Taking a Break...............

It's time for a little break, a little breather.....

We had a fun little Christmasy storytime last Thursday evening where I read the books, Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, by Eric Litwin, and Bear Stays Up for Christmas, by Karma Wilson.

We also sang "Jingle Bells" and shook our homemade crocheted jingle bells, which is a simple activity, but stll a lot of fun for the kids. 

Our craft was very simple, but the kids liked it. 

Luckily I have a daughter of my own and I know that she does not like peppermint very well, so in addition to a box of 'regular' candy canes I bought a box of blueberry candy canes (the only other flavor Wal-Mart had at the time).  Thank goodness I did because ALL of the kids chose the blueberry ones.  I guess my daughter is not the only child who does not really like peppermint!

I had cleaned out some areas of the library as we are preparing for our renovation and we found some od Hallmark tree ornaments still in the boxes (from 2000!!!!), and there were enough of them for all the kids to have one of those, as well as we cleaned out our display area of the stuffed animals, so each child got to pick one of those also (I cleaned them up...they still looked brand new...even still having the tags on them!).

It was a fun conclusion to our 2013 storytimes. 

Q and R

Books:
Finding books that relate to the letter Q was quite a challenge, one which I was not able to overcome, at least from the standpoint of an appropriate read-aloud book....they were usually too long and involved.  The Dream Quilt and Sylvia Jean, Drama Queen were two books that I found in our collection - nice books but too long for my littles.

Sooooo....we had two R books...both involving Rabbits, but both cute books.....

 They had a lot of fun with the book Duck! Rabbit!, and it was fun seeing their little minds working and seeing their faces when they were able to finally visualize the Rabbit or the Duck.

2024 Update:

Q Words:

quilt

queen

quit

quack

quiz

question

quotation/quote

quest

quick

quill

quail

quarrel

quarter

quart

quiet

quake

Q Books:
The All-Together Quilt, by Rockwell, Lizzy

Kitty Kat, Kitty Kat, where have you been? I've been to London to visit the Queen, by Punter, Russell

The Day the Crayons Quit, by Daywalt, Drew

Not quite black and white, by Ying Jonathan

Click, Clack, Quack to school!, by Cronin, Doreen

The girl with big, big questions, by Lee, Britney Winn

Fancy Nancy and the quest for the unicorn, by O'Connor, Jane

Oops, pounce, quick, run!, by Twohy, Mike

My Quiet Ship, by Adelman, Hallee

The Christmas Quiet Book, by Underwood Deborah

The Not so Quiet Library, by OHora Zacharia

The Very Quiet Cricket, by Carle, Eric

Bunny will not be quiet!, by Tharp, Jason (E)

Be Quiet!, by Higgins, Ryan T. 

Be Quiet, Mike!, by Patricelli, Leslie

The rooster who would not be quiet!, by Deedy, Carmen Agra

R Words:

radish

rug

rose

rock

road

railroad

robot

rope

race car

rainbow

river

radio

raspberry

river

rectangle

restaurant

read

rabbit

R Books:

Rah, rah, radishes!: a vegetable chant, by Sayre, April Pulley

Charlotte and the Rock, by Martin, Stephen

We will rock our classmates, by Ryan T. Higgins

I saw an ant on the railroad track, by Prince, Joshua

Robot Kitties, by Benton, Jim (BB)

Robot hide-and-seek, by Wood, Hannah (BB)

Race car Dreams, by Chriscoe, Sharon

Raindrops to Rainbow, by Micklos, John

Planting a rainbow, by Ehlert, Lois

Rainbow Fish, by Pfister, Marcus

Goodnight, Rainbow Cats, by Castro Uno, Barbara (BB)

Tugboat Bill and the RIver Rescue, by Brill, Calista
The Little White Rabbit, by Henkes, Kevin

https://preschoolmom.com/preschool-crafts/alphabet-crafts/

 

O and P

BOOKS:   Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell

This is Owl, by Libby Walden
Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen
Good Night Owl, by Greg Pizzoli 

I Am Not an Octopus, by Eoin McLaughlin
Ocean Babies, Rose

Ocean, by Kastner (BB)

