Ahoy Mateys: It's a Pirate! Story Time

Ahoy, Ahoy! We be having a fantastic time at story time today! Yo ho ho and a sippy cup of milk as I always say!

As you can tell, our story time featured pirates today. I have been anxiously awaiting this one since I decided on it in August.

Yeah, I made that sweet pirate bunting.  Also you can see the awesome pirate hat we made for our craft today!

First story of the day is Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel where the captain decides "R" is not enough.

Then we sang If you're a pirate and you know it. I made sure to write this out on a giant yellow pad to help the parents with the lyrics. Although the tune is familiar, I find the parents are more likely to join in if they have a visual aid.

If you’re a Pirate and You Know It

If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck,

(Swish, swish)

If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck,

(Swish, swish)

If you’re a pirate and you know it, then you’ll hear the sea winds blowin,

If you’re a pirate and you know it, swab the deck,

(Swish, swish)

Verses two and three:

If you’re a pirate and you know it, walk the plank

(Stomp, stomp)

If you’re a pirate and you know it, say ahoy.

(Ahoy!)

You can see the yellow pad I used in this photo.

Second story up is Bubble Bath Pirates by Jarrett Krosoczka.

For our flannel board story today we had Five Pirates on A Treasure Chest.

Probably my favorite part about the entire story time was getting to see the toddler's in their own pirate hats! I found the pattern here. From there I cut out all the shapes and did an outline of yarn on them to give them a pirate feel. I cut up strips of poster board for the band. All the kiddos have to do is glue on their teddy bear crossbones and then the caregivers and Miss Megan can staple the band and construction paper hat together. I rocked my own version for the story time.

Now I Know My ABC's!

Today we read about the alphabet!

First story up was the classic, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! By Bill Martin Jr. Always a hit! I even saw one of the little ones wiggle waggling when the letter did!

We had a good crowd this morning so we launched right into the next book Click Clack Quackety Quack By Doreen Cronin. Since this once is short I tried to point different items on the page or add a funny sound here and there.

Next we sang the Alphabet song while I pointed out the ABCs on the boarxd. I just typed them up in publisher and made a poster. Although, I do have to admit I felt silly that I didn't notice until AFTER story time started that I had forgot the K. Boy, was my face red but noone seemed to notice thank goodness. Next time I will definitely have someone ELSE proofread!

Final story of the day was Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth. For some reason I was worried this one wouldn't go over well but the toddlers were entranced by this one. Everytime I would tell say the "Shoo fly! Shoo fly! Shooo!" part one little girl would say it too and had the whole group cracking up!

We did one last song for the day:

A B C Tumble down D

Cat's in the cupboard

And can't see me

(play peek-a-boo)

A B C Tumble down D

Cat's in the cupboard

And can't see me

(play peek-a-boo)

I said the rhyme once while demonstrating and then had everyone do it with me.

Today's craft was found on The Crafting Chicks Blog: Mini "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" Trees
If you scroll down to the bottom of the post you will see the instructions. The only difference on my version was that I stapled the paper on beforehand and it doesn't mention it out right but you need to cut a slit on the leaves so they can slide onto the tube. I found foam letters in the dollar store!