Cute Cat Back

This book looks very promising for storytime, though I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet. It's a book of opposites with rhyming text. Apparently, parts of the sentence are actually left off to leave room for the kids to jump in. Normally the librarian would have to pause and let kids jump in, but this really does the work for you :p

 

"Keba Keba wa...."

I bought Keba Keba years ago when I saw the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. It's a cute story with bright, graphic illustrations, about this creature called Keba Keba who decides to share all his wonderful colors with objects and nature. In the end, he is all white and transforms into a cloud, floating away, watching over everyone and everything. My copy has english next to the Japanese kanji. I'm sure most kids have never heard of it and the story is very  reminiscent of Rainbow Fish and the Elmer series. It would be fun to read Keba Keba during storytime and pair it with the aforementioned titles.

Dooby Dooby Moo~ *sings*

Mary Ellen just told me about this book. I read it at the desk and it was soooo cute! She used it at her school; I believe the teachers helped act it out for the elementary school kids as she read it aloud. The Principal of her school, who has a good voice, sang in the background. She said it was a huge hit! I would love to do this with a group of kids sometime and maybe even have them take turns acting it out if we have time.

RLY K

The kids had a special treat when Janet invited me to do storytime with her on Friday! Some of the kids remembered me from the times I've filled in for Erin, and now that Janet is back at RVC, this is her regular group. It was a slow day with everyone in Children's in Philly for PLA, so Janet thought it would be fun for the kids to have to readers! It was fun for me to of course, since I love doing it and I got to watch Janet lead storytime (Janet is such a pro). I even picked up some good lines to use to get their attention before starting like "show me that your ready: sit up straight, pretzel legs, eyes front, mouth closed, but maybe, just maybe, your lips can form a smile"


I read two books, including:

The kids had never heard of the Super Hungry Dinosaur before and they loved it! It was a fun choice to do. They were laughing like crazy! The new Lemons Are Not Red, but were still enthusiastic about shouting out the answers. Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a local author and the copy I read them was autographed, which was pretty cool. I loved the way this concept book was laid out, where there were cut out shapes and solid, painted backgrounds. The cut out of the lemon, for example, started against a red backround, and when you moved it over, it went to the yellow side. So, lemons are not red, they are yellow.

Janet read two St. Patrick's Day books. They danced to "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and a couple of other similar songs. They didn't know it as well and enjoyed it more because of that.

 

RLY Pre-k and K

I was so happy when they asked me to to RLY again. I was told only the night before doing the program, so I didn't have as much time as usual to prep extra goodies to give them, but we all had fun nonetheless :)


I started out with my usual "If you Want to Hear a Story" for both groups. We did animal songs. Since they are more used to me now they knew I would start off with that and they actually joined in with the main song, which was wonderful!


The best moment of the day was when I taught the pre-k group "soft kitty," the adorable lullaby from The Big Bang Theory and one of the teacher's smiles and calls out that she loves that song and show! No one ever thought to use it with kids, but the first time I heard it on BBT I knew I wanted to use it in my storytimes! I read both classes Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes and then taught them the song. It was so cute hearing them sing it. They seemed to like it, too ;)

Other books we did were Here Comes the Big, Mean Dust Bunny by Jan Thomas after the success of her other book Is Everyone Ready for Fun? the previous storytime. They were laughing at this one a lot. Since the book is about rhymes, I first explained what a rhyme is in case some of them didn't know. I printed out a a document I made with a definition and some examples. I made the colors coordinate with the cover of the book. It turned out they were well versed in rhymes (no pun intended), especially from having been read The Cat in the Hat. They enjoyed calling out what the rhymes were before I read them in the book. 

We also read Dinosaurs Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland, Eli, No! by Katie Kirk (great repetition in this book and hilarious pictures), and a new book we just got in the library called Chilly, Milly Moo by Fiona Ross. This is such an adorable book about a cow who can't make milk because she's too hot. Suddenly, after a storm, the air becomes cold, and while all the other cows are freezing their utters off, Milly is happy. When it's  her turn to try and give milk--and save herself from being sent away--something else comes out: ice cream!! The surprise ending is so silly and cute that it had everyone laughing hysterically. We then talked about how much we love ice cream!

For songs in between the five books we did Popcorn Calling and There's a Wheel Turning in My Hearth, both my the ever popular artist Laurie Berkner. For the pre-k group, we also ended with We Are the Dinosaurs, because they insisted on hearing it. It is a very addicting song. I wonder if it's our library or every library that has kids begging for this song? I think they will all grow up being fascinated by Dinosaurs, which is great. And all from this one song! ;)

Pre-K and K from Rosalie Young

Today I did two groups from Rosalie Young. I've filled in for Erin about 3 or 4 times and each group did remember me. The pre-k group had 7 and the K group had 13.

For the pre-k group I did:

Cookie's Week

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Is Everyone Ready for Fun? (they loved this so much that they asked me to do it twice!)

Wow, said Owl

For songs we did:

If you Want to Hear a Story

The Chicken Dance

Dinosaur Song

Freeze Dance

Notes: They LOVED Is Everyone Ready for Fun? This was the response I was hoping to get with the 2-year-old group and didn't. They loved standing for the story, getting to jump up and down, dance, wiggle, etc. By the second reading (which was like 2 books and 2 songs later) they were joining along with me for chicken and the cows' lines.

I gave the 7 kids the leftover owl masks from the Jacob's Ladder group and they held them for the owl song. They were so happy to have something to use as a prop and couldn't believe I was going to let them keep it.

Cookie's Week got many laughs, and though the kids heard Pete the Cat before, they loved it nonetheless.

At the end, they all got up and gave me hugs. It was the best ending to a great storytime!

For the K group, we read:

Cookie's Week

Pete the Cat

Dinosaurs Roar!

Snowy Day

Wow, said Owl

They had never heard Dinosaurs Roar or Wow, said Owl before; it was nice to do something new for a change. They joined in for the colors in Pete the Cat and Wow, said Owl. Dinosaurs Roar was a hit, of course, since all RVC Library storytime kids love Laurie Berkner's Dinosaur Song. They all loved Snowy Day and most owned a copy at home. Cookie's week also got many laughs.

Songs:

Dinosaur Song

Chicken Dance

Freeze Dance

Future Thanksgiving Song Idea

Didn't get a chance to do a storytime around Thanksgiving this year, but for future use:

Turkey Dinner, Turkey Dinner, Gather Round, Gather Round
Who will get the drumstick? Yummy Yummy Yum-stick
All sit down, All sit down

Cornbread muffins, chestnut stuffin’, pudding pie ten feet high
All of us were thinner until we came to dinner
Me-o my, Me-o my!

(to the tune of ‘Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping)’)