Earth Day

Compost anyone?
Among other topics shared at storytime today was the great work that worms do to make dirt.
We read the book Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals
We also shared this flannel rhyme :

Five little worms went out to play
On a bright and sunny day,
A banana peel is what one found
And he brought it home into the ground.

Four little worms ...
a cracked eggshell
Three little worms ...
some rotten leaves
Two little worms ...
a old newspaper
One little worm ...
a used tea bag

Those five little worms dug deep in the ground,
They wiggled their bodies around and around,
They ate those kitchen scraps, munch! munch! munch!
And made some DIRT from their garbage lunch!




We also read Round As A Ball by Ernst, 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World by Walsh and A Leaf Can Be ... by Salas.

I shared the book What's This? by Mockford in book prop format :

We ended storytime with a rousing version of "We've got the whole world in our hands".


Our take-home activity sheet was designed to encourage writing together :

for at-home use only

Money, Counting & Numbers

Since storytime fell only a few days before tax day, I could not resist hosting a money and number themed storytime. Here's what we shared :

Books We Shared :

Who's Counting? by Nancy Tafuri

Jenny Found a Penny by Trudy Harris
(I incorporated a jar of change and dropped money bit by bit into the jar as I read the book - works like a charm)

Two at the Zoo by Danna Smith

One Gorilla by Anthony Browne

I shared my all-time favorite, go-to rhyme for anything money, food or humor related.

It's called "Bakery Shop" and I used a donut prop plus a nickel-sized coin (actually a coin from Denmark that has a hole in it).

Here's how the song/rhyme goes:

(can be sung to the tune of "Oh I had a little chicken and she wouldn't lay an egg ...")

Oh I walked around the corner

And I walked around the block

And I walked right into

The bakery shop

And I took a donut

Right out of the grease,

And I handed the lady

A five-cent piece.

Well ... she looked at the nickel

And she looked at me,

And she said,

"Young man, you're cheating me!

There's a hole in the nickel and it goes right through!"

I said,

"There's a hole in the donut too!"

Thanks for the donut ... good-bye!


Continuing in that same theme of money/bakery shops/nickels, I shared my "Five Little Cupcakes" flannel, complete with a "man with a nickel in his hand" who "tick tocks" his way into the shop to steal a cupcake :

My final story was a book prop for Pat Brisson's "Benny's Pennies" which my library has had for many years (purchased from the now extinct bookprops.com site) - this is such a perfect book for a prop -- the items in question are tucked inside the pennies and are revealed as Benny purchases items for his family.

My take home activity for the week was on numeracy awareness for kids. A very simple counting sheet which incorporates the concept of money (coins) and adding up to create a certain amount of money.

For at-home use only

Rascally Rabbits

I think I do a rabbit-themed storytime every spring. There are just SO. MANY. BOOKS. published about rabbits and bunnies that it makes putting together a storytime extremely easy ... or difficult, depending on how many good titles you are able to pull together.


In my case, I left off a few of my favorites since I wanted to focus more on RABBITS as ANIMALS (not cute little stuffed animal type creatures) and since I had just presented a spring-themed storytime. Here are the titles I ended up sharing at storytime :

I adore this book ... and am very sad that it is no longer in print. I also use this book for any gardening or vegetable themed storytime.

Another out of print title ... this is a nice book for dialogic reading as the text invites children to supply the noises that the rabbit starring in this book either hears or makes himself.

This gem by Lidnsay Barrett George is another favorite of mine. I love using it for the gentle and subtle text on care of wildlife, the fantastic double-paged illustrations, and most of all the casual diversity with the Latino boy who stars in this book about a boy and his imaginary pet rabbit.

This book is a HOOT. So much fun to read (although I almost always trash my voice with the monster screaming "BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES!!!!"). This book is very dependent on the reader, however - that's what makes this book come alive, so be prepared to put on your game face!

From a few years ago I brought out my handmade bunny finger puppets and did my "Five Little Rabbits" song to the tune of "Five Little Ducks". I had the kids keep track of the colors as the rabbits disappeared so they could tell me which rabbit had run away.

Five little rabbits one fine day
Hopped to the carrot patch far away

Mama Rabbit called them "thump! thump! thump!"
(stomp foot on the ground)
But only four came back to her stump.

Of course at the end all five rabbits come back to Mama Rabbit.

I adapted Miss Tracey's fingerplay "Five Little Stawberries" into a flannel-puppet rhyme. I love using my puppets actively to remove things from the flannelboard, and today I even had a few kids comment that "hey! that rabbit is taking away the strawberries!" Mission accomplished.

Five little strawberries

growing in a patch

Along came a rabbit

with a snatch, snatch, snatch!

He ate one strawberry

Then looked around ...

And hopped away without a sound.

My grand finale for this storytime was sort of silly ... but fun.

I "performed" (encouraged participation, but it never always works out that way) the rhyming chant "Little Bunny Foo Foo". My rabbit came out, I incorporated a mouse finger puppet, and wore a glittery tiara with a sparkly wand as I played the role of the good fairy.

At the end I had an activity sheet for families to take home if they wanted to sing/chant the rhyme at home themselves ... with fingerpuppet props.

for at home use only