Since 2013 is the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, I decided to theme all of my Spring storytimes around Caldecott Medal winners and honor books. Here's what we did for week one:
Theme: Night
Opening Song: Shake Your Sillies Out
Racing to Read Skill (early literacy skill): Talk & Read
Caldecott Talk-I spent time at the beginning of the storytime talking about the Caldecott Medal, how it is awarded by a group of librarians each January after reading lots and lots of books! The award has been around for 75 years and is given to the books that the committee thinks has the best illustrations and pictures of all the books that year. I also mentioned how you can find the Caldecott winners and honor books in our library (we have a special shelf of Caldecott winners) and I pointed out the nice shiny stickers the books get!
Read: Blackout by John Rocco-this is a great book to use for the talk & read skill-we talked a lot about the pictures, what was happening in each page, what you would do if the lights went out, how things wouldn't work anymore.
Read: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes-another one we talked a lot about-how could kitten get milk, was the moon made of milk, to which my favorite comment was "no, it's made of cheese!" We also compared the illustrations in the first book which were in color to this book which was in black and white. The kids liked both and enjoyed the stories in each book and didn't mind that one was in black and white.
Song: These Are My Glasses by Laurie Berkner (I repeat this every week)
Read: The House in the Night by Susan Marie Sawnson, illustrated by Beth Krommes-We talked about how this book was also black and white with just a hint of color (gold) and how the gold gets brighter throughout the book.
Song/Parachute: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (I had a yellow ball that we tossed in the middle as kitten's moon)
Activities:
-Tents for Blackout-I set up a couple of pop-up tents and books and the kids could go in the tents and read like in Blackout.
-Play dough-I needed another activity to spread the stations out, so I put out some play dough with some animal cookie cutters and we made kittens and moons.
Craft: Sun and Moon Popsicle Sticks-a super easy craft! I made sun diecuts and moon diecuts and we glued a moon on one side and a sun on the other. The kids decorated the sun and moon with crayons.
-How it Went: Overall this was a good introduction to our ongoing theme of Caldecotts. The kids kept saying "that one should win!" after each book, so they were very into the idea of deciding which book had the best pictures! I had parents who were interested in checking out the books after storytime, which is always a good sign. The favorite book from this session was Kitten's First Full Moon.
Theme: Night
Opening Song: Shake Your Sillies Out
Racing to Read Skill (early literacy skill): Talk & Read
Caldecott Talk-I spent time at the beginning of the storytime talking about the Caldecott Medal, how it is awarded by a group of librarians each January after reading lots and lots of books! The award has been around for 75 years and is given to the books that the committee thinks has the best illustrations and pictures of all the books that year. I also mentioned how you can find the Caldecott winners and honor books in our library (we have a special shelf of Caldecott winners) and I pointed out the nice shiny stickers the books get!
Read: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes-another one we talked a lot about-how could kitten get milk, was the moon made of milk, to which my favorite comment was "no, it's made of cheese!" We also compared the illustrations in the first book which were in color to this book which was in black and white. The kids liked both and enjoyed the stories in each book and didn't mind that one was in black and white.
Song: These Are My Glasses by Laurie Berkner (I repeat this every week)
Read: The House in the Night by Susan Marie Sawnson, illustrated by Beth Krommes-We talked about how this book was also black and white with just a hint of color (gold) and how the gold gets brighter throughout the book.
Song/Parachute: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (I had a yellow ball that we tossed in the middle as kitten's moon)
Activities:
-Tents for Blackout-I set up a couple of pop-up tents and books and the kids could go in the tents and read like in Blackout.
-Play dough-I needed another activity to spread the stations out, so I put out some play dough with some animal cookie cutters and we made kittens and moons.
Craft: Sun and Moon Popsicle Sticks-a super easy craft! I made sun diecuts and moon diecuts and we glued a moon on one side and a sun on the other. The kids decorated the sun and moon with crayons.
-How it Went: Overall this was a good introduction to our ongoing theme of Caldecotts. The kids kept saying "that one should win!" after each book, so they were very into the idea of deciding which book had the best pictures! I had parents who were interested in checking out the books after storytime, which is always a good sign. The favorite book from this session was Kitten's First Full Moon.
This sounds like such a FUN storytime! I loved all your book choices and the activities to go with them!! I had heard of the kitten story, but as a devoted cat person, I'm going to have to check that one out--my friend's three year old is obsessed with my own two black cats, so she would probably love that book.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. You have to come work with me. I LOVE that you are incorporating award books into your storytime and adding such great supporting content with activities.
ReplyDeleteThanks Katrina! Kitten's First Full Moon is adorable!!
ReplyDeleteMarge-best comment ever!:) I would love to work with you-I think that every time I read your blog!