Tag Archives: storytimes

StoryTime: Shapes

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my heart is like a zooThis week at the Union Township StoryTime we talked about one of the very best concepts- Shapes! Seeing and recognizing the shapes that make up everything around us is not only an amusing game you can play with your kids, it’s also huge step on the road to Early Literacy. One of the six skills that can help you children learn to read is Letter Recognition, and a big part of spotting the differences in various letters is being able to see the shapes that they are made of. Knowing that an A is a triangle and an O is a circle is a big deal, trust me!

All of our books we read this week dealt with our various shapes, including some of my favorites; hearts, circles and squares. We read:

For our craft we made collages and pictures out of circles, and as always we had a few coloring sheets that we made up. We also had some great flannel boards; our Preschool Time had a visit from the Shape Monster, who promptly ate all the shapes we had brought out to show the kids and at Toddler Time we played a game with our felt shapes, first spotting the shapes on the board and then later shapes we found around the room. The game has a song that goes like this:

I Can See Shapes
Tune: London Bridge
I can see a circle shape,
circle shape, circle shape.
I can see a circle shape.
How about you?

I can see a triangle,
a triangle, a triangle.
I can see a triangle.
How about you?

I can see a little square,
little square, little square.
I can see a little square.
How about you?

I can see a rectangle,
rectangle, rectangle.
I can see a rectangle.
How about you?

As always we had a great time this week at the Union Township Branch StoryTimes, I hope you can join us next week!

Story Time: Opposites

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You and Me: We're Opposites
Story time is back at Union Township and going strong!

This session we are working on ‘Concepts’, which is sometimes a hard concept to grasp (pun totally intended).  Our ‘concept’ last week was Opposites, which tied in nicely with our literacy skill of Vocabulary. (Don’t know about the Ready to Read Initiative’s Six Skills? Check them out for some great hints on helping your kids get on the road to reading!)

Some of the books we read this time were:

We learned lots of cool new words, including comparative adjectives (fancy, I know!) such as far, farther, farthest and short, shorter, shortest, as well lots and lots of opposite words like near-far, big-small, left-right and hello-goodbye. Our craft and our coloring sheet also had fun opposites on them.

We also did a variety of flannel board rhymes and finger rhymes during story time. If you’re playing along at home, try singing this flannel board song and substituting other location oriented opposite pairs. (Click here to see the image of the flannel board).

The Penguin Went Over the Iceberg
The penguin went over the iceberg,
The penguin went over the iceberg,
The penguin went over the iceberg,
To see what he could see.

To see what he could see,
To see what he could see.

The left side of the iceberg,
The right side of the iceberg,
The left side of the iceberg,
Was all that he could see.

Was all that he could see,
Was all that he could see,
The other side of the iceberg,
Was all that he could see!

You can also try doing some of the following rhymes with your children to get them ready to hear some stories.

Taller, Smaller
When I stretch up, I feel so tall;
When I bend down, I feel so small.
Taller, taller, taller, taller;
Smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller,
Into a tiny ball
Big, Bigger, Biggest
A little ball, (make ball with finger and thumb)
A bigger ball, (make ball with two hands)
And a great big ball I see. (make a ball with arms)
Now help me count them,
One, two, three! (repeat gestures for each size)

 

Thanks for stopping by to see what’s going on at Story Time!

Family Fun Night at the Union Twp. Branch

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on the road

Join us at the Union Twp. Branch on Tuesday, January 8 at 6:45 p.m. for a night of family fun.

Come IN to the branch to get DOWN with prepositions! Put ON your PJs and come WITH the whole family for a fun night OF stories, crafts and songs.

Sign Up Now! Space is limited, so please reserve your spot by visiting the branch, calling 528-1744, or registering online.

Kids’ books about prepositions.

Union Township Toddlertime à la carte

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Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? It was the Union Township toddlers at Toddlertime on February 9th and 10th.  We also practiced taking turns feeding shapes to a puppy puppet and building a giant pretend hamburger.  Our puppy feeding game was designed to improve their narrative skills by building on a rhyme we’d just heard.  We danced and listened to stories on a picnic blanket.  Our Wednesday class finished by crafting a necklace of food (Hurray for fine motor skills!) while our Thursday class honed their social skills during playgroup.  Our theme?  Mealtime and Narrative Skills, of course.

Each week we practice different literacy skills.  For example,  acting out stories or parts of them, having young children use their whole bodies, helps them internalize and understand what is happening in the story. We hope they will be able to tell the story back to you, especially their favorites, which they like to hear over and over again.

Drop into the Union Township Toddlertime – no registration required.  We meet Wednesdays and/or Thursdays at 10:30am.      February 16 and 17′s theme is playtime and letter knowledge - out comes the parachute.  On February 23rd and 24th, we celebrate bathtime and print awareness. The toddlers will be helping us give some dolls a bath… (Please wish Miss Garria and me luck!)