Penguin Storytime 12/11/19

The holidays are always an odd time for us in the library.  Some years you get inundated with children who are out of school and whose parents need them Out. Of. The. House.  Some years it’s total crickets.  This year has been crickets for us.  Last week’s storytime was all prepped and ready to go and then…nothing.  No one came.

So this week I did last week’s storytime – Penguins!  I’m glad I kept everything because it turned out great.  The books I chose were Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester, and Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks.

Usually, I begin with a song to get everyone engaged, but this time I introduced my penguin friend first. We talked about where penguins come from, and then sang our opening song Freight Train and traveled to a few places where penguins live (Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa).  Then we talked about the letter P (for penguin), and I put the letter on the board along with pictures of various things.  I asked the children to figure out which things on the board started with a P, helping them figure out which things worked and which didn’t by making “P” sounds.  This is an idea I got from Supercharged Storytimes, and it worked really well—the kids were totally engaged!

Then we talked about how big penguins are.  I asked the kids to estimate how big the smallest penguins are, and then I measured that with a tape measure.  I showed them how big the penguins really are (13” for the little penguin (aka the fairy penguin), and then we repeated the process with the biggest penguin (emperor penguins run 4 feet high!) and let the kids measure themselves against how high those penguins are.  We got a lot of great math in, estimating, measuring, and talking about numbers.

I read our first book, Tacky the Penguin, and had everyone get up and dance to If You’re a Penguin and You Know It.

If you’re a penguin and you know it flap your wings (flap, flap)
If you’re a penguin and you know it flap your wings (flap, flap)
If you’re a penguin and you know it and you really want to show it
If you’re a penguin and you know it flap your wings. (flap, flap)
Catch a fish (clap hands)
Wiggle your tail (wiggle, wiggle)
Snap your beak (click teeth)

Then I did the flannel story Pippa’s Penguin, which is a much longer flannel story than I usually do, but if you do it right, you get lots of engagement by the kids.  Today, mine kept shouting, “Not (that color!), penguins are black and white!” Which was exactly what they were supposed to do.

We did the fingerplay Two Little Penguins next:

Two little penguins sitting on the ice (hold up two fingers)
One bows once, the other bows twice (made index fingers bow)
Waddle little penguins. Waddle away. (put fingers behind back)
Come back penguins. Time to play! (bring fingers to the front)

Credit: King County Library System

Our last book was Polar Opposites, which has (as the title indicates) lots of opposites in it, talks about penguins and polar bears, and throws in some geography just for the heck of it.

We finished up with a rousing scarf dance, which we did to Miss Amy’s Penguin Dance from her Wide, Wide World CD.