Shapes Around Us Preschool Storytime

Storytime for 3 to 5 year olds:

• Opening - "A Tooty Ta" from Dance Like This by Mr. Al

• Shape and color literacy activity - Three-dimensional shapes with building blocks

I handed each child one building block from a set of blocks the library got many years ago. The shapes came in four different colors and I used three of the shapes. The colors were red, yellow, blue, and green.  The 3-d shapes were cube, prism, and cylinder. One at a time, I briefly described the attributes of each shape and had the children holding the shape to come up and show me. Then I had the children put the blocks away in the basket when I called their color. 

• Book #1 - Round Is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, illustrated by John Parra

• Stand-up activity - Big and Round (action rhyme adapted by Carol Hopkins)

Watermelon, watermelon sitting on the ground
I see you big, green, and round
Bright sun, bright sun shining all around
I see you big, yellow, and round
Car tire, car tire rolling with a sound
I see you big, black, and round
Shining moon, shining moon giving light unbound
I see you big, white, and round

• Sit down activity - This Is (fingerplay adapted by Carol Hopkins)

This is big, big, big

This is small, small, small

This is tall, tall, tall

This is short, short, short

This is fast, fast, fast

This is slow, slow, slow

This is yes, yes, yes

This is no, no, no

This is right, right, right

This is left, left, left

This is hide

(cover eyes with hands)

This is... Peekaboo!

 

 

• Book #2 - Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh

• Book #3 - Shape By Shape by Suse Macdonald

• Closing - Dance with scarves to the song "Silly Dance Contest" from Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes by Jim Gill

   

 

• Art experience - A cut, glue, and color worksheet about shapes found in a Mailbox magazine (June/July 2008)