Family Storytime: Day of the Dead

This theme for storytime was definitely more tough since there aren't a lot of good Day of the Dead stories in English, but between inter-library loaning and using bilingual books we made this theme work. This subject is perfect for our Spanish storytimes, but a bit challenging for our English ones since we wanted to emphasize the culture of the celebration and not the religious aspect of it. Granted, we took upon the challenge and succeeded.

I ended up turning this storytime into a Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos/skeleton theme. Without most of the skeleton stories, the books to choose from would have been slim and I was trying to vary this as much as I could from the previous Halloween storytime.

To explain Day of the Dead, we read The Day of the Dead by Bob Barner. I went straight into my next story since I felt that book was more of an introduction. Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler was a cute story, but perhaps a little too long for my group. I quickly did a movement activity with a "Dem Bones" song and read Skeleton Hiccups by the same author and Skelly & Femur by Jimmy Pickering. 

The kids absolutely loved the Skeleton Hiccups book because of all the hiccuping and liked the illustrations of Femur in Pickering's book.   

For another activity mixed in, I handed out different skeleton bones and had each of the kids bring their bone up and putting it in the "magic" envelope. Once all the bones were in, we shouted "abracadabra" and the skeleton's bones were magically put together. The kids thought this was fun and they liked saying the magic word.

As a craft, we made sugar skulls out of card stock, heart stickers (upside down for their noses), and crayons and markers. They really enjoyed the craft and had a good time making it their own.

Other books:
Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson
Day of the Dead by Amanda Doering
Disney's Coco: Miguel's Music
It's Skeleton Time! by Ana Galan
Clatter Bash! A Day of the Dead Celebration by Richard Keep

Family Storytime: Halloween

For this week's storytime, we celebrated Halloween early with a Halloween storytime. This is always a hit with any group and we always keep it friendly, fun, and not scary but more spooky-cute!

We ended up reading four books that were mostly short,  counted Five Friendly Ghosts on the flannel board, and shared the story about The Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything using the flannel board. We also sang "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Out of the four books, the first book was the longest but the most well-received. Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger kept the group engaged. Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall was a nice addition to our Halloween theme and we followed that with Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin. Caswell's book is much like a guessing game that the kids loved and Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin is one I always end up reading for the holiday.

For our craft, we used white paint to paint our hands and press it onto to our paper and then glue q-tips to it to make it look like a skeleton hand. We have been using paint a little more than usual in storytime, but the kids have really enjoyed it.

Happy Halloween! 

Other Books and Ideas:
Skeleton Meets the Mummy by Steve Metzger
Boo, Bunny! by Kathryn O. Galbraith
Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin by Mary Serfozo
I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath
Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
Goose's Spooky Surprise by Laura Wall
Boo! Haiku by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea
Monster Needs a Costume by Paul Czajak

Toddler Art: Animals

I had some more new, great additions during this morning's Toddler Art program and everyone had a nice time with our short story and two crafts.

I read Karma Wilson's Bear Sees Colors. It's about Bear and Mouse who are friends and encounter different animals and colors along the way. The group enjoyed this one and it was fun to see them get excited about each color.

For our two crafts, we made Bear and Mouse. For Bear, I put paper plates out with dollops of brown paint for them to smear and paint onto their paper plate. We had cut-out ears and noses and sticker eyes to make the rest of Bear.

For Mouse, we used construction paper and yarn for his tail and a pom pom for his nose. I used some different color die-cut leaves to glue onto the background and incorporate the color theme of the book too.

They enjoyed making their crafts and parents helped, but I think next time I'll put out some sponges for the paint so it is a little easier for them to grip than the paint brushes. They can always use their hands and finger paint, but sometimes parents don't like this messier approach.

I liked how this story worked so well with the theme and crafts and this author has such great books for concept themes, animals, and the seasons.   

 

Book of the Month: I Give You the World

The illustrations of Stacey McCleary's picture book really drew me in. 

Summary: The perfect gift of all the world itself in its natural beauty through every season. The early morning light in spring shines on a new day; summer rain brings rainbows; falling leaves in autumn signals the arrival of cold weather; and a deer cautiously stepping into a newly fallen snow highlights the beauty of winter. A celebration of our world and its many precious gifts.

"My gift is each and everything: each autumn day, and each new spring, the winter's chill, the summer's laughter, every season ever after...The wonder, the beauty, the magic unfurled...all this is for you...I give you the world."

Age Range: 5-6 years

I enjoyed the pictures by Carmen Saldana and absolutely loved this message. We are gifting our children the world. It teaches how special everyday moments are and how important the nature of the world is to us all. 

Through poetic notation, it urges us to care for our world and cherish the moments we have with its nature. I also find it endearing how a parent could read this picture book to their child and show them that they loved them so much they gave them the world. This could also have a spiritual tone to it if interpreted that way. 

This is a darling picture book!

Preschool Picasso: Animals

I originally made animals the theme for this program because I wanted to make sure I had enough ideas to choose from when it was time to plan the program. I had too many good animal craft choices that I decided to narrow it down to forest/fall animals. I found a book to match that theme and made sure I found good bear and squirrel crafts to use.

 I think the book, Bear and Squirrel are Friends by Deb Pilutti, really helped tie-in this program well. The group enjoyed the book and their crafts.

Their first craft was mixing their blue and white paint on their paper plate to make Blue Bear and adding sticker eyes and die-cut pieces to complete his face. The kids had fun mixing their paint to get light blue and their bears all turned out so cute!

The second craft was making Squirrel. We used die-cut leaves to make Squirrel's tail and I had cut out Squirrel's body to glue onto their construction paper. The parents seemed to have really liked this craft with a few of the moms commenting on how cute it is.

The group wasn't as big as it has been in the past, but I think it was very comfortable for the group because sometimes space can be limited when the group is full. 

 

Family Storytime: Cats

For our cat storytime, we were able to read four books, use the flannel board twice, and sing "If You're Happy and You Know It."

There was a lot of cat books and activities to choose from, which always makes it easier. I usually bring out a few extra books and activity ideas that I custom to how the group is for that day. 

The four books that we read were Cat Knit by Jacob Grant, I Like Cats by Patricia Hubbell, They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel, and What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas. 

I told a story about The Cat of Many Colors on the flannel board and made it in season by saying that the white cat wanted to be a black cat for Halloween. Of course he gets into things in the house that makes him change colors. I had a small enough group to have each child bring up their colored cat to the board.

The other activity we did that used the flannel board was Little Mouse in a House. I had a flannel mouse behind different colored houses and the group had to guess which house the mouse was in. They always like to guess! 

I decided to add another song to storytime. We did the Bean Bag Rock song with bean bags at the beginning, but I also sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" so we could all stretch a little and get our wiggles out. 

For our craft, we made standing cats out of card stock paper. I added a dotted line for them to practice their cutting and make their cat legs. I also used a die-cut "O" and cut that in half to make the tail. We used sticker eyes from Oriental Trading and I cut out cat head templates. This craft turned out so cute and every child makes their cat their own! 

I love animal storytimes and this one was no exception! 

Other Books on Cats:

Kittens! Kittens! Kittens! by Susan Meyers

Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper

Top Cat by Lois Ehlert

Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

There Are Cats In This Book by Viviane Schwarz

A Kitten's Year by Nancy Raines Day

Black Cat, White Cat Silvia Borando

How Do Dinosaurs Love Their Cats? by Jane Yolen