We're back with a Happy Tuesday Penguin Storytime!

I don't know if you're familiar with Michigan winters, but they can get nasty and bitter when they want to. Sure, we didn't have snow on Christmas and temperatures were around 40 degrees. Once January hit, the winter season was full on. Slippery roads, icy winds, and lots and lots of snow. It's Michigan so we could be at the beach by next week, but we'll just have to wait and see. I was in the mood for a cold weather animal storytime so I chose penguins. Penguins are a great theme for storytime because so many books star penguins. Kids really seem to like penguins too. Maybe it's the way they walk, the cute puffin babies, or the fact that they huddle together to keep warm. Either way, they are always popular.

The Books:
Tacky the Penguin by: Helen Lester
If You Were a Penguin by: Wendel and Florence Minor
Penguin in Peril by: Helen Hancocks

Note to self: Find out how many Helens have written a book about Penguins.


What we did:

1.) Ruby the Chicken puppet- I reintroduced Ruby the Chicken as our storytime mascot. She is a one or two handed puppet. You can put one hand in her to work her mouth and let her wings hang limp, or you can put one hand in your mouth and one hand in a wing, or forego the mouth and put a hand in each wing to make her flap around. She's very versatile and works great with a southern accent. Something about the name Ruby...she should have a drawl. Anyhow, I used her to introduce our topic by guessing animals who were birds (She thought duck) and black and white (she thought cow). The kids cracked up because I had a cow and duck puppet who paraded out from behind my desk and acted like they were going to be the star of the show. Finally I had the kids guess what bird I was talking about when I told them it was a black and white bird who can live in really cold places.

2.) Action Rhyme: Baby Penguins
One baby penguin makes a wish (Point at the sky)
Two baby penguins catch some fish (Slap hands together)
Three baby penguins slip and slide (Wiggle arms)
Four baby penguins run and hide (Run in place)
Five baby penguins look around (Put hand on forehead and cry Mama! In a high pitched voice)
Calling " Mama! Mama! Mama!"
Out waddles mama now the babies are found. (Waddle like a penguin)

3.) Fingerplay: Two Little Penguins (A take on the rhyme two little blackbirds)
Two little penguins out on the ice (Show index fingers)
One bows once and the other bows twice (bow fingers)
Run away penguins, waddle away! (Put hands behind back)
Come back penguins, time to play! (Bring hands back around)

4.) www.gonoodle.com Brain breaks and body movement
Sure these don't have anything to do with penguins, but the music is high energy and they're appropriate for all ages. You can create a free account at gonoodle.com. It is designed for educators to use as brain breaks for their students. I stumbled on this while volunteering for my son's kindergarten teacher. You have your choice of playing YouTube videos through gonoodle, they have a selection of Zumba for kids, and my favorite Koo Koo Kangaroo. You can set your class up to track the amount of time they have used with their brain breaks and you can pick a champion (avatar) to represent your class. If your class/group does 10 videos/exercises, your champion with level up and change to get stronger. They are seriously fun. We did the Koo Koo Kangaroo songs Roller Coaster and Get Yo' Body Movin! Serious bouncy, silly fun.

5.) Playtime

a.)Penguin paper craft- I am still on a big process art kick, so I made one as an example and let the kids go to town.  This was just one station, but if you just prefer a single craft after storytime this will do just fine. I cut the paper apart first and just let the kids glue it down and put googly eyes on it. You could have older kids cut the paper apart as well.

b.) Play-doh: I plan to alternate this with the sensory corn bin. The kids like to make things with the cookie cutters and other tools I provide. They hang out at the library for a long time after storytime is over and I just love that they want to stay here. It's the place to be!

c.) Penguin memory match- I downloaded two match game decks from the club penguin site and left them out for the kids to play with.

 It was a great return to storytime. I missed these kiddos a lot over the last month. Glad to have such a great return.

See you very soon!

Mr. Mike