I'm always a bit hesitant to do concept themes because sometimes they don't seem to be as fun for the kids or have as many activities to choose from, but it's important and always manageable so one of these themes are always included in each 6-week session. I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be one of our best storytimes!
The turnout usually dwindles down a bit when we get towards the end of the storytime session, but it always allows for kids to get more one-on-one interaction.
After we got through following along to the bean bag song, we read Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, an opposite book about a white dog with black spots getting so dirty that he turns into a black dog with white spots. We went over some opposite examples before we started reading this one and we pointed out what made the dogs on the cover opposite. This is such a good book for an opposite, animal, dog, or silly storytime.
Next, we had an activity but we didn't use the flannelboard and didn't use it throughout the whole storytime. We had some other fun activities and the kids didn't even realize that we didn't use the flannel board today.
Our first activity was using Crocodile. Crocodile was made out of a container and Crocodile is always hungry for something...alphabet letters, numbers, and this time opposites! I used our die-cut machine and cut big and little die-cuts of any patterns we had that matched. This was our big and little opposite activity. "Crocodile, Crocodile you're very neat, what kind of opposite would you like to eat?...Crocodile would like to eat the opposite of a BIG balloon. What is the opposite of a BIG balloon? Who has the small balloon?" I held up a big die-cut (we had a dog, cat, balloon, crayon, etc.) and asked who had the matching little die-cut. Crocodile is always a hit and this time it was a little more challenging than the flannel board because we didn't pay attention to the color of the die-cut, but it's shape and size.
Our next book was Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks. I mentioned the author's name and we talked about how Erik Brooks was the man who wrote the book. Then we dove right in. This is a cute story about a Polar Bear and a penguin who are opposites in every way but still get along.
Our next activity was following along to "head, shoulders, knees, and toes." We definitely needed to shake some sillies out and this was a good opportunity to do so.
This next story was absolutely perfect for this storytime because it had easy opposite examples that we could physically follow along to and try ourselves as a group. Outdoor Opposites by Brenda Williams had us sitting and standing, running and walking, and exploring all sorts of movement opposites. This was so fun to do with the kids. We were in the carpet, then out of the carpet. We were talking, then we were quiet. Such a good book to do as a group!
By this time, the sillies were all gone so I figured let's not waste that and do a short, quick book. Animal Opposites by Petr Horacek kept their attention because it's such a lovely pop-up book. The group had so much fun looking at the pop-up illustrations and it made this another interactive book.
For our craft, I explained that we would be making Harry the Dirty Dog from our first book and had given them black and white die-cut dogs. They could decorate their backgrounds however they liked. They had fun adding spots to their dogs. The craft went a little fast because they weren't so much in a coloring mood, but it was just fine because our storytime was the perfect length.
Some books I didn't end up reading, but would have been a great addition to an opposite storytime is Double Take! by Susan Hood, Sun Above and Blooms Below by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky, Swing High, Swing Low by Fiona Coward, and Dinosaur Opposites by Paul Stickland.
I also found a nice action rhyme, "This Is Big."
This is big, big, big. (Stretch hands far to the sides)
This is small, small, small. (Cup hands together)
This is short, short, short. (Hold palms close vertically)
This is tall, tall, tall. (Hold palms apart vertically)
This is fast, fast, fast. (Roll hands quickly)
This is slow, slow, slow. (Roll hands slowly)
This is yes, yes, yes. (Nod head)
This is no, no, no. (Shake head)
Winter storytime ended very well and in two weeks I'll be ready for spring sessions!
This is one of my favorite winter themes and it did not disappoint. I was able to read four short snowman books and do three activities with the craft.
After our bean bag song, we read The Most Perfect Snowman by Chris Britt. What makes this snowman perfect is his willingness to share. Besides sharing, this is also a good picture book for reading for bullying and differences.
Our first activity was to make a snowman as a group using the flannel board. Everyone was given a piece and a chance to put theirs on the board. We went over colors and some numbers using the colors of the scarf and the number of buttons and gloves.
The next book I read was Pip and Posy: The Snowy Day. This is a cute book and shows that Pip and Posy could work together to make their unique snowman.
Our next activity was a cut-and-tell. I haven't done one of these in awhile and this one was perfect for this storytime and fit well with our cutting craft. I told a story of a snowman that kept melting because of the change of seasons from winter to spring. The kids recognized that the snowman was getting smaller until he became a puddle.
You Make Me Smile by Layn Marlow is a book about a snowman that is given a smile.
