open the flaps to reveal the animals in the tree –
Beneath its sheltering branches slept several forest animals protected by the little
fir tree on this snowy winter night.
(1) Draw top of tree
(2) Draw middle of tree
(3) Draw bottom of tree
(4) Draw trunk at bottom
(5) Draw snow falling
(6) Draw snow on the top part of tree
(7) Draw snow on the middle part of tree
(8) Draw snow on the bottom part of tree
Flannel Board
The Deep Blue Sea (and a green tree)
Based on the book The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood
There’s the sea.
The deep blue sea.
There’s a rock.
A red rock in the middle of the deep blue sea.
There’s a parrot.
A purple parrot on a green tree on a red rock in the middle of the deep blue sea.
There’s an orange butterfly.
There’s an orange butterfly on a parrot on a green tree on a red rock in the middle of the deep blue sea.
And over them all shine the big yellow sun…until a white cloud turns dark and gray…which makes the fishes come up to play.
Then all the fishes sing fiddle-dee-dee! It’s raining on the rock…
In the middle of the sea!
Action Songs & Fingerplays
We share a lot of songs, bounces & rhymes during storytime! You’ll find lyrics/words to those songs & rhymes we shared without CD accompaniment here.
Welcome, Welcome Everyone
(to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle)
Welcome, welcome everyone,
Now we’re here let’s have some fun!
First we clap our hands just so,
Then we bend and touch our toes.
Welcome, welcome everyone,
Now we’re here let’s have some fun
Open Shut Them – Video: Open Shut Them
Open, shut them, open, shut them, (open and close hands)
Give a little clap, clap, clap. (clap three times)
Open shut them, open shut them (open and close hands)
Put them in your lap, lap, lap. (place hands in lap and bounce them 3X)
Creep them, crawl them, creep them crawl them, (crawl fingers up arms)
Right up to your chinny chin chin. (place fingers on chin)
Open up your little mouth (open mouth and say ahhhhhh)
But do not put them in!! (put hands behind your back)
Credit: Mel’s Desk
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – Video: Twinkle Twinkle
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle Twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are.
Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider
Went up the water spout
Down came the rain and
Washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
Now the itsy bitsy spider
Went up the spout again
You are my Sunshine
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are gray
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you
And I love you more every day.
Goodbye Friends (in sign) – Video: Goodbye Friends
Goodbye babies, goodbye friends,
Goodbye friends, it’s time to say goodbye.
Music from CDs We Shared
Children love to sing and dance to music. Here are some of the action songs & rhymes on CD that we used in storytime. Click onto the CD titles to find these items in our library catalog.
“Clap Everybody and Say Hello” from Sally Go Round the Sun by Carol Hammett and Elaine Bueffel
“We’re Going to the Market” from I Love to Hear the Sounds by Kathy Reid-Naiman [With Shaker Eggs]
“Oh Children Ring Your Bells” from I Love to Hear the Sounds by Kathy Reid-Naiman!
“Jazzy ABCs” from Go Baby Go! by Baby Loves Jazz
Video We Shared
The video we watched: Fletcher and the Falling Leaves
Continue the Fun at Home
If you’d like to read more books about trees, check out these books from your local Pasadena Public Library!