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Home » Storytimes » Story Window » February 2009

Story Window Storytime Blog: February 2009

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

February 24, 2009

Chicken Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Cock-a-Doodle Quack! Quack!, by Ivor Baddiel and Sophie Jubb, pictures by Ailie Busby. Cute, patterned story about a baby rooster who doesn't know how to wake up the barnyard, with comical results.

Tippy-toe Chick, Go!, by George Shannon, pictures by Laura Dronzek. A cranky dog is blocking the chicken family's way to the garden, but fortunately the littlest chick has a solution! This book is just a tiny bit scary with a satisfying conclusion.

Mrs. Hen's Big Surprise, by Christel Desmoinaux. Mrs. Hen has no chick of her own, until she finds an enormous egg in her garden. But is there really a chick in there? Children enjoy guessing what's in the egg in this humorous book.

We did a variation on this "Hens of a Different Color" flannel board and sang "Old McDonald." One day when we had an older group, we even did "The Chicken Dance," using "The Mack Chicken Dance" track on Greg & Steve's Kids in Action CD.

Posted by Lisa at 9:45 AM | TrackBack

February 16, 2009

Be My Valentine
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Valentine's Day is a favorite holiday of mine as I love the colors red and pink, valentines, candy and flowers. Lilly tries to figure out where to hide her Valentine candy in Lilly's Chocolate Heart by Kevin Henkes. I showed the storytime kids a valentine, paste, ribbon and lace before I read Mouse's First Valentine by Lauren Thompson, in which Mouse makes his friend a homemade valentine. Animals give each other useful delicious Valentine gifts in the toy book by Sarah Weeks called Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine. We enjoyed counting the kittens and naming the colors of the paint in the flannel storyboard story called, "Kittens and Paint".

Posted by Sue at 5:57 PM | TrackBack

February 12, 2009

Random Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

The great thing about being in charge is that you get to call the shots! If you want to have a totally non-thematically united storytime, you can do that! No wonder kids can't wait to be older.

The Story of Growl, by Judy Horacek - Cute story about a little monster who needs to find the proper time and place for growling.

Punk Farm, by Jarrett Krosoczka - I love this rock band take on Old McDonald.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr.,and John Archambault; illustrated by Lois Ehlert. A favorite among many children, this is a great book for letter recognition and practicing the ABC song. For our craft, we made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom pictures, gluing die cut letters to pictures of coconut trees.

Posted by Lisa at 12:00 PM | TrackBack

February 11, 2009

Chickens
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

With her happy colors, large animals and simple text, Nancy Tafuri is a favorite author for the storytime kids. In Five Little Chicks, Mother Hen guides her baby chicks to eat corn rather than food that is too big for their little stomachs. We enjoyed making animal sounds as we watched a chick hatch out of its egg and look for its mother among various noisy animals in Whose Chick Are You? Maisy, always popular in our storytimes, goes for a nature walk in this fun pull-the-tab book, Maisy's Nature Walk, by Lucy Cousins. We sang the Raffi tune as I did the cute counting flannelboard, "Five Green and Speckled Frogs".

Posted by Sue at 9:37 AM | TrackBack

February 9, 2009

Bedtime Storytime
(For 2.5-3.5 Year Olds)

Tiger Can't Sleep, by S. J. Fore, illustrated by R. W. Alley. One of my storytime stand-bys. Preschool kids love the humor and are captivated by the question of what that noisy tiger will do next!

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late, by Mo Willems. Reading this one has become more successful as the pigeon grows in popularity. Older children (3 and 4) especially have no qualms about telling the pigeon, "No!"

Go to Bed, Monster!, by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz. This story of typical bedtime procrastination is fun for its role reversal, as a little girl must put to bed the monster she's created with paper and crayons.

We sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed."

Posted by Lisa at 2:55 PM | TrackBack

February 4, 2009

Houses!
(For 3.5-5 Year Olds)

General theme this week for my two programs was houses of all types, and the related art project involved coloring and adding stickers to a house picture.
Anyway, on both Tuesday and Wednesday I read The Indoor Noisy Book, by Margaret Wise Brown, and Ghosts in the House! by Kozuno Kohara. One is brand new, the other is 67 years old. The Brown book holds up amazingly well and the kids didn't seem bothered by any of the anachronisms. I haven't read it to a group in about 10 years, and I was glad it stills goes over well. The third story on Tuesday was Where is That Cat, by Carol Greene, a great book about a woman who takes in a stray cat but doesn't want to adopt him permanantly. How she changes her mind involves spotting the hiding cat (pretty small) in the pretty but detailed illustrations; in cases like that, it's hard to stop the kids from jumping up and going right to the page, which is hard to manage in a group situation. My third book on Wednesday was a shorter one by Jan Thomas, The Doghouse, which was really just right for the slightly younger group that day. When the animals start disappearing into the doghouse, what's happening to them? Good suspense, with bright, antic pictures, and a definitely non-scary ending.

Posted by Lyn at 11:56 AM | TrackBack

Trucking Around
(For 1.5-2.5 Year Olds)

Children love to watch trucks do their amazing jobs, thus truck books are always popular at storytimes. Many types of trucks are necessary to repair roads as depicted in the colorful A Hole in the Road, by Jakki Wood. Jon Scieszka created the Trucktown series that has appealing comical illustrations. I read Snow Trucking, which depicts snow trucks enjoying themselves as they work. In the big book version of the classic folktale by Mirra Ginsburg, called The Chick and the Duckling, a chicken wants to imitate a duck but finds that's not always possible due to his lack of swimming skills. We sang and counted along with the flannel board story, "Five Little Ducks," a familiar song to our group.

Posted by Sue at 10:09 AM | TrackBack

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