Pre-K Library Storytime

I always start this storytime by counting US!  The math skills three year olds need to be working on are not number problems but shapes, sorting, and counting to five.  The math skills three year olds need to be working on are not number problems but shapes, sorting and counting to five. B o o k s Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by Kimberly and James Dean. Monica made me a set of beautiful cupcakes, and this was a great read with those props.  (Cupcakes are in Food folder in file cabinet) This Little Piggy by Tim Harrington.  Love this version. Cat up a Tree  by John and Ann Hassett.  Too funny, and you can do voices.  Didn't Get to: One  by Kathryn Otoshi is the book I usually use, ( Colors, numbers, and a great lesson about standing up to a bully make this a classic must-read in my book. The moms really love the ending of this one. So do I.) But this year I'm going for her Zero. It may be the only picture book I know that talks about zero...

Books: Pop-Up Book: Animal Opposites by Horacek.  Gorgeousity.  Great attention getter. Caldecott Winner and a true Gripping Tale: Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Although I admired the beautiful pictures in this book as much as anyone, I never thought I'd be using it for a storytime. But the very traditional tale worked out perfectly. Because it's a wordless book, it really lends itself to prediction -- prediction is all there is! What are those men unloading? A net! (A gasp goes up.) The kids ALL listened, even 20 month old Peter. This works year after year.   Fun Read: I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. I love this cute, funny tale, and so did the kids. Very short, repetitive text as the squid cruises by all the smaller critters. The kids had a great time calling out the different sea creatures on each page -- shrimp, crab, etc. The poor bragging giant squid came to a bad end in the end -- in the belly of a giant whale. Sophie's Big B...

We started off by waddling like penguins and then belly diving (hand motion) at the beginning.  They really wanted to jump up and down though. Note:  Penguins do a lot of talking in these books. Work out a penguin accent.  B o o k s Waddle! Waddle!    by James Poimos.  Plenty of action here. Waddle, slide, sing, and blow your horn.  The book has the concept of the penguin missing his new friend, which is really his own image reflected in the water.  I tried bringing out a small mirror, setting it on the ground, and having him see himself in that. I think I would have to use a bigger mirror, maybe set on the whiteboard, so that everyone in the audience could see the puppet recognizing himself in the mirror.  As it was, these little guys didn't get the concept, and you can just skip it entirely, because him going off with his two new friends is nice enough. Penguin Problems  by Jory John.  I love this funny book, but the concept of a ...

When the Weather Outside Is Frightful... Even though my library is a block from the Gulf of Mexico and many of my three year olds have never seen the snow, I have plenty of great snow tales for them. "For playing in, it's a lot like sand, or even mud! You build with it." We talk a little about who has and hasn't seen snow and the animals who live in snow. Bear Snores On: I brought in the giant bear and laid him across three chairs, explaining that it was winter and he was fast asleep.  He looked pretty comical. I had a mouse, rabbit, a raccoon, a skunk, and a crow, so I read the book and presented the characters as I read. They looked pretty funny as I plumped them on the giant sleeping bear. B o o k s Intro: Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky (j591.479). I made white felt pawprints from this book and scattered them over the rug for the kids to find when they came in to storytime.  Next year I might make extras of the big ones. That's Not My Snowman  by Fiona Watt.  These...

B o o k s I thought pre-k would be way too sophisticated for this short tale.  Wrong! At the end of the story, Max is surrounded by presents, so I segued directly into my skit about the surprise box. The running joke in this book is that Max asks way too many questions, so do a good little Max voice and really pull out those Whyyyyys and Wheeeens. But spit out Ruby's and Santa's Because. P l a y s "What's this?" I open my square green box, pulled out the cylinder, and take out the balloons.  I thought pre-k would be way too sophisticated for the gimmick of balloons flying off into the air as I blew them up and let them go. Wrong!  B o o k s There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Colandro.  This book makes almost no sense at all.  At the end of it, the old lady whistles and apparently all her accumulated consumptions become Santa's sleigh. Unfortunately, I can't whistle well at all, so in future I'll fall back on my brothers' neighborhood Tar...