Olympic Groundhogs!

OK, so here we have the first Storytime Mashup.  On February 4, with Groundhog Day happening a few days earlier and the start of the Winter Olympics happening just a few days later, I was torn for a theme…so I mashed both of those concepts together.  The kids loved it.  I suppose the only thing I missed including  was the Superbowl - maybe I should have gone with "Olympic Groundhogs that Play Football."  Hmmm.  Maybe next year.

Here are the books we read:

Snow Happy! by Patricia Hubbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
All of the joy of a snow day are captured in lively rhyming text and soft, brightly colored illustrations.  Waking up to snow, the kids in the story are "silly-willy laugh, feeling slightly daffy" as they leap and run through the snow.  It didn't take long for my audience to join in the repeated chorus of "snow happy!"  and engage in counting kids, spotting animals in the illustrations, and counting snow angels.  Fun read-aloud.


Olympics by B.G. Hennessy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The winter olympics are coming and so I wanted to devote a story time to the olympics and various winter sports.  This book gives a great overview of the olympic games, using simple appealing text and brightly colored detailed illustrations.  All of the preparations, training, and the games themselves are explained in a way that even the youngest members of my story time audience enjoyed.  There is a page on the history of the games as well.


Tacky and the Winter Games by Helen Lester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tacky the penguin has always marched to a different drummer.  In this book he encounters all of his friends training for the winter games.  Not to be left out, Tacky joins the team, even though he was not "the fittest of birds."  The reader sees that while Tacky is well meaning, he trains a little differently, and he even participates a little differently in the winter games. There is a happy ending for our hero.  Easy to read aloud text and wonderful, fun filled illustrations made this a winner with my story time audience.


Grumpy Groundhog by Maureen Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's Groundhog Day and the entire town is waiting for Mr. Groundhog to appear…but he decides he is going to spend the day in his cozy bed.  The rhyming text flows and the soft, detailed illustrations are filled with fun and humor.  My story time audience loved this one, it captured their attention even though it was the last book I read.


For the craft, we made Pop-up Groundhogs:

Hugs and Kisses 2014

It is February and love is in the air…even if you are only two or three years old. So, of course it is time for the annual hugs and kisses story time.  All the kids in my story time audience were gearing up for the big day and they talked excitedly about the Valentines they were preparing to give out and talked dreamily about all of the Valentines they hoped they would get.  At today's story time we had a class visit, so there were more than 25 kids in the audience.   We all had great fun, the kids interacted with the stories, were engaged and participated.

First, here are the "hugs and kisses" books we read:

Pete the Cat: Valentine's Day Is Cool by James Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pete the cat, the very definition of cool, believes that Valentine's Day is not…that is until his friend Callie convinces him otherwise.  With a little help from his mom he learns how to make the perfect Valentine to celebrate the cool in every cat and to express to everyone how much they are appreciated.  Wonderful, brightly colored illustrations complete this Valentine book with a slightly different message.  Fun read-aloud (although not as much fun as being able to play a sung version of a Pete book) and my story time audience loved it.


A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
My story time audience loved this one.  With brightly colored illustrations and rhyming text we see all sorts of animals exchange kisses, "A giraffe kiss is gentle and tall….a mouse kiss is quick and small."  There are half pages to turn to display the actual kiss which my audience loved.


Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Beware - open a Splat book and it will be love at first sight.  Splat the cat has a universal appeal.  He is good, but slightly goofy, looking and he has an innocence, honesty and openness that kids and adults can identify with.  In this book, it's Valentine's Day and he is getting ready for school, to give Kitten an extra special Valentine.  Splat has a major crush on Kitten.  Unfortunately, Spike the class bully, also likes Kitten.  In spite of Splat's insecurities everything works out in the end!  My story time audience loved this one, hanging on each detailed illustration and cheering Splat on.


Then we read a "just for fun" book:

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Great fun book which requires reader involvement.  We follow a tree through the seasons, and the reader is asked to tap, rub, knock, jiggle, and shake the tree to effect changes…growing leaves, budding flowers, picking apples, making snow fall.  Even though I read this to a fairly large group, everyone could be involved with a tap or knock and it didn't take my audience long to anticipate the changes on the next page.  One of the instructions is to blow the tree a tiny kiss…so that is my justification for including this in a Valentine story time.


There were rhymes and songs…and even this flannel:

Colored Heart

(Tune: "London Bridge")

Here's a heart that's colored red

Colored red, colored red

Here's a heart that's colored red

I made it just for you.

Our Craft today was a Magic Heart, which could be worn as a hat (if one is crazy enough!).The kids folded a paper plate in half and cut some swirls. Unfold the plate and up pops a heart!

I was told that the class really only wanted a book or two and then the kids really wanted time on the computers.  I am very pleased to say that all of the kids really seemed to enjoy all of the books, and many of the classroom kids wanted to make the craft.  Isn't it nice when the magic of books and simple crafts takes hold?