Chinese New Year - Year of the Rabbit

Book: My First Chinese New Year by Karen Katz

A complicated theme like Chinese New Year for 3 to 5 year olds is a little bit daunting, so I decided to keep it as simple as possible. Like all of Karen Katz's books, "My First Chinese New Year" is a perfect storytime choice with big colorful illustrations and cheerful and cute text.

Dramatic Play

I read the book first as a way to introduce the theme, and then brought out a rabbit puppet who sniffed and shivered in the snow as I encouraged the kids to suggest what he should do to keep warm. Eventually it was decided that she should dig a hole, and all the kids pantomined digging down in the dirt with their paws. As soon as the hole we imagined we were digging together was big enough, we crawled in and curled up and went to sleep. After the parents started giggling about how long we were "sleeping", I sang Sleeping Bunnies, which has children hop around when they are instructed to "wake up soon".

Song

Sleeping Bunnies



Fingerplay

Funny Bunny
(Author unknown)

Here is a bunny (Raise two fingers.)
With ears so funny
And here is a hole in the ground. (Make hole with fingers of other hand.)
At the first sound she hears,
She pricks up her ears (Straighten fingers.)
And pops right into the ground. (Put fingers in hole.)

Craft

Bunny Ears



I found this very easy paper craft at
DLTK's Growing Together's craft website and made one for myself to wear during the storytime, and then left the instructions and the material out at the end of the storytime, so that parents and kids could make the craft together. It was so cute to see all the kids pouring out of the storytime room wearing the ears!

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

Book Summary
The Doorbell Rang is a fun cumulative tale. Mom makes a giant plate of cookies for her kids. But uh-oh! The doorbell rings, and a few neighbours show up. This means the original kids are going to have make a sacrifice and divide their cookies among the new arrivals. But uh-oh! The doorbell rings. And who's at the door but a few more hungry kids! Now the kids have to share the cookies among everyone again. The doorbell keeps ringing and the cookies keep getting divided until each kid's prospect of having even a single cookie to themselves starts looking slim...

Activities
I got the kids warmed up to the cookie theme by having one of the puppets (I chose a lizard because it had a particularly large mouth) munching away on a paper cookie while making lots of mmmmhhhh and crunching noises. I asked the puppet where it had got the cookie, and he answered that he got it from the cookie jar.

I found the cookie jar he was talking about but it was empty. I shook it upside down for emphasis. I asked if anyone knew who took the cookies from the jar. No one knew, so we sang a few rounds of "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar".

Now that everyone had cookies on the brain, I read the story. I had the kids say "ding-dong" to be the sound of doorbell each time I read the phrase "the doorbell rang" to make the book more interactive.

After we had finished the book, I had the class pretend to make cookies with me. Taking out a giant bowl and spoon we sang a song I improvised to the "peanut peanut butter--and jelly" song replacing the peanut butter making instructions with cookie making instructions. At the bottom of the bowl I had placed more of the paper cookies and once we had finished "making" the cookies, I handed out the cookies to everyone.

I asked if anyone knew what letter the word cookie started with, and when I heard someone say "C", I put a big cut-out of the letter C on the board, and taught them Cookie Monster's song from Sesame Street "C is for Cookie" see it performed by best by Cookie Monster for inspiration.



Once everyone had learnt the song we sang it through from beginning to end. We held our cookies up triumpantly in the air, and then pretended to munch them up like Cookie Monster.

Another great storytime!

Don't let the pigeon stay up late! by Mo Willems

I haven't yet found a book that I don't like by Mo Willems, and his stack of awards proves he has truly figured out what captures kids attention.

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late has an interactive format, where the listening audience has to prevent a sleepy pigeon from staying up past his bedtime. The pigeon in question tries every trick in the book to stay up late (some familiar, some hilariously creative).

Before reading, I primed the kids about what the book would be like by having a puppet try to convince them that he should be able to stay up late.

The puppet asked the kids why he had to go to bed, and one particularly savvy child answered "You'll be grumpy!"

To which the puppet answered: "I don't care!"

Surprisingly, they all said, in very shocked tones: "That's RUUUUDDDDEEEEE!" So cute!

After they had gotten used to telling the puppet to go to sleep, I read
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late I think the parents in the room might have enjoyed the story even more than the kids.

