Books
 I thought pre-k would be way too sophisticated for this short tale. Wrong! At the end of the story, Max is surrounded by presents, so I segued directly into my skit about the surprise box. The running joke in this book is that Max asks way too many questions, so do a good little Max voice and really pull out those Whyyyyys and Wheeeens. But spit out Ruby's and Santa's Because.
Plays
"What's this?" I open my square green box, pulled out the cylinder, and take out the balloons. I thought pre-k would be way too sophisticated for the gimmick of balloons flying off into the air as I blew them up and let them go. Wrong! Books There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Colandro. This book makes almost no sense at all. At the end of it, the old lady whistles and apparently all her accumulated consumptions become Santa's sleigh. Unfortunately, I can't whistle well at all, so in future I'll fall back on my brothers' neighborhood Tarzan call, cause with no whistle, this book just doesn't work.  Great intro Chanukah book! Short but tells it all!
Big Hungry Bear by Wood. Perfect for a young bunch.
Does Olivia help with Christmas? Not really.
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Plays
Mrs. Claus' Journey:
Santa was exhausted from his long
night delivering toys. "Whew, I can't wait for bedtime." He was
soon snoring. But Mrs. Claus found a package at the bottom of Santa's sack,
addressed to 'BooBoo').
"Here is a present for Boo Boo
McBluie! Oh, no! Did Santa FORGET to deliver to Boo? I'll
have to take it there myself."
So Mrs. Claus put on her Santa hat
and went to the barn. There she found all the reindeers fast asleep.
"The reindeer are all tired
and sleepy. I'll have to take the pick-up truck."
(Have audience join in.)
Pick up truck, pick up truck, go so
slow.
Pick up truck, pick up truck, go so
fast.
Pick up truck, pick up truck, STEP
ON THE GAS!
Mrs. Claus zoomed along until she
reached a big lake. "This lake is wide and wet. I'll have to take a
MOTOR BOAT!"
Motor boat, motor boat, go so slow.
Motor boat, motor boat, go so fast.
Motor boat, motor boat, STEP ON THE
GAS!
Mrs. Claus zoomed across the lake
until she reached the other side, where she found a giant snowdrift, a pile of
snow bigger than a house.
"This snowdrift is deep and
cold. I'll have to take a SNOWMOBILE!"
Snowmobile, snowmobile go so slow.
Snowmobile, snowmobile go so
fast.
Snowmobile, snowmobile, STEP ON THE
GAS!
Mrs. Claus zoomed over the
snowdrift, but just on the other side was a huge mountain!
"This mountain is rocky and
enormous. I'll have to take a HELICOPTER!”
Helicopter, helicopter, go so slow.
Helicopter, helicopter, go so fast.
Helicopter, helicopter, STEP ON THE
GAS!
Mrs. Claus flew to the top of the
mountain. Scientists there were studying outer space. "But Boo Boo McBluie
isn't here," a scientist tells her. "He's flown to the moon!"
"No wonder poor Santa didn't
deliver!" said Mrs. Claus. "I'll have to take a rocket ship!"
Rocket ship, rocket ship, go so
slow.
Rocket ship, rocket ship, go so
fast.
Rocket ship, rocket ship, STEP ON
THE GAS!
Boo Boo McBluie loved his present. (Picture
of an astronaut opening a teddy bear.) (by Travis Ann Sherman)
Plays Dream Snow by Eric Carle. I tried doing this using puppets for all the animals in the book and laying them out together, then covering them with snow. Have to remember to put the animals in a covered box and then lay the snow (I used gauze and that worked great) over the box and then over my head, as the farmer. Maybe next time I should also wear a straw hat as the farmer.
Songs
5 Gingerbread Men
Jingle Bells
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one horse open sleigh
Hey, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one horse open sleigh
Santa on the Sleigh (to the Wheels on the Bus)
Santa on the sleigh says Ho Ho Ho (deep voice)
The Toys on the sleigh say "Let's have fun!" throw hands in the air.
The reindeer on the sleigh fly way up high. (move hands upward in diagonal direction.)
The snow on the sleigh falls gently down... (flutter fingers downward)
The Bells on the sleigh go ring, ring, ring.
Cut and Tell:
 The Storytime Before Christmas
This poem is a bit much for very young ones at storytime, but this is a gorgeous pop-up, so arresting I like to save it for the end. There's no need to finish every book we open, after all. We can just give tastes, previews, of some of our favorites. Moore's classic shows up in so many off shoots (Simpsons? Rugrats?) that it's nice to let kids know that it can be found in a book.
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I used this very beautiful pop-up book very briefly. We had a small audience, and I started with the two J's, Juliet and Joseph. J was for Joy! How wonderful! B for Ben was for Bell! etc. We didn't read the whole book, just the initial letters.
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I really really love John Burningham's tales, but I have to admit that this story does need a little bit of a boost when I read it. I put the emphasis on all the vehicles that Santa is having to use to get the job done and all the accidents, the "whoopsies" poor Santa sustains.
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Crafts
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2016. We did the triangle trees and the kids really like them. We also did triangle Star of Davids. They all knew what a triangle was, and showing them how to make a star and a tree from them was fun. We used sequins and gems to decorate instead of sprinkles, much tidier. I showed them how to fringe the edges of their trees for a nice fluffy effect, and of course some of them just cut theirs to bits, but it's all about process.
Or:
Or:
Use up your scraps of green and red, even old wrapping papers, for this craft. The directions are simple: Tell the children to pick out ten strips of paper and line them up big to little. They may need to cut some a bit to get the right sizes. Fringeing and fancy scissors are fun to work with too. Let them finish this part of the project before you give them the glue sticks to glue the strips down into the shape of a Christmas tree. For older children, just give them long strips and let them figure out the sizes to cut! This is a really simple but fun project.
Or: Amazing fact: Not every two year old likes getting paint on their fingers. I brought four colors, had the kids hold up their four fingers, and told them to use a different finger for each color. That went pretty well. But still, some of them wanted brushes.
Or: Amazing fact: Not every two year old likes getting paint on their fingers. I brought four colors, had the kids hold up their four fingers, and told them to use a different finger for each color. That went pretty well. But still, some of them wanted brushes.
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