"Goodnight Gorilla" Story Stretchers: a short stretch for when you're short on time!

 Remember when I thought I wouldn't get to post until after Shavuot? Well, cooking and baking in bulk when I could during the last week and having a lot of help from my husband over the holiday weekend allowed me a bit of extra time. I don't know about you, but around here "extra time" is a luxury! There's always something to be done (and many things undone) and we still need to find time in there to spend with the kids. Especially as we prepare for Shabbos or a yom tov (Jewish holiday), I feel it's so important to try as hard as we can to demonstrate a) a sense of joy (or at least calm) as we prepare and b) to include in that routine time to play with and spend with our children. We want for them to grow up feeling the joy and excitement that comes with a holiday and Shabbos and not just the lengthy list of to-do's and to-don'ts! Additionally, making time to play with the kids as we prepare is also like an investment plan--if we "pay now" and play a bit, we can "save later," when they are playing independently and not acting out because they crave our attention. So what can you do when you're short on time? A story stretcher!

That's right, you can do a story stretcher activity without a lot of preparation time, materials or time to spend! Many of the children's book extensions I've presented on this blog are detailed and lengthy. We have spent entire days taking our learning and play beyond the book and into the playroom, the art table, the kitchen, even outside. We are about to center our entire summer around story stretcher activities and yet, there's no reason at all that you can't include children's literature into your play activities when you're short on time and/or materials and resources. Treat these play activities like working out--you can do a triathlon session with your story stretchers (particularly if that engages your little ones) or you can take a 15 minutes and have a quick stretch. If you're looking for ideas, you can revisit the above links on this blog and rather than doing all of the activities, choose one or a few that interest you. You can find a lot of great ideas on Pinterest simply by searching the title of your favorite children's books. You can check out ideas in books I've listed below. Many are probably available in your library system (either for checkout or in-library resource use) or you can purchase them, often used, from Amazon.

• For Preschool Aged Kids: Story S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-R-S: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• More Story Stretchers: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by: Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• Picture Books Plus: 100 Extension Activities in Art, Drama, Music, Math and Science by: Sue McLeaf Nespeca
• For Infants/Toddlers: Story Stretchers for Infants, Toddlers, and Twos: Experiences, Activities, and Games for Popular Children's Books by Kathy Dobbs and Leah Curry-Rood 
• For Older Children: Story Stretchers for the Primary Grades: Activities to Expand Children's Favorite Books by: Shirley Raines and Robert Canady
• 450 More Story Stretchers for the Primary Grades:Activities to Expand Children's Books by: Shirley Raines

When it comes to choosing a children's book for your story stretchers, you can go by ones suggested here or on another blog or in one of the above resource books. Our local library system even puts together preschool backpacks with a theme and corresponding picture books, materials and activity ideas. Perhaps your library has something like this in stock. You can also pull your children's favorite books off the shelf and create activities from there. Story Stretchers are a great way to infuse new life in those books that are growing a bit stale after reading again and again and again...

We spent Memorial Day morning at our local zoo. It is always great fun to visit the zoo and a bit hard to leave (especially when you are going home to a pending naptime!), so I coaxed a very tired S toward the parking lot by reminding him that we would have some really fun activities in the afternoon. Now I just had to come up with those really fun activities...and with Shavuot beginning tonight and cooking and baking to work on, I was short on time. I decided to stick with our theme from the morning and choose a book from our shelf about zoo animals. Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathman immediately came to mind. For one thing, the book does not have a lot of text--this would mean even if S wanted to read it again and again and again (as he often does and he did), I could manage it and eventually pass it on to him to read independently. It's also a great book to play about and you don't need a lot of materials to extend this beyond the book:;

Short Stretch: 

Dramatic Play: Goodnight, Zoo! Pull out some plastic zoo animals and baby wash cloths for blankets and you can tuck in your own zoo for the night! We added a wooden barn house we have and S got such a kick out of re-enacting the story with our animals and tucking them in for bed. You can add in other zoo themed toys as well if you wish, like little people for zoo-keepers, tractors or trucks for transporting the animals around the zoo, blocks for building with... If you don't have plastic zoo animals, you can print or draw pictures of animals and laminate them or tape them to wooden blocks. Alternatively you can gather your children's stuffed toys and some baby blankets and play about zoo animal bedtimes in this way! 

Dramatic Play: You Be the Zookeeper! Using stuffed animals and toy food, a toy doctor kit, a plastic bin for "bathing" and anything else you (or your little zookeeper) can think of, play about taking care of and feeding all of the animals in the zoo. We recently did this with stuffed dogs after S had a FaceTime call with his cousins who were engaged in a story stretcher activity of their own and playing about being dog groomers and veterinarians. He wanted in on the fun, so we pulled out our own toys at home and he was busy all afternoon!

