Storytime Plans: Hockey

Today’s Passport Pals was so much fun! We are still in the country of Russia, so I decided to focus on a sport that many Russians love – hockey! The kids I had in the group today seemed to really enjoy the hockey theme and so did I! Here are the plans that I used:

Passport Pals: Russia – Hockey

Sing welcome song: Come on everybody and clap your hands, stomp your feet, jump up high, swing your arms, spin around, sit right down, spin the globe . . . on the way to Passport Pals.

Privyet! (pree-VYET) Welcome to week three of Russia! What continent is Russia on? Europe and Asia! (Today I had kids tell me that Russia was on two continents before I even asked. They are learning!!!)

Song: Continent Cheer (GGM #3)

I wonder what is in my suitcase today? (I had the flag of Russia as well as a hockey puck from an air hockey game.) Today we are going to talk about hockey! One of the sports that people love to play in Russia is HOCKEY! What do you know about hockey?

Read: “Little Hockey” by Matt Napier (The kids had fun trying to guess the answers for each riddle. This book held their attention all the way through!)

Song: “The Hockey Pockey” (to the tune of the Hokey Pokey – everything else is the same but instead of singing “Hokey Pokey”, you sing “Hockey Pockey”. We had a lot of fun “putting our left hand in” and so on . . . . )

Read: “Dino-Hockey” by Lisa Wheeler

Game/Craft: Play Pom-Pom Hockey. Take empty wrapping paper tubes or paper towel tubes and attach half of a paper plate on the end using masking tape or duct tape.

I had the kids decorate half of a paper plate first using markers. Then I (and the parents who were there) helped the kids tape the paper plate to a paper towel tube. These were their “hockey sticks”. When all the kids were finished, I dumped a bag of red and green mini pom-poms on the floor in the center of the room. The kids then used their hockey sticks to move the red pom poms to the front of the room and the green pom poms to the back. This activity was very good for my group AND it helped them work together as a team . . . just like a hockey team has to work together in a game!