Literacy Volunteers - Middle Earth "Snow" Storytime/Craft

 

Read: Snow by Uri Shulewitz (discussed Caldecott Medal – what it means)

Acted Out: The Mitten by Jan Brett (did with a large tablecloth mitten & sign/masks from janbrett.com details: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2014/12/winter-storytimetheatercraft-jan-bretts.html)

• Talked about folktale (story retold over generations/centuries (define), then read Jan Brett’s  book with kids holding tablecloth and masks from www.janbrett.com at the “aachoo”, I grabbed the tablecloth and the kids scattered. Another possibility is to have two kids (or grown ups) hold hands and become each side of the mitten, then let the kids crowd in between. (from http://lalalalibrary.blogspot.com/2014/12/flannel-friday-mitten.html)

Singable Book: Frosty
Booktalked: Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman (wonderful video available on Youtube) 

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Mary Azarian (talked about Caldecott Gold woodcut illustrations, true book – would find in the Biography (bio=life, graphy =writing,stories section)

Singable/flannel: “In the Freezer” by Joe Scruggs – lyrics here.

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert (had kids look at the collage art –> art project)

Snow creatures (inspired by Ehlert’s book) – Materials: White & colored construction paper, markers, scissors, glue, pompoms, buttons, feathers, etc.

Finished with: Snowball fight using plastic bag snowballs, to the music “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson (on album Season’s Greetings)
Making snowballs:
1) Gather a white plastic grocery bag into a long, skinny tube-like length with the handles on one end.
2) Fold the length in half, then in half again.
3) Wind a rubber band around the middle until it is tight.
4) Cut open both ends to remove any folded areas.
5) Then fluff out pieces
Idea courtesy of:  Susan Dailey, librarian, speaker and author of "A Storytime Year"

Optional Additional Craft : Cut out paper snowflakes http://thechocolatemuffintree.blogspot.com/2012/12/making-giant-snowflakes.html (could use large tissue paper) (booktalked Snowflake Bentley – another Caldecott)

1/24/24

2024 Mock Caldecott - Bedminster School K-2

2024 – I conducted 4 Mock Caldecott elections with a total of about 200 K-2nd* graders at Bedminster School. I used the books and ideas from this blogpost: https://mrschureads.blogspot.com/2023/11/2024-mock-caldecott.html and the basic procedure here (using Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes and Tuesday by David Wiesner as samples of previous winners and mentioning how the Caldecott Committee is meeting in secret and no one knows which books they are considering – we are all guessing!).  

*Because of snow days, 3rd grade had to bow out.  Here are the results:

Kdg Winner: Big by Vashti Harrison

Honors: In the Night Garden by Carin Berger

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker

Once Upon a Book, illustrations by Grace Lin

Also Read: Remember Illustrations by Michaela Goade, Words by Joy Harjo

My Powerful Hair, Illustrations by Steph Littlebird

1st Grade Winner: If I Was a Horse by Sophie Blackall

Honors: Big by Vashti Harrison

The Skull by Jon Klassen

Once Upon a Book, illustrations by Grace Lin

Remember Illustrations by Michaela Goade, Words by Joy Harjo

Also Read: In the Night Garden by Carin Berger

This is a Story, by John Schu, illustrations by Lauren Castillo
 

2nd Grade Winner: The Skull by Jon Klassen

Honors: Evergreen by Matthew Cordell

The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker

Jumper by Jessica Lanan

Nell Plants a Tree, illustrations by Daniel Miyares

Also Read: In the Night Garden by Carin Berger

If I Was a Horse by Sophie Blackall

Remember Illustrations by Michaela Goade, Words by Joy Harjo

All the books we considered are discussed here: https://mrschureads.blogspot.com/2023/11/2024-mock-caldecott.html

Literacy Volunteers Virtual Storytime - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

 

Read: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett about a town which gets its food through precipitation, then followed with some Thanksgiving-themed food stories & songs

Towel Folding Story: The Case of the Missing Turkey -- Rhonda Turley   Piedmont, OK via PUBYAC. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq4eojAsNlY  (or search youtube for towel and chicken).
Other Thanksgiving ideas and songs can be found here: Pre-School Storytime/Craft: Thanksgiving

"Last year, I was in charge of cooking the family thanksgiving turkey.I set my alarm for early in the morning so I could pop it in the oven to cook for our family dinner.

