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Home » Storytimes » Story Window » April 2007

Story Window Storytime Blog: April 2007

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

April 30, 2007

Bugs!
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

This lovely time of year is when the insects come out of their winter hiding places. Children like finding and naming various types of bugs. In Creepy Crawly Color by Robin Koontz, pop-ups reveal colorful insects. The prolific writer, Philemon Sturges, shows us various insects drawn in a simple style with bold lines, that a young boy enjoys locating in I Love Bugs! Children love to pretend to be dinosaurs and to imagine what they once looked like when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The large book, Dinosaurs Dinosaurs by Byron Barton, is a big favorite with my group. Identifying the names and colors of the animals in the flannel board story, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, is a big hit at storytime.

Posted by Sue at 8:12 PM | TrackBack

April 26, 2007

Duck Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

What is it about ducks that makes them so irresistible? Their little orange beaks? Their webby feet? Their waddle, or their curly tails? Whatever the reason, no one can claim there is a shortage of duck books for children.

This week we read stories about duck families and talked about other animals that hatch from eggs. After feeding a duck puppet various snacks (did you know there's such a thing as duck waffles?!) and receiving noisy kisses from it, the kids guessed what other egg-laying animal puppets were in my basket -- hen, blackbird, frog, alligator, and fish.

We started with a flannelboard story called "Three Eggs in a Basket," which can be found in Mother Goose's Playhouse: Toddler Tales and Nursery Rhymes, with Patterns for Puppets and Feltboards, by Judy Sierra. From the three eggs hatch three different critters, and then their mamas come for them. There's lots of opportunity for guessing.

Next we read It's Quacking Time, by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Jill Barton. It's Duckling's first time to see a hatching, and he has a lot of questions. The story is set up so that children can predict how the family members will answer. For example, "'Did I come in one of those eggs?' Duckling asked Daddy." And what do you think Daddy said? There's also several opportunities for mass quacking.

Our third book was Fluffy and Baron, by Laura Rankin, a darling based-on-the-true-story account of a duck and a German shepherd who are friends. Baron feels lonely when Fluffy joins a trio of wild ducks, but life is good once more after Fluffy hatches nine ducklings to be Baron's new friends!

We sang "Five Little Ducks" and "Two Little Blackbirds," and made duck family pictures, taking advantage of a our big and little duck die cuts.

Another darling duck book, new in the past year, is I'm a Duck! by Teri Sloat, which follows our exuberant duck hero from hatchling to dad. I didn't get my hands on it in time for this week's storytime, but I'll be keeping it in my mind for next year.

Posted by Lisa at 11:54 AM | TrackBack

April 24, 2007

Dog Blog
(For 3.5-5 Year Olds)

We read dog stories today. Dogs and dog books were my favorite as a child, so I really hoped the kids would relate to the stories today. Sure enough, the kids told me about their own pet dogs. (Don't worry, cat lovers, we'll do cat stories next week.) We read Martha Speaks by Susan Meddaugh, about a dog who talks after eating alphabet soup, and the very cute McDuff Comes Home by Rosemary Wells. Then the kids decorated bone-shaped paper dog tags to wear around their necks. No lost dogs here at the library!

In honor of Harry the Dirty Dog (another story we read), here is a rhyme about another messy pooch:

Fleagle the Beagle,
It's time for the tub.
I know you don't like it,
But you need a scrub.
I'll wash you with soap
From your tail to your head.
And when you're all clean
You may sleep in my bed.

Posted by Janet at 12:18 PM | TrackBack

April 23, 2007

Where Is It Hiding?
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Children love to look for objects in books that may be hidden behind flaps or cleverly placed within the illustrations. In Duck's Key, Where Can It Be?, by Jez Alborough, a mischievous frog hides Duck's key to Duck's frustration, while the amused reader can see when we lift the flaps, just where the frog puts it. In Mr. Bear Says, Are You There, Baby Bear?, by Debi Gliori, Bear looks for her baby while we look under flaps to finally find Baby Bear in his crib. In the big book, Mushroom In the Rain by Mirra Ginsburg, various animals seek shelter from the rain under a growing mushroom. It's fun to watch the mushroom enlarge to hold all of these large animals! We identified colors and shapes as I demonstrated the flannel board story, "The Little Red House".

Posted by Sue at 8:23 PM | TrackBack

April 20, 2007

Transportation Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

This week, all the books I selected were short but sweet, so we did four of 'em.

The Bus for Us, by Suzanne Bloom - On Tess's first day of school, she eagerly awaits the bus. But which of the vehicles coming down the street is the right one? A great story for audience participation.

Red Light, Green Light, by Anastasia Suen - A short rhyming ode to traffic. To me, the text is not scintillating, but the pictures are great fun to talk about. The boy in the story has turned his bedroom into roadways, and children like to point out the funny household objects that make their way into the scene -- e.g., pencils, teddy bears, flashlights. You can also pause to talk about stopping for train, what "choppers" are, etc.

Mr. Little's Noisy Car, by Richard Fowler - A lift-the-flap book, sadly out of print, about all the animals hiding out in Mr. Little's car.

Duck in the Truck, by Jez Alborough - Packed with rhymes, this book about a duck whose truck is stuck in the muck (I told you!) is a lot of fun. It's also an opportunity to remind kids of what the duck *should* have said after the other animals helped him get unstuck!

