Tag Archives: Penguins

Penguins and Polar Bears: A Chilly Storytime

22 Jul

It’s been a hot one here in Colorado this summer, so I thought I’d cool things off with a storytime featuring penguins and polar bears. I have a great penguin puppet given to me by a coworker, and he introduces our storytime.

  • Brett, Jan. The Three Snow Bears. A three bears retelling, set among polar bears. 
  • Rodriguez, Edel. Sergio Makes a Splash.
  • Song: Penguins and Polar Bears (in which we learn that they do NOT live in the same place).
  • Ward, Jennifer. Way Up In the Arctic. A story to sing! If we have time, and the group is old enough, we go through the book a second time trying to find the number on each page. I ask the kids to use descriptive words to tell me where the number is, rather than saying “right there!”
  • Flannelboard/fingerplay: 5 Baby Penguins.
  • Munsinger, Lynn. Tacky The Penguin. I mean, come on. The gold standard of penguin books. I adore Tacky.  “WHATS HAPPENING!?”

Other books I love:

  • Barner, Bob. Penguins, Penguins Everywhere. A good option for the younger crowd.
  • Dodd, Emma. I Am Small. Another good one for the youngers, with a nice refrain, “And I am small,” for them to repeat.
  • Portis, Antoinette. A Penguin Story. A penguin goes in search of something that’s not black, white or blue – and finds an Antarctic Science Station!
  • Murphy, Yannick. .
  • Bloom, Suzanne. A Splendid Friend Indeed. Okay, so not a Polar Bear story exactly, but I LOVE his expressions. And Goose’s enthusiasm.

What are you doing to beat the summer heat?

Tags: , , , , , ,

Flannel Friday: Penguins and Polar Bears

6 Jul

We have some CRAZY heat happening here in Colorado. One of the downsides, besides just being miserable, is that our state is tinder-box dry and as you know we’ve had some terrible wildfires that have caused major destruction. If any of you are in states that have been having too much rain, feel free to send some our way. We REALLY need it.

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to do a Penguins and Polar Bears storytime, to help beat the heat. When I mentioned this to a friend, she was ADAMANT that I make it clear that the kids learned that penguins and polar bears DO NOT live together. So, to aid in her cause, I found this song:

(sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”)

Up North there’s a very cold ocean,

Where icebergs are big as can be,

Up north there’s a place called the North Pole,

Where polar bears swim in the sea.

[Chorus]

Up north, up north, where polar bears swim in the sea, the sea!

Up north, up north, where swimming is too cold for me.

To demonstrate the idea, I printed off a globe picture and covered it in contact paper. I stuck a star sticker at Colorado’s (approximate) location, and put an “N” at the north pole and “S” at the south. Then I added pictures of the animals that live there.

The second verse continues:

Down South there’s a very cold ocean,

Where icebergs are big as can be,

Down South there’s a place called the South Pole,

Where Penguins all swim in the sea,

[Chorus]

Down south, down south, where penguins all swim in the sea, the sea,

Down south, down south, where swimming is too cold for me.

There you have it! Simple, but a fun song, and we might learn something!

I’m hosting the round up today so check back during the day for updates! I’ll have the whole thing done by Saturday morning. Click on the icon to the right to see ALL the past flannels organized visually by subject.

Happy flanneling!

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Flannel Friday: 5 Baby Penguins

29 Jul

As the temperatures continue to hover in the triple-digits in most parts of the country, I thought it might be time to cool things off with a frosty storytime. So here’s my penguin contribution:

1 baby penguin makes a wish (hold up 1 finger and point up)

2 baby penguins catch a fish (hold up 2 fingers and clap hands)

3 baby penguins slip and slide (hold up 3 fingers and slide hands around)

4 baby penguins run and hide (hold up 4 fingers, then hide them)

5 baby penguins look around, calling “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!” (hold up 5 fingers and shade eyes with hand)

Now they are found.

When Mamma penguin finds them, she’s added to the board (she’s bigger than the rest):

The penguin pattern comes from this clipart.

Close up of the iceberg:

Hope this cools you off a little!

Visit Miss Mollie later today for the full flannel friday roundup!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

More! More! More! A Storytime to make you hungry.

6 Mar

It’s been far too long since I posted! I’ve been “performing” a couple of awesome storytimes lately so I’d best get to sharing!

My penguin friend, Frosty, introduces this theme with me.  What does a Penguin have to do with a food storytime? Nothing, really. He just comes along and tells me he’s hungry. He wants fish popsicles. I promise to get him some when we get back to the library, and on we go to the stories!:

  • Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  No food-themed storytime is complete without this classic tale of a caterpillar’s transformation (after a week of gorging himself) into a butterfly! What makes this one even more special, because the kids have heard the story a million times, is that we have the POP-UP BOOK! Yay!
  • Salerno, Steven. Harry Hungry! The kids have LOVED this one, about a baby who can’t stop eating until he’s eaten most of a town.  There are lots of opportunities to use your voice, too, with a growling belly sound, whispers, plops, and more.
  • Yolen, Jane. How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food=¿Cómo comen los dinosaurios? Do they burp? Do they belch? Stick beans up their nose? Of course not! Dinosaurs behave perfectly at dinnertime (as do preschoolers, if what they tell me in storytime is any indication. I have my doubts).
  • Flannelboard/rhyme break!  5 HUNGRY ANTS This is a great silly one that gets lots of laughs.  I made it into a flannelboard, with salad, cake, pepper, and, of course, 5 hungry ants.  When the ants sneeze, I toss them over my shoulder which elicits crazy giggles (especially if one gets stuck somewhere silly).:

    Hungry Ant Picnic

5 Hungry ants, marching in a line,

came upon a picnic where they could dine.

They marched into the salad, they marched into the cake,

They marched into the pepper. Uh oh, that was a mistake!

AHHH-CHOO!

4 hungry ants… etc.

  • Petricelli, Leslie. Yummy Yucky. There’s a lesson in this book, as we compare yummy things (spaghetti, cookies) to yucky (sand, mommy’s coffee). And the lesson is: BOOGERS ARE YUCKY! YUCKY! Take note, preschoolers!  After we read this we take turns saying something we think is yummy. I choose to skip the yucky. I don’t even want to IMAGINE what the kids would say.
  • Other titles I might use:
    • Wilson, Karma.  Bear Wants More. Great refrain for the kids to help with!
    • Pan, Hui-Mei.  What’s In Grandma’s Grocery Bag?=¿Qué hay en la bolsa de la abuelita? A fun guessing game book to share if you can get your hands on it. It’s also pretty small, so not so great if you’ve got a big group. The kids have to guess what item of food is in grandma’s bag, knowing only what color it is. There are tabs to pull each item out of the bag, and as we all know, novelty books like this are a big hit!

And with that, I’m hungry. Going to look for a fish popsicle.

Tags: , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: