Mustache Storytime!!!

This theme has been a long time coming. I’ve been so excited about it and actually came up with it a long time ago. I was inspired by a wedding: my lovely friend, Kelly, got married last May. I was lucky enough to be her DJ and point person. I am not an official wedding anything but she thought I could do it and I was happy to help out. So anyway, she is super crafty and creative and came up with having mustaches as favors for the guests. I helped her make these super cute mustaches out of felt and on the big day they were a huge hit! Everyone loved them.

Me and the bride on mustache creation day

Probably on of the cutest things was probably the little kids- especially her super cute flower girl running around with mustaches and I immediately thought of storytime ( I don’t know, that’s just how my mind works). I wanted it to be a true theme with books to match. This wasn’t easy. I enlisted the help of awesome librarians on the Pubyac listserv and they answered my call for help with some great books! Never underestimate the value of asking for help and suggestions. My colleagues, both at my job and in librarianland, are always a huge source of inspiration and aid. I have been so excited about this theme all summer. I couldn’t do it because we all tried to keep our storytime themes in line with our summer reading theme. So now, finally after months of waiting I got to do my mustache storytime!

Initially, I wanted it to be only mustache books. But that just wasn’t working out. There are some good ones out there, but I didn’t know how great they would be for today’s storytime. One in particular is super awesome, Moosetache by Margie Palatini, but it is sort of long and I know that my kids’ attention would be out the window. I think this would be better for an older group such as Kindergarten.

We started this week by reading If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

This one is always a crowd favorite. I chose it because the mouse gets a milk mustache. It’s a great book to read aloud and lots of fun. Definitely a storytime classic.

Next we read the Runaway Beard by David Schiller.

This is a super fun book about a beard who takes off and tries to find a new home. One of the coolest things about this book is it comes with a beard to wear. I decided to wear it while I read the story.

I can’t believe this entry has two pictures of me with fake facial hair.

Finally, we closed with No Haircut Today by Elivia Savadier.

This book was great for storytime. It has fun pictures and large, bold text. A little boy does not want to cut his hair but his mother is a hair dresser and really wants him to. After he refuses he worries that she is mad at him but learns she is not because she loves him very much. It’s very fun and has a sweet ending.

Our craft this week was mustaches, of course! I just made a template and had them decorate, cut out and stick their mustache on a stick. It was all very cute!

 

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Moooooo!!! Cow Storytime

I grew up in Iowa and as a result, I am quite familiar with farm animals. Cows are probably one of the most recognizable farm animal to my storytime group (second to only pigs) so this was a great theme for storytime this week.

First we readThe Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming.

This is a nice story about a cow who loses his moo and must look all over the farm to locate it. It was a great opportunity for everyone to practice their animal noises.

Next we read Cows Going Past by Bruce Balan.

While on a car trip, a family sees all sorts of cows going past. This is a cute story with great illustrations. The highlight for me though was one of my regulars read the title aloud when I held up the book. It’s so exciting when a child starts to read and this little boy was so proud of himself. It was fantastic!

Finally, we closed with Cock-a Doodle Quack! Quack! by Ivor Baddiel, Sophie Jubb and Allie Busby.

In this story, a little rooster must learn how to crow in the morning to wake up all of the other animals on the farm. This book was similar to the first one I read in that it provided lots of opportunities for the kids to practice those animal noises.

For craft this week, we made cow masks. The children were given little pieces of pink paper to glue on for the ears and then went wild with the crayons. As usual, the example is much more boring than what the kids came up with.

Hoo! Hoo! Owl Storytime

After what has seemed like the longest storytime break ever- we are back!!

I was very excited to start this session with an owl storytime! There are some very cute books all about owls that I knew my storytime kids would enjoy.

We started out with A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na.

I think this is one of the most beautiful picture books to come out last year.  I just love the illustrations and the kids really enjoyed this calming story.

Next we read Wow! said the Owl by Tim Hopgood.

This is a great story all about an owl who decides to stay up during the day to see all of the beautiful colors. This was a fun book to read because not only did it teach the children that owls sleep during the day (What? Who knew?!) but also reinforces colors. The illustrations are bright and beautiful and the kids liked guessing which color each page was about.

