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Home » Storytimes » Story Window » October 2008

Story Window Storytime Blog: October 2008

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

October 27, 2008

Dinosaurs Are Cool
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

The storytime kids love to read stories about dinosaurs and pretend to be scary ones! The big book version of Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, by Byron Barton, is always a favorite as it shows so many different types of dinosaurs, including small ones. In Tip Tip Dig Dig, by Emma Garcia, brightly colored trucks clear some messy looking land to make a playground. We practiced identifying colors with this book. What starts out as a bad day for the bird, dog, fox and squirrel with some disappointments, turns into a good day in Kevin Henkes, A Good Day. I did a counting flannel called "Ten Little Pumpkins" in honor of the fall season and Halloween being just around the corner!

Posted by Sue at 8:33 PM | TrackBack

October 24, 2008

Fall Stories
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Fall has hit, without question. No more T-shirts and shorts, it's time for jackets and boots! Here's what we did to welcome fall this week in storytime.

We have a nice pegboard with a leafy, green tree painted on it. At the beginning of our session, each kid added a red, yellow, or orange leaf to the tree to decorate it for fall.

Clifford's First Autumn, by Norman Bridwell - A pleasant, general fall book that is great for getting kids' attention because, well, it's CLIFFORD!

We pretended scarves were fall leaves. We held them way up high in our branches (arms). The wind blew, first gently, then harder and harder, until the leaves swirled down. Then we kicked them, raked them up, and tossed them in the air!

Nuts to You, by Lois Ehlert - Short rhyming story about a squirrel that gets into the house.

We sang "Gray Squirrel" and swished our bushy tails.

Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash, by Sarah Weeks, pictures by Nadine Bernard Westcott - Funny rhyming story about a squash grown out of control.

For craft time, we made fall collages with die cut leaves, squirrels, and acorns.

Posted by Lisa at 12:01 PM | TrackBack

October 21, 2008

Happy Birthday
(For 3.5-5 Year Olds)

Everybody's got a birthday, and we celebrated them all today in storytime. We did some fun fingerplays and flannel boards about cakes and blowing out candles. We read a simple story about a girl's birthday, Happy Birthday, Lulu! by Caroline Uff. We moved on to a story about party etiquette, I Am Invited to a Party! This is one of Mo Willems's Elephant and Piggy books. They're easy readers, but they also work well in storytimes because they're just so silly and Elephant and Piggy are sympathetic characters. And finally, we read Annie Was Warned, by Jarrett Krosoczka. Because Annie's birthday is on Halloween, she says she's not scared of anything. But what will she find when she goes to a creepy mansion on October 31?
We wrapped things up with some cake decorating. The kids got pictures of plain cakes and they had to put candles and other decorations on them. It looked like they made some tasty birthday treats today!

Posted by Janet at 2:22 PM | TrackBack

October 20, 2008

Colorful Colors
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Children love to identify colors and they love to find hidden objects behind flaps. The big book version of Mouse Paint, by Ellen Walsh is a creative look at the power of mixing colors as white mice mix colorful paint together to create new colors which they utilize to change their fur color. In Cat's Colors, by Jane Cabrera, a cat looks at his colorful world to determine which color is his favorite, finally choosing orange because of his mother's color! Children love the concept of giving presents. In With Love From Maisy,by Lucy Cousins, Maisy gives presents that are hidden under flaps and tabs, to all of her best friends. The flannel board story, "The Little Red House," explores the concepts of colors and sizes as each colorful felt house hides an even smaller house.

Posted by Sue at 6:16 PM | TrackBack

October 15, 2008

Apple Picking Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

It's officially fall, and the farmer's market abounds with bushels of apples. Here's what we read in celebration of this versatile and popular fall fruit!

- Ten Red Apples, by Pat Hutchins - As in years past, I did a puppet adaptation of this counting story, with opportunities for kids to identify animals, make animal sounds, and count the apples remaining.

- The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern - A year in the life of an apple tree, from bare branches to pie steaming on the table! A nice informational book.

- All for Pie, Pie for All, by David Martin, illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev - One apple pie, three families of critters to enjoy it down to the last crumb! I never get tired of Gorbachev's illustrations.

We sang "Ten Little Apples" (to the tune of "Ten Little Indians") and other favorite songs. For craft time, we glued die-cut people and trees to paper and put colored stickers on the trees for apples.

Two more apple stories we didn't have time for: Apple Farmer Annie, by Monica Wellington, and The Apple Pie That Papa Baked, by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Jonathan Bean.

Posted by Lisa at 1:10 PM | TrackBack

Trucks and Cars Go Fast and Far
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Racing Cars are exciting, especially ones driven by dogs, giraffes, and hippos! As the animals drove their cars around the race track, we sang the new version of the favorite song "Wheels on the Bus" to Alexander Zane's Wheels on the Race Car. Tom drives a big truck to deliver fruit across the country in the brightly illustrated Truck Driver Tom, by Monica Wellington. Singing Mother Goose rhymes is always a good time. We sang to the big book version of Sing A Song of Sixpence. We pretended (with great enthusiasm) to blow out birthday candles as I did the flannel story, "10 Little Candles".

Posted by Sue at 9:12 AM | TrackBack

October 7, 2008

Going for a Ride!
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

I'm always impressed by two and three year olds who know their vehicles better than I do. Actually, that's probably most of them. "That's a sailboat! That's a cruiser!" Yep, uh huh, sure. Anyway, I always like a vehicular-themed storytime to break up the pastoral fall stuff.

The Bus for Us, by Suzanne Bloom - Kids guess and check whether the next vehicle moving onto the page is, indeed, the school bus or something different-- a garbage truck or backhoe, perchance?

Clip-Clop, by Nicola Smee - This book about several barnyard animals riding on Mr. Horse's back is so simple and silly, but it always gets the kids giggling.

Cosmo Zooms, by Arthur Howard - Cosmo's the only dog on Pumpkin Lane without a notable talent, until he takes a nap on a skateboard...

We did our "Five Little Garbage Trucks" flannel board and sang "Wheels on the Bus." For our project, we glued colored die-cut cars and trucks on black paper and colored with chalk.

Posted by Lisa at 1:06 PM | TrackBack

October 6, 2008

Spills and Thrills
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Toddlers enjoy books that show kids creating mischief because that is fun and funny. Rachel Isadora explores different kinds of toddler behavior in Uh-Oh! in which a child spills food and makes lots of messes. The storytime kids pretended to walk like the various animals along with the amusing Wiggle Waggle, by Jonathan London. We sang together the classic song along with the big book version of The Farmer in the Dell. We enjoyed singing and pretending our fingers were monkeys as we sang "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree."

Posted by Sue at 8:36 PM | TrackBack

October 1, 2008

Animal Surprises
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Singing along with books is always fun for the storytime kids. Old MacNoah Had an Ark, by Sally Lloyd-Jones is a funny version of the Noah's Ark story in which Old MacNoah has a hard time feeding his huge group of animals. We made lots of animal sounds together. The classic Spot series continually amuses the storytime kids. In Spot Goes to the Farm, by Eric Hill, Spot finds many animals hiding under flaps. Paul Zelinsky's creativity produced an astounding toy book with flaps to pull and wheels to turn based on the classic song, The Wheels on the Bus. We sang along to Bill Martin Jr.'s book that we made into a flannel board, called "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

Posted by Sue at 12:06 PM | TrackBack

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