Ice Cream Themed Storytime

I got a little ambitious with my last Spring Evening Storytime session this year.  I wanted to have something really fun that the kids would remember and talk about for a long time.  So I decided to have an ice cream themed storytime and make ice cream.  It was crazy, loud, and a whole lot of fun!  I had a few parents stay in the room with us which proved to be extremely useful.  THANKS!
Because of the time factor in making the ice cream I only read one story.
Here's what we did:

We made an ice cream craft:

I used the template from here and added a cute little ice cream poem and a red pom pom as the cherry on top.  The kids had fun deciding what flavors they were going to color each scoop of ice cream. We used glue sticks to put everything together.  I had the kids start this craft as the came into storytime.

We read:
Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems

The kids went wild when they saw we would be reading and Elephant and Piggie book!

Then we made our ice cream.
Here's what I used: YayLabs Play and Freeze Ice Cream Ball.  I had two pint sized ones for the kids to use.  We followed the instructions for the vanilla ice cream.  Each kid was able to add an ingredient and mix our ice cream mixture.  We all helped fill the ice cream makers with ice and then we played some games.

These little guys have to be rolled/shaken for 20 minutes with a break half way through to scrape the sides down.  I played the Freeze song by Greg and Steve.

I had the kids sit in two circles and each group was given one ice cream maker.  They rolled the ball between their circle until the music stopped.  Whoever had the ball in their hands when the music stop had to pick it up and give it a good shake until the music started again.  This was a lot of fun for them.  We played the song on repeat a few times.  When we grew tired of the song I had the kids pass the ball and give it five shakes and pass it to the next person.  They got creative and came up with their own games to keep the ball moving.  Then we had some delicious ice cream sundaes to end out storytime.

*This is an extremely messy activity, but well worth it.  Just plan on some extra time for clean up.

Enjoy!