"Over in the Meadow" Felt Board Story

We are studying the weather changes that come in the spring, including the animals coming out when it starts to get warm. So, I decided to read the book Over in the Meadow and made some felt board animals to along with it. This book is great for counting and rhyming and learning about what different animals do. 

Have you been to The Underpants Zoo?

Just wanted to share this cute book I found at the library this week. It's by Brian Sendelbach. It is about all the different kinds of underpants the animals at this wacky zoo wear. For example, the hippo wears ones with hearts and the octopus wears 4 pair! 

Along with being hilarious, this book has rhyming and wonderful illustrations. Kids will enjoy guessing what animals are going to be next and what type of underwear they will be wearing. Also, this book provides a great opportunity for discussion about why each animal chose the underwear they chose. For example, the kangaroo wears boxers with basketballs on them because he needs plenty of bounce. 

This is definitely one you need to read with your preschooler(s) soon!

Storytime Sunday: More Farm

Ok, I know I have been a slacker this weekend. It is technically Monday when I am posting this. Please forgive me. Anyways, we have been studying pets and farm animals the last few weeks. I have been getting the idea that there were still a few things my kids were not understanding about the farm. For example, they know about specific animals and barns, but I'm not sure if they know about what a real farm looks like and the names for some of the baby animals. Here are some books I found in my personal library that I thought would be helpful for them.

This story is great because it explains in detail what the farm looks like and what all the animals do on the farm. It tells about the sounds the animals make and some things that grow in the fields. It has colors, counting, and rhyming and it goes through the whole day from morning to night. There are a lot of descriptive words and vocabulary.

Next is a book about a boy who lives on a farm in Mexico and takes care of the animals. I especially love this one because it is going to be an awesome transition into our study about countries and cultural diversity. It has some simple words in Spanish and tells 5 stories about different animals and each one has a riddle that Ramon makes up about the silly actions of the animals. I know the children will love this one!

A very simple book with large print and very few words, this tells the name for each adult and baby animal.

And last is a simple reader that introduces the sight words "a, big and little" and other words "chair, sheep, three and white." Kids will enjoy reading this all by themselves!

HAPPY READING!

Storytime Sunday

Today's story, inspired by my son who attempted to swallow a bug today and a twitter friend ;), is There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. This classic book has a lot of appeal to preschoolers because well, let's face it, who doesn't think it's funny when an old lady eats a bunch of animals? Anyways, we can get so much out of this book, especially rhyming. Also, you can have the kids sequence the order of the animals she ate. Also, the repetition lends itself to the kids reading along with you.

Felt board pieces are a good visual and a way to get the children involved in the story. I couldn't find a photo of the one we used to have a center I worked at, but it was cool, there was a hole for her mouth and a pouch where you could put the animals in with a clear plastic window so you could see into her stomach. Here is a photo of another Old Lady prop with a hole in the mouth that you can put the animals in. 

And lastly, I found this fun video on Youtube that tells the story.

Storytime Sunday: Hearing and Sounds

The children in my class have shown interest in the 5 senses which we introduced 2 weeks ago, so we are now going to break it down and study a different sense each week. This week we are starting with hearing. So, here are some excellent books we will be reading that are about sounds.

Of course, you know I will include my requisite Eric Carle book. This is a great book where all the animals make their sounds, but the baby cricket can't figure out how to make his wings rub together to make his sound until the end where the book actually makes a cricket sound (if your batteries aren't dead like mine are, LOL)

Another good Eric Carle book about sounds is The Very Busy Spider. Here is a Youtube video of someone reading it with all the animal sounds included.

LOVE LOVE LOVE Sandra Boynton. This book is about the animal sounds too, but one animal says la la la instead. This book is great especially for younger kids because there are very few words and it's a board book.

Awesome for ABC recognition and the descriptive words provide a lot of imagery and allow the students to use their creativity and imagination when listening to the story.

Great book for rhyming and sounds. Includes things children might hear in everyday life. It also has great illustrations that lend themselves to discussion.

 

This book I was a little worried about when I picked it up from the library (I had ordered it online), because it was so thick and looked like a book for older children, but look below at some of the poems in it. Very short and use wonderful sound words.

