Let's Have a Picnic Storytime

 I thought it would be fun to do a picnic themed storytime for spring and found the three perfect books that I thought would be perfect to read and paired it nicely with a watermelon craft. 

Ready for Anything! by Keiko Kasza tells the story of worried Duck and all the things he thinks can go wrong with a picnic. Of course his friend Raccoon reassures him that there's a lot of fun things about a picnic and to focus on that. 

Our next book was Bears and Blossoms by Shirley Parenteau and is a fun, sweet read showing all the great things about having a picnic.

 The last book I read was The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli so I could tie that in with our watermelon craft made with a paper plate, tissue paper, and markers. 

I hope all these stories got everyone hungry for another picnic book!

Family Storytime: Picnic

Everyone who came were familiar faces and we had a fun time with our picnic/food theme. 

We followed along to the bean bag song and then I read It's the Bear by Jez Alborough. The group really enjoyed this story about a boy afraid of a bear while he's on a picnic and of the bear being afraid of him. 

Next, we added fruits and veggies to our "picnic blanket" and we went through the names of the fruits and veggies and their colors. Everyone got a turn to put their food on the magnetic sheet pan.

Next, I read The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli. The kids really do love this book! Everytime I read it, it's a hit and the kids love to laugh about the seed growing in crocodile's belly.  

After this book, we guessed which colored picnic basket had the apple underneath it using the flannel board.

Then we read our third book, Picnic by John Burningham. This book kept the kids attention because it asked to find certain things in the pictures, but I would say this was their least favorite out of the four books.

We made the tallest ice cream cone with our different colored scoops and each had a turn and then we read Muddle & Mo's Worm Surprise. It was fun to see the kids faces when the picnic food would be worms.

We made a watermelon craft using paint. The kids got done with this craft fast, but they enjoyed using paint for a bit.

This was a good theme that had enough to use for just a picnic theme.

Other Books:

We're Going on a Picnic Pat Huchins

Ready for Anything! Keiko Kasza

Freda Plans a Picnic Stuart J. Murphy

Summer Supper Rubin Pfeffer

The Teddy Bears' Picnic Jimmy Kennedy

Other Activities:

-Plastic Food Activity

-Five Hungry Ants Fingerplay

-Stone Soup Story Flannel

-Hungry Caterpillar Flannel

-5 cookies Flannel

-ice cream cone Flannel

-Vegetable Game

-pizzas fingerplay

-Popsicle Flannel

Family Storytime: Picnic

This was another good storytime with a nice theme. There are so many books and activities to choose from when going on a picnic. We read three books, did three activities, and did our craft. I would say this is one of my favorite themes for the summer because it's so easy to put together and there's always new material.

 We read Picnic by John Burningham, Pignic by Matt Phelan, and What This Story Needs Is a Munch and a Crunch by Emma Virjan. All three of these stories were just short enough, but offered a cute story. I think the kids enjoyed Pignic the best. 

For one of our activities, we matched some flannel kites using the flannel board and talked about their colors and counted them.

For our last activity, which was received the best, was a picnic basket guessing game using the flannel board. Different colored picnic baskets were put up and the group had to guess which one had the apple behind it using their colors. They always love guessing games!

What picnic would be complete without watermelon? We made watermelon crafts using paper plate halves, tissue paper, and black paint for the seeds. The first craft I remember doing as a kid was a watermelon craft in kindergarten so this craft is dear to my heart.  

Other books for this theme:
Porcupine's Picnic: Who Eats What? by Betsy R. Rosenthal
Bears and Blossoms by Shirley Parenteau
Ready for Anything! by Keiko Kasza
We're Going on a Picnic! by Pat Hutchins 
Duck and Hippo Lost and Found by Jonathan London
It's the Bear! by Jez Alborough
Claude Has a Picnic by Dick Gackenbach
The Lost Picnic by B.B. Cronin
The Best Picnic Ever by Clare Jarrett

Other activities for this theme:
Five Hungry Ants rhyme
Five Yummy Cookies rhyme
It Looked Like Spilt Milk Flannel
Popsicle counting and colors