When the alarm went off, I got up, put on my fuzzy slippers and shuffled out to the kitchen to get the bird.  I opened the fridge, and…IT WAS GONE!
Where could it be!? (this is where the towel folding starts…lay the towel out flat)
I looked everywhere!
I rolled up the living room rug (roll one end of the towel to center)…it wasn’t under there.
I pulled down the covers on my bed (roll other end to the center)…it wasn’t there.
I turned over the couch cushion  (Flip rolled towel over so rolled ends are underneath)…it wasn’t there.
I looked under the chair (fold towel in half end to end, and hold upright like a bouquet of flowers)…it wasn’t there.
I looked in the flower vase (peek in end of one tube and pull up the corner of the towel)
I looked in the umbrella stand (peek in end of one tube and pull up the corner of the towel)…it wasn’t there.
I even looked in the trash can  (peek in end of one tube and pull up the corner of the towel)...thankfully it wasn't there!
Finally, I looked in the cookie jar  (pull up last corner of the towel)
(here’s the finale…grasp two corners with one hand, the other two corners with the other hand, and pull them apart…resulting in what looks like a plucked bird.)
…And there it was!"

Prop/Song: I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie – based on the book by Alison Jackson (great song for helping kids work on their memory skills – try to have them remember the different foods in the countdown; can also use rhyming reminders (phonemic awareness) as clues.) (We use a cardboard old lady with a plastic see-through stomach panel and a cardboard box mounted behind for the food items.) Lyrics and more images: www.4gaslps.com/IKnewAnOldLadyWhoSwallowedAPie.doc

Song: The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven (words: Jack Prelutsky, chorus: Cathy Darby)
Tune: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” Check it out on Youtube, subtitled in Chinese! 

The turkey shot out of the oven
And rocketed into the air,
It knocked every plate off the table
And partly demolished a chair.
Oh my, oh me, why didn't I follow the recipe?
Oh my, oh me, why didn't I follow the recipe?

It ricocheted into a corner,
And burst with a deafening boom,
Then splattered all over the kitchen,
Completely obscuring the room. Chorus

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
It totally coated the floor,
There was turkey attached to the ceiling
Where there'd never been turkey before. Chorus

It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl,
There wasn't a way I could stop it,
That turkey was out of control. Chorus

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
And thought with chagrin as I mopped,
That I'd never again stuff a turkey
With popcorn that hadn't been popped!

While the kids worked on their drawings of what foods they'd like to have rain down,
we played this video of Bridgewater author David Wiesner's story of mysterious floating giant vegetables, June 29, 1999

11/7/2023

School Age Storytime - Earth Day

 

I Love Our Earth - Bill Martin Jr. - photographic celebration

Spring is Here - Taro Gomi  "Spring is here. / The snow melts. / The earth is fresh. / The grass sprouts." Taro Gomi's clever picture book about the change of seasons couldn't be simpler. The first spread shows a white calf against a hot-pink background. "Spring is here," it says. In the next spread "the snow melts." And indeed, the once snow-white calf is now spotted black and white! 

Song: This is the Way we Plant Our Seeds

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life - Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm  (572.46 BANG) -- this creative and memorable explanation of photosynthesis will stick with kids for a long time.

And the Green Grass Grew all Around (flannel) – lyrics here: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2015/04/sing-springhappy-earthday.html 

Booktalk: The Great Kapok Tree

booktalk: The Camping Trip the Changed America

Dear Earth: From Your Friends in Room 5 - Erin Dealey When the kids in Room 5 write to Earth asking what they can do to help save our planet, they are delighted to get a letter back. This beautiful picture book is a celebration of every child's ability to connect with the environment and make a positive impact .

Action Book: Earth Dance by Joanne Ryder

Singable book: What a Wonderful World - Ashley Bryan

Mother Earth - Nancy Luenn Gorgeous watercolors accompany this extended metaphorical exploration of our planet

SN only:

Our Tree Named Steve - Alan Zweibel

No time:
Does the Earth Feel?  - Marc Majewki
The Water Hole - Graeme Base

Bedm/Paolino SN 4/19/23

School Age Storytime: St. Patrick's Day and Finding Treasure in Unexpected Ways

 

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale by Tomie De Paola. (Discussed meaning of folktale, compared retelling to game of "telephone.") Ireland's laziest man happens upon a Leprechaun and is given a potato that grows to huge proportions and creates humorous problems. 

That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting (Delightful illustrations from Caldecott medalist Emily Arnold McCully accompany a playful text written in a lilting Irish style about three leprechauns' mischief-making on their way to place the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.)

Speaking of looking for gold...

The Book of Gold by Bob Staake (Single name = author & illustrator.  Young Isaac Gutenberg isn't a curious boy . . . that is, until he meets an old shopkeeper who tells him about The Book of Gold. This special book, hidden somewhere in the world, holds all the answers to every question and turns to solid gold when opened. Isaac is determined to find the book and spends his whole life searching for it...discovering many other things along the way.

