Sharks Preschool Storytime

This is probably my favorite storytime theme so far this session!  Everything about it worked perfectly -- the books were magical, the songs and rhymes went really well, I had a really perfectly sized crowd (40 kids and adults is SO MUCH easier and better for the kids than the 50-70 I tend to get).  I highly recommend this one :)  Without further ado....here's my SHARKS themed storytime from today!

Opening Song: Open Them Shut Them (click on the link for a video of how I do it).

Opening Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock with movement

I just want to make a little note about this -- I usually present this part of the storytime without comment, but I noticed something cool today. We do this rhyme pretty often, and every time I ask the kids to think of words that rhyme with "one", "two", and "three". I can tell that the kids are getting better at this, which makes me happy!  I got some unique answers that no one had said before ("blue" and "bee" instead of the usually "boo" and "whee!"). Kids really do learn at storytime. I can see it happening. At some point I need to do a standalone blog entry about my experience integrating early literacy skills in storytime and my experience being a part of the University of Washington's VIEWS2 study!

Opening Activity: As usual, before we started reading our first book, we spelled "SHARKS" in felt letters on the flannel board, and learned the ASL sign for shark (see below)!  Which is fun, btw.

Book One: Shark in the Dark by Peter Bently, illustrated by Ben Cort

I like that this book has a straightforward story line paired with really well-done rhyming text. It's sometimes hard to find books for preschoolers with a linear PLOT that isn't so wordy that it's overwhelming.  This is a perfect choice.  We did a lot of talking about what plan the fish might be coming up with, and also a lot of guessing of what the ends of sentences would be based on the rhyming words.  It's great.






Action Rhyme: Slippery Fish

You probably already know slippery fish.  It's kinda a storytime staple.  We have an adorable felt set for this song with animals that actually have pouches so you can make each creature "eat" the creature before it.  I added a bit to this -- for each animal, we did the ASL sign for the animal while we were singing about it!  Here's a cute video of Jbrary's version of this song with sign language :)

Book Two: Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld

This book is a little confusing to explain to kids -- it's kinda cerebral.  Before we started reading, we talked about how it's not a REAL shark and train, it's two kids playing with shark and train TOYS, and I think that helped them grasp the concepts a little better.  I paused at many of the pictures to ask if they thought the shark or the train was winning.  We also voted at the end with our hands whether the shark or the train was the winner.  Votes were split :)

Action Rhyme: Baby Shark

Somehow we hadn't done this one yet this season!  It's kinda the whole reason I wanted to do this storytime in the first place. 

Book Three: Shark in the Park! by Nick Sharratt

This book is just too perfect for storytime. We all pretended to have telescopes like Timothy Pope and looked up, down, left, right, and all around...and then we tried to guess if he was ACTUALLY seeing a shark, or if perhaps it might be something else... This was a short and sweet way to end the storytime. Kids loved it.

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