This Week at Family Fun: Ready for Some Football!!

I feel like I conquered football storytime. This is a theme I have never done before, and I was a little intimidated. The challenges? First-the books. There aren't a lot of great read alouds with a football theme-although it is getting better. The books that do exist don't always appeal to a three year old. I did this for family fun, so I need material that appeals to a broad age range. Second challenge: the other stuff. Do you have football rhymes and flannel board stories in your bag of tricks. Again, not a lot of great ones out there. Well, this is what I did, and we had a blast!! This is Packer country, but you can adapt any of it for your neck of the woods. By the way, can you guess the craft? Yep! Cheese-heads!

Books:

• Hooray for Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold
• Football ABC by Mark Weakland (Football Colors also a good choice)
• A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems (no football here, but you can't go wrong with E&P)

Rhymes:

Football Player, Football Player
(based on a rhyme on Bright Hub. Adapted by Shawn Wolf)

Football player, football player, throw the ball
Football player, football player, try not to fall
Football player, football player, catch the pass
Football player, football player, run really fast!
Football player, football player, hit the ground.
Football player, football player, big TOUCHDOWN!

Football player, football player, Lambeau Leap!

GO PACK GO! (you get to yell in the library!)
by Shawn Wolf

When the players run out of the locker room,
Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”
When the band’s big drum goes BOOM-BOOM-BOOM,
Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”
After they sing “Oh say can you see”,
Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”
When the quarterback yells, “hut 1-2-3”,
Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”
A big touchdown, six points for our team,
Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”
When we win, the whole stadium screams,Everybody yells, “GO PACK GO!”

We ended with a round of "Give me a P. P!", etc. I made letter cards to spell PACKERS, and I used helpers to hold the cards. I gave them the wrong letters, and of course the kids had all sorts of fun telling us we had the wrong letter.

Have fun!