"TIME" for Storytimes to Begin Again!

Storytime is baaaaaack!   We left off with our regular storytimes back the first of May, and picked up our six-week summer reading program.  That ended at the end of July, and after being gone on a family vacation, I had about a month to get ready for storytimes to resume again.  It's always a great thing to get back into the swing and see the kids, both new and returning.  It is also very frightening that....(gasp)...no one will come!!!!   I was blessed with 12 kids and 5 adults on our Tuesday morning time, and 11 kids and 8 adults at our Thursday evening time.....both are GREAT for our small library. I am totally tickled!!!

I decided to focus on trying to feature a different nursery rhyme each week.  It has been something I've discovered over the years that some children know nursery rhymes, and some children don't.  Nursery rhymes are pretty important helpful ways to get kids into reading and being able to read.

This week we featured the idea of "TIME"....It was time to get back to storytime, and I was so glad that it was TIME to see everyone again.  I then linked in the rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock".

The first book we read was Boom Chicka Rock by John Archambault.  It is a fun, rhyming, lyrical story of 12 mice who live in the kitchen clock,and want a snack of birthday cake, but Max the cat is sleeping in the kitchen.



On Thursday evening I read 1000 Times No, by Mr. (Tom) Warburton.  It's a cute book about a little toddler/baby who tells his mom "No" in many different languages, before he finds out what he is saying 'no' to.



On Tuesday morning, I read a different book.  I read Llama Llama Time to Share, by Anna Dewdney.  If you've read other Llama Llama books, you know that preschoolers like the Llama Llama books.  This one is an adorable book about a little llama who meets a "gnu" friend.  They play together, and, as many other young children, have a variety of interactions together, both happy and not so happy.




Our craft this first week of storytime was to personalize a bookbag.  I ordered the bags from Oriental Trading.  I need to look at the size of items when I order them.  Although it says quite clearly how big they are (9 x 13 1/2), I just didn't think about what size it actually would be.  They were cute, and really the perfect size for young children, however, they really weren't big enough to put more than one or two small to medium size books.  We made Nursery Rhyme books (below), using a standard size prong pocket folder, and it rounded up when the kids tried to put it in the bag.



We also put together a very simple "Nursery Rhyme" book, using just a regular pocket folder with prongs, found in school supplies aisle or office supplies.  The children glued a cover image to the front of the folder.  Each week, the children will receive a coloring sheet with the week's nursery rhyme on it.  They can take it home and put it in their folder and then have a book when they are finished.

I also had handouts available about the nursery rhyme "Hickory Dickory Dock".  The first was an "Itsy Bitsy Book"...a nice little book for beginning readers to put together.