Stortime Recap: Farm to Fair

Welcome back to  Preschool Storytime! Summer is a fun but busy time, so it is was nice to get back to our regular schedule. We jumped right in with our welcome song "Clap Everybody and Say Hello." The consistent use of a welcome song provides structure and behavior cues to children who attend regularly. Today I began by asking if anyone had been to the Johnson County Fair a couple of weeks ago. Then I asked if anyone would be headed to the Iowa State Fair this weekend. We shared what animals we saw at the fair. I told everyone that we would start off by finding out what all of those animals eat in our first book, The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson. While the idea of a cow eating cookies gets plenty of laughs, I like sharing this book for its rhyming text and building narrative.

Next I brought out felt animals to provide a visual aid for the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with some fair flair at the end.

Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O And on his farm he had a cow E-I-E-I-O With a moo moo here And a moo moo there Here a moo, there a moo Everywhere a moo moo Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O

Repeat with pig, duck, and sheep. Last verse

Old MacDonald went to the fair E-I-E-I-O He took his cow, he took his pig, he took his duck, he took his sheep E-I-E-I-O With a moo moo here (point to cow) And an oink oink there (point to pig) Here a quack, there a quack (point to duck) Everywhere a baa baa (point to sheep) Old MacDonald went to the fair E-I-E-I-O

After being such good singers, I told everyone we would read Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin. This is a funny story about farm animals who want to sing at the county fair.

At the end of the story, the pigs have almost ruin the show by falling asleep. So we followed sleeping piggies up with hungry piggies, and did a quick fingerplay rhyme.

Three little piggies and one piggy more (hold up 3 then 4 fingers) Knocked upon the kitchen door (make knocking motion) The farmer came out (hold hands flat together then open them) And gave them their lunch (make bowl with hands and move hands forward) They ate it all With a munch, munch, munch. (bring thumb and fingers together and motion towards mouth)

I finished up with our last story, I Know a Wee Piggy by Kim Norman, which follows the colorful misadventures of an escaped pig at the fair.

Our after storytime movie was an animation of the book Bink and Gollie : Two for One by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee. The story follows two best friends who spend a day at the fair playing carnival games, entering contests and getting their fortunes read. At last, everyone received a goodbye hand stamp of a cow.

Have fun at the fair!