At the Zoo Storytime

This was my final story time of the school year, and I'm glad it ended up being one of the most fun. I brought a pile of books with me, and for each group, I read a few different books. The zoo theme was inspired by Abby (the) Librarian's post about a zoo theme and because one of my groups this week had just gotten back from their own trip to the zoo.

We started out by singing "The Animals at the Zoo" (tune of "Wheels on the Bus")
The snake at the zoo goes hiss hiss hiss,
Hiss hiss hiss
Hiss hiss hiss
The snake at the zoo goes hiss hiss hiss,
All day long

and so forth. The beauty of this song is it can go on as short or as long as the kids interests dictate, and they can be the ones in charge of deciding what animals to sing about. I'm a huge fan of letting them dictate the animals we sing, but if you do that, be prepared to decide what noise a zebra makes stat. I suggested to the day care kids (they're 2 - 4 years old) that the zebra could snort, but they weren't having it. . .

Then I read these stories to the different groups:

Never, Ever Shout in a Zoo by Karma Wilson

If you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of Wilson's books. The text is just enough rhyme to work without being overpowering.


1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman

This story is way cute, and the kids in all of the groups loved it. A little boy sneaks into the zoo before it opens and sees all of the crazy hijinks that happen when one of the animals gets a key and lets the others loose. The pictures were the favorite part to the kids, who loved looking for the sneaky fox in some of them.


A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C Stead

I only read this one to my oldest group, which is a kindergarten class. They absolutely loved this one. It's such a sweet story, but I think it is geared a little older than preschoolers. I was worried it'd be over the kindergartners' appreciation levels but I was so wrong. When I finished, they wanted me to reread it.


Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

This popup book was one I could have the kids participate with. Each time we got to a new page, we had a flap to open, and I had the kids call out what they thought was inside. And it was the frog that tripped them up every time. A fun book and they begged me to read it more than once. But I still said no because of the next book.


From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

I bought this one in extra large, and I had the kids participate in doing the actions. What fun! I had to give them the warning to be very careful when kicking, but they were all very good sports about it. This is the story they begged to be read more than once, and I did it more than once in each class because I had a blast watching the kids act out the animal motions.

After reading, we played our last game of "Little Mouse," and my preschoolers each begged to kiss him goodbye. This is the same preschool group that broke my original little mouse with their kisses and hugs, but oh, it's worth it. They get a kick out of it.

And finally, our craft. I debated what I wanted to do, but then I pulled this one out since it was easy, fun, and one that required nearly no prep (after the spider hats and prep therein, I was ready for easy...as were my volunteers!):


We made our own snakes. This is such an easy one, and the kids have a blast making the snake exactly how they want to.

To make it, cut a plate into a spiral, until you have a small circle in the center for the head. Color as you want to, then glue on wiggly eyes and a small piece of red felt for a tongue. Voila!