Medium Stretch:

If you have a little more time, choose one or a few of the following, depending on how much time you have and what materials you have on hand: 

Playdough Zoo: You will need plastic zoo animals, playdough (homemade or store bought are fine), and craft sticks for building and playing about your own zoo.

S built a scene very similar to one illustrated in the book, Goodnight, Gorilla!

Then he played for a while about giving his lion a lot of playdough hair and a hair cut! I'm beginning to see a striking resemblance...and S is playing a lot about his upcoming haircut when he turns three!

Zoo Animal Paint Stomp: You will need plastic zoo animals, paper and washable paint in the colors of your choice. Let your little artist dip their animals' feet into the paint and stomp them across the paper. You can see different animal footprints this way and your little one may also have some fun dipping other parts of the animals into the paint! I've done this activity a few times with S, and it's always a big hit.

Take It Outside! Bring your plastic animals outside to play in the dirt or the mud, the sandbox if you have one, or even the sprinkler, water table or kiddie pool. One of S's favorite parts of our zoo visit yesterday was seeing a rhinoceros taking a mud bath.  We didn't have the time yesterday, but I'm sure he would love to give his zoo animals a mud bath of their own in the play garden.

Obviously an older photo of S, but proof that story stretchers can be enjoyed at all levels of pre-literacy!

Bath-time at the Zoo: Before we go to bed, we need a bath! Your little zoo-keeper will love washing toy animals in a basin of soapy water, at the sink, or even in his/her own bath. If you want to add on to this activity, you can include shaving cream to the washing station and then let your little ones wash and rinse it off.

Animal Antics: In this gross motor game, you can use pictures, flash cards, toy animals picked from a bag/basket or just call out an animal to your young actors and have them move and make sounds in the style of the animal. Younger players may need specific instructions like "slither like a snake" (for a single step direction) or "slither and hiss like a snake" (for a multi-step direction) and may also need a demonstration. More advanced players can even play this charades style and try to guess the animal being acted out.

"I'm Thinking of an Animal, Can You Guess What it Is?" This game always makes me feel nostalgic! My grandpa, OBM, used to play this game with us (and subsequently our parents) whenever we had to wait for something like dinner in a restaurant or our turn in a line. He would think of a zoo animal and give us three guesses to figure out what he was thinking. Then he would offer a descriptive clue and three more guesses and so on, so forth, until we guessed the animal. Whomever correctly guessed first would be the next "thinker," and many a time of waiting was passed by more easily because of this simple little game!

Music & Movement: We love Raffi's song "We're Going to the Zoo," and nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than hearing my toddler sing it to the very best of his abilities from his car seat as we travel to the zoo for a visit! You can listen to and sing your own favorite zoo and animal songs and action rhymes.

BIG S-T-R-E-T-C-H: When you've got a day to fill or want to take up a number of days with a story stretcher theme, you can combine activities and repeat ones that your little ones like especially. If you want to do more with Goodnight Gorilla, you can combine and extend the above activities.

• You can add on some arts and crafts, or set out some recycled materials, paper scraps, google eyes and art supplies for your children to create and build their own zoo animals. Paper plate masks, paper bag puppets and toilet paper tube animals are some of my favorites. 
• You can check out other zoo themed books from the library, both fiction and non-fiction.You can search YouTube for zoo themed videos.
•  You can add a zoo field trip to your story stretcher as well if you have access to one or visit animals in another location, like a farm, petting zoo, pet shop or museum.
•  If your child takes an interest in a particular animal, you can extend your activities to focus on that and learn more about it. 
• You can write and illustrate your own version of Goodnight, Zoo using family members and pets or create a bedtime social story to demonstrate your own bedtime routines and traditions.
• You can create a play and act out the story with family members and/or friends. Children can use (or create) animal costumes and pillows and blankets for props. 

I love using children's literature as a basis for our play because for me, it takes the guess work and planning aspect out of it. The themes are right there in the pages of the book and if I don't have ideas already, someone else probably has either online or in a resource book! Playing about children's literature can be as abstract as you wish--it needn't be very specific to the book itself, but rather, can include themes or concepts from the book. The best part is that you can expand on children's books through multi-sensory play (art, science, dramatic play, sensory play, cooking, music/movement, field trips and more) and it does not need to break the bank. Libraries are a fabulous resource in our communities. Many offer story times catered to various age groups (especially in the summer!) and have programming based on the story stretcher concept. You can often find or create materials at home to play about a story and use them again and again. When we use play and creative activities to expand on stories our children love, we also teach them how to expand and creatively think in their own play and exploration. We open up a world of pretend play and imagination that will carry them through life with a love for reading and perhaps, even writing!

Happy Reading and Playing, and if you celebrate, Happy Shavuot!