Trees!

This outreach storytime was presented at Golden Hills Elementary School's Head Start classes on Monday, October 27, 2014.

Books:

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie  Matheson

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri

Songs:

Everybody Say Hello!
(tune: "London Bridge")

Everybody say hello, say hello, say hello,
Everybody say hello, hello Wesley!

(Wesley is my turtle puppet who pops out of my apron pocket whenever we sing this song.  Then he sits quietly on his rock and listens to the stories and sings along with us.  At the end of storytime he says goodbye to the children, gives them high fives, eats pretend food from their hands, blows kisses, and plays hide and seek!)

Rhymes:

The Apple Star

Take an apple, round and red,
Don't slice down,
Slice through instead.
Right inside it you will see,
A star as pretty as can be!

Before I began this rhyme, I showed everyone an apple I had brought from home.  As I read the poem, I showed what happens if you "don't slice down"...

but, rather, "slice through instead":

When you pull the halves apart, you can see "a star as pretty as can be!"

Way Up High in the Apple Tree

Way up high in the apple tree,
Two red apples smiled at me.
I shook that tree as hard as a I could
Mmmmmm - they were good!

I enjoyed singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "The ABC Song" with the children in both classes today!  Wesley enjoyed all the yummy snacks the children gave him after storytime today!

Each Outreach Storytime includes activities that support one or more of the five early literacy practices identified as essential in helping your child develop the skills they need before they can learn to read. The five practices – singing, talking, reading, playing and writing –were developed for Every Child Ready to Read®, an initiative of the Association for Library Services for Children (ALSC) and the Public Library Association (PLA).