Polar Animals

I know what you're going to say.  Polar bears and penguins aren't at the same pole.  I know that.  Even though it may be implied, I think I do try to make that distinction when we read these books.

Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joose. While not immediately obvious, yes, this does at least mention polar bears. A little girl mentions all these things that could happen and asks her mother if she'd still love her, and of course, the answer is still yes.  Sometimes I feel the need to translate these pages when I'm reading them to preschoolers because I don't think they quite get what it means for the characters when she asks "Would you love me if I poured water on our lamp?" So I ask them "Do you think your mother would love you if you broke every lightbulb in your house?"

Polar Bear Night by Lauren Thompson. It's about a little bear who wakes up in the middle of the night, feeling something special is about to happen.  The bear walks past all the other animals sleeping, and under the Northern Lights, and then she sees it - a meteor shower. I really like the simplistic, graphic style of the illustrations and that it at least shows the aurora borealis.  It gives me a chance to work a little science into the story time.  I LOVE the Northern Lights and it's one of my lifetime goals to see them.

Penguins by Liz Pichon. This book is too cute.  It's about a little girl who visits the penguin exhibit at the zoo and accidentally leaves her camera behind.  The penguins find it, figure out how to work it, and go to town taking pictures.  The next day, the zookeeper returns it to the little girl, and at the end of the book, you get to see all the pictures the penguins took.

Baby Polar by Yannick Murphy. Baby cub loves cuddling up to mama and hearing her heartbeat.  When it starts snowing, the cub wants to go play, and is soon so busy he gets lost in the blizzard.  He quickly finds a cave, burrows in, and when he hears a familiar heartbeat, it turns out the cave is mama's legs.

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. This is one of THE BEST books to read aloud.  Seriously - so much fun! Tacky, as his name implies, is an odd bird.  He does NOTHING like the other penguins, which of course turns out to be his saving grace when hunters come.  He drives them away with his un-penguinlike behavior and saves the day.  I love to sing his songs as loudly and as off-key as I can, and even though the kids cover their ears, they love it.

Other books that are good for this theme:

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson.

Pierre the Penguin by Jean Marzollo.

Over in the Arctic: Where the Cold Winds Blow by Mariane Berkes.

Winter/Snow

Since we live in Florida, it's always an odd thing doing a winter/snow-themed story time.  Most of the kids have never seen snow before, so it's a bit of a foreign thing to them.  They know it's cold, and they know it'll melt if they bring it inside, but they don't know what sledding or building a snowman is like.  Despite that fact, they DEFINITELY know what a snowman should look like that's why it's fun to read this first book:

All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.

This book is great because it trails off and baits kids into answering and participating.  "One big, cold, well-rolled ball.  That's all you need for a snowman..."  Of course the kids shout "Nooooo" and I ask them what else they need and the story continues.

Under My Hood, I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin.  

This is one that I feel is a little lost on some of my native FL kids.  They have no idea what it is like to truly bundle up in so many layers that you can't move.  Here you may need a sweatshirt and a coat if it's *really* the depths of winter - which will last for a day.

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner.

This is my favorite book for this theme.  The illustrations for it are SO wonderful, and I love looking for the pickle-nose every page.  I usually wait til the end of the book to point it out to my preschoolers.  I did this at an elementary school and EVERY page they brought it up.  Even after the teacher threatened to move them to a different behavior color on their chart.  Pickle-nose has some kind of strange pull.

Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara.

A story about a boy and his dog who are lonely until Jack Frost appears.  They play all winter with Jack, but the second the boy mentions Spring, Jack disappears.

The Mitten by Jan Brett.

Jan Brett has GORGEOUS illustrations in her books, but tend not to use them sometimes because they're a little long for my younger audiences.  That said, this is a great book for elementary kids.  A grandmother knits a boy two white mittens and lets him go out to play, but he has to show his mittens to her when he goes back in.  He loses one, and the animals find it and one by one try to cram themselves inside.  In the end he gets it back, but it's not quite the same size it was before.

Flock of Shoes by Sarah Tsiang.

This is a weird book.  Cute, but weird. The girl in the story wants to wear her flip-flops long after summer's over. (A reality in FL) One day, her flip-flops fly off into the sky in formation with other pairs of flip-flops. So she buys fall/winter boots and has fun playing with those until Spring, when her flip-flops come back.  Again, cute, but weird.

Snow Dude by Daniel Kirk.

It's like the gingerbread man, but made of snow.  Instead of meeting a horrible end though, everyone in the story makes snow dudes of their own.  The repetition of the snow dude's rhyme is great, but otherwise it can be a little long. 

There's lots of 5 Little Snowmen fingerplays you could do.  This isn't the one I normally do, but it's cute in a macabre little way:

Five little snowmen standing in a row

(Hold 5 fingers; stand up straight like a soldier)

Each had two eyes and a carrot nose

(Point to eyes; point to nose)

Along came the sun and shone all day

(Form sun with hands; wipe sweat from brow)

And one little snowman melted away

(Hold up one finger; slowly "melt" to the ground)

Four little snowmen...

Three little snowmen.. etc.