When it rains, it pours! (Not weather-wise; in Denver, it has been absolutely gorgeous. It’s like summer weather in Seattle right now–no humidity and late 70s–my favorite). After a weekend of chauffering cousins around and organizing, it was really fun to visit 3-5 year olds at Jefferson County Head Start for the past two days. Yesterday, we were at the largest Head Start I have ever seen and had a busy day of 20-minute storytimes with 12 different groups of classes! And each group had two separate classes! Which means we served 24 classes with about 15 students in each class–about 360 kids in all! And gave a book to each child! (I am using a lot of exclamation points to show exactly how excited we were). Today, we did the same with 3 classes at a different location of the same Jefferson County Head Start. This is the reason we do what we do. The school is obviously really well-managed because the classes were courteous but engaged, the administrators welcoming, and the teachers friendly and kind.

For a 20-minute preschool storytime that includes giving books away, this is our basic lesson plan template that worked extremely well:

• Opening (2-3 minutes): Introduce what the Literacy Lab is and introduce ourselves as Professor Plot (Cora) and Professor Page (Erin)
• Storytime Opening Song (1-2 minutes): I put a tune to this poem: “Put your hands in the air and touch them to the ground / Put your fingers on your nose and wave your head around / Put your hands on your shoulders and your elbows on your knees / Put your chin in your hands and say, ‘read me a story, please!'” I really like it as an opening song because it gets the kids moving and paying attention without letting them get out of their criss-cross-applesauce (aka, legs crossed for those of you not in the know) position. In terms of literacy, it helps build oral listening skills.
• Introduction to the story (2-3 minutes). Our storytime theme was animals. I put small animal puppets in a bag and told the kids that they were going to help each other discover what the story is about. I took out the animals one at a time and then asked what they had in common. Usually, I had to prompt them by asking, “Are these all types of cars?” (Noooo!) Then they would tell me that they are animals or puppets, both of which are correct.
• Story (5-10 minutes). I alternated between two stories: Hopping Mad and No Sleep for the Sheep. While I like both of them as readalouds, I ended up loving No Sleep for the Sheep as my new favorite preschool readaloud. It has all the elements of a fabulous readaloud: rhyme, repetition, beautiful bright illustrations, and predictive power. Hopping Mad is great for actions and talking about emotions.
• Animal song (2-3 minutes): If you haven’t heard of the children’s musician, Nancy Stewart, and you work with preschoolers (or have preschoolers or know people who work with/have preschoolers), you need to check out her website. I attended a workshop with her once and thought she was fabulous. While the music is a little sweet for my personal taste to listen to, her website has tons of songs that you can download (for free!) as mp3s and inexpensive, easy ideas for fingerplays, actions, and props to use/create. I like to sing the song, “When Ducks Get Up in the Morning” and use the animals that we talked about in the book or ones for which I have animal puppets. Take-home tip: Tell students that they can sing this song at home with their families or friends with other animals they can think of!
• Goodbye song (1 minute): I then told students that they are going to pick out 1 book to take home and read with their families, but sing a goodbye song with them before that happens.
• Book giveaway! (5 minutes): Because the teachers were so fabulous, this process actually went really smoothly. We had books lying out on the table and teachers called students up 4 at a time to pick out books, and then wrote their names in the book.

The funny thing about doing 15 storytimes (12 yesterday; 3 today) for 15 different groups is that we pretty much followed the same format every class, so I now pretty much have the books memorized by heart. But I love doing it–every group is slightly different, and yet also, share similarities. Kids in pretty much every class were intrigued by our wigs (I have a rainbow-colored one; my mom has a green one), love our big bookworm stuffed animal, and enjoy participating in the story.

This afternoon, we also went to another optometrist’s office: Optical Matters in Littleton, CO. First off, let me say that this was the friendliest, warmest staff you could meet. They provided cookies (the chocolate chip ones were quite delicious, I must say) and juice and were so friendly and accommodating. While there were about 5 kids that came, we’re still trying to figure out how to best do these sorts of visits. We are so grateful to HOYA for their sponsorship and helping connect us with optometrists all over the country, but as opposed to schools where kids are already in attendance, it’s trickier getting people to come to events in an office setting (at least, based on these first two experiences). Weekends might work better because kids are so involved with various activities after school that there may not be time to add a visit if there isn’t already an appointment planned. At any rate, we had a lot of fun with the small number who did attend and could not have been happier with the warm welcome we received. If we lived in the Colorado area and I actually needed glasses, I would totally come back here.

Okay, it’s time for me to head to bed because we are off to Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow! On Thursday, we will be visiting all 5 grades at Norwood Park Elementary School, a Title 1 school where we will give away around 200 books. Unfortunately the photos are failing to upload right now, so you’ll have to deal with my words until I can upload the photos. 🙂  Yay! The photos uploaded!