Wednesday, March 11

Birds Storytime

This storytime was for a preschool-aged group at my library.


Today's storytime is brought to you by the letter 'B'. So, on the board when the kids walked in was:


Read Aloud Books



TelephoneWritten by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jen Corace

Momma bird simply wants all the birds sitting on the telephone wire to pass the message down that Peter needs to come home for dinner. But each bird hears something slightly different. This book is pretty hilarious, even for the kids that have never played the game "Telephone." They just thought it was silly how each bird had their own take on the message. The parents were laughing quite a bit, too.

FroodleWritten and illustrated by Antoinette Portis

Every day it's the same. The birds say "Caw!" or "Coo!" or "Peep!" But Brown Bird is tired of it. He's going to try something new, even if the others aren't so sure. This book is really fun to read aloud because of all the silly things the birds start to say. For some reason, though, the kids didn't seem as amused as I thought they would be.

Shh! We Have a PlanWritten and illustrated by Chris Haughton

Look at the beautiful birdie! These three guys have a plan to catch it. But maybe the fourth guy is the one with the right idea. So, the funny thing about reading this book is the amount of times you read, "SHH!" The kids were extra quiet for this one! What, with it sounding like I was shushing them all the time. Ha! I think they still liked it. It makes for some good follow-along actions, too.

Songs & Rhymes



Action Rhyme: Little Bird, Little Bird
Little birds, little birds, jump up and down
Little birds, little birds, don’t make a sound
Little birds, little birds, tip-toe, tip-toe
Little birds, little birds, fly down low
Little birds, little birds, peep, peep, peep
Little birds, little birds, sleep, sleep, sleep
Little birds, little birds, bend your knees
Little birds, little birds, sit down please

Fingerplay: Two Little Dickey Birds
Two little dickey birds sitting on a wall (index fingers of both hands in front of you)
One named Peter, the other named Paul (wiggle one finger, then the other)
Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul! (fly one hand behind your back, then the other)
Come back Peter! Come back Paul! (bring back one hand, then the other)

…sitting on a cloud, one named Soft the other named Loud…
…sitting down low, one named Fast and the other named SLOWWWW...
…sitting on a lily, one named Serious, the other named Silly...
(These last verses are super fun for the kids: e.g. making your finger silly)

(to sing with egg shakers)
We shake our eggs together
We shake our eggs together
We shake our eggs together
Because it's fun to do!
We shake them up high
We shake them down low
We shake them in the middle

(we danced all around with our egg shakers!)


Games & Activities


Felt: Bird Houses

The inspiration for this idea came from all sorts of places, specifically what was on Flannel Friday's Bird pin board. But what I did differently with mine was to make sure that it was purely based on shape-matching (not color-matching) so that my preschoolers had a challenge. Here's mine:


So the houses are all the same; the kids can only match the birds and houses by shape. (However, the roof pieces are removable and, if in the future I change my mind, they can color-coordinate with the birds.)

Basically, I put the houses up first and had the kids name all the shapes (you should have seen the super intelligent kid who was so excited to yell, "TRAPEZOID!" when no one else knew it). Then I put the birds up and had the kids tell me which color bird went with which shape of house.

Game: Baby Bird, Baby Bird, Where Do You Hide?


Initially used for Easter, it worked well for the bird theme, too.

Baby bird, baby bird, where do you hide?
Are you in the (color) egg? Let's peek inside!

Craft: Bird Feeders


Thanks to Sunflower Storytime for this idea. The kids got to work on their fine motor skills and string Cheerios on the pipe cleaners. They could twist theirs into whichever shape, but I did mine as a 'B' for birdfeeder (a lot of kids ended up making the first letter of their name, which was adorable). Then they're ready to hang outside!

Other Book Ideas



Make Way for DucklingsWritten and illustrated by Robert McCloskey

Hoot Owl, Master of DisguiseWritten by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jean Jullien

Click, Clack, Peep!Written by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin

BirdsWritten and illustrated by Kevin Henkes

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