Wear Your Green!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day which happens later this week our theme today was about all things green. Many of our songs and finger plays involved shamrocks and leprechauns. Including two flannel boards:



Five Little Shamrocks.
Five Little Leprechauns.



One of the favorites was Five Fat Peas:

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
One grew, two grew and so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew and they never stopped
They grew and they grew until that pea pod popped!

Here are the books we read:

St. Patrick's Day by Anne F. Rockwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a nicely illustrated book all about the history and traditions surrounding St. Patrick's Day, in the context of information gathered and presented for a class project. My story time audience listened politely to this story and it did hold their attention, but it was not as engaging as most of the books that I read. I searched long and hard for a book about St. Patrick's day that would appeal to toddlers and this was the best one I found. The illustrations are fun and the story is solid and simple.

Where Is the Green Sheep? (Horn Book Fanfare List by Mem Fox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was the highlight of story time! In simple rhyming text the reader is introduced to all sorts of wonderful sheep, but not the green sheep. The question "but where is the green sheep?" appears every few pages. The kids gathered around this book and identified all the sheep (the slide sheep, coming down a playground slide on skis was a special favorite) and would join in asking "but where is the green sheep?" Even the youngest member of my audience (14 months or so) happily talked about the sheep as he pointed to them! The children were happily engaged and couldn't wait for the moment when we found the green sheep. The illustrations are wonderful! Even the quiet, shy kids will get involved and interact with this book.

Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a great read aloud! My story time audience got up and gathered around the book to find out what happens when three children are stalked by a big mean alligator who comes "creeping...creeping...creeping up the stairs." The kids gathered around the book in order to point out all the wonderful details to be found in the illustrations. The colors are bright and the text is filled with wonderful sounds and the repeated phrase, "Were the children scared? You bet they were!" It didn't take long for the kids to pick up on that and they giggled as they joined in. The alligator comes closer and closer and and scarier and scarier until the children decide they have had enough of that scary old alligator. In the end, as a tribute to the urban legend, the alligator is seen slinking home - and the last illustration shows just the tip of his tail disappearing into a man-hole with the cover pushed aside. "Snip snap! The end."

Tweedle Dee Dee by Charlotte Voake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a fun, rhythmic variation on "The Green Grass Grew All Around" This cumulative story focuses on the finest tree you ever did see in a wood.
On this tree there is a branch...on the branch there was a nest....well you get the picture - and the green leaves grew all around. The illustrations are simple and fun, and in addition to birds in a nest and leaves the reader meets other residents of the tree including a pair of squirrels and a family that has a picnic under the tree. It was a nice touch to have the birds in the nest say "Twiddle Dee Dee" - my story time audience enjoyed it so much more than a simple "Tweet, tweet."


After our closing song we colored cut and glued "Shamrocks on a Stick" puppets and learned a bonus song:

I'm a little shamrock look at me
Oh what color can I be?
If you said that I was the color green
Stand right up and yell, "Yippee!"