Another book celebrating the magic of discovery:

The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan ("Try to do as little as possible.” This was Dodsworth’s motto, until, one morning, on his daily trip to the junkyard, he discovers a pink refrigerator...)

Last, a book with no words...but a special kind of magic!

Chalk by Bill Thomson  (A rainy day. Three kids in a park. A dinosaur spring rider. A bag of chalk. The kids begin to draw...and then...magic! The children draw the sun, butterflies, and a dinosaur that amazingly come to life. Children will never feel the same about the playground after they experience this astounding wordless picture book and the power of the imagination.)

No time for:

If… by Sarah Perry (Imagine if cats could fly, leaves were fish, mice were hair, caterpillars were toothpaste, toes were teeth, or frogs ate rainbows…then imagine what else you can imagine!)  

Imagine a Day/Night/Place/World books by Sarah Thompson  (mind-bending images & poems)

Other books celebrating books, reading, and libraries: 
http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Books%20%26%20Reading

School Age Storytime: Black History Month

 

Opened by asking if the recognized the man on the cover of 

Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and talked about the Caldecott Medal on the cover, then read the book.

Sang: We Shall Overcome 

Asked if they knew who Ruby Bridges was then read:

I am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges -- a first person account of her first days in school.

Talked about how this wasn't so long ago (their grandparent's time and how some white children left the school rather than go to school with black kids) and the crazy idea that skin color or national origin made some people think other people shouldn't have the same rights...

Read: Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles - Joe and John Henry do everything together, from shooting marbles to shelling butterbeans. But when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed and the town pool is opened to blacks and whites alike, the two boys discover that the workers have filled in the pool with tar. Based on the author's own childhood growing up in rural Alabama and Mississippi. 

Read: Sit-In How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney It was February 1, 1960.

They didn't need menus. Their order was simple.
A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side.
This picture book celebration of the 50th anniversary of the momentous Woolworth's lunch counter sit-in, shows how four college students staged a peaceful protest that became a defining moment in the struggle for racial equality and the growing civil rights movement.
Andrea Davis Pinkney uses poetic, powerful prose to tell the story of these four young men, who followed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words of peaceful protest and dared to sit at the whites only Woolworth's lunch counter. 

Read: This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore & Jessica Alexander

Inspiring text shows "before" and "after" the civil rights laws

Read: Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford. Words to live by...

Closed with: This Little Light of Mine illustrated by E.B. Lewis

Lyrics & more ideas at: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20History%20Month

3/10/23 Nicole's class postponed from February

Read Across America - Celebrating Reading, Libraries, and Librarians - 2nd grade

 

Opened by asking fiction or non-fiction?

Library Lil by Suzanne Williams
A formidable librarian makes readers not only out of the once resistant residents of her small town, but out of a tough-talking, television-watching motorcycle gang as well in this modern tall tale! 

Asked the same question again for:

Librarian on the Roof! by M.G. King

When RoseAleta Laurell begins her new job at the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas, she is surprised that the children of the town think the library is for adults. She vows to raise the money for a children's section and spends a week living and working on the library roof, even surviving a dangerous storm. With the help of the entire town, RoseAleta raises over $39,000 from within the community and across the country.

Followed with another book based on a true story:

Nour's Secret Library by Wafa' Tarnowska 
Forced to take shelter when their Syrian city is plagued with bombings, young Nour and her cousin begin to bravely build a secret underground library. Based on the author’s own life experience and inspired by a true story, Nour’s Secret Library is about the power of books to heal, transport and create safe spaces during difficult times. 

Finished with the imagination-starter:

If by Sarah Perry
Take a fantastical journey through an inspiring world where anything can happen: leaves turn into fish, cats fly with wings, humans have tails, frogs eat rainbows, and dreams become visible. 

First published in 1995, Sarah Perry’s delightful picture book of “surreal possibilities” was the Getty’s first children’s title. Twenty-five years later it remains a visual feast that children of all ages enjoy.  

Booktalked:

Sector 7 by David Wiesner (a cloud takes a boy on a magical journey to the cloud factory in this wordless  book by this incredible author/illustrator)

Imagine a Day/Night/Place/World books by Sarah Thompson  (mind-bending images & poems)

Chalk by Bill Thomson (another magical wordless book)

More Than Anything Else by Marie Bradby (A fictionalized story about the life of young Booker T. Washington. Living in a West Virginia settlement after emancipation, nine-year-old Booker travels by lantern light to the salt works, where he labors from dawn till dusk. Although his stomach rumbles, his real hunger is his intense desire to learn to read.... )

Applemondo's Dreams and Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair by Patricia Polacco (celebrations of imagination and the power of books & reading by this great author-illustrator) 

Mr. Hogan's class Bedm 3/2/2023