Story Time: Happy Birthday!

For the first story time of the year, I wanted to do something different. Instead of jumping right into snow, snowmen, and the usual winter themes, I thought we should say a "Happy Birthday" to 2013!

The Books:

Happy Birthday, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff

A Birthday for Cow! by Jan Thomas

Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr

Favorite: Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr. The kids really enjoyed the "secret" being kept in the book because the animals were talking to the reader! I read this book second for both Toddler Time & Preschool Story Time and got the same reactions in both sessions, which is great since they are too different age groups. 

What was in that Memory Box? 
I hid a tiny balloon in the Memory box for this story since there were a lot of balloons in the stories. The first time I did the Memory Box, the hidden item was a plastic egg and every week, the kids think it will still be an EGG! They can't get over the egg for some reason. Its been 8 weeks of story times since I hid the egg! 
The balloon was a big hit because I had blown it up a little so it would still fit in the box, so there were many questions about how I fit a balloon in there. They thought it was magic.


Craft: 
I didn't expect more than a few kids, if any at all, because I scheduled it for January 2nd. I just planned to have them color an easy birthday cake coloring page.  Simple coloring goes over big around here.