Our final activity is always a hoot with the kids. This is a sort of magic trick where I give everyone a laminated snowman piece and they have to put theirs in the envelope. Once everyone is done putting their pieces in the envelope, we all say abracadabra! and a full snowman is pulled out of the envelope. The kids can never figure it out, but there are two separate envelopes glued together.
I probably could have ended right there, but decided to read 100 Snowmen by Jen Arena. It's a simple math based picture book that goes really quick. I think I was pushing the group a little bit with this last story, but it was over quick and we made it to our craft.
We made S is for Snowman crafts and the group got their cutting practice in. The parents really liked that part of the craft. I added some originality to it but having the option of choosing what color the stripe on their snowman's hat should be.
This is a great theme for winter and would also work wonderfully for older kids because there are longer picture books out there that were written so well.
It was easy to keep this hearts theme for Toddler Art since I was able to save some supplies from Preschool Picasso and use them for this class.
I try to read a shorter story in Toddler Art than Preschool Picasso since this group is younger, and after perusing through some options, I thought My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall was pretty perfect, especially with the animal illustrations made out of hearts. A few of my families arrived after the story so I offered to read the story again afterwards. Some parents seem to prefer to miss the story part of the program, but I'm just glad they are enjoying the crafts and time together as a family.
Once I read through the story and pointed out the heart shapes, I explained our crafts.
We made a ladybug out of heart shapes and used black paint and q-tips to make her dots. The ladybug's red pipe cleaner antennas were a bit stubborn to glue on, but we used tape to keep it in place while it was drying in the glue.
For our second craft, we made a heart shape using cotton balls and pink, purple, and red washable paint. Different colored paint was dabbed on with a cotton ball around a die-cut heart that was attached with a piece of tape. Once the kids were done painting, making sure to paint around the heart outline, the heart was removed to reveal a pretty heart shape outlined in their artwork. I also handed eye stickers to the group instead of the pink dot eyes since I thought it would be more appropriate for toddler-aged children.
Both crafts helped the kiddos work on their fine motor skills with the q-tips and cotton balls. I think this was the most important factor that made both crafts a success, just getting that practice in. I think the group also liked having the choice of different paint colors and heart colors for their crafts.
I was a tad disappointed that I only had a few families on time for the story, but it was still a good program turnout and a fun time and way to celebrate Valentine's Day.
We celebrated all things hearts, hugs, and kisses in our Valentine's Day storytime. There are so many sweet books for this theme that after our bean bag song, we dove into our first story.
The Day It Rained Hearts is a classic by Felicia Bond. I originally was going to use this story for another program, but ended up saving it for our storytime. This is a story about a girl who collects different hearts that are falling from the sky. (A great story and art tie-in is using this book with puffy paint and construction paper hearts).
As tempted as I was to continue reading, I introduced our flannel board activity. This was a matching hearts color activity. I had different colored "broken" hearts that each child could put their matching color on the flannel board. This was good matching and color practice.
Our next book was You Know What I Love? by Lorena Siminovich. This is a story about a girl who has a doll and all the things she loves doing with her throughout her day.
Next, we read Valentine's Are For Saying I Love You by Margaret Sutherland. I pretty much read this one every year because it explains the holiday and isn't too long.
We took a break from picture books and I told a story using the flannel board. Thousands of Valentines for Hundreds of Friends is a flannel story about a class who is handing out different valentines. One student insists he has thousands of valentines for hundreds of friends. As his classmates and us as a group are trying to figure out how he can have thousands of valentines, we find out that his friends are birds and his valentines are bird seeds. The older kids in the group liked guessing throughout the story. I gave hints like asking what flies in the air and lands on tree branches and tweets.
I read a few short poems from Bear Hugs by Karma Wilson and Suzanne Watts before we read our last Valentine's Day story, How Do You Hug a Porcupine? by Laurie Isop. The kids absolutely loved this one and I did too because it captivated their attention and you find out exactly how to hug a porcupine and other animals.
For our craft, we made a heart that hugs out of construction paper. The craft went a little fast, but the group enjoyed making their heart their own.
Happy Valentine's Day!
For February's Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art programs, I knew I wanted to have a hearts theme for Valentine's Day. I didn't want it to be the usual Valentine's Day program so I decided to vary it a little bit. That led me to a hedgehog Valentine's Day theme.
