Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
Parts by Tedd Arnold
No Jumping on the Bed! by Tedd Arnold
Green Wilma: Frog in Space by Tedd Arnold
Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin
There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly! by Lucille Colandro
Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Erica Silverman
I’m a Frog! by Mo Willems
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
Miss Jessica
Fairy tales have always been some of my favorite stories, but what I love even better is when an author takes a story we know and twists it just a little bit to come up with something fresh and new: what if we heard the story from the villain’s point of view? What if the real world and the fairy tale world collided? What if it was the princess who was turned into a frog, or one person in the castle remained awake during Sleeping Beauty’s curse? These middle grade chapter books are all great fun and a different look at the stories we’ve heard before. I listed the original fairy tale after the title or “various” if the novel uses more than one.
Come explore music and sound during…
Hello! This week for storytime I did a colors theme. I don’t know about you, but I am SO SICK of winter and everything looking brown and gray and blah, so I thought putting a little color into storytime is just what we needed. I also tried a new song and a new activity this week which turned out really well!
SONG: If You’re Ready For a Story. The regulars who are on the older end of the Littles age range have started singing along with me during this song, which I love. But even the littlest littles can participate in this song with their grown up clapping their hands along with the song.
BOOK: Little White Fish by Guido van Genechten. I really like this sweet story about a little fish looking for his mommy and finding lots of undersea creatures along the way. The colors really pop against the black background.
SONG: Bubble, Bubble, Pop!
One little white fish [hold up 1 finger]
Swimming through the water [Put hands together and have them “swim” through the air]
Swimming through the water
Swimming through the water
One little white fish
Swimming through the water
Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, pop! [twirl index fingers upwards and then clap]
[Continue with 2 little blue fish and 3 little yellow fish]
I found this adorable song at Jbrary. This song is new to me but it went over really well! I like that it talks about colors and counting, but the lyrics are repetitive enough that the older kids picked it up after a few times and were singing along. I will definitely be using this song again.
BOOK: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. Even after all this time I can tell Brown Bear Brown Bear is still a favorite for many people – I got gasps of delight in both sessions when I pulled this book out. With the brightly colored animals, it worked really well as a companion to Little White Fish. We talked about animal sounds as well.
SONG: Popcorn Kernels
[To the tune of Are You Sleeping?]
Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels [wave scarf]
In the pot! In the pot! [ball up scarf in hands]
Shake them, shake them, shake them [shake fists holding scarf]
Shake them, shake them, shake them
Till they POP! Till they POP! [throw scarf into the air]
We can’t do a colors themed storytime without bringing out the scarves! This is one of my favorite scarf songs; the kids just love throwing them into the air at the end. You can hear the ladies from Jbrary sing it here.
SONG: One Bright Scarf
One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow
Wiggle it high and wiggle it low
Shake it fast and shake it slow
Where did it go?
Another song from Jbrary.
Then it was time for playtime! To continue with the colors theme today, I brought out a color sorting activity. This is super simple to put together if you want to try it at home and was much more popular in both storytime sessions than I expected. Just take a muffin tin with some colored circles at the bottom cut out of construction paper. Then with some plastic balls (the kind you use in ball pits, though a slightly smaller size works best so it will fit in the tin) have your kiddo match the ball to the circle. Here’s what our set up looked like:
And that’s what we did in storytime today! If you’d like to see what we did in past weeks, click on the “What We Did in Storytime” tag. And be sure to come back next Monday to check out what Miss Marta did!
Miss Jessica
To celebrate International Women’s Day this week – and Women’s History Month all month – I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, and nonfiction books with women and girls as the main character. Damsels in distress need not apply: whether it’s taking on a fire-breathing dragon, acting in a school play, or solving a mystery, these smart, determined girls tackle their own problems. It was too hard to narrow down nonfiction titles about individual women, so I’ve also included some great collective biographies about awesome women throughout history. This is only a drop in the bucket of all the great books about girls out there, so feel free to stop by the Children’s Desk to get some further recommendations!
PICTURE BOOKS
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn
The Name Jar by Xangsook Choi
I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont
Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown
My Brave Year of Firsts by Jamie Lee Curtis
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
CHAPTER BOOKS
Franny K Stein: Lunch Walks Among Us by Jim Benton
Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Princess in Black by Shannon Hale
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Sanity and Tallulah by Molly Brooks
Princeless by Jeremy Whitley
Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm
Real Friends by Shannon Hale
Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea by Raina Telgemeier
Cleopatra in Space by Mike Maihack
Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett Krosoczka
NONFICTION
Girls Think of Everything by Catherine Thimmish
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky
Shaking Things Up by Susan Hood
She Persisted and She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton
Women Who Dared by Linda Skeers
FURTHER RESOURCES
A Mighty Girl
National Women’s History Project
National Women’s History Museum
Women’s History Month
Miss Jessica
Miss Jessica
Hello and welcome to this month’s 5 on Friday! Today we’re talking beginner chapter books. These illustrated chapter books are all on a 2nd-3rd grade reading level, perfect for those who are just starting to branch out into chapter books. They are Best of all, these books are all the beginning of a series, so if you enjoy them there are even more!
Dory Fantasmagory by Abby Hanlon
Dory, the youngest in her family, is a girl with a very active imagination, and she spends the summer playing with her imaginary friend, pretending to be a dog, battling monsters, and generally driving her family nuts.
Meet Yasmin! by Saadia Faruqi
In these 4 short stories, Pakistani American second grader Yasmin learns to cope with the small problems of school and home, while gaining confidence in her own skills and creative abilities.
Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Nate the Great, the world’s greatest kid detective, solves the mystery of the missing picture.
Princess in Black by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Who says princesses don’t wear black? When trouble raises its blue monster head, Princess Magnolia ditches her flouncy dresses and becomes the Princess in Black!
Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo
After Mercy the pig snuggles to sleep with the Watsons, all three awaken with the bed teetering on the edge of a big hole in the floor.
And that’s all for this month! Be sure to check back in April, same bat time, same bat channel for the next 5 on Friday.
Miss Jessica
