Storytime: Clothing and Getting Dressed

• Whose Socks Are Those by Jez Alborough
• Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett, Illus by Ron Barrett
• Daisy Gets Dressed by Clare Beaton
• Shoe-La-La! by Karen Beaumont, Illus. by LeUyen Pham
• Princess Bess Gets Dressed by Margery Cuyler, Illus by Heather Maione
• Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin, Illus by Fumi Kosaka
• Chamelia by Ethan Long
• Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith

If You're Wearing...(Red, Black, etc.)
(Tune: "Happy and You Know It")

If you are wearing red, shake your head
If you are wearing red, shake your head
If you are wearing red
Then please shake your head
If you are wearing red, shake your head

If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue,
Then please touch your shoe
If you are wearing blue, touch your shoe

If you are wearing green, bow to the queen
If you are wearing green, bow to the queen
If you are wearing green,
Then please bow to the queen
If you are wearing green, bow to the queen

If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow,
Then please shake like Jell-O
If you are wearing yellow, shake like Jell-O

If you are wearing black, pat your back
If you are wearing black, pat your back
If you are wearing black,
Then please pat your back
If you are wearing black, pat your back

If you are wearing brown, turn around
If you are wearing brown, turn around
If you are wearing brown,
Then please turn around
If you are wearing brown, turn around

Days of the Week Storytime

• Today is Monday pictures by Eric Carle
• The Adventures of Max and Pinky: Best Buds by Maxwell Eaton III (Saturday is Adventure Day)
• Diary of a Baby Wombat by Jackie French, Illus. by Bruce Whatley
• Monday is One Day by Arthur A. Levine, Illus. by Julian Hector
• Meow Monday by Phyllis Root, Illus. by Helen Craig
• Thirsty Thursday by Phyllis Root, Illus. by Helen Craig
• Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields Illus. by Scott Nash
• Saturday Night Jamboree by Lee Wardlaw, Illus. by Barry Root
• Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

Here are the songs we will use:

"Today is Monday"  See the cute YouTube video that I watched to teach myself the tune below.




These are from the super helpful blog: Storytime Source Page :

Days of the Week (Tune of "Adams Family")
There's Sunday and there's Monday,
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday
There's Thursday and there's Friday
And then there's Saturday.
Days of the Week (clap clap)Days of the Week (clap clap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (clap clap)

Mulberry Bush: Days of the Week(Nursery Rhyme Time by Georgiana Stewart)Here we go round the mulberry bush,
Mulberry bush, mulberry bush
Here we go round the mulberry bush
So early in the morning

This is the way we wake up and stretch…
So early Monday morning

This is the way we wash our hands…
So early Tuesday morning

This is the way we brush our teeth…
So early Wednesday morning

This is the way we comb our hair…
So early Thursday morning

This is the way we put on our shoes…
So early Friday morning

This is the way we eat our food…
So early Saturday morning

This is the way we read a book…
So early Sunday morning

Fall Storytime begins: Cows!

I've begun my new fall morning Family Storytime with a cow theme. About 22 people showed up, but my audience dwindled as time passed. The kids were pretty small, some from the Babytime group. We went 25 minutes with books and songs. I suppose this will stretch out as the kids become less shy and I chat more with the families.

Book suggestions:

We started out with the book/sing-along Comin' Down to Storytime by Rob Reid.

Cow tales:

The Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming


Cock-a-Doodle-Moo! by Bernard Most


Millie Waits for the Mail by Alexander Steffensmeier

Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive by Karma Wilson, Illus. by Karla Firehammer

The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson, Illus. by Marcellus Hall

And a buffalo story for good measure:

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums by Audrey Vernick, Illus. by Daniel Jennewein

I found this cute song too, on NIEHs Kids' Pages :

Old Mother Leary (or "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" or "There'll be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight")

---

Original version; written by: Unknown, copyright unknown
Late one night
When we were all in bed
Old Mother Leary
Left a lantern in the shed

And when the cow kicked it over,
She winked her eye and said,
"There’ll be a hot time
In the old town, tonight."

Spoken:
"FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!"
Expanded version, most familiar in Chicago:
5 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

4 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

3 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE!

2 nights ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!
FIRE FIRE FIRE

1 night ago,
when we were all in bed
Old Mrs. Leary left the lantern in the shed
and when the cow kicked it over,
she winked her eye and said
it'll be a hot time, in the old town, tonight!

