Preschool Story Time: Cowboys (Heroes throughout History)

Date presented:  July 16, 2015

This story time was based on the theme suggestions from the 2015 CSLP Summer Reading Manual.  My goal was to have eight weeks of programming based on the theme:  “Every Hero Has a Story.”  To be honest, not all of those themes turned out to be great ideas.  Combined with the fact that these were some of the first story times I did, and we didn’t have much in the way of structure, well…let’s just say that you may have to be forgiving of some of the elements.  But, one of my goals for blogging about my story times is to include the good and the bad, so that hopefully others will learn, too.

Introduction

When I presented this story time, I didn’t have much of an introduction set up.  Since the parents tended to be running late, I would spend the first five minutes or so talking to the kids and parents as they came in, and sometimes teasing what we were doing in story time that week.  These story times were held in an open part of our children’s section, so they were visible throughout parts of the library and to anyone who was in the children’s department.

Welcome Song

We used the same welcome song in preschool story time each week.  It was taught to me by my boss when I took over story time as the welcome song that families were used to, and I kept it as part of my story times.

Welcome, Everyone (Tune:  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

Now you’re here – let’s have some fun.

First we’ll clap our hands just so.

Then we’ll reach and touch our toes.

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

Now you’re here – let’s have some fun.

Credit:  Adapted from Public Library Program Ideas

Letter of the Day

Each week, we had a Letter of the Day for story time.  For preschool groups, I gave an introduction to the topic that we were going to do, and a hint about the important word or words before asking them to guess the letter.  Some weeks the kids could guess the letter on the first try, and some weeks we spent a little more time trying to figure out what the letter might be.  We showed two cards:  one that showed the letter of the week, and one that showed how to make the letter in sign language.  This week was C for Cowboy.

iPad Technology

During this summer, we had hoped to incorporate technology into story time with our iPads.  When I was planning, I picked a Storybots ABC video for each week that corresponded with the letter of the week.  This plan should have included the video “Crazy for C,” but after trying this in one or two story times, I determined that our setup didn’t really allow it to work.  The screen on the iPad was too small for most of the audience to see (we didn’t have a way to project it), and honestly, the parents and kids alike were confused by why we were doing it.  So, this technology ended up dropped out of the outlines.

Story Box

This summer I introduced something a little different for my preschool story times.  Instead of having the books and activities in a particular order, which is how I normally do story time, I wanted to make it more interactive.  So, I created Ms. Jaime’s Story Box, a wooden box that contained everything I needed for story time.  I would include the books that I planned to read, as well as any flannel stories I wanted to share, and wooden music notes to represent songs.  The goal was for children to pick something out of the box to start the story time, and then pick another element once we’ve finished the first.  I don’t remember now the order that we shared things in (the hazards of not blogging about story time when it happens), but overall, it got to be part of story time that the kids were really excited about.  It was sometimes crazy, and our story time was sometimes disjointed, but it was a lot of fun.  For the purposes of blogging, though, I’ll just list the books and elements in the order that I planned them.

1st Book

There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant by Helen Ketteman – I picked this book because it’s adorable.  I’ve used it in a few preschool story time since, and it really depends on the audience whether or not it works well.  It really needs an attentive audience who enjoy the cumulative effect of the story.  When I read it, I try at add some ridiculous drawling for the cowpoke just to keep things interesting.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

Our “Clap Your Hands” song was a staple for story time each week, and usually happened sometime after our first book as a transition to our next element.  Since the kids were usually excited about pulling out a book or a flannel story, the music notes didn’t really get selected as often.  As the weeks went on, I prompted them for when we would share a song, which let us work music in a little more regularly.  This is another song that I inherited from the previous children’s librarian, but it was such a hit with our groups that it was impossible not to include it each week.

Clap Your Hands

Clap, clap, clap your hands,

Clap your hands together.

Clap, clap, clap your hands,

Clap your hands together.

Clap a little faster now,

Clap along with me.

