Now if you've tried to do a preschool Seuss storytime, you know it's not as easy as it sounds. Many of Seuss's books are way too long for preschoolers, so this calls for a little creativity. Luckily, I have the fabulous Miss T who put together this storytime and she had the fabulous Mel of Mel's Desk who posted about her Dr. Seuss baby storytime!
So here's what we did:
Opening Song: "Shake Your Sillies Out" by RaffiMemory Box: This week's Memory Box item is a toothbrush from the book In a People House.
Book: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Following Mel's advice, we only read the beginning part and the ending part.
Book: In a People House by Theo LeSieg
Fingerplay: One Little Cat with little finger hats
Put on his hat and went out to play
Two little cats when the sky turned dark
Put on their hats and went to the park
Three little cats when the sky turned blue
Put on their hats and went to the zoo
Four little cats by the kitchen door
Put on their hats and went to the store
Five little cats on a sunny day
Put on their hats and they all ran away.
Flannelboard Story: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. We just did the very beginning part of the story:
Black fish, blue fish, old fish, new fish
This one has a little star
This one has a little car
Say! What a lot of fish there are!
Song: We sang "Happy Birthday" to Dr. Seuss, of course!!
Book: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! by Dr. Seuss
Flannelboard Story: Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg. Again, we just did the very beginning part of the story:
One apple on top. Two apples on top.
Look! See! I can do three.
I’m not going to stop; I’ll put four apples on top.
I’m not through; I can get five apples on top. Can you?
I am so good, I will not stop, six, seven eight apples on top.
Not one will I drop, I have nine apples on top.
Nine is very good. But then… Come on and we will make it ten!
Ten apples up on top!
Felt Activity: Color hats. I passed out one felt hat to each child and invited them up to put their hat on the board when I called their color. An activity like this is a simple way to get kids involved with your storytime and to reinforce concepts like colors.
This week for the book list handout, I featured nonfiction titles from the series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That because I figured they would be titles families are less familiar with. (And also, we're more likely to, y'know, actually have them on the shelves this week...)
Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss!!