Frogs/Pond

We try to do a generic pond/swamp story time, but there are so many books that feature frogs, that's pretty much what it turns into. Remember when everyone was crazy about frogs back in the day?  Partially due to those Peace Frogs shirts. Was it just a thing then?

Frog in a Bog by Karma Wilson. I won't get into this too much, since I talked about it in my favorite authors/illustrators post. This is a good counting book to use, though as I'll mention later on, I also do 5 Little Speckled Frogs as a fingerplay, so it's not necessary to have a counting book.

Froggie Went A-Courting by Marjorie Priceman. Yes, this is like the old song, but now it's set in NYC! I have to admit, I'm not as familiar with the old one, so I'm not sure if there's a bigoted aunt with machinations to break the couple up, only to have them backfire on her.  If there aren't, well this one has it.  Sometimes I have to kinda lead the children through inferring what happened, even though it does say "Though cat ate rat, there's no denial, Aunt Rat at last made someone smile", I think I sing it too fast for them to catch. Yes, another singing book.  Because if I didn't sing this book, I think it might be a little long for my kids to listen to.  This way though? They love it.

Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold. Wilma wakes up a frog one morning.  All sorts of crazy things happen at home and at school that day. She sees a fly during story time and starts chasing it through the school and out to Miller's pond. She catches it, lands in the water, and then wakes up to realize she was dreaming.  The book ends with the best line "Then she recalled the words they teach to every little frog, 'That when you dream, be careful that you don't fall off the log'".

Big Frog Can't Fit In by Mo Willems.  OMG! How could I forget this book in my last post?! Maybe subconsciously I was saving it just for this.  This is a really cute pop-up book about a frog that is too big to fit in the book. She is really sad, and then her friends get together and make the book bigger.  It's really short, but you know what? Sometimes you need something really short and attention-grabbing to help break things up.  This book is perfect for that.

The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner. This book is my piece de resistance of this theme. I'd seen my predecessor do this just through storytelling - no book, so I'd gotten tips on how to do it right. It's fine to just read the book as is. There are great pop-ups and illustrations that help tell the story.  However, to really do it justice, you gotta also BE the wide-mouthed frog. So while you read what the frog says, you have to try to open up your mouth as wide as possible, and when the gator comes says it eats wide-mouthed frogs, you have to try to make your mouth as small as possible too. Apparently there is a song/musical version of this story that some of my daycares use, and they want to do that, but I tell stories my way.

Other good stories:

Jump Frog Jump by Robert Kalan. We use this for our baby story time and have the parents pick the babies up whenever we say "Jump, frog, jump!". You could have kids jump during that part.

Stick by Steve Breen. A little frog goes on an adventure while trying to eat a dragonfly.

I Don't Want to Be a Frog by Dev Petty. A little frog declares he doesn't want to be a frog. He goes on to list all these animals he wants to be, and his parents gives reasons why he can't be that. Then he realizes why it's a good idea to be a frog.

Five Little Speckled Frogs

I love this fingerplay, but man, it seems like EVERYONE has a slightly different version of it.  Here's the one that I do.

5 little speckled frogs, 

sitting on a hollow log, 

eating some most delicious bugs (yum, yum), 

1 jumped into the pool,

where it was nice and cool, 

now there are 4 little speckled frogs (glub, glub)

and then you countdown and so on.

The variation? Green and speckled frogs. Speckled log. Eating their most delicious lunch (munch, munch). I'm sure there are more, those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  However you do it, it's right!  Sometimes I ask the daycares ahead of time what version they do, sometimes I just plow ahead with my own and the kids sing their own words anyway.

Dogs

Why do we split cats and dogs up?  Why don't we just do pets as one big theme and do both? Well, as I said before, there are lots of books for both, so rather than have to choose between them all, we just split them up and do it this way.

Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough. This is about a dog named Sid who accidentally flies on the way to school one day.  Sid is SO excited, he tells everyone, but no one believes him. They make him prove it, but it doesn't happen again, and Sid goes home absolutely crushed. Then Sid's dad tells him a secret that raises his spirits again.

Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton. I swear, reading this book feels like reading what's going on in my friend's dog's head. George's owner leaves him at home, and though he knows he shouldn't do stuff (like eat an entire chocolate cake), he does it anyway.George is sorry, and they go for a walk, so he proves it by being on his best behavior. My friend has a Great Dane, and no lie - we left the house once and he ate about 18 chocolate cupcakes that were cooling on the counter. They had to make him drink water with peroxide in it to get him to throw them up. Which he did. Whole - wrappers and all.

