Family Storytime: Shapes

The theme of shapes is always a great option for storytimes because there are so much books and activity ideas to go along with it and of course it's also a great concept theme.

There are some really great picture books on shapes that have cute stories to them, but tend to be on the long side for a storytime group. I ended up choosing three short stories to read, did two shape activities, and provided a shape craft.

We read Shapes that Roll by Karen Nagel, Perfect Square by Michael Hall, and Round by Joyce Sidman. The group particularly loved the illustrations in Nagel's book and noticed Square's facial expressions in Hall's book. I was really pushing their attention spans by the third book, but they did notice the roundness of the moon in the last book we read together. 

For our activities that broke up our reading, I handed out different shapes and had each of the kids feed the "Shape Monster." They had a good time and they each had an opportunity to get in front of the group. The last activity we did was a flannel based on the book, Shape by Shape. They had fun guessing what the shapes will make at the end of the flannel story. A dinosaur of course!

Each of the kids made a rocket craft using triangles, circles, rectangles, and squares. I think this reinforced the idea that all the books had, being that shapes are all around us. Of course they each got a space sticker to complete their craft. 

Here are a list of some books and activities for a shape storytime:
 

Love, Triangle Marcie Colleen

Perhaps Guido Van Genechten

Apples and Robins Lucie Felix

Round Joyce Sidman

Bear in a Square Stella Blackstone

Shapes that Roll Karen Nagel

Perfect Square Michael Hall

Shapes are Everywhere! Charles Ghigna

Dinosaur Shapes Paul Stickland

Go, Shapes, Go! by Denise Fleming

Circle Square Moose by Kelly Bingham

Shape Shift by Joyce Hesselberth

Square by Mac Barnett

Sweet Shapes by Juana Medina

City Shapes by Diana Murray

Seaver the Weaver by Paul Czajak

Round Is a Tortilla by Roseanne Grennfield Thong

Other Activities:

Shape Monster (feed the monster shapes)

Shape Chant (movement activity)

Different colored squares

Blast Off color rockets to go with craft

Red Square, Red Square, What Do You See?

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Funny Shape Family Cut and Tell

If You're Happy and You Know It

Matching Shape Cookies

Shape by Shape Flannel Dinosaur

 

Family Storytime: Shapes

For this past week's storytime, we read all about shapes. We always try to incorporate one cognitive development theme and shapes became this session's cognitive theme.

After gathering a few more kids for storytime, we got right to reading about shapes. 

Our first book was Shapes that Roll by Karen Nagel. The rhyming text made it fun to read out loud and the illustrations are fun.

Next, we read Circle Dogs by Kevin Henkes. Who wouldn't love a story about shapes and dogs? 

Since there wasn't that big of a group, I only did one group activity. We had to feed the Shape Monster. Shape Monster is a cute, silly monster made out of a cardboard box, construction paper, and pom poms that one of my librarian coworkers made. We used different die-cut shapes and went over our shapes and colors before we heard the Monster call out what he wanted to munch on. The kids love feeding him and I have fun making num-num noises when he's eating. The parents also seem to like this idea too. 

Our last story was All Sorts of Shapes by Hannah Reidy. This is a great story to read to make the point that shapes are all around us. 

For the craft, it was decided that we use cut-out circles to make different shapes and designs. I always have a sample of the craft and the kids made the same caterpillar, bee, and spider scene I provided. It made them think how many circles they needed to make one like mine, but I like it when they use their own imagination. Either way, it was a fun storytime complete with circle smiley stickers.