HAPPY READING FRIENDS!

Storytime Sunday (A Day Early)

Tomorrow is the big giveaway announcement, so I decided to go ahead and release Storytime Sunday today even though it's Saturday.

So today I will talk about the Crayola board book Two Hippos up on Sticks. This was a fantastic Target find in the dollar section. But I guess I didn't really realize how great of a find until I searched it and found a copy selling on Amazon for $4.99+$4.99 shipping! Wow!!!

Anyways, this simple counting book is great for very young children (I actually bought it and 3 other Crayola books for the baby). It has the best pictures with all different patterns, cute animals doing silly things, rhyming words, and of course counting. I also like that some of the animals are doing things that they would realistically do like butterflies welcoming spring and ants moving a load (which can tie in with life science concepts) and some of the animals are doing unrealistic things like dinos soaring in space and hippos up on sticks. So you can use it to talk about real vs. fantasy concept as well. I love this book!

Happy Reading!

Storytime Sunday Linky Party

This week's book I chose from my collection of children's books since the kids haven't started back to school yet. It is one of the Usborne Lift-the-Flap books called Who's making that mess? by Philip Hawthorn and Jenny Tyler.

This book has got the most precious illustrations and it's a totally cute story of how "messy Jess" is always getting blamed for the mess, but as you can see when you lift the flap, it is indeed an animal making the mess.

Tons of fun for kids to read especially with the flaps they love to lift, but also the repetitiveness and rhyming words helps them learn pre-reading skills. Not to mention the opportunity to allow the children to predict who made the mess or what kind of mess will be on the next page. I know your kids will have a great time with this book!

Storytime Sunday: 10 Favorite Children's Books

Here are 10 of my favorite children's books. I am going to purposely leave out all the Eric Carle books because you all know how much I love those already. So here goes...

This book I read while in college in a children's lit class. It is great, especially for older kids who can read or the teacher can read with the help of another adult if you have younger children. The poems are meant to be read aloud by two people, sometimes seperately and sometimes together (the book will indicate when it's your turn to read). All of the poems are about insects. This is such a great book and the imagery is awesome. I think your kids will like it!

LOVE this book. All about feelings and the pages open up, so the kids can use it like a mask. So much fun! My kids always have a blast with it and want another turn.

I love Lois Ehlert books. The shapes and colors are wonderful. It's a good introduction to abstract art for young children as the pictures are mostly made of symbols.

This book as well as How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight are 2 of my faves. I love the detail in the illustrations. Also, I love how you think the dinosaur is going to be trouble, but at the end, he ends up doing exactly what he's supposed to do!

Rhyming words, fun imaginary creatures, and faraway lands, what more could you ask for in a children's book? But of course, the legend that Dr. Suess is, there is so much more in this book. It is a great inspiration for children. All kids should have this book!

This book as well as the next one were childhood favorites of mine. Not only does this book have rhyming and great vocabulary, it also has a rebus format, substituting images for words in the text. This helps children read along. Great for pre-reading skills.

I know, I know. They are giving moose muffins and pigs pancakes now, but back in my day, it was If you Give a Mouse a Cookie and I so loved the cute little mousie! This book is perfect for predicting.

This book is good for science. It not only talks about houses for animals and different people, but objects and vehicles too. It makes you think because you don't normally think of all these different things as having a house, but more like a place where it belongs.

This book definitely teachers kindness and patience because I know I wouldn't be sharing my pizza with a bunch of people who wouldn't help me make it, but the little red hen did. A different take on the classic book The Little Red Hen in which she makes pizza instead of bread, this book is nice for doing with a nutrition lesson, writing recipes and sequencing the order of events (or ingredients used for the pizza).

And last, but certainly not least, The Water Hole. This book is a whole lot more than just a counting book. The illustrations of the animals in the rain forest are amazing! It uses onomatopoeia when the animals speak to each other and address the topic of droughts.

So here are my top picks, more exciting story times coming up every Sunday. Most likely I will be discussing books that I will be reading in my classroom for the upcoming week.