How Much is That Doggie in the Window? by Iza Trapani. You can sing the whole book to the classic tune of this song. A little boy wants a dog, but doesn't quite have enough money for it. He earns some, but it sweet to his family and buys them things when they need it or are feeling down.

He goes to visit the puppy one day, only to find out it's been sold.  When he goes home, he finds out his parents bought it for him.

Move Over, Rover by Karen Beaumont. This is a GREAT one to do as a read-aloud. This is a story that builds on itself, and every time it gets to this point in the story, we have the kids yell out "Move over, Rover!". A dog is lonely in his house. Suddenly a rainstorm hits and all these animals come looking for shelter. They're squeeeeezed in, when they all scatter because of a skunk.  In the end he's happy to be back in his doghouse all alone.

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer. A worried mother taker her pup to the vet because he won't bark. He meows, quacks, oinks, and moos. The vet pulls out a cat, duck, pig, and cow. The mom is so proud, she wants to show him off to everyone on the way home. So she asks him to bark, which he definitely doesn't do.

Other good books:

Show Dog by Meghan McCarthy

Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey

Woof: a Love Story by Sarah Weeks

I Don't Like Gloria by Kaye Umansky

Buster by Denise Fleming

With this theme we almost always do BINGO.  The song, not the game obviously. Since I usually deal with younger children and taking away letter and clapping is a hard concept, I try to start off each verse by telling them what letter we're taking away and how many times we'll clap this time. 

Cats

Since I've gotten through all the holidays we do story times for, now it will pretty much be a random assortment of themes from here on out.  I may go back and do some for past summer themes, but they'll probably be in one post.  Anywho - on to cats!  Cats is one of the themes we have LOTS of books to choose from, which is great and awful all at the same time.  Great to have the options, terrible when you have to weed some out.

Grandma's Cat by Helen Ketterman. The little girl in the story is desperately trying to play with grandma's cat.  After the cat claws her, grandma calms her down, and tells her how to make nice with him.  Eventually the cat comes to her, and they're friends by the end. Anyone whose grandmother has a grumpy old cat can relate to this book.

Mama Cat has three kittens by Denis Fleming. A very repetitive method of storytelling that helps with the twist at the end. Whenever Mama Cat does something, Fluffy and Skinny do it too, and Boris naps.  They do this about 5 times, and in the end, when Mama Cat curls up to nap - what does Boris do?  He stretches, yawns, cleans his paws and then pounces! Right on top of Mama, Fluffy, and Skinny...and then Boris naps.

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. Kitten really wants a bowl of milk. Then she sees one up in the sky and does everything she can to get it. In the end the poor kitten is banged up, wet, and returns home to find a bowl of milk waiting for her. :) 

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff. Really? Are you not aware of this series of books yet?  The cat asks for things that remind him of other things, that eventually lead him back to the first thing. Great book to use to ask a lot of questions.

The Fat Cat by Margaret Read McDonald. Now normally, I do this as a flannel board. It's a really easy story to tell with how repetitive it is. The kids pick up on it quickly and they like to tell out the parts of the story. Basically a cat is asked to watch this old woman's stew, and when she gets back, he's eaten the stew AND the pot, and then he eats her. So then he goes for a walk, and each person who sees him asks, "Why little cat, what have you been eating? You are so fat!". The cat eats half a dozen villagers before he meets the woodsman, who cuts him open and lets everyone out. They leave the bandaged-up cat out in the middle of nowhere.  

Other good books are:

Francis the Scaredy Cat by Ed Boxall

Five Creatures by Emily Jenkins

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner. You could use this for dogs or cats, but as I have plenty of books for dogs, I chose to put it here.  Skippyjon is a Siamese cat who is convinced he's a chihuahua. He goes on all these adventures in his imagination, saving other dogs in Mexico from some sort of evil.  I've read it to a group once, but that was it.

To round out story time, I totally do Soft Kitty with the kids.  I do it call-and-response, so I sing part of a line and they repeat it.

In case you're not familiar with it, here's the lyrics: 

Soft kitty, warm kitty, 

little ball of fur.

Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, 

purr, purr, purr.

And I have the kids do motions with the song.  Maybe pretend likes they're petting the cat, hugging it, holding it. Then we do happy faces, pretend like we're sleeping, and then the purr.

If you're not familiar with the tune, I'll let Sheldon from Big Bang Theory sing it for you.*

*I know this song existed before BBT.  It's just amusing to watch the clip.

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.