After narrowing down to two crafts and finding a book that was just right for my theme, it was time to prep and put on the program. The prep for this wasn't that bad. I did have to trace hedgehogs and cut out a bunch of hearts, but it could have been done easier if I had a smaller heart die-cut and trimmed my construction paper so it fit into the copier to make my hedgehog templates.
Today's Preschool Picasso made up for last night's storytime turnout. No snow today and everyone came out for a Preschool Picasso kind of day!
We talked about Valentine's Day and read the perfect book for a hedgehog and hearts kind of theme. Happy Valentine's Day, Gus! by Jacklyn Williams is an easy reader about a hedgehog named Gus who desperately wants to make his mom a Valentine's Day gift, but just can't seem to get it right. Despite this story being a little wordy (I knew I had an older group who could handle it) and it being a smaller book with little illustrations, I still think this was a very fun story that tied-in beautifully with the crafts, especially when you read the ending!
Once we were done reading about Gus, it was time to make our own Gus...a Valentine's Day hedgehog made out of painted hearts. Each child had some cutout hearts that could be painted red or pink and could be glued to their hedgehog to make "spikes." Once the hearts dry, they do spike out for a nice effect. The kids liked painting their hearts, we used thinner paint brushes, and completed their hedgehog with a red pom pom nose and a pink craft eye. These turned out so unique and cute!
Our other craft was making a Valentine just like Gus did for his mom. I cut card stock in half and used a heart die-cut to make a heart shape in the middle of the paper. Different colored ribbon was glued onto the solid card stock and then the heart shaped cut-out was glued on top to make a ribbon heart.
Both crafts were a hit and the kids enjoyed picking out different colored ribbon to make their own special hearts.
Other books that could have complimented this theme were Hedgehog: A Sharp Lesson in Love by Benn Sutton, Panda's Valentine's Day by Tara Morrow, and My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. Panda's Valentine's Day mentions using ribbon for a Valentine's Day craft and My Heart is Like a Zoo uses heart shapes as illustrations for the animals in the story.
We had a pretty bad snow storm here yesterday, so the roads were bad and the storytime attendees were slim, but we didn't let that get in the way of our fun.
After doing our movement activity bean-bag song, we started our first fairy tale - The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton. I liked the simplistic illustrations for the storytime environment and we learned the lesson of having a good work ethic and pitching in to help.
Since my small group was so attentive with the first story, we dived right into The Lion and the Mouse by Jenny Broom. This version is beautiful because of the colorful pictures and cutouts. A parent pointed out how much she liked this one and wanted to write down the author and find other similar books.
I used the flannel board to tell the story of The Wise Old Owl. I used this one before so I pretty much told the story without using any notes. This is a story about a lady who lives in a farm house. She notices two mice in her house and consults the wise old owl on what to do about them. The wise old owl says that she should get a cat to scare away the mice. She does, but the cat makes a mess in her house and now she wants the cat gone. What can make the cat go away? From the wise old owl, a dog of course! What can make the messy dog go away? A tiger of course! What can make the messy tiger go away? An elephant of course! And what can make the messy elephant go away? Well, two mice of course!
The group seemed to have really enjoyed this story and it allowed them to label each animal and follow along.
Next, we read The Three Bears by Byron Barton. This was the second one of Barton's books that I used and helped to add consistency and familiarity to my storytime. This was the favorite story for the night because they all knew the story of Goldilocks.
Our final fairy tale was Three Little Pigs by Susan Sandvig Walker. We first read the story together and then listened to the audio cd included. This was a perfect pairing with our Three Little Pigs craft complete with the big, bad wolf!
I found it a little harder to have activities with this theme, but it is definitely a theme worth doing. Next time, I think I'll make a flannel set for one of these stories.
I wanted to review a book for older kids for this month's book review and came across this gem by Deborah Heiligman.
Summary: Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. This same debate raged with Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.
Age Range: 13 and up
"It is feeling and not reasoning that drives one to prayer." ~Emma to Charles
This is an excellent, award-winning nonfiction book about Charles Darwin's life and a unique focus on his personal life. The mere idea of wondering what became of Darwin's relationship with his religious wife pulled me into this book. His ideas, mixed with his wife's religious views help teach Darwinism and shows how his work was affected by his wife Emma.
This is an interesting way to learn about science, history, and religion all at the same time with the element of curiosity that is needed to keep readers intrigued. Young readers will want to know how Darwin faired with his religious wife. I enjoyed the attention that was paid towards Emma.
This is a perfect book for older kids to read who want to debate the idea of evolution and religion.
It was a National Book Award Finalist and won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature by the American Library Association.
