Furry and Purry

This month one of the celebrations is "Hug Your Cat Day" according to Brownie Locks so, of course we needed a cat themed story time!  There are so many great cat and kitten books and plenty of rhymes and songs this one is an easy-peasy child pleaser.

First the books:

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses by James Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pete the cool blue cat is back and he is in a bad mood!  This changes when he is given a pair of cool blue sunglasses that change the way he sees the world.  He shares the sunglasses with a number of his friends that are also feeling badly.  Eventually, he learns that attitude is everything - and it has nothing to do with sunglasses.  With a repeated rhyming phrase and great illustrations, this was an audience pleaser.


A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a fun book about four adorable kittens anticipating their first winter snow.  The great illustrations capture a kitten's curiosity and playfulness as they romp through fall leaves and talk about cold.  One of the kittens actually looks forward to winter snow and immediately goes out to play in the first snowfall.  Simple, sweet text complete this wonderful, gentle tale.


Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an awesome read-aloud with breathtaking illustrations and simple rhyming text.  A cat gets out and searches for lunch "something new" since "his food in the can is tame and mild, so he's gone out to find something wild."  The birds that he stalks are clearly labeled and there is more information about the birds in notes at the end.


Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With illustrations that are in shades of gray to reflect the night, little kitten makes unsuccessful attempts to get a drink from the big bowl of milk she sees above her.  My storytime audience watched and listened to Kitten's every attempt and felt her pain with each failure.  In the end, they cheered when she found an actual bowl of milk waiting for her on her very own front porch and were very glad that there was a happy ending!


We did a cat/kitten version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" for our wiggle break.  It went like this:

Kitty Head and Shoulders

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

Eyes and ears and whiskers and paws.

Head, shoulders, tail and claws. Tail and claws.

For our craft we made a Kitten's First Full Moon inspired mask that I found on Pinterest.  Here is the sample I made:

All in all a very successful story time!