Montessori Storytime: Monsters

The theme for this week's story time comes from The Big Book of Stories, Songs, and Sing-Alongs: Programs for Babies, Toddlers, and Families by Maddigan & Drennan. As my group is very diverse I selected the Monster Mash theme (p 223- 227) from the Family Fun Section.

The kids were really riled up from their play period, so instead of starting out with the story, I jumped into:

Song/ Body Activity - Monsters Stomp (Clap, Growl, Sneak) Around the House sung to the tune of Camptown Races from The Big Book of Stories... And they sneak to their sitting spots.

Opening Song: "We Are Here For Storytime" sung to the tune of  London Bridge from
Although I'd already started storytime with the song, for continuity's sake, we did this one before reading:

Book: The Monster Who Ate My Peas by Schnitzlein

Craft: Build a Monster- provide lots of different parts of the monsters - arms and legs made from different animals and vegetables or have stencils the kids could draw from to build their own monsters. (I didn't have crafts prepared this time, so instead I had the kids direct me on drawing a monster.) Need paper, stencils, crayons. If pasting, need glue and plenty of monster parts.

Book: There Are Monsters Everywhere by Mayer, Mercer. I introduced this book by talking about how the boy was scared of monsters, but he decided to do something that would make it all better. Because the main character takes up karate, I had the kids pretend to be karate choppers with me. This riled them all up again, but, haha, not my problem because it was the end of storytime.

Closing Song: "The More We Get Together" by Raffi