Letter B

B is for BAZINGA! This series is going well so far!

BOOKS:

We read Not a Box by Antoinette Portis and The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems.

I was surprised that Not a Box went over WAY better than The Pigeon Needs a Bath.  Usually I rock through all of Mo Willems’ books and the kids are begging for more, but I think the spread with the tiny pigeon pictures just didn’t work for storytime.  In a one on one reading it would have been fine, but not so much for storytime.  Not a Box, though, AWESOME!

PUPPET PLAY:

I broke down and finally bought a Folkmanis puppet.  It’s the little bear hand puppet and I love it!  I told my boss that she should find someone to give us $500 so I could buy a bunch more.  She told me to find someone myself or write a grant (go figure).  Here’s the bear.

What a cutie.  We sang “Where is Bear” to the tune of “Where is Thumbkin” to go along with him.

Where is Bear?  Where is Bear?
Here I am! Here I am!
How are you today, sir?
Very tired, thank you.
Go to sleep!  Go to sleep!

When the song is over the first time, the kids can yell, “Wake up bear!” to wake him up and start singing again.  I borrowed this from Storytime Katie.

SONG:

I have decided to incorporate some kind of fingerplay and a song into this series of storytime.  That way I’m emphasizing singing as well as reading – two of the five skills of Every Child Ready to Read.  The song this week was “Singing in the Bathtub” by John Lithgow.  We whipped out our scarves and waved them around and then pretended they were washcloths and towels and washed our arms and legs and face.

CRAFT: 

In keeping with the letter crafts, we made bumblebees out of the letter B!

Super simple and lots of glue stick use which every toddler loves.  I don’t know if I’m going to stick with the letter as something craft theme for the whole series, but it worked for A and for B (and for C).