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.

Hats!

This theme was easy to put together, there are great hat books, great hat rhymes, and great hat crafts.  I had a rather large - for the base library - audience and they were wonderfully engaged and interactive.  We had a great story time!  Our craft was a simple coloring sheet which I crafted with three different kinds of hats, having lost the matching sheet I wanted to use.  I know I saw it somewhere on the web…oh, why didn't I pin it on Pinterest?

Here are the books we read and the rhymes:

Stormy's Hat: Just Right for a Railroad Man by Eric A. Kimmel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This wonderful book is based on the true story of George "Stormy" Kromer and his wife Ida who created the original railroad engineer's cap in 1903 - the same cap worn today, over one hundred years later, by railroad workers everywhere.  My story time audience loved all of Stormy's attempts to find a hat that was just right for a railroad man…fedora, pressman's hat, cowboy hat, firefighter's helmet…nothing worked.  With each failed hat, Ida tries to make a suggestion, to which Stormy replies, "don't worry your pretty little head.'  When he finally listens, Ida creates the perfect hat based on his description.  The illustrations are lovely and the text, a little longer than my usual story time books, held my audience's interest.  There are wonderful author's notes at the end as well.

Then we did the action rhyme, "Tall Hat, Small Hat":
          Tall hat (Arms overhead)
          Small hat (hands close to head)
          Big hat (arms spread out)
          Cap (hands on head)
          Let's take them off again (repeat rhyme with motions in reverse).
          And put them in my lap (fold hands in lap)

Whose Hat Is This?: A Look at Hats Workers Wear--Hard, Tall, and Shiny by Sharon Katz Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love 'guessing game" books for story time - they encourage audience involvement and engagement, which encourages fun and enjoyment.  This one shows a portion of a hat/helmet and a one sentence question/hint and then, when the reader turns the page, there is the answer and information about the specific hat/helmet.  Some of the hats are quite esoteric - like a beekeeper's hat.  My young audience correctly guessed more than half, and really enjoyed the process.  The illustrations are bright and bold, and alternate well between men and women wearers.

This was followed by a hats flannel:

The kids had great fun identifying the various hats and we counted and identified the hat by color.  The green construction hat threw them a bit, since in the two prior books the construction hats had both been yellow!

Then we read:

Martin's Hats by Joan W. Blos

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an older book (c 1984) with very detailed illustrations and imaginative text about Martin, who puts on a hat and has adventure after adventure…from spelunking under the bed to crashing a party to being a train engineer.  He also directs traffic, delivers mail, and puts out a fire in Chicago.  When he gets home, he finds a special hat waiting: a nightcap and he falls asleep.  This is a charing little book.

Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With wonderfully bright illustrations, the text "name drops" depicting famous people and the hats they wore.  The end notes provide information about all of the people and their accomplishments.  The rhyming text is fun to read aloud and the kids love the refrain of, "Do you have a hat?"  There was much discussion of the types of hats my audience owns and wears.  Great, fun read-aloud.

There were lots of laughs and lots of participation.  We did our wiggle break, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" twice and followed that by putting on our magic hats:

Put on your magic hat (put hands on head)

You can do anything in your magic hat!

You can hop and hop…

You can make a face….

You can flap and flap…

The kids really had fun hopping and flapping!  All in all this was one magical story time.

Yipes, Stripes!

The child's foot is Mr.
 Zebra's face!

After a summer of Food (CA Public Libraries Summer Reading Theme) and Going places (the DOD Summer Reading Theme: Books Will Take You Places) I really am looking for some new and different themes this fall.  This title has been kicking around my brain for quite and so I pulled some of my favorite tiger and zebra books and a storytime was born.  I even found A wonderful Zebra craft that will be just perfect for my storytime audience (with a little help from their parents!).


I made up a couple of "Five Little" Rhymes:

        Five Little Tigers

Five little tigers lying in the shade

One stretched and yawned and said, “I’m bored!”

He walked away and then there were four.

Four little tigers lying in the shade,

One stood and said, “Let’s race to that tree”

He ran away and then there were three.

Three little tigers wondering what to do

One chased a butterfly and then there were two.

Two little tigers lying in the sun,

One wandered off to find a snack

And then there was one.

One little tiger went to sleep, and just as he started to snore

The others came back and woke him with a roar.

