Mittens and Hats Story Time

I'm using a winter theme again while I still can with mittens & hats.  One of the books I chose to go with this theme ended up being really funny in terms of how old it was.

The Books:

Three Little Kittens by Marilyn Janovitz

Whose Hat? by Margaret Miller

The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg

Favorite: Three Little Kittens. The kids thought it was hilarious that the kittens would eat pie with mittens on. I was planning on reading the board book about the Three Little Kittens story from Despicable Me movie, but I forgot to bring it. The little finger puppets attached to the book are so cute. Forgetting the book was probably a blessing in disguise though because the kids were especially grabby today with the felt board, so I'm sure that book would not have survived if I brought it in.

Whose Hat? by Margaret Miller was a great book, except for a few dated hats. We had fun trying to figure out who was wearing a hat and got most of the right, except for the nurse's hat. Of course, there's really no need to discard this book for one page, so if I read this again, I might skip that page. This would actually make a great flannelboard. I'll have to get on that for next time.

Paper boat? What is it?????

Oh! A nurse!

Love the pants.

Flannelboard: Mitten Match
No rhyme. I just called out a color and had the kids come up and match their mittens to the one of that color.

What was in the Memory Box?
A felt cat. All the kids wanted to "pet" the cat. 

Craft:
I saw this cute idea online and even though it was painting (gasp! parents freak whenever I get out the paint!) I thought they would like the keepsake of their child's hand prints. And I was right.

This rebel didn't want to get his hands dirty, so we compromised with just one.

Snowman Story Time

Since it might not be Winter much longer here in NJ, I wanted to get the obligatory "snowman" story time out of the way. With the holidays and being closed, I haven't had much time to come up with a cooler theme. Eh, it happens.

The Books:

Snow Party by Harriet Ziefert

A Winter Day by Douglas Florian

The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

Spring Snowman adapted by Jill Barnes

I really liked The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming even though it is about the beginning of winter, but it is about building a snowman, so it didn't really matter about the time of year.  This story has the potential to be a great flannelboard without lots of pieces.

Spring Snowman is the saddest book I've ever read. The illustrations are sad, but I really liked the idea. The forest animals are excited because Spring is coming and try to explain Spring to the Snowman. Of course, the Snowman melts and in its place grows a bunch of white flowers in the shape of a snowman, hence the Spring Snowman. Really cute story, creepily drawn animals. The book is so old that I couldn't find an image online. I had to take a picture of the book!

Activity: Five Snowmen
Made this from clip art and just colored their hats different colors.

What was in the Memory Box?
Since I couldn't hide actual snow in the box for fear of melting, (aw man!) I hid a snowman left from an old snowman craft. All the kids wanted to "pet" the snowman.

Craft: 
I don't have a picture of this, but I gave everyone a piece of blue construction paper, three circles, crayon and white paint. They were able to make finger print snowflakes with the paint after they assembled and colored their snowmen. Very easy craft.

Love Love Love Story Time

Since Valentine's Day is this week and some of the Valentine's Day books are too long for story time attention spans and my last-minute-way-of-planning-things so all the good ones are gone, I usually stick with a "love" or "pink & red" theme for story time. Of course, our craft always has to do with hearts!

The Books:

Clifford's Valentines by Norman Bridwell

The I Love You Book by Todd Parr

No Matter What by Emma Dodd

Activity: Down Around the Corner Flannelboard featuring felt heart cookies!

Down around the corner at the bakery shop
Were 5 heart cookies with icing on top.
Along came <insert name of kid> with a nickel to pay.
And they bought a heart cookie and took it away.

I gave out felt nickels to the kids so they had to pay me before grabbing a cookie off the flannelboard. One of the kids said he would rather just keep the money. Hilarious.

I'm so glad I found this on Mel's Desk because I use it a lot for story times when I need a flannelboard story quick.

It was so crazy during Toddler Time again this week, that I just have 10 felt brown hearts and 10 different colored heart felt "icing". I put the cookies on the flannelboard & gave out the icing, so the kids came up and put their icing on when I called their color. This was great since there are so many at Toddler Time and they all want a piece to put up at the same time!


What's in the Memory Box?
Race car! Egg! Tractor! ...... Every. Week. It cracks me up. 

Me: Did we read stories about a race car today?

Majority of Kids: NOooooo!  1 or 2 Kids: YESSSS!

Me: Are you sure?

1 or 2 Kids: YESSSSSS!

Me: Seriously?

Guess what. No race car. No egg. No tractor. AN ELEPHANT!!!!

 


Craft: Bouquet of heart flowers!

My favorite thing about a Valentine's Day story time is buying valentines to give out to the kids. Its like I'm in grade school all over again!

Penguin Story Time

I do a story time about penguins every February. There are just so many cute books about penguins, so I never find myself repeating that many books every year.

The Books:

I Am Small by Emma Dodd

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

Oliver by Judith Rossell

Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice by Steve Metzger

 
Favorite: A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis was my favorite for penguin stories. I have no idea about the kids. This week was such a weird week for every story time I had, like full moon weird. The best group really got into looking for something that was a different color from blue, black or white... which is an orange airplane!

Activity: Five little penguins (material idea from Miss Mary Liberry) but I changed the words to go with the story Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice.

What was in the Memory Box? Snowflakes!

Craft:  Glue-crazy penguin! Craft has 6 paper pieces and 2 sticker eyes, so the kids that love love love to glue were very happy.  I've done this craft a few times alternating over the years, so this guy is a little wrinkled:

Next week is all about Love...

Hibernation Story Time

Since Groundhog's Day is on a Saturday this year, we'll be celebrating early with hibernation stories and a groundhog craft that I found through Pinterest! I was looking for something different from the bear-in-a-paper-plate-cave or sleeping animals for a craft to go with hibernation stories when I stumbled upon this cute groundhog popup craft from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten blog post from last year. Felt like I hit the jackpot with this one since she provided templates for the groundhog and the cute poem to go with it. I can pretty much make my own templates, but it really frees up time when everything is already done.

The Books:

Kitten's Winter by Eugenie Fernandes

Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep by Jane Yolen

 Favorite: Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming was the favorite in both Toddler & Preschool Story Time

Activity: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Flannelboard

Horrible picture of the flannelboard pieces. The lighting in my office is terrible and always gives off a glare. I'm going to have to find my real camera instead of relying on my phone for better pictures.

What was in the Memory Box? 
Since Brown Bear was being used for the flannelboard, I threw in his twin, Polar Bear!

Craft: 
Interactive Pop-Up Groundhog! Here's my completed craft using materials from Mrs. Ricca's Kindergarten blog post:

This was a great craft and the kids like "popping" Mr. Groundhog out of the cup. Most of the toddlers in Toddler Time were content with just taping their groundhog to the craft stick and leaving like that. I got chased around by many a groundhog!