Program: Family Storytime

My last storytime of the summer!

Welcome, introductions and reminders - we had a bonus reminder this week as we are having trouble with our castle door (why, yes, our storytimes take place in a castle, did I forget to mention that?). I let people know that Miss B would be there to let them in and out as needed. This week we were talking about fruits and veggies - delicious food that's good for you!

Opening: Open Shut Them - ughhhhh, I can barely muster any enthusiasm for this nowadays. I'll need to work on finding a replacement during our storytime break.

Book: No Peas for Nellie by Chris L. Demarest - I had never seen this book before but it was one pulled especially for storytime this week. I thought it was cute - Nellie recounts all the things she'd rather eat than her peas. The kids loved it - they shouted "NO!" after every thing Nellie said she would eat (because they surely wouldn't eat a spider or a warthog).

Flannel: Vegetable Guessing Game - I hated all the flannels we had (as usual), so I settled for this guessing game. I read a short rhyming verse about a vegetable and the kids tried to guess which one I was talking about. They were pretty easy and the kids got them all right and had fun shouting out the answers.

Book: Rah Rah Radishes: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre - I wanted to sort of extend the guessing game by showing kids the great variety of vegetables and maybe introducing them to some they weren't familiar with. However, this book did not go over well. The kids shouted over all the words, naming the different vegetables and declaring their favorites. They weren't really that interested in looking at the pictures or learning about the new vegetables. I probably wouldn't use this one again in a storytime.

Song: "Bluegrass Jamboree" by Hap Palmer - still a popular choice, the kids love to run in place and, of course, fall down.

Book: Jamberry by Bruce Degen - we need some fruit in our storytime! This is a lovely and silly rhyming book that features all varieties of berries being enjoyed by a boy and his bear friend. The kids were not really that interested in the rhymes and just wanted to talk about the different kinds of berries.

Big Book: The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson - this is a very simple story but I thought the kids would enjoy the surprise at the end. They ended up being pretty ambivalent about it.

Big Book: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood - this is one of my favorite books, so I couldn't resist sharing it in this storytime! I tried my best to build tension and suspense by emphasizing the BIG HUNGRY BEAR who wanted the delicious strawberry and I think it worked pretty well. The kids loved the strawberry in disguise (of course) but most had figured out the end before I got there.

Closing: Wave Goodbye by Rob Reid - why can't Miss Sarah just memorize this? It's not that many lines! Someday, I will be the victor in Miss Sarah vs. memorization!

And that was my fruits and veggies family storytime! Overall, they were too wiggly and rambunctious for most of the stories, but that's unusual for this storytime. Now, I get a break until the end of August!