Garden Story Time

This week's story time theme is Gardens.  There are many books, songs, and fingerplays that fit this theme so I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

For the Mother Goose under 2 groups I have planned to read  3 titles.  One Mole Digging a Hole by Julia Donaldson is a simple counting story with colorful illustrations by Nick Sharratt.  Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres is fun as it allows me to have the children and parents participate actively throughout the book by reaching up, patting down on the floor, and moving their hands around on their laps.  For the final story I chose Big Yellow Sunflower by Frances Barry as the pages open petal by petal to form the flower.
In between we had our usual songs, including a shaker song with our shaker eggs as well as "Bumble Bee" by Laurie Berkner (I use a bumblebee puppet with this) and the classic "PawPaw Patch."

For my Toddler group I used the Ayres title again along with one of my favorites My Garden by Kevin Henkes. This is a story full of imagination as a little girl describes her ideal garden:

 "In my garden, the rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce

becasue the rabbits would be chocolate

and I would eat them."

I also sang along with the new book Jo MacDonald had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum.  This is another story that has lots of audience participation in singing and activities:  " And in that garden was a worm, E-I-E-I-O.  With a wiggle-wiggle here..."  The only problem was that once in awhile I'd revert back to Old MacDonald instead of Jo!  This books is a fun new addition to my story time and I have the feeling it will become another classic for me.

Fingerplays include the folowing:

Rain 
Pitter-pat, pitter-pat                            (drum fingers on the floor)
The rain goes on for hours

And though it keeps me in the house
It's very good for flowers                       (Hold fists out, palms up then open and spread fingers upward)

Five Little Flowers

Five little flowers standing in the sun                                     (Hold up 5 fingers)

See their heads nodding, bowing one by one                  (Fold fingers down one at a time)

Down, down, down comes the gentle rain                       (Flutter fingers down)

And the Five Little Flowers lift up their heads again         (Raise fingers back up straight)

I hope everyone has fun at story time this week!  Hopefully we'll have lots of May flowers this year!

School visits

Wow!  I am back to story times after taking time away to visit the local elementary schools to distribute library cards and get the students excited about the library.  It is wonderful to visit the students and see so many familiar faces!  Last week I read the story Otto the Book Bear by Kate Cleminson, a wonderful new book about a bear who lives in a book, but comes to life when no one is around.  After some adventures he ends up in the library!!!  In one of my favorite pictures  all of the book characters come out to play when the library is empty.  Isn't that a great dream? 

Check out this book if you haven't seen it yet!