Bath Time Fun

January is National Bath Safety Month and contains "Rubber Duckie Day" (1/13) and "Bubble Bath Day" (1/8) so it follows that my January 14 story time theme would be Bath Time Fun.  I already had a powerpoint of songs and rhymes so there wasn't much preparation required.  I did look at a number of different books, and I tried something new: downloading a book onto my iPad and reading it - in that format - at story time. It worked well, almost TOO well.  Maybe it was just the novelty of a new format, but when I looked out over my audience, there was a focus that I don't usually see!  It was a group of nine kids, so everyone could see the pictures, I would have had to run it through my projector for a significantly larger group.

Here are the books we read:

Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My story time audience loved big smelly bear - who is cute - once you get past the cloud of flies that surround him because he never washes or brushes.  Perhaps the kids could identify with him not wanting to get cleaned up…or perhaps it was just the humorous illustrations but my audience giggled as we moved through the story.  Bear eventually meets a girl bear and after a bit of arguing, agrees to clean up his act, and there is a happy ending. This is a board book, so it wouldn't work for a large group.


Clean Enough by Kevin Henkes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a charming book with sweet illustrations all about a young boy and the bath.The text is simple and voices all of the fears, joys and frustrations of taking a bath.  Our young hero leaves the door open...just a little whenever he takes a bath and has to struggle to get the water just right.  He spends his time in the bath daydreaming, playing and remembering how things were when he was really little.  There is also a cat that moves in and out of the pictures - the kids at storytime loved finding the cat - and sharing some of their own bath tub memories.  The book is small and the pictures very detailed, so this book would be difficult to read to a large group, but this book was very appealing to my young audience, probably because as the book jacket states the author-artist "catches a mood and an experience that are universal and makes them unforgettable."  So true!


Five Little Monkeys Jump in the Bath by Eileen Christelow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It is the illustrations that make this book.  Eileen Christelow's crazy, energetic five little monkeys are back - eating ice cream and jumping in mud and five "icky , sticky, yucky, mucky monkeys" are just happy as clams about being dirty.  They splash through a tub, slip and slide through the drying process and then head off to dinner…this is the first time that I read an ebook at story time, and it worked well, as the kids seemed to pay extra attention to my iPad, which I was using much like a book.  


Love-a-Duck by Alan James Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Big, bold illustrations  and text sprinkled with words like "squidge, squoo, and squark" the reader follows a little rubber duckie on a giant adventure.  My story time audience lingered over the illustrations, and seemed generally concerned for our duck hero when he falls out of the bathroom window and has an adventure of a lifetime.  At every page turn we wondered out loud if he would ever make it home….he does, of course, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  Great story time read aloud and the favorite with today's story time audience.


Little Bunny's Bathtime! by Jane  Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mrs. Rabbit bathes all her children, except her youngest, who wants to keep on playing….and then feels left out when he refuses to participate in the nightly bath routine.  The illustrations held my story time audience's interest - they are soft and cute and guaranteed to make you fall in love with Little Bunny.  The simple, easy, read aloud text works well with the illustrations to convey the depths of a mother's love and frustrations felt by the youngest competing for Mom's attention in a large family.  My story time audience loved this one.


For our craft, we colored a rubber duckie, who could float in a bathtub:

 This was a fun story time for all of us - one of those story times where everything works!

Winter Fun 2014

OK, so here in San Diego our winters are very mild.  While most of the rest of the country is currently in a "Polar Vortex" creating record cold, we are sunny and in the 70's.  That doesn't stop me from presenting my annual Winter fun story time featuring all sorts of winter/snow books, songs and rhymes.   Since I presented this story time at the Base, most of the kids in my story time audience had seen and played in snow before, as this is a very transient population.

Here are the books we read:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The reader follows Peter on a snow day.  Peter wakes up to find snow has fallen overnight.  He puts on his snowsuit and makes funny tracks in the snow, shakes snow from a tree, takes part in a snowball fight, etc.  I like that Peter is African-American (uncommon enough to note that this is special)  The illustrations are as soft as newly fallen snow and the text is simple and flowing.  Nice, gentle read-aloud.  Caldecott award winner - and it shows.

All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The colorful illustrations in this book are great fun as a group of kids (not very ethnically diverse) build a giant snowman. The text playfully lists everything one needs to build a snowman, "one small snowflake fluttering down - that's all you need for a snowman….EXCEPT" turn the page and there's more.  My story time audience loved this device... This book captures all the joy of building a snowman in a colorful, playful way.


Winter White by Christianne C. Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This winter book definitely invites the reader to become aware of color.  The end pages have crayons and stylized color wheels and there is a note about color…and then the reader is taken through the land of winter white.  The illustrations are big and bold and there are plenty of white things for a story time audience to spot, count, etc. to encourage engagement.  The simple rhyming text flows.  Great winter themed read aloud.


Oh! by Kevin Henkes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When snowfalls everyone wants to play in it - gray squirrels, shy rabbits, cats and dogs…oh, and children, too.  When the sky grows dark, everyone goes home.  Simple, charming book with lovely soft illustrations, Which give a slightly different slant to a winter story.  Great addition for a winter story time, but the book is physically small, so probably wouldn't work for a very large audience.

For today's craft we colored, cut, and glued together all the parts of a snowman.  Good Pre-K skill building.

We did a number of songs and rhymes, but here was our favorite (which we did three times):

Sledding 

(tune: "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat")

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch (walk fingers slowly up your arm)

Up the hill so slow

Sliding, sliding, sliding, sliding (slide fingers down arm from shoulder to wrist)

Down the hill we go.