Clap a little slower now,

Clap along with me.

Continue with:  nod your head, shake your heads, stomp your feet, and (sometimes) shake your hands.

Credit:  Adapted from KIDiddles

2nd Book

Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas – This is seriously one of my favorite books of all time to read in story time.  I mean, who doesn’t love Jan Thomas?  This book is short enough to work with just about any audience, and I have so much fun reading it because of course the cowboy sings in a warbling, exaggerated drawl.  I always have the cowboy act super surprised at the answers that the kids give, like I have no idea that a flower wasn’t really a huge, hairy spider.  This one is almost always good for laughs, and I definitely recommend using it.

Flannel Story

For this week, I used a flannel that I previously created for Texas history story time, called “Dress the Cowboy.”  Since I wanted to include both cowgirls and cowboys in my story time, I made a second set to “Dress the Cowgirl,” which I’ll post about at some point in the future.  This one was a little chaotic because some of the pieces are a little small, but it’s a lot of fun to do.  I said the rhyme with the different things that our cowboy needs to get dressed, and the kids brought them up to put in the right spot on the cowboy until he was dressed.  Trying to do both a cowboy and a cowgirl was a little much for the group, though, so in the future I think I’d stick with one or the other.

Song/Rhyme/Activity

I always included a second song or rhyme in my outlines for this group, although I very rarely included them in the story time session.  For this theme, I chose the song “Western Animals” so that we had an excuse to make different animal noises.

Western Animals Song (Tune:  The Wheels on the Bus)

The coyotes on the prairie go howl, howl, howl

Howl, howl, howl, howl, howl, howl

The coyotes on the prairie go howl , howl, howl

All day long

Repeat with:

The rattlesnakes…rattle, rattle, rattle

The horses…neigh, neigh, neigh

The cows…moo, moo, moo

The jackrabbits…jump, jump, jump

Credit:  North Mankato Taylor Library

3rd Book

Buckamoo Girls by Ellen A. Kelley – This book was probably the least well received of the entire story time.  It was a little long, and honestly, the kids were a little confused about the idea of having cowgirls instead of cowboys.  I originally included it because I wanted to show both cowboys and cowgirls.  Also, since the Buckamoo Girls are literally cows, I think it was a little more abstract than what my audience is typically used to.

Goodbye Song

We ended story time with our goodbye song, which is always the same each week.  We always sang “The More We Get Together” from the Baby Love Song Time CD.  The response varied from week to week.

Craft

For this week, I went with a very simple cowboy boot craft.  I printed this cute boot template on cardstock and cut it out, and let the kids decorate with crayons, markers, and stickers however they wanted.  It was simple enough to not require a ton of prep and worked for both the intended audience and the younger siblings who joined.  The cardstock was good because it held up better than just paper for our more enthusiastic artists.

How It Went

Unfortunately, I did this outline before I started keeping really detailed story time notes, so I don’t have any details about specific reactions or attendance for the week.  Overall, this theme wasn’t a complete failure, but I would definitely make modifications before using this outline again.  It’s hard to find cute cowboy stories that are short enough for the preschool audience, but there are some good titles out there.  I’ve reused parts of this element in future cowboys story times with pretty good success.

Flannel Friday: Dress the Cowboy

Recently, I realized that I needed to do something different with my story times.  We had songs and action rhymes and, of course, books, but I still felt like something was missing.  So, I decided to try my hand at flannel stories.  My library has a very extensive collection of flannel boards (that I am currently in the process of organizing and inventorying to see what we have), but after seeing some of the great designs out there (and featured with Flannel Friday), I wanted to try my hand at making some of my own.

True confession:  I actually enlist the help of a great volunteer who does a lot of the creation for me.  I supply templates, ideas, and materials, and she actually does the creation.  

