A Colorful Storytime

Yes, our spring storytimes are over, but last week I went to visit one of our local preschools and I brought along a colorful storytime to share with them! Colors is one of those themes that is infinitely flexible, but here's what I did:

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello

(To the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell")
My hands say hello, my hands say hello
Every time I see my friends, my hands say hello!

Repeat with different body parts.

Book: Mouse Paint by Ellen Walsh - None of the classes I visited had seen this book before and they loved it! It's simply enough to read with young children, but older children get a kick out of guessing which colors the mice are going to make when they combine red and yellow, yellow and blue, and blue and red.

Felt Story: Dog's Colorful Day - This was a great choice for my preschool visits because I could shorten it for the younger classes or if the kids weren't into it. Dog is white with one black spot and as he goes through his day, he collects other colored spots as he gets messier and messier. For some of the spots, I asked the kids to predict which color the spot would be (Ex. "Dog rolled in the grass! What color spot will he get from that?")

Song: If You're Wearing Red Today

(To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb")
If you're wearing red today, red today, red today
If you're wearing red today, please stand up!

Repeat with different colors and motions.

This is a simple song/activity to do and the kids love looking all over their clothing for different colors. When I've done several colors and everyone's had the opportunity to stand up at least once, I ask the kids if I got all the colors, are there other colors we should do? They can always think of one I haven't done!

Big Book: Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox - I love this book and I was so happy that the kids loved it, too! The funniest was the first class. Every time I got to the part that asked "Where is the green sheep?" they chorused, "We don't KNOW!!!"

Activity: Colorful scarves. I passed out the scarves and asked kids to:

Wave your scarves HIGH!
Wave your scarves LOW!
Wave your scarves in the MIDDLE!
Then I asked kids with particular colors to wave. After I called each color, I asked them all to wave their scarves fast, slow, high, low, in front, behind, in a circle, up and down... And for the grand finale, we counted to three and then threw our scarves up in the air and watched them all come down in a big rainbow.

Book: I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont - I love to sing this book. I emphasize the rhymes and usually the kids can guess which body part the boy's going to paint next.

Closing Rhyme: 10 Little Fingers

10 little fingers, we raise them up to the sky!
10 little fingers, we wave them all goodbye!

I don't do a craft with these outreach storytimes, so then it was time to pack up and go back to the library!

If you don't like or don't have any of these books, there are tons of alternate books available. When I go on an outreach visit, I always bring a few extra books just in case one flops or I run through everything and have time left.

Alternate Books:

There are color storytimes available at Storytime Katie (actually Katie's posted another color storytime, too), Mel's Desk, Storytime Source Page, and many others! Or if you don't like or don't have some of the books above, try one of these:

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Kid Tea by Elizabeth Ficocelli
Lemons are Not Red by Laura Seeger
Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood