Game Stretchers

I really want this blog to survive and even thrive, but I've done very little lately to contribute to it--apologies! Maybe if we all try to post at least once or twice more before this session and re-evaluate whether we wanna keep it for the spring schedule?

Anyway, I thought I could share a couple of things that always work for me, especially in a mixed-age grou. First is "The Rhyming Game" (fancy name, huh?). I usually read the kids a rhyming book (this time it was the excellent and relatively new "Rhyming Dust Bunnies") and ask them if they know how to rhyme. When they inevitably insist that YES THEY DO! I ask them to stand up and repeat after me...

Me: Say 'red'...
Them: RED!
Me: And touch your...head! Now, say 'jelly'...
Them: BELLY!
Me: And touch your...belly! Wow, you really are good rhymers!

Of course, I'm always pointing to the body party I'm asking them to guess while I say the first word. Even then, it takes a few rounds for kids to use the hints. But it's the sort of stretcher you can make as long as you want (they don't seem to lose interest) and just make up as you go along. I always end by asking them to say "belbow," which gets a laugh, because even 3-year-olds know that's not a real word.

Another game I like to use as a stretcher is "Librarian [instead of Simon] Says"--the Pajama Storytime kids dig this. I try to make it library-relevant by asking them to "read a book" or "point to your grown-up" or "wave at the librarian" or whatever. Younger children don't really get the elimination aspect of the game, nor do older kids like the elimination aspect, so I...yeah, generally ignore it. Right at the end I'll shake my head NO emphatically and tell the kids to do something without first saying "Librarian says..." and cheerfully ask them all to sit down. Because they're all out at that point.