Monday, September 19, 2011

Successful First Storytime!

Hi everyone! Today I thought I'd share with you something different from what I usually post. Part of my job as an employee in the children's department of a library now entails doing a weekly storytime for 3-6 year olds. This was something completely new to me, so I was definitely nervous! It ended up going really well, I read the book The Parrot Tico Tango (see the picture below). I'm trying to stick with a "food" theme for each week, and this week was fruit.

This is the front cover of the book (which I took from Amazon.com) the story is about a parrot, Tico Tango, who goes around and takes a different piece of fruit from each of his friends in his rainforest. At the end, he can't carry it all and he drops it, and his friends turn it into a fruit salad. The story is so cute and is so vivid and bright!

Each of my storytimes will include a craft (my favorite part!), so I figured the perfect craft would be for each of the kids to make their own fruit salad. I printed each of the fruits used in the story onto colored cardstock and cut them out. They looked like this:

Lemon, cherry, date, papaya, grapes, fig and mango

Each of the kids had fun choosing which fruits they wanted to add to their fruit salad, which they made by using a glue stick to apply the fruit to a paper plate. I also used a flannel board to help tell the story, so I made a felt parrot and felt fruit so that the kids could better understand the story.

This is the front side of all the pieces. I attached cardstock paper to the front with a hot glue gun so that the parrot and the fruit looked more realistic, and not just like felt. I found a parrot coloring page online and printed it, and then colored it using markers so that it matched the parrot in the story.

This is the back side of the parrot and the pieces of fruit, which is what they would have looked like if I didn't include the cardstock paper.

Is this something you guys would like to see more of? I always like to change things up a bit. It's a 6 week storytime session so I would have plenty more to share. I could also try and include pictures of the kids crafts and also of the storytime itself. Let me know what you think! :)

Ashley

4 comments:

  1. Ashley,
    What a really cool project for the kids. I'm sure they absolutely loved it. I do things like that every once in a while and what I would do is print out a black and white card and let them color it as best they could to match the book. You might even consider sending the cards to www.funkycards.blogspot.com. She has a feel the love program and each month the cards go to someone who is ill or going through a difficult time. That would be a neat way to teach the kids to give to others as well. I bet if you asked Madison, she'd write the kids a nice thank you note too.
    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ashley, what a fun job to have! I love your project and I am sure they kids loved it too! Wow, So happy it went well for you! Way to Go!
    Cindy Porter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Saw you over at Kelly's Craft Life during the K. Andew Link-Up Love Party I'm doing with Kelly. Love your blog. Super cute birdie and food. I do kids ministry at my church I'm sure they would love your storytime...so I know the kids at the library did. TFS. Stop in and see me ;)

    Be Blessed, Beckie

    ReplyDelete
  4. very cute. BY giving the kids a tactile way of understanding the story you also gave them the opportunity to work with healthy foods in a way that is fun. Great job.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! Please leave your blog address so I can visit you, too! :)