Five little zebras

Five little zebras on the African plain

Were playing when it started to rain

One little zebra said, “Those drops feel good”

The second one said, “I wish I had a hood”

The third one said, “Let’s splash and play”

The fourth one said, “I could do that all day!”

The fifth one said, “I’d rather stay dry,”

And so he ran home with a mighty sigh.

I adapted a number of other rhymes to common tunes, like "Twinkle, Twinkle" and sang about the tigers in the zoo to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus":

The tigers in the zoo say,

“Grrr, grrr, grrr”

“Grrr, grrr, grrr”

“Grrr, grrr, grrr”

The tigers at the zoo say,

“Grrr, grrr, grrr”

All day long.

Here are the books we read:


Read to Tiger by S.J. Fore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderful read aloud book.  A boy just wants to read his book, but Tiger and his antics prove too distracting.  Tiger refers to himself in the third person, so he was fun to create a funny voice for...in addition his antics include great sounds like loud gum chewing "chomps" and karate exclamations.  The kids were enchanted by the illustrations and laughed at Tiger's antics.

It's a Tiger! by David LaRochelle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a very engaging and interactive read-aloud with bright bold illustrations that are very appealing even to very young children.  The text opens with a question, "Are you ready for a story?" and begins with monkeys swinging on vines in a jungle.  But wait!  There is an orange and black vine, it's a tiger tail.  Every other page contains the phrase, "It's a Tiger....Run!"  For Toddler/preschool story time, get the kids up on their feet and have them act out the story as our main character runs, climbs and swims to get away from the tiger.  This is a fun read-aloud that will have the kids giggling and yelling out, "It's a tiger...run!"


Zee by Michel Gay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Little Zee is a very cute little zebra who loves climbing into bed with his mom and dad.  One morning though, they are still asleep, and he decides to wake them with coffee...but things don't quite turn out the way he planned.  Zee has good intentions, and cleans up all of his mess, but he does have quite an adventure.  He does get his snuggle with Mom and Dad - and they do get their coffee.  The illustrations are lovely and soft - and I love the zebra striped end pages.  My storytime audience fell in love with little Zee, and when you read this book, you will soon discover why.

Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With wonderfully funny illustrations and simple text this is no ordinary alphabet book.  Zebra has all of the letters organized and ready to go and everything starts well - apple, ball, and cat all make their appearances.  But moose can't wait his turn, which creates chaos. When he discovers that zebra has chosen mouse for "M" things get really wild. My storytime audience loved the pictures, especially when Moose appears in an ice cream cone...and later when he adds graffiti hooves and antlers to ring and snake.  One can't help but laugh at Moose's antics and zebra's solution to the problem will make you smile.

Dog Days of Summer

At the end of August we experienced hot, humid days - which is unusual for residents of San Diego.  Dog Days of Summer seemed to be a perfectly natural theme.  While we did our after-craft, one little boy was singing "Who let the Dogs out?"  You know, it's really cute when it's a three-year-old!

This was a great excuse to dig out my favorite dog books and discover a few new ones:

C'mere, Boy! by Sharon Jennings
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A wonderfully funny twist on the classic tale of boy and dog.  Dog spends a week convincing his mother that he needs a boy...buying a leash, so he will be ready, putting "boy food" on the family shopping list, all to no avail.  Mom still says, "no boy."  Dog sets off to find just the right boy, with laugh-out-loud results.   I worried that there was too much text to keep my young story time audience's attention, but they loved it, probably because there is so much humor in the text and soft pictures.

My Big Dog by Janet Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The narrator, a cat, has her "purr-r-r-r-fect" world shattered when a golden retriever puppy becomes part of her family.  The cat can't hide from the dog, can't get the dog to leave  and can't seem to avoid the puppy's "sloppy, drooly tongue."  After many misadventures, which are shown in the humorous illustrations, the two finally become friends...sort of.

The Stray Dog by Marc Simont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A family enjoys the company of a small dog while on a Saturday picnic but leave him in the park when they head  for home, feeling as though he must belong to someone.  They think about little else during the ensuing week...and save him from the dog catcher the following Saturday.  Told with Storytime length text and lovely illustrations, this is a wonderful story filled with emotion and joy when a dog finds a "forever home."  Published in 2001 this is a Caldecott Honor Book.

