Story Window Storytime Blog: January 2007

Peek inside for storytime ideas! Wilmette Librarians share suggestions for age-appropriate books, rhymes, songs, and crafts.

January 31, 2007

Yeah for Snow!
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Childen love to play with snow. Snow is wonderful. With snow, one can make snowy foot prints, or funny snow people, or snow angels, or snowballs, Peter does all these fun snow activities in the classic book The Snowy Day , by Ezra Jack Keats. Keats is a very fine picture book writer and illustrator, who is always sensitive about depicting children's feelings and creativity. Lois Ehlert provides many examples of amusing snow creatures a child could create using everyday items such as popcorn and raisins for decoration in Snowballs. Ehlert utilizes bright childlike illustrations about animals and nature in her many books. The big book Dinosaurs, by Barton Byron, is always a favorite for the children because they love thinking about the variety of dinosaurs that existed long ago and the mystery of their disappearance.

Posted by Sue at 9:53 AM | TrackBack

January 30, 2007

Cookie Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

So I knew doing a cookie-themed storytime was opening up a can of worms... so to speak. But as it turned out, while the kids liked discussing their favorite cookies, no one demanded cookies! Which was a good thing, as I only brought the pretend kind, and the kind in books.

- Mr. Cookie Baker, by Monica Wellington. From the creator of Pizza at Sally's comes this very simple, bright story about a man who bakes cookies for a living. It's so short, but it really rounded out our collection of stories.

- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond. Kids enjoy hearing this favorite story, and can help tell it themselves.

- Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?, by Bonnie Lass and Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Ashley Wolff. A fun take-off of the familiar rhyme, using southwestern animals. If it feels too long, it's easy to skip an animal here and there.

- The Gingerbread Boy, by Richard Egielski. An urban rendition of the old story. I love the change of setting, the two-page spreads, and the relatively short text. Don't be sad, kids -- after all, he's just a cookie!

Here are some rhymes I found on the Internet and adapted for our use...

Making Cookies
I am making cookie dough. (hold out arms in a circle, like a bowl)
Round and round the beaters go. (roll hands)
Add some flour from a cup. (shake a pretend cup)
Stir and stir the batter up. (stirring motion)
Roll them, cut them nice and neat. (rolling pin motion)
Put them on a cookie sheet. (place pretend cookies)
Bake them, count them 1-2-3. (counting motion)
Serve them to my friends for tea. (take a bite!)

Five Little Cookies
(I made five pretend cookies of different colors. At each verse, I asked the kids to fill in the color, and then we counted the remaining cookies.)

Five little cookies with frosting galore.
Mother ate the _____ one, and then there were four.

Four little cookies, two and two you see.
Father ate the _____ one, and then there were three.

Three little cookies, but before I knew,
Sister ate the _____ one, and then there were two.

Two little cookies, oh, what fun.
Brother ate the _____ one, and then there was one.

One little cookie, watch me run.
I ate the _____ one, and then there was none.

For our project, we glued pretend cookies (gingerbread men, hearts, etc.) to a paper plate and decorated them with glitter crayons!

Posted by Lisa at 4:38 PM | TrackBack

January 29, 2007

Owl Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Some storytime themes just seem to arrive out of nowhere. Baby owls, for instance. Owls are a fascinating bird for children. They go out at night, they live in the forest, they eat mice, and, like our wonderful owl puppet, can turn their heads almost all the way around!

- Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell; illustrated by Patrick Benson. Sarah, Percy, and Bill too small to fly, worry over their mother's absence. But of course she comes back.

- I'm Not Cute, by Jonathan Allen. This is one of my favorite read-alouds from 2006. Baby Owl is sick and tired of being called cute by the other animals. When Mom says it, though, it's another story. VERY cute book.

- One Duck, Another Duck, by Charlotte Pomerantz; illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey. A counting book in which a young owl and his grandmother count ducks until nightfall.

We did the following action rhyme, which has a great opportunity for owl noises...

There's a wide-eyed owl (circle your eyes with your hands)
With a pointed nose (make a beak with your fingers)
Two pointed ears (make ears with your fingers)
And claws for toes (wiggle your "claws")
He lives way up (point way up)
In the tree (way, way up)
And when he looks at you (point to children)
He flaps his wings (flap your wings)
And says, "Whoo! Whoo!" (keep flappin' till the owls come home)

Posted by Lisa at 12:18 PM | TrackBack

January 23, 2007

Snow Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

At long last snow once more covered the ground... so last week we took advantage of some snowy stories.

- The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. You can't go wrong with this one. It's such a quiet story, but it always manages to captivate the kids. Especially when that snowball melts in Peter's pocket...

- Snowbaby Could Not Sleep, by Kara LaReau; illustrated by Jim Ishikawa. It was my first time using this newish book, but it was a real storytime winner. It has just the right balance of repetition and surprise, and the pictures are both cute and gorgeous. It's also a good story about bedtime.

- Snow Magic, by Harriet Ziefert; illustrated by Claire Schumacher. This book is hard to find nowadays, but it's still fun if you can get your hands on it. It's about a bunch of snowpeople who gather to celebrate the first snow and the first day of winter.

We pretended that our silk scarves were snow. We made our snow drift slowly down, and then the wind blew it around. Especially fun was scooping up our snow, patting it into a ball, and then tossing it into the air. The scarves inflated and drifted slowly down again!

We also revived our "5 Little Snowmen" rhyme and made snowman pictures for craft time.

Posted by Lisa at 11:23 AM | TrackBack

January 15, 2007

Counting and Singing
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Babies and toddlers enjoy counting very much. We use our fingers to count on in storytime and we count together along with our books. Ten in the Bed by Cabrera is a colorful version of the classic song, with cute toy animals, drawn with bright colors and patterns, that fall out of the bed. Jane Cabrera is a favorite author/illustrator of mine for this age group because I enjoy her colorful, childlike illustrations so much. The wonderful children's singer, Raffi, sings the song that is the inspiration for the book Five Green and Speckled Frogs by Burris. The charming illustrations of these comical frogs that keep falling into the water, kept our interest high, as we sang and counted up to five frogs together. Lucy Cousins, an amazing and very popular author, scored another hit with my group with her big version of Good-Night Maisy. Maisy tries to go to bed even though her friends keep knocking on her door. We also enjoyed the funny classic fingerplay song , Five Monkeys Swinging In a Tree, while I demonstrated the song with a toy tree, crocodile and five cute little monkeys.

Posted by Sue at 6:31 PM | TrackBack

January 13, 2007

Helping Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Two and three year olds help out in surprising ways -- not just by cleaning up their toys or going to bed without fuss (though those things are very important, of course), but also by helping weed the garden... build a wagon... make dinner... wash the car...

These are the stories we read:

- The Little Red Hen, by Byron Barton. In this version of the old story, the cat, pig, and duck don't get to share the bread after they refuse to help make it.

- Chickens to the Rescue, by John Himmelman. This is a new picture book with wonderfully patterned text and priceless illustrations. Each day, when something goes wrong on the Greenstalks' farm? "Chickens to the rescue!" Kids enjoy joining in the refrain.

- Clifford's Good Deeds, by Norman Bridwell. It's Clifford; 'nuff said.

Another book that I didn't have time to use but would like to in the future is:

- No No, Jo!, by Kate and Jim McMullan. In this lift-the-flap book, a kitten's attempts to help out her boy and girl go unappreciated. The illustrations are very cute, and I think the sentiment could be well appreciated by little children whose efforts at helping out do not always go as planned.

Posted by Lisa at 9:52 AM | TrackBack

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