I did this storytime for pretty much all of my groups this month. It worked well even for the very littles–I just omitted telling “That’s Not Santa!” The in-house preschool storytime crowd got the usual letter of the day and opening/closing material, plus this cute Santa craft.
This puppet was in my library’s existing collection when I arrived about a year and a half ago, although he was a leprechaun then. I almost got rid of him because, come on, was I really ever going to *use* a leprechaun puppet? I took his hat off, changed his clothes (he still has green pants, but his shirt is red and white stripes that I took from another puppet), added a Santa hat, and voila! Awesome (and free!) Santa puppet! The kids really loved him, too.
Opening song (with uke): Hands are clapping/Hey hey how are you
Book 1: Santa’s Surprise by Keith Faulkner and Jonathan Lambert. Reading this fantastic pop-up book is like solving a mystery. Santa can’t find his red-nosed reindeer anywhere. While searching for him, Santa keeps seeing red noses where there aren’t any. You open the flap of each page to reveal what each “nose” really is. The kids always cheer at the end when we find Rudolph, and find out what Santa’s surprise is.
Since the first book talks a lot about Rudolph, it segues nicely to the “Rudolph, Rudolph” flannelboard poem.
Book 2: Santa’s Suit, by Kate Lee and Edward Eaves. A cute, simple story about Santa trying out different colored suits.
Song/flannelboard: Santa wore a (color) suit. Sung to the tune of Mary Wore Her Red Dress. I go through each of the suits, determining that they aren’t right until we end on the red one.
Story: That’s Not Santa! (Based on the book by Leonard Kessler). I LOVE telling this as a story with pictures only. Maybe one day I’ll make a feltboard for it…
Songs (with uke): Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Closing song: Baby Shark
Goodbye song: See you later alligator
LibrErin 