Say Hello to Zorro! by Carter Goodrich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mr. Bud had a perfectly ordered life where "everything was just right" until the day the humans brought home Zorro.  Things do not go well...at first.  Zorro hoards toys and Mr. Bud is grumpy about having another dog thrust upon him.  Until the day they realized that they both had the same schedule...and all of the activities were better with a buddy.  The illustrations are filled with humor and the text is perfect for reading aloud.

Under a Full Moon

So this week at the Base Library there were six children at story time.  It was a nice number and the participation rate was pretty high...although I noticed the oldest boys liked performing the actions associated with songs and rhymes much better than singing the songs or saying the rhymes!  This week's theme was all about the moon.  One of the rhymes we did was "Five Full Moons" and, with the help of NASA, I created a flannel to go with it:

Here are the books we read:

Moon Rooster by David Gershator

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very amusing book, and a great read aloud - especially if you have everyone in the audience help rooster by joining in every "cockadoodledoo."  The main character, a young rooster suffering from insomnia and confusion, decides that a rooster must crow to wake the moon just as the other roosters were needed to wake the sun.  Things go downhill for rooster from there, he just doesn't understand why people throw shoes pots and clocks at him to say thank you when he would rather just have some dried corn kernals....The illustrations are lovely, and although my storytime audience missed the somewhat sarcastic tone of the text, it made the parents in my audience smile.  The kids just loved the zaniness and making all that noise.

Moongame by Frank Asch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very sweet book with simple text and brightly colored illustrations.  Little Bird teaches Bear a new game: Hide and Seek.  Bear likes it so much that he plays it with the moon after everyone else has gone to bed.  The moon finds Bear quite easily, but then it's Bear's turn to be it...and he can't find the moon.  Before the end of the book all the forest animals are awake and searching!  My storytime audience loved this book, even though some of the kids were well beyond the toddler stage.   

Moonlight by Helen V. Griffith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a gentle story, with beautiful illustrations.  It captures the beauty of a moonlit night, where the moonlight coats everything like butter.  Simple text complete this story of the animals and who the joy the buttery night gives them.

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.  

All in all a very enjoyable story time!

Just Say No!

I realize I have fallen behind my in blogging about my storytime adventures.  So, I am attempting to catch up.  Over President's Day weekend, I realized that had forgotten to pull books for Tuesday morning story time, and the library would be closed on Monday.  So, I spent a little while on Sunday at a neighboring branch pulling books and determining a theme. That theme turned out to be Just Say, NO!  I did worry that it would be too negative, but I found a good set of books, filled with humor and/or love that made for a really good story time.  For our craft we colored pigeon, from Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and the sheet included a speech bubble.  I encouraged the kids to  think about what the next thing is that Pigeon should ask for.

Here are books we read:


Martha, No! by Edward  Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very engaging story about angelic looking Martha and her new nanny (who is the 10th nanny so far).  My storytime audience loved chiming in to say, 'Martha, NO!" with nanny as Martha gets into more and more mischief - such as climbing up to the top of the t-rex statue and then drawing on the walls of the museum they visit.  Martha gets herself into some interesting situations and the illustrations and rhyming text are filled with fun.


Cindy Moo by Lori Mortensen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The story begins when Cindy Moo, a cow on the Diddle farm overhears Mom Diddle reading the classic Nursery Rhyme, "Hey, Diddle, Diddle!" and decides that if THAT cow could jump over the moon, well she could as well.  While the other cows laugh and tease her, especially when her first attempts fail, Cindy is determined to succeed.  With rhyming text and delightful illustrations - and a little help from a rain puddle - Cindy does manage to jump over the moon.  Truly a fun read aloud about achieving a seemingly impossible dream.


No by Claudia Rueda
My rating: 4 of 5 starsbr />
A sweet story about a stubborn little cub who does not want to go to sleep, and has an answer for each of Mother Bear's arguments...until he gets scared in the middle of a blinding snowstorm and makes his way back to the safety of his mother and his warm cave.  My storytime audience could identify with Baby Bear's not wanting to go to bed...and laughed as he says when returning to the cave, " Mamma, I'm back.  Winter is very long and you might get lonely."

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mo Willems is brilliant when it comes to writing books with storytime appeal.  This book works up a storytime audience into a frenzy of interaction faster and funnier than almost any other book that I have read.  Everytime the pigeon comes up with another request...another reason that he *should* be allowed to drive the bus, my storytime audience gleefully shouted, "No!" amidst giggles.  This is a great read-aloud and a sure audience pleaser for all ages.