Story Window Storytime Blog: February 2007
Peek inside for storytime ideas! Wilmette Librarians share suggestions for age-appropriate books, rhymes, songs, and crafts.
February 28, 2007
Numbers and Colors are Fun!
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)
Babies and toddlers enjoy counting and identifying colors so much! Amy and Ivan , by Charise Harper, generates both of these fun activities as we observe colorful trucks and count the birthday party items inside each colorful lift-the-flap. The enormously popular and exciting big book Mouse Paint , by Ellen Walsh, has intriguing illustrations of cute mice that climb into paint jars, mix the paint and create new colors with it. The children enjoyed producing animal noises with the fun book This Little Chick , by John Lawrence. Singing along, we counted together "Ten Little Fishies" as I showed this flannel board story.
Posted by Sue at 9:36 AM | TrackBack
February 26, 2007
Garbage Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)
P. U., what's that I smell? The most fun storytime we've had in weeks! Last week we celebrated the sanitation workers of the world (and their amazing trucks). Here's what we read:
Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash!, by Barbara Odanaka ; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand. A delightfully noisy ode to garbage trucks and their well-muscled operators.
Trashy Town, by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Mr. Gilly cleans up Trashy Town one building at a time, with just the right amount of repetition and refrain.
I Stink!, by Kate and Jim McMullan. A loudmouth garbage truck tosses around garbage truck jargon as easily as garbage, from apple cores to ziti with zucchini. Sure to elicit laughs.
Surprisingly (ha ha), there's a decided lack of garbage-themed action rhymes out there, so I composed a couple. Please feel free to use 'em!
GARBAGE! (act it out as you go)
Pick up garbage, and throw it in the bin!
Push it down, and stomp it in!
Carry the cans to the street
for the garbage trucks to eat.
When the truck comes roaring by,
workers lift the cans up high.
Garbage falls into the back.
Crush it, mash it, smash it flat!
Set the cans down with a thump.
Now drive that garbage to the dump!
FIVE LITTLE GARBAGE TRUCKS
Five little garbage trucks, painted green,
Picking up trash to keep the town clean.
They work and they work until they fill up --
Now one of the garbage truck drives to the dump!
(You can do it as an action rhyme, or make flannel board trucks as I did. I gave each truck a different colored symbol, so that at the end of each verse the kids could tell me which one to drive to the dump.)
As our craft, we crumpled squares of old magazine and glued it on a line drawing of a garbage truck, as fake garbage. Fun! (And completely recycleable, I might add...)
Posted by Lisa at 2:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 19, 2007
Lift-the-Flap Books
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)
Lift-the-flap books are very popular at storytimes. The children are very curious and delighted by hidden pictures. In No Bed Without Ted , by Nicola Smee, we look under the flaps for a little girl's teddy bear until we find it outside her house. In Nine Naughty Kittens , by Linda Jennings, a mother cat's family grows bigger while we count together the cats behind the flaps. In the cute big book Bear Snores On , by Karma Wilson, bear sleeps through the winter in his cozy cave while noisy animals try to wake him up from his hibernation. I did the creative flannel board story based on How Do I Put It On?, by Shigeo Watanabe, captivating the kids for they are also learning how to be independent dressers.
Posted by Sue at 6:02 PM | TrackBack
February 15, 2007
Valentine Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)
For a holiday with as much commercial appeal as Valentine's Day has, you'd think the bookshelves would be overflowing with Valentine books perfect for storytime. And yet, every year I struggle to put together a good program for this age group. Picture book authors, if you're reading this -- we could use some more good Valentine books for two and three year olds that have a little plot! Likewise, if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Here's what we read this week:
- Mouse's First Valentine, by Lauren Thompson ; illustrated by Buket Erdogan. Little Mouse tags along as his big sister gathers Valentine-making materials from a people house.
- I Love You, Too!, by Eve Bunting ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet. A series of animal finds and makes thoughtful gifts for their mothers, who love the gifts but love them even more.
- Love, Ruby Valentine, by Laurie Friedman ; illustrated by Lynne Avril Cravath. Every year, Ruby Valentine makes gifts for everyone in town, but this year she sleeps through Valentine's Day!
We also sang and did the actions for the popular kids' love song "Skinnamarink."
Posted by Lisa at 12:02 PM | TrackBack
February 12, 2007
Valentine's Day Stories
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)
Kids enjoy Valentine's Day and so do I. What's not to like about massive amounts of heart shaped candy and beautiful valentines? Part of the fun is making your own valentines for loved ones. In Sweet Hearts ,by Jan Carr, gentle drawings depict panda children making glittery pretty valentines for their panda parents. Delivering valentines to friends is exciting, as shown in Valentine Mice ,by Bethany Roberts. We watched these cute mice deliver valentines to every animal in the woods. The big book Silly Sally , by Audrey Wood is always an adventure, for children easily relate to the joys of being upside down like Silly Sally and her friends. I did the lovely flannel board story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," which in book format can be found in our department with many different illustrators. Children love this classic folk tale.
Posted by Sue at 6:54 PM | TrackBack
February 9, 2007
Feeling Lonely, Finding a Friend
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)
What helps you feel better when you're lonely? Maybe finding a friend, or getting a hug. Or maybe, as one child suggested this week, it just takes your mom telling you to snap out of it. :-)
The Very Lonely Firefly, by Eric Carle - A firefly encounters a lamp, a flashlight, fireworks, etc., before finally finding a group of fireflies. This would have been a cooler read if the little lightbulbs on the last page had still worked! But the kids enjoyed identifying the different light sources and talking about fireflies.
Corduroy, by Don Freeman - That old favorite about a bear who can't find his button but does find a friend in a little girl named Lisa. Point of discussion: escalators!
Lost and Found, by Oliver Jeffers - A very cute 2006 book, in which a boy returns a penguin to the South Pole only to realize that the penguin was not lost, but lonely. I love the illustrations, and it has a good plot for being as short as it is.
Posted by Lisa at 3:19 PM | TrackBack
February 5, 2007
Silly Books
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)
Laughing and having fun is a major part of each of our weekly storytimes. I enjoy choosing books that encourage children to giggle or sing aloud or do fingerplays together. I sang aloud with the kids the classic song in the big book, Peanut Butter and Jelly: A Play Rhyme by Nadine Westcott. The illustrations comically depict children creating a table sized sandwich with the help of elephants that smash the peanuts and spread the grape jelly. Yummy. We laughed at the foolish cow that misidentified all the farm animals in the silly Adventures of Cow by Lori Korchek. Children love to play hide-and-seek games and count, so Ten in the Meadow by John Butler, which depicts 10 cute animals playing this game is fun to read. We enjoyed identifying the cloud shapes in the flannelboard, It Looked Like Spilt Milk , which is written in book form by Charles Shaw.
Posted by Sue at 7:25 PM | TrackBack
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