Have you ever noticed how many transportation books have great sounds? And how many animal books have great sounds? Well, during our latest phonological awareness focus month, I put these two together and tried a new storytime plan: animals on the “moove!”
Here’s how it went with my regular mixed-age Saturday storytime group.
*Sing: Good Morning to You
Welcome
*Sing: Roll the Ball
*Sing: If You’re Ready for a Story…
Read: Moo! by David LaRochelle
I seem to read this storytime book A LOT. It’s so great for so many early literacy skills! Narrative skills, print awareness, phonological awareness, you name it.
This book was spot on for the many ages and stages in the room. The older kiddos enjoyed supplying more narrative as we read, and everyone enjoyed making some noise!
Sing: I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner (shakers)
Speaking of farm animals, I know a chicken! And she laid an egg…
Puppet Rhyme: I Went to Visit a Farm One Day
We put our shaker eggs back in the basket and hen sat on top to keep them warm, then explored other farm animals and sounds. As we completed each verse, I passed out the puppets round the room.
Lit Tip: Building Phonological Awareness with Animal Sounds
Grown-ups, I love reading books and sining songs with farm animals because they are full of so many fun sounds! Farm animal sounds are especially good for exposing kids to tricky vowel sounds, like the short a sound in “baa” and the short u sound in “cluck”. The more sounds your child hears and makes with you NOW, the better they’ll be able to sound out words while reading and writing LATER.
Read: Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
I let the kids and caregivers keep the puppets from our earlier rhyme so they could help tell the story by making the animal noises as we read!
Play: Duck/Truck Flannel Game
I brought some extra books to read after this flannel just in case (like Bang! by Leo Timmers or Firefighter Duckies by Frank Dormer), but we had quite a few toddlers this morning and they clearly wanted to mooove again. 😉 So we did!
Sing: Little Red Wagon (stretchy band)
You probably wouldn’t see all these trucks on the farm… but you might see a wagon!
Sing: Walkin Ol’ Joe (stretchy band)
I went over the vocabulary and previewed the motions for walk, gallop, mosey and pulling back for WHOAH before we sang. This really helped the song go smoothly!
*Please visit this page to learn more about my regular storytime songs and routines.
What are some of your favorite storytime themes for building phonological awareness? Would love to get new great ideas in the comments below!
Storytime in the Stacks 