April is Poetry Month, so last Friday our Kids’ Writing Workshop focused on blackout poetry. First I gave each kid a famous poem, by authors such as Shakespeare, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Dickinson, Poe, Kipling, Frost, and Silverstein. The kids had to read their poem first and get a feel for […]
Infant Storytime: Forest
Published on :Last week’s Infant Storytime, our last of the Winter Session, was all about the forest. We put together a flannelboard picture out of shapes, and I based it on the book Orange, Triangle, Fox by Sarah Jones: We played I Spy and talked about forest animals. Then we read Mama’s […]
Toddler Storytime: Forest
Published on :Last week’s Toddler Storytime, our last of the Winter Session, was all about the forest. We put together a flannelboard picture out of shapes, and I based it on the book Orange, Triangle, Fox by Sarah Jones: We played I Spy and talked about forest animals. Then we sang the […]
Infant Storytime: Swamp
Published on :Yesterday we read books, sang songs and did fingerplays about animals that live in the swamp! First, we made a picture with shapes–circles, half-circles, triangles, rectangles, and a trapezoid and a pentagon–showing some of the animals that live in a swamp or wetland. I lost my photo for the whole […]
Toddler Storytime: Swamp
Published on :Yesterday we read books, sang songs and did fingerplays about animals that live in the swamp! First, we made a picture with shapes–circles, half-circles, triangles, rectangles, and a trapezoid and a pentagon–showing some of the animals that live in a swamp or wetland. I lost my picture of all the […]
Family Storytime: Crocodiles and Alligators
Published on :Today we read books, sang songs and did fingerplays about crocodiles and alligators! We started with a song called “Alligator, alligator”: Alligator, alligator, long and green (hold out arm: 4 fingers, thumb below) Alligator, alligator, teeth so mean (open and close fingers and thumb) Snapping at a fly, snapping at […]
Toddler Storytime: Savanna
Published on :Today’s Toddler Storytime was about the grasslands or savanna, and we started out by putting together circles, rectangles, diamonds, triangles and hearts to make these animals from the savannas of Africa: We sang “Open Shut Them” and then guessed at the animals hiding in my “I Spy” box. After that […]
Infant Storytime: Savanna
Published on :Today’s Infant Storytime was about the grasslands or savanna, and we started out by putting together circles, rectangles, diamonds, triangles and hearts to make these animals from the savannas of Africa: We guessed at the animals hiding in my “I Spy” box and then read a book about an animal […]
What does being American mean to you? And how do you write about that?
Published on :The theme of this year’s One City, One Story short story writing contest is depicting what being an American means to you, or what your family’s story is, whether your parents or grandparents may have immigrated here, or what your experience has been in this country. That’s a tough subject […]
Infant Storytime: Ponds
Published on :On Tuesday we explored the splishy, splashy world of ponds and wetlands. It was a lot of fun because with a Pond theme, there were lots of traditional children’s songs I could use and we sang them with a CD. First we made a beautiful picture out of ovals, rectangles, […]