Sensory Friendly Story Time Theme: Colors

Our fourth sensory friendly story time was finally a hit!  We didn’t have a huge crowd, but we did get 5 kids, 2 of which I know had disabilities. After weeks of not getting much of an audience, let alone kids with disabilities for who the program is focused on, I was very excited! The kids ranged in age from 3 – 8 and interacted very well with our stories and songs.  I focused on a color theme – one because it’s very easy and two because I liked the activities I found on a number of other librarian’s blogs to incorporate into my storytime near the end.

Lesson Plan

Book – My Many Colored Days – Dr. Seuss
I thought this was a great book, especially for kids that are on the Autism Spectrum.  It’s a color book, but also talks about feelings as well.  For this story, I gave each of the kids the colors from the story cut-out using our Ellison machine into circles.  Thinking back, I had to use a few different types of paper because I didn’t have all the colors in regular printer paper, but I would make the conscious effort tot do that next time, giving the kids the experience of different weighted paper.  At the end of the story I asked the kids to hold up whatever color they felt like today and it was really interesting to see what they chose.

Song – If You’re Happy and You Know It
To go along with the feelings we discussed in our first story, we sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It” I used smiley faces to help show the kids the different feelings. We talked about each one before singing the song to reinforce the signs and the feelings.

Flannel Board – Mouse Paint – Ellen Stoll Walsh
I definitely borrowed this flannel board story from Storytime Katie.  This worked really well because the kids liked helping me figure out what color was created when we mixed colors together.

Song – Keep Moving
This song has become a popular one with kids in story time because it’s really fun and silly to do!  The kids did a great job participating during the song and listening to what body parts came next.

Book – I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! – Karen Beaumont
This is one of my go-to story time books because it’s so funny for both the kids and the parents!  It’s also a great one to throw in at the end because it’s a singing read-aloud which makes it extra fun.  The kids had fun with the rhyming body parts as the child in the story kept painting their body.

Activity Centers

I put together these activity centers for the kids to explore and unfortunately, after a 30-minute story time, most of the children left right away.  But one dad and son stayed for a little while.  My favorite part was when I gave the little boy a bag filled with shaving cream and food coloring and he started mixing it up. Without me saying anything, he said, “it’s just like the mice in the story.”  I was so excited that he was able to make that connection!  It definitely made my day!

• Mixing Colors
  • Shaving cream & food coloring in a ziploc bag.
• Color By Number
  • Printed worksheets
  • Crayons
• Rainbow Exploration
  • Old CDs
  • Flashlights
• Sorting Colors
  • Variety of colored objects
  • Basket for each color