For songs, we did "Wheels on the Bus" (of course!) and "Green Light, Red Light" (described in this post).

Posted by Lisa at 1:53 PM | TrackBack

April 17, 2007

Spider Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Spiders are one of my favorite storytime themes. I suppose that's why we sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Raffi's "Spider on the Floor" year-round. And did you know that not only do spiders have eight legs, most spiders also have EIGHT EYES? Pretty remarkable!

I'm very happy with my draw-and-tell/puppet adaptation of Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider. To start out, I draw the beginnings of a spiderweb and a spider on our whiteboard. As each farm animal comes along to pester the workaholic spider, I use the following routine:

"Then along came a..." I say and pull out a horse puppet.
"HORSE!" call the kids.
"And the horse said..."
"NEIGH! NEIGH!"
"'Want to go for a ride with me?' But did the spider answer?"
"NO!"
"Right. She was very busy spinning her web." And I draw a few more strands of spiderweb.

Trapani's version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a nicely illustrated extension of the song. This was my first week reading Monks' Aaaarrgghh! Spider!. It also went over well, though I think the punchline goes over the heads of most three year olds. :-)

For craft time, we assembled simple construction paper spiders (no such thing as too many or too few legs or eyes) and glued them to photocopied spiderwebs. Then we added a few choice insect stickers for our spider's next meal. Yum!

Posted by Lisa at 1:06 PM | TrackBack

April 16, 2007

Singing Time
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Children enjoy singing along with the adults! We sang to the colorfully illustrated version of the classic song, If You're Happy and You Know It, by Jane Cabrera. We have enjoyed many of her books in storytime. We also sang along to the big version of the Mother Goose rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The toy book Peek a Moo ,by Marie Cimarusti provided peek-a-boo fun and animal identification. The children pointed to their own faces as I did the flannel board story "Two Little Eyes To Look Around". We also sang together with the flannel board rhyme "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Posted by Sue at 6:44 PM | TrackBack

April 11, 2007

Silly Stories
(For 3.5-5 Year Olds)

This was my first storytime at the Wilmette Public Library! It was fun to meet the storytime crowd here. I decided to start off on a silly note with some books about things that don't happen...or do they? We read Duck on a Bike by David Shannon. At first, the kids were pretty sure that ducks don't ride bikes, but I like to think that they changed their minds after hearing about this adventurous bird. I also told them the story of Bark, George by Jules Feiffer. I had a paper bag designed to look like George the dog. When George went to the vet, I pulled a cat, a duck, a pig, and a cow out of the bag/George. The kids thought it was pretty neat. Our last story was Silly Sally, a fun rhyming ramble by Audrey Wood. We wound things down by decorating Rocker Ducks, simple fold-over duck shapes that move back and forth. Ducks rock.

Posted by Janet at 6:54 PM | TrackBack

Spring Is Here
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Wow, spring is finally here after a cold Chicago winter. The children told me about the seasonal changes they see outside which include early flowers, buds on trees, and some leaves on trees and bushes. Fran's Flower, by Lisa Bruce demonstrates to a small girl that plants need water, sunshine, and air to grow, instead of the pizza and other foods that she likes to eat. Splish, Splash, Spring , by Jan Carr depicts the glorious nature of spring. The big book the Chick and the Duckling by Vladimir Suteev is a favorite. "Me too," the children enjoy saying as we read this book. I did the flannel "Three Eggs In a Basket" in honor of the fun weekend egg activities.

Posted by Sue at 10:15 AM | TrackBack

April 7, 2007

Rainy Day Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

It's little known wisdom that it's actually good luck to open an umbrella inside the library -- if you want to evoke a rainy day, anyway. Most small children agree that they don't like the rain, but you know who does? Flowers and other plants! Fortunately we had some on hand for me to share.

- My Red Umbrella, by Robert Bright - I created and used a flannel (actually, magnet) board version of this classic story about a little girl whose umbrella comes in handy when the rain and a whole menagerie of animals arrive. Children can help tell the story by filling in the animal names.

- Rain, by Manya Stojic - A variety of savannah critters anticipate and enjoy the good things the rain brings. This would also be a good book for discussion of the five senses, as the animals first smell, then see, hear, feel, and even taste the rain.

- The Puddle, by David McPhail - A small child goes out to sail his boat in a puddle and encounters a number of other silly animals out to enjoy the puddle in their own ways.

We sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and pretended we were in a rain storm. We blew and swayed like the wind, pattered on the ground like rain, stomped and boomed like thunder, and then grew from teeny, tiny seeds into plants stretching to the sky.

We also did a couple of action rhymes/fingerplays borrowed from elsewhere on the Internet (original sources unknown, I'm afraid):

Tulips
Ten little tulips, bright and gay (hold up 10 fingers)
Let us water them each day ("sprinkle" fingers)
Watch them open in the bright sunlight (cup hands, then open them)
And watch them close when it is night (close hands again)

A Little Sun
A little sun (raise arms in a circle over head)
A little rain ("sprinkle" fingers)
Now pull up all the weeds (pretend to pull weeds from floor)
Our flowers grow (straighten and stretch arms)
All in a row (keep "growing")
From teeny, tiny seeds (pinch thumbs and index fingers as if holding a seed)

Posted by Lisa at 11:35 AM | TrackBack

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