Spring is in the Air!

Even though the Spring Equinox was right around the corner, it was still really bloody cold here in Northern Minnesota.  Nevertheless, we plowed through a spring storytime because sometimes when all you've seen is gray all day (the skies are gray, the buildings are grey, the sidewalks are gray, the snow is now gray - aka snirt), you need a little hope that the grass will be green again and flowers will bloom again and the sun is still up there behind the endless curtains of clouds.

BOOKS:

We read Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson and When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes.

These are both so cute.  We counted up all of the food that Bear ate in Bear Wants More.  This would have been fun with a flannel accompaniment of all the different things he ate.  I like When Spring Comes though it's a little more abstract than Bear, it still has excellent pictures and beautiful text.  

FINGERPLAY:

Our in-between-the-books fingerplay was probably my favorite part of this storytime.  We did "Here is a bunny" that I borrowed from Storytime Katie.

Here is a bunny with ears so funny          hold up index and middle fingers for ears
And here is his hole in the ground           make a circle with other hand
At the first sound he hears,
he pricks up his ears                                 extend two fingers straight
And hops in this hole in the ground         fingers jump into the hole

SONG:

For our song and dance, we listened to "Walking with Spring" by the Okee Dokee Brothers.  We got out our shakers and shook away to it too.

CRAFT:

I wanted to do something big and colorful for this so we made flowers out of paper scraps and paper plates.  The original Pinterest post had the kids decorate their paper plates with bingo daubers and if I had had any or had had the time to find any I totally would have gone with that instead of markers.  I also wanted big leaves for the stems but ran our of time to make them.  Oh well, NEXT TIME. :D

Grow Grow Grow

Our theme for the beginning of May was Gardening!  The beginning of May is usually all flowers and tulips and grass (and if you’re like me, ALLERGIES!), but for us Minnesotans, it was raaaaaaaaaainnnnny!

BOOKS:

My Garden by Kevin Henkes, Muncha Muncha Muncha by Candace Fleming, and Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres

We didn’t read three books – sorry for the false advertising.  One day I read Up, Down and Around and the other day I read  My Garden.  The clear favorite was Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! The kids like the sound effects of the rabbits and hearing about what Mr. McGreely was going to do to solve the problem.

FINGERPLAY:

I found via Sur La Lune Storytime the fingerplay/rhyme “There’s Something in my Garden.”  This was awesome.  I bought a pack of seven (I think…) fingerpuppets at IKEA the last time I was there and there happened to be a frog, a mouse, and a rabbit in there, so I used those for this (no crow though).

There’s something in my garden,
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound….
RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK.
A FROG/RABBIT/MOUSE is what I found!
RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK –RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK.

CRAFT:

The craft was my favorite of the year.  We got clear plastic cups and put some stickers on them to fancy them up, and then put in dirt (old dry potting soil) and grass seeds!  It really smelled good in the storytime room – like fresh earth and the kids LOVE getting messy so everyone was excited for this one.  I am happy to admit that I have ONE blade of grass so far growing in my cup – I checked this morning.  I will definitely repeat some sort of planting craft.  It was a lot of fun and not as messy as I thought it would be.