FIRE FIRE FIRE!

Note -- other "rounds" can be concluded with:

• Water, Water, Water!
• Jump, Lady, Jump!
• Save my Child, Save my Child!

We weren't going to yell "Fire!" in a public building, so I went with Moo! Moo! Moo! ;)

Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper!

Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper! A Maasai Tale by Tololwa M. Mollel. Illus. by Barbara Spurll, 1991.


When little hare returns to her den for a nap, she is driven away by the booming voice of a monster. Before she even enters, she needs to turn tail and flee. A number of her animal friends try to help her, but each time they are menaced by the voice of the one who craves rhinos and elephants for its meals. Finally, a grumpy frog who has been trying to sleep through the noise takes on the monster. Larger creatures have failed, but this froggy is calm and confident. She is sure to get results!

Spurll’s pictures are bordered by geometric patterns in black, red, blue and green. Her animals are fanciful and rubber faced. An elder leopard in reading glasses shares a book with three wide-eyed cubs. Our heroine, the frog, boldly chews on a pipe and brandishes a walking cane. And the red cheeked, many legged monster cracks a one sided grin as he moves on. Little creatures such as snakes, birds and lizards watch the proceedings at the cave’s mouth.

The Name of the Tree

The Name of the Tree: A Bantu Folktale retold by Celia Barker Lottridge. Illus. by Ian Wallace, 1989.


The animals are in the midst of a great famine, so they decide to band together and search for a source of food. They find a wonderful tree with colorful fruit that smells like all the fruits of the world. The problem is they are unable to eat any until they know the tree’s name. King lion knows, but he doesn’t like to repeat himself. They must send an animal to him that is willing to make the journey and is able to remember the precious name.

Wallace’s illustrations are very softly tinted, and play with shadow and light. The barren land is filled with cracks and rocks, and a pale sun hangs in the sky, illustrating the animal’s dire circumstances. The beasts are drawn realistically, with chimpanzees, gazelles, zebras, elephants and hero tortoises sharing the pages.

Imani in the Belly

Imani In The Belly by Deborah M. Newton Chocolate. Illus. by Alex Boies, 1994.

In this retelling of a Swahili folktale, Imani’s children are swallowed up by Simba, the King of Beasts, and she must have faith enough to reclaim them. Every day wild animals race through her village and one afternoon when she returns from the marketplace, she finds that her children are gone. Grieving, she falls asleep, but her mother comes to her in a dream and tells her to have faith and go after the beast. She outfits herself with supplies and goes out to save her family and her village. With support from the villagers and belief in herself, she does just that.

The vivid colors and simple shapes of Boies’ cut-paper illustrations make striking artwork. The layouts are obviously carefully planned for best effect. Palm trees of purple, hot pink and bright green seem to pop off the pages. The cutouts add drama to the story, such as the black silhouette of Imani’s face and her wagging finger as she warns her children, a lavender outline of her floating mother providing comfort as Imani cries streams of soft green tears and incomplete shapes representing the villagers caught inside Simba. Seemingly disembodied eyes follow Imani as she heads through the jungle toward the large black lion. An especially vibrant picture shows Imani climbing out of Simba’s stomach as the villagers cheer her on in lettering that reads, “Faith be to Imani”.

Strange Happenings by Avi

Strange Happenings: Five Tales of Transformation by Avi, 2005.


I have read many of Avi’s books and really liked most of them. Reading Strange Happenings with the child audience in mind, I enjoyed it too. Avi gives us five short stories that feature transformation. Frequently, things don’t go well for the characters, even if they get what they want. Tom is twelve years old and bored with life. When he meets a friendly talking cat, his life turns upside down and is very exciting…for a while. Simon is a selfish guy who wants what he wants and doesn’t care who pays the price for him to get it. Soon, he is the one suffering. Jeff thinks that his town baseball mascot is great and becomes obsessed with finding out who’s behind the costume. This could be a mistake. A shoemaker strikes and breaks a bargain with a cat with lemon colored eyes, only to be confronted by the devil himself. And everyone agrees that Princess Babette is simply ravishingly beautiful, but have they ever really seen her? Avi’s collection is creepy fun and would make fine, mild Halloween reading.

Other outstanding books by Avi: