Books n Play for Pre-K 9/28/16

I haven't written about a session of Books n Play for Pre-K in SO long, and since this week's class was my last one for a while, I decided that it was time for a post.

I've written about this program many times in the past, but I've never blogged about my dinosaurs theme before! Coincidentally, this week's theme was just that... dinosaurs! A real crowd-pleaser, I must say. My group was small--only six kids--but they were a really great, attentive, and rule-following six kids (unlike how they were the last time I blogged about Books n Play for Pre-K), so I was happy!

As usual, I opened the program with our Hello Song (still, as always, A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), and then I moved on to books and songs. The first book I read was The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell (which I read with a raspy, throat-hurty dinosaur voice, obviously), and then Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont. The kids liked both, definitely, but I'd actually go as far as to say that they loved The Super Hungry Dinosaur. The whole room was completely attentive as I read it, totally engaged!

Then we sang a song that I found online called All Around the Swamp. Basically it's a dinosaurs version of Wheels on the Bus. I modified it a tiny bit and this is what we wound up singing:

The Pteranodon's wings went FLAP, FLAP, FLAP… All around the swamp.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex said GRRR, GRRR, GRRR… All around the swamp.
The Triceratops’s horns went POKE, POKE, POKE… All around the swamp.
The Stegosaurus tail went SPIKE, SPIKE, SPIKE… All around the swamp.

The kids were very eager to move onto our crafts and play time. I had a lot of good stuff for them this week, if I do say so myself. As usual, this part of the program lasted for about 20-25-minutes. Here's what I had out:

The craft table:

1. "Fossil" making (aka play dough and a bunch of shells) *
2. Construction paper, crayons, and colorful, foam dinosaur stickers to make a prehistoric scene (see picture below)
3. Stuff to make the Stegosaurus Puppet from this set of free printable dinosaur puppets on PagingSuperMom.com.
4. Trace a Dino Footprint free printable, also from PagingSuperMom.com

And here's what was at the toy table:

1. Sand box and dinosaur fossils to dig up**
2. Dinosaur puzzles
3. Dinosaur "eggs" + matching sheets and crayons ***
4. Dinosaur bones kit + matching and measuring cards ****

* Fossil making with play dough and shells is one of my favorite prehistoric activities. It's a true process over product kind of craft and I like how it's just totally different from the usual coloring or drawing. For this, all I put out were shells, play dough, and paper plates (which you don't really even need if your tables are covered). It's pretty self-explanatory, I guess:

The kids liked this and I think the little siblings might have liked it even more. Plus, it's a good sensory activity!

** I've used the sandbox (and other sensory bins) a bunch of times before in Books n Play for Pre-K and usually, the whole program basically revolves completely around it. Like, the kids eye it before the play time starts and pretty much have to be peeled away from it after it ends. Thank goodness we have covers for these bins or I would have no control at all in the room. Here is some quality dino diggin':

Coupled with the sandbox, I used this Dino-Dig Excavation Kit from Lakeshore Learning. Because our sandbox isn't exactly huge (and neither was our group of kids), I only buried 8 dinosaur skeletons for the kids to dig up and, since they're so young, I didn't even bother with the paint brushes.

*** The dinosaur “eggs” I had are a total mystery to me. I seriously have no idea how they were made (or why they smell kind of funny), but I got them on loan from our county library system and they're really cool! Basically, they're colorful plastic dinosaurs living inside Easter egg-sized, clear plastic homes, with a texture similar to that of an un-started bar of soap. To go with them, I made some match-up sheets to encourage the kids to examine the eggs and play with them a little. I think it worked pretty well, although only one or two kids wound up doing it.

Some "egg-xamining" in action:

**** The dinosaur bones kit + matching and measuring cards were also a loan from our county library system. They're super-cool, but didn't get a ton of attention during the program (but, to be fair, they were competing with a sand box). Basically I received a canvas bag filled with pretty realistic-seeming (both in weight and in texture) dinosaur bones and some cool cards to match them up with to make different dino parts or measure the different bones. STEM central.

At the end of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more book: Dinosaur Vs. The Library by Bob Shea, which went over ALMOST as well as The Super Hungry Dinosaur, but nottttt quite.

What worked least: I don't know if there was really anything in this program that I'd say "didn't work", per-say. It was really a great group! However, I think for the amount of time and brain-power that I spent trying to find and learn All Around the Swamp, it wasn't super-appreciated. Mostly the kids were ready to move on to the toys and crafts at this point. But now that it's in my repertoire, I'm happy to have it. So no big deal!

What worked best: The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell was SUCH a hit! I highly recommend it for the ages 3-5 crowd! They seriously adored it.

Stuffed Animal Sleepover #4

I'm not sure if Stuffed Animal Sleepovers are old hat by now, but I'm still holding on a little longer. It's a good thing I have been too; I had my biggest turn-out ever last Thursday--for my FOURTH Stuffed Animal Sleepover.

I blogged about this program twice before, but it's been a while and, since each Stuffed Animal Sleepover has its own personality (and also because the pictures are SO CUTE), I wanted to write about it again. So. Here I go.

This is a pretty simple program--a few books, a few songs, a craft (the same craft four times and still going strong!)--but the real fun starts when the kids go home and leave their stuffed animals behind for an overnight sleepover party!

As the stuffed animals and their owners arrived, I gave everyone a name tag. I've changed the name tags up a few times over the years but resorted back to my first ever version, mainly because I had a ton leftover and couldn't stand to look at them anymore. I don't often use name tags but they're important for this program so I can (a) know the stuffed animals' names and (b) make sure the right stuffed animals match up with the right kids. This is especially crucial for next-day returns!

Something I did that was new last time (that I repeated this time), was bring in one of my childhood stuffed animals. Last time I took Jelly Beanie (seen below) to the party! He really did a great job. Here he is reading to the other stuffed animals:

Even though Jelly Beanie did great, I decided to spread the wealth a little and bring a different old friend this time around: Simba (from the Lion King) also did a wonderful job!

Once I took the kids back to the program room, I did a regular, simple bedtime-themed storytime. A list of my favorite bedtime-themed books can be found on my Recommended Storytime Books by Topic list.

I started with Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (as usual), then I sang Five Little Monkeys with the monkey mitt, and then I read Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea.

After this, the kids moved on to the craft tables and decorated "sleeping bags" for their stuffed animals to sleep over in. These are just pillow cases from Oriental Trading decorated with fabric markers. Again, this is the same craft I've used for every past Stuffed Animal Sleepover, but it just works! So sue me! I've considered changing it just so repeat program attendees wouldn't have a dozen fabric-marker-decorated pillow cases at home, but it's always a hit so why reinvent the wheel? The kids like it (even repeat attendees) and it gives them a way to "tuck in" their stuffed their animals before they leave them, which I'm not sure I could do without at this point. Also, it's totally adorable to watch.

I didn't make my own pillow case but, lucky for Simba, Kitty Kitty was kind enough to share her sleeping bag since she's pretty little. The two then became fast friends and I made sure to let Kitty Kitty's mom know how good Kitty Kitty was.

As the kids finished up their crafts, I had them come back to the story area to quietly read board books to their stuffed animals as we waited for the whole group to be done. The parents always like this part.

Then, when everyone was finished (and when there was about 5-minutes left of the program), we wrapped up with one more book: Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen. Then I ended by having the group sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star twice, once normally and once as quietly as possible so the stuffed animals could drift off to sleep. Then the kids kissed their animals goodnight, whispered goodbye to me, and tip-toed out for the evening.

There's a very important behind-the-scenes step that comes next. Before taking the animals out for their library adventure, I always photograph each animal with its sleeping bag and name tag. That way, when the children pick up their stuffed animals the next day, I can match everything up right without having to guess. Sometimes matching the sleeping bags isn't so easy so this step can be very critical!

Now on to the fun! Here's what the stuffed animals did during their sleepover:

First, Simba read the other animals a story (He went to special Stuffed Animals Library School for this).

Then they played cards. Some played Uno.

Next they played computer games. Some played Snoopy and some played Star Wars.

It was 8 against 7 for checkers, but everyone was a good sport.

Everyone cooperated nicely at the Lego table.

Next up, it was puzzle time.

And last, the animals chose books to check out.

I also included individual pictures of each stuffed animal enjoying their book solo (or in some cases, with their sibling):

Thanks to Mary, our clerk who stayed most of the night with me, each stuffed animal got a super-custom-picked book that matched them. Then, as a circulation bonus, when the kids came in the next day to pick up their stuffed animals, I asked if they wanted to check those books out, and guess what? They all did! 

This means each kid went home with a pile of goodies: their stuffed animal, sleeping bag pillow case, book, name tag, and set of photos from their animal's night out.

Anyway, as usual, the kids liked the print outs, but the parents LOVED the print outs. This has held true every time. In fact, I copied and pasted this exact sentence.

What worked least: Rather than something not working, the biggest challenge in doing this program has been trying to do so much of it after hours. I've found that I just can't do most of the photos while there are patrons in the library. Not only are there very few place you can set the animals up without disturbing people, I just kind of want to keep the magic alive a little too. So most of the hard part is done after the library closes--propping up all the stuffed animals, taking all the photos, matching all the stuffed animals back up with their sleeping bags, and preparing the photo print outs (a Publisher document).  I wish I could figure out a way to fix this, but right now, I can't think of a better method I'd like to add, also, that doing this while 6-months pregnant was even extra awful. I was exhausted and achy. So yes, this was my biggest challenge for sure.

What worked best: Singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and then singing it again quietly so the stuffed animals could "fall asleep." We all whispered from this point on and this was a good, natural way to say goodnight and end the program.