DOOR TO DOOR STORYTIME

EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERACY SKILL: Narrative Skills

BOOKS TO DISPLAY

Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee
Snow is My Favorite and My Best by Lauren Child
When the Snow Comes by Jonathan Allen
Millions of Snow by Lerryn Korda
Snow Happy! by Patricia Hubbell
Snow! Snow! Snow! by Lee Harper
Stella, Queen of the Snow  by Marie-Louise Gay
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats  
The Reader by Amy Hest
Making a Friend by Alison McGhee

BASIC TIMELINE

1. Intro
2. Read-a-Loud Book
3. Flannelboard
4. Read-a-Loud Book
5. Flannelboard
6. Read-a-Loud Book
7. Craft

READ-A-LOUD BOOKS

Snow by Uri Shulevitz
Snow by Manya Stojic
Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman

ACTIVITIES

Flannelboard:  Five Little Snowmen Fat (via Artfelt.net)

Five little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat,
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down,
He melted to the ground. Leaving…

Four little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat,
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down,
He melted to the ground. Leaving…

Three little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat,
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down,
He melted to the ground. Leaving…

Two little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat,
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down,
He melted to the ground. Leaving…

One little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat,
Out came the sun and melted one,
What do you think of that?
Down, down, down,
He melted to the ground. Leaving…NONE!

Five hats are all around,
No snowmen can be found,
But have no fear,
The sun will disappear.
Five snowmen will come back
What do you think of that?

Flannelboard: I’m a Snowman (via Artfelt.net)

I’m a snowman cold and white,
I stand so still all through the night,
I have a carrot nose way up high,
And a lump of coal to make each eye.
I have a scarf all colored red,
And a tall black hat upon my head.

CRAFT: Melted Snowman!

This week’s storytime craft was inspired by an adorable, 3D foam craft I found  on the Holiday Kid’s Craft website. I decided to modify the original craft and use paper plates in order to save time and money, and avoid having to use an adhesive stronger than gluesticks. I bought a pack of paper plates from The Dollar Tree. The snowmen’s heads were cut from left over paper plates. I used left over scrapbook paper to create noses, scarves, top hats, and arms. Buttons and the mouths were created using Microsoft PPT. I precut all the pieces beforehand to make it easy on the children (the buttons and mouths were cut in strips and the excess white space is hardly noticeable once the pieces are glued down on the white plates). When all was said an done, I paid a dollar out of pocket (for the paper plates) to create this craft. The googly eyes were provided by the Branch Manager.

REVIEW:

Three little boys attended this week’s storytime session at GBL. The weather has been cold and rainy lately, so the boys had a bit of cabin fever and were somewhat twitchy during the reading of the first two picture books. To compensate, I asked a number of questions throughout to recapture their interest. Ten on the Sled had better rhythm, and the boys really enjoyed the silly tale. Overall, the best part of today’s storytime was the craft. I’m sure they enjoyed the chance to move about and DO something!

To encourage the budding artists within, I like to tell my storytime attendee’s that “art is freedom” and that “artists are only limited by their imagination.” I think the children are really beginning to take my preaching to heart. Lately, I’ve noticed more and more children telling their parent’s “I can do it by myself.” After assuring this week’s storytime attendees that their snowmen “do not need to look exactly like mine, because all snowmen melt differently!” I heard one little boy tell his parent’s “I want to do it without you.” Another  boy went so far as to create a snowman with an abstract set of features.  Three cheers for kids with the courage to color outside the lines…

Storytime crafts Door 2 Door Storytime early childhood literacy flannelboard narrative skill paper plate crafts snow snowflake snowmen