Storytime Review

The Shape of Me & Other Stuff Story Time

This week we continued our theme of  "The Basics" with our weekly story time classes. We concentrated on learning about shapes. We read Perfect Square by Michael Hall, Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh and It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Green Shaw with our 2 and 3 year old class. Then we added The Shape of Me and Other Stuff by Dr. Seuss, Circle Dogs by Kevin Henkes and Square Cat by Elizabeth Schoonmaker for our 3 to 5 Preschooler classes.

With our older classes we used the white board and I drew shapes as kids named some that the knew. We got typical answers like circle and square but also trapezoid and pentagon! These are some pretty smart kids :) We also drew butterfly and turtle shapes as we talked about everything having a shape. This got a little challenging to an art handicapped teacher but I managed to draw something that resembled a turtle. We took a minute to talk about things that change shape like water or bubble gum.

We used the shape drums to make a ton of noise and practice different ways to play, fast, slow, quietly, loudly etc. We also pulled out the tubing circles and played with them trying to see what parts of our body we could fit inside the circle. I love to have them place the circles on the ground and put both feet inside, a knee or elbow is fun too. My favorite, that always gets them giggling, is putting your bum inside the circle.

We played a musical chairs type game with shapes on the ground. As the children walked around the circle I played music. When the music stopped we drew a shape out of a hat and took away those shapes in the circle, soon everyone was trying to stand on the same 2 shapes. It was a lot of fun for the kids. I used the song Scat like That from the CD of the same name by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer.

For our craft we did a tree picture with different colored leaves. I used some small craft punches to make different shapes that the children glued on. We had flowers, hearts, stars, apples, leaves, even choo-choo train shapes.

Next week: The 5 Senses

Michele Schumann

Children's Librarian