Let’s Go Fly a Kite

Rhyme Cube: Click here for description

Sign Language:  The word of the day was “Kite” and we repeated it often throughout the storytime.

Opening Rhyme:  Open them, shut them…

First Book: Kite Day by Will Hillenbrand

Felt Board:  Five Little Kites

One little kite in the sky so blue,
Along came another, then there were two.
Two little kites flying high above me;
Along came another, then there were three.
Three little kites, just watch them soar,
Along came another, then there were four.
Four little kites, so high and alive
Along came another, then there were five.
Five little kites dancing across the sky,
What a sight to see, way up so high!

(credit Storytime Katie)

As I recited the rhyme I added felt kites until we had all five up.

I left these up to use later on in this storytime.

Second Book:  Someone Bigger by Jonathan Emmett

Felt board:  Someone Bigger

For the next activity I asked the kids to retell me the story we just read and as they did I added the “felt” pieces to the wall (we have a carpeted wall so I can use it as a felt board).  I made color photo copies of all the characters from the book.  I laminated them and added velcro dots to the back so I could stick them onto the wall.   I also made a kite out of felt with yarn as the string.  Here’s a picture:

Here are some close-ups of the kite and Sam (from the story):

In the story, Sam’s dad gets pulled into the sky while flying a kite.  A series of townspeople (and some animals) try to help but get pulled up too.  Finally, Sam grabs onto the kite string and pulls everyone down to safety.  I asked the kids to remember who got pulled up and I added the characters to the wall.  In the end it looked like this:

This is a good activity to promote the kids’ narration skills!

Third Book:  Kite Flying by Grace Lin

Felt Board:  Five Little Kites

Using the kites from the first felt board I recited the following rhyme:

“Five little kites, way up in the sky
Say hi to the clouds, as they pass by.”

(Repeat with-
Say hi to the birds…
Say hi to the sun…
Say hi to the airplane…   and add the appropriate felt pieces)

“Then swish went the wind
And they all took a dive:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5”   (pull each of the kites down until there are none left on the board)

Here’s a picture:

(credit: Storytime Sparks)

Activity:  Let’s Go Fly a Kite!

I gave each kid a paper kite I had glued onto a popsicle stick.

We “flew” these around and danced with them as we listened to “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” from the Mary Poppins soundtrack.

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