Rhyming Story Time

Because Dr. Seuss's birthday was the previous Sunday, I really wanted to do a Dr. Seuss themed story time for 3/6/14 -- but Dr. Seuss is just NOT great for story time.  The books are long and meandering, and while they are amazing for one-on-one reading time, they just don't really work in this setting, so I decided to do a RHYMES themed story time in honor of Dr. Seuss instead.  They are a billion great story time books that rhyme, so it was much easier to plan than a Dr. Seuss story time would have been!

 Opening Song:  Open Them Shut Them (Click here for the link to my version!)

Opening Activity: Spell the word "RHYMES" on the flannel board in felt letters.  Today we got to talk a bit about silent letters and why it is sorta confusing that there is an H in the word RHYME.

Opening Nursery Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock



  Book #1: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now by Dr. Seuss

One of the few Seuss books that are actually really great for story time -- this is the only Dr. Seuss book I actually did.  I had an unusually small story time group today (I think they maybe were scared by the humongous attendance the previous week?), so we actually had time to have conversations about all of Dr. Seuss's zany words and made up nouns.  It worked really well!

Action Song:List of Dances by Jim Gill

This song is great -- it is basically exactly what it sounds like:  a list of dances.  Jim goes through all the dances in order, and then you do them again...but BACKWARDS.  I created a list of dances by printing out each dance in a fun color and font, laminating them, and then cutting them out and attaching them with string to each other.  At some point I'll post a picture of this so it makes more sense, but here are the lyrics in case you're curious :)  

You do the tall
You do the small
You do the hop
You do the stop
You do the slow
You do the tiptoe
..curl
...twirl
..hide 
...slide
...sleep
...creep
...slump
...jump
...sway
...stay

And then again...but BACKWARDS!

Book #2: Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Can't do a rhyming story time without this book.  It creates the perfect opportunity for kids to practice rhyming themselves, and also it is hilarious. 

Flannel Board Activity: Group Things that Rhyme!

For this activity I printed out and laminated and glue felt on the back of a bunch of images in pairs of things that rhyme.  As I pulled the images out of my box, I had the kids tell me if the image rhymed with anything that was already up on the flannel board.  We continued until all of the objects were sorted into rhyming pairs!

Book #3: I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont

One of my favorite favorite preschool story time books.  Like Rhyming Dust Bunnies, it gives the perfect opportunity for kids to guess the next word in the book by figuring out what the rhyme is.  Also, I love that it's a book that you sing.  It has a repeating refrain that everyone can join in on, and it's goofy, and the pictures are bold and great.  I use this book a lot.

Closing Rhyme: Tickle the Clouds 

Closing Rhyme: Tickle the Clouds

Tickle the clouds
Tickle your toes
Turn around
Tickle your nose!
Reach for the ground
Reach up high!
Story time is over,
Wave goodbye!

I got this rhyme from this awesome Jbrary video: Jbrary Goodbye Songs

--Sara