Once the book was done, I expanded the story by having the puppet from the original interaction get into his "bed" (in this case a plastic bin). The puppet kept popping up out of the bed to complain that the bed was too hard. I had brought along a bag of full scarves (essential storytime props) and took one scarf out. I explained that it was a blanket, and with it I would tuck the puppet in. The puppet kept popping up and demanding more blankets. Luckily, I had a whole bag full, and I was able to distribute the "blankets" to all the kids, who also tucked the puppet in. A few even gave him a goodnight kiss or hug.

Little beauty by Anthony Browne

This book was recommended by an Early Language Specialist at a workshop I attended a few weeks ago. What a great recommendation! The book is a perfect story time choice: there is about a sentence per page and the illustrations are extremely colourful and beautiful. The story tells a simple tale about a gorilla who learns sign language and asks for a friend, and so is given a kitten to take care of. In the end, the kitten also learns sign language which saves their friendship.

When I read the book, the kids were absolutely enthralled, and I made sure they understood the ending by asking questions.

Once we had sang a few action songs, I brought out our amazingly realistic gorilla puppet, and had it act very sad.

"Why do you think the gorilla is sad?" I asked the kids.

"Because it doesn't have a friend!" they answered.

Then I took out a big canvas bag.

"What do you think I have in this bag?" I asked.

"A friend! A friend!" they replied.

Slowly, slowly, I pulled out various objects out of the bag, like a tennis ball and a shovel and a plastic snake. Very innocently, I asked the kids if they thought the various items would make a good friend for the gorilla. The kids were very adamant that they would not.

Eventually I got to the bottom of the bag. I put my hand in the bag and starting making mewing sounds.

"Do you hear that? What do you think it could be?" I asked.

"A kitten!" they all shouted.

I had the kitten walk out of the bag, and walk over to the gorilla. Then I had the kitten nudge the gorilla to get its attention. The gorilla turned to the kitten, and then gave it a huge hug.

All the kids clapped with joy.

Next I taught them two words in sign language:

friend



and cat



Another great story time!

Kitten's first new moon by Kevin Henkes

I read this book for the first time just last week and immediately made the librarian sitting at the desk next to me read it too.

Poor Kitten, she has mistaken the moon for a big bowl of milk, and she just can't get it no matter how hard she tries. Black and white simple yet beautiful illustrations really show the reader the hardship of the kitten, especially poignant is a full page close-up of the poor kitten soaking wet after falling into a pond. As soon as I showed the children that page during the story time, there was a collected sigh of sympathy throughout the crowd.

Once the story was done, we acted out all different kitten like behavior: walking, mewing, purring, climbing, lapping, yowling and even arching our backs and hissing.

Then I took out a white bowl, and held it up to the sky.

"Now kittens, try to get the milk!"

We all tried as a group to get the milk the same way that the kitten did in the story. We begged, we purred, we mimed climbing, jumping and even swimming.

After we had acted out all the main actions of the kitten portrayed in the story, I took out a small white kitten puppet and had the puppet act out being hungry and wanting some milk. Then I passed around the bowl, and had every kid "pour" milk into the bowl. When they had all had a turn, I asked them for suggestions as to where I could put the bowl so that the kitten would see it best. This was a great opportunity to act like I didn't understand simple directions. "Put it on the table!" The kids cried. "Oh, is this the table?" I asked, putting the bowl on the floor. Hilarity ensued.

Finally, the bowl was somewhere visible, and I had the kitten puppet happily lap it up. I got all the kids to pretend to lap it up too.

Once the story time was over, this book was quickly snapped up by an eager parent. Having the kids really participate and imagine themselves to be part of the story translated a good book into a great story time!

The tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

A wonderful heartwarming, stomach-filling story all about a too small mouse with too large ears and a more than human-sized sense of love and honour.

Highly recommended for any kid looking for an adventure story, though I’m sure it will only be on the shelf on the rarest of occasions. Newberry award winner.

The 39 Clues book one: The maze of bones by Rick Riordan

Imagine if you were given the choice between one million dollars or the first of 39 clues, which could, potentially, make you the most powerful person in the universe? Which would you choose?

This book probably doesn’t need any more hype, as I’m sure that all of the waiting lists at the public libraries are full enough--but but but—this book is worth the wait! Seriously. Seriously!