Kid Inventor Day - Ravenna Integrated Preschool

It is quite a challenge to come up with a unique storytelling experience. But, I love a good challenge!

Ravenna Integrated Preschool invited me to perform two storytelling events with the theme, KID INVENTOR DAY. After much thought and reading piles of books I decided that I would focus on Ohio Inventors. I chose the inventors; Harry Stevens (hot dog), Garrett Morgan (traffic signal), and Thomas Edison (light bulb) -- three Ohio inventors whose inventions would unlock my storytelling creativity.

The best hot dog book I found was Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems. I have a friend who made a pigeon costume for Halloween last year. I decided I needed to make a costume of my own.

The costume was rather simple to make. I purchased a blue surf towel from Amazon. Then, I sewed on some eyes, wore a baseball cap with a yellow bill, attached a piece of foam to a belt, and viola!

I was ready to eat the hot dog, but the duckling kept interrupting.

I think I have their attention. Weird guys in pigeon costumes will do that!

Mo Willems' books are great for paired reading. Two copies of the book is a must!

The best traffic signal book I found was Red Light, Green Light by Anastasia Suen. The text is simple with rhyme. It was just what I was looking for.

I made a few traffic light props. I had student volunteers hold them up during our movement activity.

Stop the light is red! Now...the light is green, march, march, march. Now the light is yellow, march, slooooooow.

The best lightbulb book I found was Night Lights by Susan Gal. There is probably under 20 words in this book but it was the perfect book to introduce a shadow guessing game.

This is a simple but fun idea. I used a large light, a white sheet, and a bag full of items to create a shadow guessing game. A student volunteer held up the items for the others in the audience to guess. The first bag was full of kitchen utensils.

The second bag was full of winter clothing items. 

The third bag was full of stuffed animals.

This was the end of my prepared story time, but they wanted me to keep going...So, I said, "Wait...I am an Ohio inventor too, right? I invented a book."

They loved DODO!

I found this astronaut hat at a garage sale many years ago. It has come in handy when reading DODO!

I love wearing a clown wig!

I am so thankful Ravenna Integrated Preschool invited me to come read to them. It allowed me to try many new things and for that I very grateful!