What’s this? A story time outline? My goodness, I don’t think I’ve posted one of these in literally years! Story time outlines used to make up the bulk of my blog posts, but now I typically only do one story time a week, plus I don’t know that much of my readership is made up of librarians anymore.
With all that being said, here we have a story time outline. A preschool for children with complex social and developmental needs came to visit recently, and their leaders asked if I could share some songs and stories about feelings, as the group has been working on developing vocabulary to express their feelings, and coping skills to manage their feelings in health ways. Of course I was more than happy to oblige!
We read two great stories, which both led to some delightful conversations.
Penguin is grumpy. He doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t care. He takes off all his grumpy clothes, and deals with his grumpiness the best way he knows how – with a soothing bath, a warm cup of hot chocolate, a favourite book and a snuggle with a beloved stuffed toy. I love the way that Grumpy Pants doesn’t dwell on why Penguin is grumpy, because really, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes we’re grumpy for a reason, and sometimes we get get up on the wrong side of the bed. It happens! What matters is how we deal with those grumps, and what healthy strategies we use to manage our big feelings.
Elephant is feeling grumpy when a surprise box of hats lands on his door. Hooray for hat! He shares his wonderful hats with all his grumpy friends, turning their frowns into smiles, which makes everyone feel better. This is a great story time book, with plenty of repetition and a great refrain that’s such fun to shout aloud – HOORAY FOR HAT! There’s a nice message that sharing can make everyone feel better, whether you’re giving or receiving, and that being with friends can be a great cure for the grumps.
Song: If You’re Happy (Sad, Mad, Scared….) and you Know It ….with props!
This version of the classic children’s song uses simple, colourful faces to help children identity, name and act out different emotions. I printed off my set from Sunflower Storytime here. I laminated them to make them more durable, then attached them to a set of wooden sticks.
These are the actions we did with the faces:
If you’re happy and you know it shout hooray.
If you’re grumpy and you know it, stomp your feet.
If you’re sad and you know it say “boo hoo”
If you’re silly and you know it wave your arms.
If you’re surprised and you know it shout “oh my!”
If you’re scared and you know it, cover your eyes.
So silly, and such fun! Visuals can be so helpful for young children, so it’s great to have them on hand.
We also did a few fan favourites, including rolly polly and zoom, zoom, zoom to round out our little story time.
And there you have it – a rare sighting of a story time outline here on Raincity Librarian. Until next time!
I’m not a librarian, but I do storytime once a week with my grandsons via Google Hangout, and I’m always looking for interesting pairings that I think will interest them. Thank you!
I read Grumpy Pants in storytime last week and we had the exact same discussion – sometimes you just don’t know why you’re grumpy, and that is OKAY! They loved when the penguin took off his grumpy underpants. 🙂 Reading your post has got me thinking both of these books would go great with an opposites storytime as well… hmm…
I’m commenting on this comment several years later, because a caregiver recently complained to me about this book, saying it encourages bad behaviour. I…was less than impressed, ha ha. Apparently they’d never woken up on the wrong side of the bed before!
Whaaaat? 😑 Grumpy Penguin literally takes a bubble bath and teaches self-care! How is that bad behavior?!
I know! But apparently you shouldn’t be grumpy for “no reason”, that kind of pouting is not appropriate behaviour. I suggested that the reason for the penguin’s sour mood might have been left ambiguous so more readers could relate to the story, but they still weren’t impressed. Yeesh!