Showing posts with label format. Show all posts
Showing posts with label format. Show all posts

Toddler Time - Colors!

*I'm going to try a new format today. I just don't have time to write up the whole post, as much as I would like to, so I'm going to write up a summary/outline style instead. Hopefully it works since I've been trying to squeeze in posts when I could and posting things waay late.

Today's Toddler Time was all about COLORS!
After our Hello Song we talked about how colors are everywhere and an easy concept to explore at home. That getting dressed or narrating every day activities is perfect for sharing colors with children.

Books We Shared:

We have 5 board books of Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh, so I was happy to share this story.
I really liked having multiples of the story for parents to share with their child and wish we had more.
I've seen flannel stories of this and think it is riduculously adorable, but don't think it would work with my young group.

My Crayons Talk by Patricia Hubbard was our second story. The kids weren't as into this, I think it was a little too old for them, but they liked seeing the pictures and saying the colors together.

Flannels We Shared:
I brougth out the Little Mouse flannel again this week. They had so much fun last week I watned to give them the opportunity to play the game again.


Movement Activities We Shared:
In addition to free play we had two movement activies this week. Our first was scarf dancing. We LOVE scarves and scarf dancing gives children a chance to work off some energy and also build motor skills. We danced to Des Colores sung by Raffi today.

Our second movement activity was a poem I found on Everything Preschool called The Color That I See. Of course my group is a little young, so everyone stood up and did every activity, but they had fun, and I totally expected it. :)
     The Color That I See
     _____, _____is the color that I see.
     If you’re wearing _____, then show it to me!
     Stand up, turn around.
     Show me your _____, then sit back down!

We repeated this with 4 or 5 colors, then started with socks, shoes, pants, and so on. It was cute watching the children try to figure out if they had on the colors they needed, then deciding that they didn't care and standing up anyway.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:
  • Colors are everywhere in our world and this is a easy concept to explore with your child. When you do an activity with your child, comment about the colors you are using. Getting dressed is an easy opportunity for this. Say the colors of your child’s clothing as you get dressed together. “Today our shirt is GREEN.” Learning to identify colors is used in many different ways in learning. From science to math to reading colors are everywhere!
  • Colors are so much fun, and they are everywhere. On your walk back to the car today, try out a color walk. Identify different colors in our town as you walk by them. See a blue car? Point it out to your child! Is there a purple flower on the wall? Bring it to your child’s attention. See if they can notice colors as well.
Home Activity
Take your child on a Color Hunt! Go for a walk around the house and hunt for things that are a specific color. Try and find all the things that are RED, YELLOW, GREEN or any color!

Back to Toddlers

It's back to Toddler Time for me. I'm in a new position at a new library and running a brand new story time. This story time is for toddlers aged 18 months to 3 years. Though I seem to be getting a lot of VERY young toddlers hovering around a year old. So I've had to do some adapting to my programs. It's been a fun learning experience so far. Not that I've done many! Between the weather up here in Maine (yay snow?) and getting super sick I've only held two actual programs. This is the first program I held, and it definitely needs some work as I go along with the kids I have. It's a learning adventure. :)

Since it has been so ridiculously cold I decided to do a COLD theme for Toddler Time. The themes are more for me then the kids and I don't stay strictly on them, but I find they help me organize my thoughts better. Since I love them, I'm using the same opening and closing songs (Clap and Sing Hello and We Wave Goodbye Like This). They're perfect for Toddlers.



Toddler Time format

I'm working on a new format for my Toddler story times.  This is the first time I've done a toddler program, my previous library only offered programs for 3+ when I did programming.  When it was finally allowed I had been moved out of children's programming.  So as I go along I am learning and experimenting.

Last session I did:
Opening rhyme
Book
Poem/fingerplay
Book
Poem/fingerplay
Play time

As I ran the program I was continually researching, reading blogs, and seeing what others did in their programs.  I also offered a survey asking what parents thought at the end of the program.  Unfortunately, I didn't get as many suggestions as I hoped from that.  But, I do think I've picked up some good ideas from other story timers.  So I'm changing how I do things.  I'll see how it goes and tweak things for the fall.

My new format will be:
Welcome songs & announcements
Intro song
Repeat rhyme (a rhyme we will repeat for 3 weeks)
Book
Shake my sillies out (Raffi)
Rhyme
Book
Flannel
Rotating nursery action rhyme (we will cycle through 4 different rhymes, 1 a week)
Goodbye song
Play time

I'm hoping that this new format will work out well.

*Songs/rhymes will be on a separate post or page, when I'm not using my tablet and have full blogger functionality.

 

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