Celebrating Water Awareness Month

So, our city water department offers to send goody bags out to libraries who schedule a story time to promote May as water awareness month...and offer that I couldn't refuse, once I made sure I could find enough suitable titles for my preschool audience. I did find plenty and I also stumbled upon some story time kits that our Central Library Children's staff have put together. What a wonderful resource. They include a music CD in support of the theme, books, song and rhyme suggestions and in one case a glove puppet set and in another character cards from one of the books that I was able to use as a flannel board story. So, on Saturday I presented this at a branch of the public library in front of fifteen or so kids and their parents and today, I repeated it at the base library for a group of three children and parents. The three are a core of regular attendees and we have so much fun together - I have watched all of them grow and change over the last six months or so and it has been a great journey!Here is a picture of the glove for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Friends" for after we sang the song through using the glove, we sang again about a GREAT BIG SPIDER and again with a teeny tiny spider. Many smiles and giggles!

We did other rain rhymes and with the larger group we "made" rain - first a gentle drizzle (rub hands together) then gentle drips (slow quiet hand claps) getting faster and louder as the rain increases - at the height of the storm everyone is slapping their thighs and stomping their feet. Again lots of smiles.

Here are the books we read:
Precious Water by Brigitte Weninger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book's simple engaging text and lovely illustrations really struck a chord with both story time audiences as it discussed the importance of water to all living things. There is a sweetness and light humor in the illustrations that the kids really seemed to enjoy - the cat's eye being magnified by the glass of water...a frog happily sitting in the pouring rain. There were counting opportunities as well as pages where my audience took great delight in identifying what they were seeing. Very engaging and lead easily into a discussion of all the ways we use water in our every day life.

Hey, Frog! by Piet Grobler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This tale of a greedy frog is filled with detailed pictures filled with all sorts of animals. When frog drinks up all the water, all the other animals plot to get him to give it back. One by one they put their plans into action - but frog keeps his lips clamped shut. But the eels know a secret about frog...and their plan is successful in returning the water to the puddles, the brook, the river and even the big, blue lake.
Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a gentle, beautifully illustrated book filled with wonderful language to describe a rainstorm from the first gentle whisper of the rain through "splash and splash and splatter, the steady sound of the singing of the rain" through to the "quietude, the silence and the solitude, of after-rain". My story time audience hung on every word and studied every picture - and this book seemed to have very broad age-appeal.

Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Simple text and beautiful full page illustrations describe the beauty of all types of different clouds. There is a glossary in the back with the scientific names and descriptions of clouds, but my audience enjoyed the poetic descriptions while looking at the beautiful cloud portraits.

Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a fun counting book with big beautiful illustrations. Nice real aloud, even with a large group because of the illustrations. One by one the line of fishes gets shorter, until there is only one left...then there are two, who fall in love and then start a family...of ten little fishes. The colorful character cards made this a fun flannel board story and both audiences loved helping to count the fish.

Rain by Manya Stojic
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Through simple, repetitive phrases and big, bright bold illustrations, we see how the animals of the Savannah sense an approaching rain storm using all of their senses. At first, porcupine smells the rain and rushes off to tell zebra, who see the lightening of the approaching storm...and so on...until the rain passes and then the animals use their senses to enjoy the gifts the rain has left behind...the taste of the cool water, the lush green leaves, the tasty fruit. We leave the animals happily anticipating the next big rain.