This week’s storytime was all about tools! I have done a construction storytime before (unfortunately prior to the start of this blog) so this was a different take on the same idea.
We started with Emma Garcia’s Tap Tap Bang Bang.
This book is the reason I wanted to do this theme for storytime. I am a huge fan of Garcia’s books. Tip Tip Dig Dig is one of my favorite picture books about construction and Tap Tap Bang Bang does not disappoint!. This book describes the sounds and actions of tools: “We can bang bang with the hammer and tappety tap in the nails.” This makes it lots of fun to do with a group.
Next we read Whose Tools Are These? By Sharon Katz Cooper, illustrated by Amy Bailey Muehlenhardt.
I like this book because it is interactive and ask the reader to guess who uses each tool. This book goes beyond the standard hammer, wrench, screwdriver tools and includes a chef’s tools, doctor’s tools and even a teacher’s tools. We had a good time discussing the type of tools we each use. A librarian’s tools are books!
We closed with I Love Tools! by Philemon Sturges.
This was a great book to close with. It discusses lots of tools and culminates in the creation of a bird house!
There are a few other titles worrth taking a look at if you want to use this theme. They are:
Magic Toolbox by Mie Araki
The Toolbox by Anne and Harlow Rockwell
and Toolbox Twins by Lola M Schaefer, illustrated by Melissa Iwai
I am sure there are others I am not including. Do you have a favorite tool book you like to use for storytime?
Our craft this week was a bit abstract. The children were given shapes and they could build something of their own on their paper. I will admit, the group needed a bit of guidance. It’s not as clean-cut as other crafts so we discussed it prior to starting and I gave them some ideas and asked them what they thought they would like to build. As a result, their creations were quite varied but they were also very imaginative.
I was told this is Thomas. As in the Tank Engine.
I did not get a chance to find out what this one is, but I think we can all agree it is awesome!
Posted by Katie on March 30, 2011 at 7:42 pm
I also love Emma Garcia; her books are perfect for storytime!
I will have to add tools to my list of storytime themes because this was super cute.
Posted by sarahofbooksdogsandfrogs on March 30, 2011 at 8:48 pm
Great idea! Kids love tools and there are lots of fun noises to make!
Posted by Michele on March 31, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Great ideas! I love that craft. When I worked at a school, our kindergarten teachers would do this in their transportation unit and the kids always came up with the best names for their creations.
Posted by Katie (Secrets & Sharing Soda) on April 14, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Philemon Sturges is a favorite among my story time kids!
I’ve recently started my own story time blog, and I’ve added yours to my blogroll.
Posted by Megan on June 15, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Your storytimes are always so cute! I totally stole this one and worked from it. http://hegnalibrarylinks.blogspot.com/2011/06/storytime-tools.html
Posted by Explorastory on January 10, 2012 at 5:37 pm
[...] e-mail account. Thanks for visiting!Tools! Tools! Tools! I got this wonderful theme idea here, and it seemed fun for both boys and [...]
Posted by Boxes! | storytime katie on January 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm
[...] idea came from Sarah at Awesome Storytime. She did it for her tools storytime. I tried to stick with mostly box shapes, but I threw in some half-circles and triangles so that [...]