Rhyming Preschool Story Time (The Sequel)

Hello all!  I've actually already posted a rhyming themed storytime on this blog, but I did a totally new one with different books and songs and such, so I'm going to post this one too!  Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday, but Dr. Seuss books are WAY TOO LONG for storytime.  So instead of reading Dr. Seuss books, I put a bunch on display, and we read rhyming books instead.

Opening Song: Open Them Shut Them (click on the link for a video of how I do it).  I actually added another verse to Open Them Shut Them today, swiped from Jbrary's Extra Verse video (see below)

Opening Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock (see me doing my version below!)

Opening Discussion: Before we started reading books, I pulled felt letters (spelling RHYME) out of my magical Dr. Seuss pencil box.  We also sang Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!

Opening Activity: Usually I wait 'til after a book to do an activity, but I really wanted the kids to grasp the idea of what it meant for something to rhyme before we reading our rhyming books, So I did this first:

I printed out and laminated and glue felt on the back of a bunch of images in pairs of things that rhyme (for example -- kitten and mitten).  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 One: Slug Needs a Hug by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

This book is relatively new, and I LOVE IT.  It has a unique rhyme scheme that you don't usually find in picture books, and the vocabulary is SO rich, and the story is so hilarious and sweet.  At the end we talked about whether or not slug got what he needed, and why or why not!  It was a good conversation starter.  Not the best book to practice rhyming prediction, though, because the rhymes are pretty complex and hard to guess.






Fingerplay/Song: I Had a Little Turtle

Book Two: Frog on a Log? by Kes Gray and Jim Field

The concept of this book is that animals are ONLY ALLOWED TO SIT on things that rhyme with their name.  Cats sit on mats and frogs sit on logs and mules sit on stools, and and and and.  It's GREAT for rhyming prediction, because you can have the kids guess what things different animals will sit on.  Everyone figured out that parrots sit on carrots.  Obviously.  

Action Song (Stretch Break): Bananas Unite!

Book Three: Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

Because no rhyming storytime could possibly be complete without Rhyming Dust Bunnies.  This time, before I read it, we talked a little bit about what a dust bunny actually IS.  'Cause the book is way funnier if you know.  

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