Pigs (Kindergarten)

I planned this storytime for a pair of kindergarten outreach visits.  I told the kids that I chose first grade stories because they’re almost first graders and I knew they could handle some long stories, and they were jazzed.  I went with pig stories because when I looked at my list of good read-alouds for elementary storytimes, a few pig stories jumped out at me right away.

Opening Song: “I Am Here & You Are Here” by Peter & Ellen Allard (on Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3)

Story:  I Broke My Trunk! by Mo Willems.  You can’t have a pig-themed storytime without an Elephant & Piggie book.  This one just happened to be my favorite of the ones that were on the shelf when I was planning.  In the first group, though the kids were active and the teachers inattentive, the kids were Silent (yes, with a capital S) while I read this one.  In the second group, a few of the kids were reading independently and the others were either familiar with the book or picked up on the pattern because we did almost a choral reading, with the kids reading along with me, or at least echoing very closely behind.  It was kind of a fun way to do it.  If I’d know ahead of time, I might have assigned half the class to read Piggie’s part and the other half to read Gerald.  (In that case, I might have chosen a book where the two parts were more equal.)

Story: The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett.  I am teaching a Storytelling class this spring, and a student has done this as both an oral and a digital story.  I loved it and couldn’t wait to use it, but it’s a little longer than the preschoolers can handle, so this setting was perfect.  Whoever says boys do not like princess stories has obviously never read this story aloud to a mixed group.  The humor worked for boys and girls alike.

Song: The kids really wanted more stories, but they were getting wiggly, so we did a quick round of “Hands Up, Hands Down.”

Story: The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas.  I wasn’t sure the teachers would love this one because of the progressive violence, even though the resolution is peaceful, but they weren’t paying much any attention anyway until the very end.  The kids, on the other hand, loved it.  I liked the discussion they had when I first read the title – in both groups, someone commented that it was “the opposite” of the regular version.  They weren’t sure what would happen when the wolves built a brick house right from the beginning, but they got the pattern of escalation pretty quickly.

Story: A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea by Michael Black.  This one didn’t go over as well with either group.  I’m not sure if it’s because we were well past the 30-minute mark at this point, or because the humor was too dry.  Either way, I’m thrilled that they even asked for this one.  I hadn’t planned to do the fourth story, but in both groups, they saw it in my basket and wanted to keep going.  It was the only story that no one had read before, so at least they did get introduced to something new.

 
Hands Up, Hands Down
Hands up, hands down.
Hands up, hands down.
Hands up, hands down.
Then you shake, shake, shake them all around.
Shake, shake, shake them all around.

Hands in, hands out.
Hands in, hands out.
Hands in, hands out.
Then you shake, shake, shake them all about.
Shake, shake, shake them all about.