Currently, I plan for all three story times (baby, toddler, and preschool) at my library, but I only present for the babies and preschoolers.  This summer, though, I will be taking on the toddlers as well.  So far, I haven’t added any flannel stories to my baby story times, but I have included them for the toddlers and the preschool groups.  My current story time setup includes an easel that is a felt board on one side, which I’ve found is actually great for sharing the flannel stories with the group.  Putting the stories on the easel frees me up to move the pieces and interact with the kids without holding a board, and it also makes it easier for everyone in the group to see.  I’ve been doing flannel stories for a couple of weeks now, and they seem to be pretty popular with my groups.

March is Texas History Month, and my library director wanted us to offer a Texas-themed story time as part of the month-long focus on Texas in our library.  Planning a story time on Texas was actually much harder than I thought it would be.  I managed to come up with a theme and craft, but I still wanted something more interactive.  With the theme in mind, I set out to find a flannel story.

What You Need

I came across a great Dress the Cowboy rhyme from this Go Texan Day outline.  The poem is recommended as a flannel story, so I wanted to create a cowboy that we could actually dress.  Let me tell you, finding a cowboy template is harder than you would think!  I finally found this adorable outline from Made by Joel that I was able to work with.  I printed several copies of the cowboy so that we could make modifications to the body as needed.  I created a cowboy body template, and then created separate pieces for our clothing.

The Story

Our cowboy starts out with no clothes.  I told the kids that I needed some help to get him dressed correctly, and asked for volunteers to help me dress the cowboy.  In Wednesday’s group, I had more kids than I had pieces, but I was able to partner up siblings to help each other with no complaints.  Thursday’s group had less kids who wanted to participate, so everyone who wanted to got a piece to put on the cowboy.  One of our other librarians recommended that I do the rhyme twice if I had a larger group in the future, which I will definitely do if it happens again to give everyone the chance to participate.

Once we put our cowboy up on the board, I recited the rhyme and paused after each article of clothing to find the child who had it and give him or her the chance to bring it up to the board to dress the cowboy.  We clapped and cheered for everyone who brought up their pieces and put them on the cowboy.  Here’s an idea of how it looks in progress:

A cowboy dresses himself with care.  He starts with long, red underwear.

Out in the desert, you don’t want to get hurt, so the cowboy wears a strong wool shirt.

Deserts and prairies are the cowboy’s scenes.  To protect his legs, he wears sturdy blue jeans.

The cowboy bent, and ran, and knelt.  To keep his pants up, he wore a leather belt.

The coyote howls, the old owl hoots.  On his feet, he wears leather boots.

It isn’t yellow, so it’s not a banana.  Around his neck, he wears a soft bandanna.

At this point, I stopped and asked the kids if our cowboy was complete.  I wasn’t sure whether they would need prompting to remember his hat, but both groups responded immediately with a resounding, “NO!  He doesn’t have a hat!”  So, I asked if anyone had a hat for our cowboy and we finished the rhyme.

A cowboy is a cowboy, and that is that!  On top of his head, he wore a ten-gallon hat.  He’s all dressed now from head to feet, and now our cowboy can’t be beat!

Tips for Use

I ad-libbed the poem in a few places to make it work with our groups and so I didn’t have to constantly refer to my notes.  Overall, the kids really enjoyed helping dress the cowboy.  We left him up for the rest of story time (and he made a great transition into our last book), and after story time, several of the kids came back through for another look at the cowboy.  I also had parents both days taking video of the kids dressing the cowboy.  While I was a little surprised (and nervous), I think it means that our cowboy was a hit!

Hopefully this will be the first of many flannel successes that I get to share.  While I do plan on utilizing the great flannel stories that we have purchased for the library, I also want to keep creating new stories of my own.

Can’t Get Enough?

Many thanks to Kathryn at Fun with Friends at Storytime for being the Flannel Friday host this week.  Flannel Friday has been an amazing resource for me as a children’s librarian, and I hope it helps you, too!  For more information, visit the Flannel Friday website here.  Thanks to all the other children’s librarians who have been sharing their great ideas!