Are You Mad at Me?, by Feder

Nothing Rhymes w/Orange, by Rex

Who Eats Orange?, by White

Over the Shop, by Lawson
Over & Under the Rain Forest, by Messner

In, Over, & Oh!, by Long

XO, Ox: a Love Story, by Adam Rex

O Words:

owl

ocean

olive

October

omelette

oral

orange

ostrich

oven

off

on

once

over

office

onion

oil

open

ox/oxen

orchid

oak

oasis

organ

overalls

oxygen

oatmeal

orchard

overcoat

Olympics

 

 

 

BOOKS:   Tacky the Penguin, by Helen Lester

Princess Charming, by Zibby Owens

The PaperBag Princess, by Robert Munsch

Any of the Pigeon books, by Mo Willems

Plant the Tiny Seed, by Christie Matheson

Planting a Rainbow, by Lois Ehlert

8 Little Planets (BB), by Chris Ferrie

Three hens and a peacock, by Laminack, Lester

Penguin Problems, by John, Jory

Penguin on Vacation, by Yoon, Salina

Playdate for Panda, by Dahl Michael (BB)

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, what do you see? by Martin, Bill Jr.

How do you hug a porcupine?, by Isop, Laurie

Porcupine's picnic: who eats what? , by Rosenthal, Betsy

Norman Didn't Do it!: (yes, he did), by Higgins, Ryan T. 

A Balloon for Isabell, by Underwood, Deborah

P Words:

penguin

panda

princess

prince

pigeon

plant

planet

popsicle

porcupine

potato

peacock

https://preschoolmom.com/preschool-crafts/alphabet-crafts/

Leftovers and ReRuns Storytime - December 3, 2013

I don't know about you, but this time of the year just seems to creep up on me, and the number of hours don't always seem to be enough.  I only work 10 hours per week here at the library, have the 2 storytimes, and I put in about 4.5 of those hours in an afterschool Homework Center. My planning time is precious and cramped sometimes.  If I don't have many kids at Homework Center, I do use that time to prep, but I never know for sure.  With the library closed last week for Thanksgiving, I lost several of those hours.  I was a little panicked with what to do with this mornings storytime.  Then it hit me:  LEFTOVERS!   ....it was actually a little more like "RERUNS" but who's arguing semantics? 

I chose some of the favorite and fun books

Rhyming Dust BunniesI had made these cute little dust bunnies to go with the book the last time I read it in storytime, and I just think they are the cutest little guys!  They were really easy....just yarn tied into loose (very loose) pom pom-like floppies...withlarge wiggly eyes and felt noses glued on.  They are just so fun!

 

This is, of course, ANOTHER favorite!  Who doesn't love to sing "His buttons, his buttons, his four groovy buttons"!....."Buttons come and buttons go, but did Pete cry?  Goodness no!"   I have a Pete the Cat puppet, and the kids of course love to open his shirt up and look at his belly button at the end!

 

And last, but certainly not least, by my ALL TIME FAVORITE AUTHOR, Mo Willems....ta da!: 

 

 





 Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

For whatever reason, Blogger is not letting me paste a picture of it into the blog post (maybe I've over-quotaed or something), but what a great book!


We also had some good fingerplays and songs that we did today:

If You Want to Hear a Story

To tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”

 

If you want to hear a story,

clap your hands! 

If you want to hear a story,

clap your hands!

 If you want to hear a story,

if you want to hear a story,

if you want to hear a story,

clap your hands!

 Other verses:

“nod your head,”

“rub your tummy,”

“sit so still,” etc.

 

If You Listen and You Hear Me

To tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”

If you listen and you hear me, go like this

*Clap any rhythm*

If you listen and you hear me, go like this.

*Repeat clapping*

If you listen, you will hear me

‘Cause you’re sitting really near me If you listen and you hear me,

go like this

*Repeat Clapping*

For added verses:

You can stomp rhythms,

pat your tummy or head,

clap quietly, etc.

Welcome, Everyone

To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Welcome, welcome,

everyone

Now you’re here

We’ll have some fun.

First we’ll clap our

hands just so.

Then we’ll bend

And touch our toe.

Welcome, welcome,

everyone.

Now you’re here,

We’ll have some fun.

My Thumbs are Starting to Wiggle

Tune: The Bear Went Over the Mountain

My thumbs are starting

to wiggle

My thumbs are starting

to wiggle

My thumbs are starting

to wiggle

All day long.

Continue with other bodyparts.

Now I’m finished wiggling …

And I’m quiet as can be.