For Show Me The Awesome, I wanted to write about one of the things I do really well: preschool visits. I have to say that I absolutely love this age group and find their enthusiasm infectious.I can remember being so nervous to do any kind of visits when I first started out. The fear of a group of strangers was terrifying to me (even if those strangers only came up to my knees).
It took a while before I realized that the trick to a successful group visit was to share my absolute favorite material, and nothing less and then my natural enthusiasm for those stories would shine through. Realizing that was my "lightbulb moment" and I have looked forward to having preK classes come in to my library ever since.
Being a great youth services librarian means finding your own voice. It means I'm constantly discovering books that fit with my personal voice and style. What are your favorites? Please share them in the comments. Here are mine:
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
Red Sled by Lita Judge
Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
BINGO draw and tell story by Dr. Jean
Little Mouse, Little Mouse felt board story (traditional)
It took a while before I realized that the trick to a successful group visit was to share my absolute favorite material, and nothing less and then my natural enthusiasm for those stories would shine through. Realizing that was my "lightbulb moment" and I have looked forward to having preK classes come in to my library ever since.
Being a great youth services librarian means finding your own voice. It means I'm constantly discovering books that fit with my personal voice and style. What are your favorites? Please share them in the comments. Here are mine:
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
Red Sled by Lita Judge
Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
BINGO draw and tell story by Dr. Jean
Little Mouse, Little Mouse felt board story (traditional)
Pete the Cat books are such fun-- I can almost always get the kids to sing along. And mu singing voice is not going to win prizes, so I agree- use what you love and it doesn't matter if you sound silly....
ReplyDeleteDuck on a Bike by Shannon and Bark, George by Feiffer
ReplyDeleteMONKEY AND ME FTW!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHuff & Puff by Rueda
Drat the Fat Cat by Thompson
Seals on the Bus by Hort
Seconding Pete the Cat.
Stuck by Jeffers is quickly becoming a new favorite.
Great post!
Recently had the PreSchoolers visit me at the library. Did a Mixed Up Animal Story Time which included Bark George, Ribbit by Rodrigo Folgueira and Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Rosenthal. All titles were well received. For an activity in between I used a recent purchase thru Mr. Anderson's of PreCut Learning Wonders Animals-they came cut in halves. We talked first about the front front and backs of animals, showed an example of a correct front and back match, then of course an incorrect match. Passed out to each child a front or back, then they had to find the match for the animal half they had in their hands. Then together they brought it up to the flannel board. Stole a cute craft idea from Pinterest for Duck/Rabbit. Kids always love animals.
ReplyDeleteBark, George by Feiffer is AMAZING. I love reading it!
ReplyDeleteWith very young pre-schoolers I like 'Walking Through the Jungle.' It alternates quite blank pages, with just a baby walking/creeping/crawling etc.'through' the jungle and an animal sound and really colourful pages with a picture of tag
ReplyDeleteHe animal. There's scope for actions, animal noises and guessing which animal is coming up next. Brilliant!