Next we read one of my favorite owl books, Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.

This is such a sweet story about three owl babies who wake up and their mother is not there. The children were all worried about the owls but were not too worried that the owl babies’ mother would be missing for too long.

For our craft, we made owl masks. These were perfect because they looked just like the owls in Owl Babies.

It was very easy to make. Just cut out some eye holes, attach a beak and some cotton balls and you have yourself one cool owl mask

Pigs

Our theme for storytime this week was Pigs. Good thing I had planned to do this theme this week and not last week. Last week it probably would have been in poor taste due to all of the Swine Flu craziness going on. Luckily, no one cares about swine flu this week so I could go forward with my theme.

We began with Z-Z-Zoink! by Bernard Most.

I read about this book a bit online before choosing it for storytime. I have to say, it is a great addition to my storytime repertoire! It is repetitive, which makes for a fun chorus of Z-Z-ZOINKS! throughout the story.

Next we read If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numberoff, illustrated by Felicia Bond.

I will be honest, I have always been a skeptic when it comes to the If You Give books by the Numeroff and Bond combo. I received If You Give a Mouse a Cookie from my friend Meredith when I was in first grade so it has always been completely astounding to me that these books are still coming out. This being said, my skepticism was quickly shoved aside when I read If You Give A Pig A Pancake to the group this morning. The kids were into this book and found the pig hilarious. I guess this is just another case of me allowing my adult judgment carry too much weight.

We finished with Pepo and Lolo Are Friends by Ana Martin Larranaga.

This is a very simple but sweet story about two friends, Pepo and Lolo. It is a charming book to read and although it is a fairly simple story, the children really enjoyed it.

For craft this week, we made pig masks. I found the template here: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Mask.shtml

For a little more excitement for this craft, I had the children glue on a pink felt nose. I also swapped out the elastic band and had them connect popsicle sticks with masking tape instead.

Happy Halloween!

Since Halloween is this week it seemed silly not to get into the spirit and have Halloween storytime!
The first book we read was The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

This is one of my all time favorite storytime books. It’s rhyming text lends itself to be a fantastic read aloud and while it is not specifically about Halloween the Gruffalo is a scary monster who is outwitted by a clever mouse. The kids really enjoyed this story and were eventually able to start predicting the text.

Next we read rick or Treat Countdown by Patrica Hubbard.

This counting book is geared for younger kids but I made it a bit more interactive for the older kids by having them help me count and guess which number was to come next. Five year olds love to show off their counting skills and this book provided an excellent opportunity for them to do it!

Finally, we finished with Halloween Sky Ride by Elizabeth Spurr.

This was a great way to end our Halloween storytime. A witch takes some of her friends for a ride on her broom and go to a Halloween party. This book has a great message about friendship and the kids got a kick out of the story and everyone was very pleased with the end.
For our craft we made cat masks in preparation for Halloween. This was an extremely fun craft and everyone was very creative with their decorating
The template can be found here:

Click to access catmask.pdf

Monster Mania

This week we channeled our inner monsters and has a monster storytime!

We began with the classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

I was surprised that so few children in attendance knew the story of Max who was very bad and his adventures with the wild things. Sendak’s illustrations of the wild things were a huge hit with the kids, however there was some relief when Max returned home and his dinner was still warm.
Next we read There’s A Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone.

We had a fun time turning the pages and getting closer to the monster. There were a few children who did not want me to turn the pages and did not want to see the monster at the end of the book. There was a definite sense of relief when we discovered the monster at the end of the book was our friendly narrator.
Mo Willems’ hilarious Leonardo the Terrible Monster was next.
While some of the kids worried that they would be scared of Leonardo they soon realized that he wasn’t scary just down right terrible at being a monster. This is one of my favorites by Willems and I was so excited to share it with my storytime kids.

We finished with I’m Looking For a Monster by Timothy Y

Pop-up books go over really well with this group so I was confident that this one would be a fun way to end and I was right! We had a great time looking for a monster finally finding the right one.

For our craft we made very scary monster masks. Everyone had a great time running around making monster noises and scaring themselves. Special thanks to my co-worker Katie for modeling this week’s craft!