And the only prescription….is more cowbell!<\/p>\n
Well, no. That’s not the point of this post. (However, including rhythm instruments during storytime=always good. Unless\u00a0the\u00a0kids begin to whack each other with the instruments. That would be bad.) But whether you are buggy for bugs or insane about insects, consider these titles for a bugalicious storytime.<\/p>\n
I have a wide range of listening abilities in my storytime group. Some are ready for longer picture books, while others are not quite there\u00a0yet. It can be a challenge to find books that will interest the younger children but not bore the older children. Felicia Bond’s Tumble Bumble<\/em> worked nicely for my group. It’s the story of a young bug out for a walk. Simple enough, right? Well, he meets a variety of animals along the way,\u00a0including a cat, a crocodile, a young\u00a0pig, and a mouse. There’s a cause and effect relationship between the animals that makes for some\u00a0interesting (and hairy) circumstances. After such an eventful walk, one is naturally inclined to want to nap. And so the animal friends\u00a0enter a yellow house with a very suitable bed.\u00a0 That’s not the end of the story, however, for this enables them to make two additional friends (one animal and one human).\u00a0 With a rhyming text and an underlying message (at the\u00a0end) of friendship,\u00a0Tumble Bumble<\/em> is a great choice if you need a bridge between two longer picture books.<\/p>\n Do I really need to tell you about The Very Hungry Caterpillar<\/em>?\u00a0When I showed the children the cover,\u00a0many shouted out that they had that book at home and that it was their favorite book. Not a shocker! Children love it when you read them a familiar book. Why do\u00a0people like to reread books? I know I occasionally reread books when I need some “comfort” reading or\u00a0if I’ve entered a “reading slump” in which I can’t settle on a book to read. Rereading beloved books is fun and comforting. It’s also fun to share\u00a0beloved books with others, which is\u00a0what the children and I did this morning.\u00a0For the families that have not read The Very Hungry Caterpillar<\/em> (or another classic\/popular book of your choosing), you’ve introduced them to a great book. It’s tempting to only present the new\u00a0and\/or the less well-known\u00a0titles, but\u00a0including the tried and true is a win-win situation.\u00a0As my group demonstrated, some families may not be familiar with a certain book.<\/p>\n I have certain “go to” authors for storytime. Denise Fleming is one of them. The vivid illustrations, the text that dances on your tongue…she’s a fave. Did you know that there were so many different kinds of beetles? Striped beetles? Fly in the air beetles? Hide in the crack beetles? Fleming presents the wide world of beetles in her usual fantastic way with awesome illustrations and text with a terrific beat. Beetle Bop<\/em> is a fun addition to any bug-themed storytime.<\/p>\n Dee Lillegard’s The Big Bug Ball<\/em> also has a text with natural and unforced rhythm, but it does have a slight storyline. It’s time for the Big Bug Ball, and all the bugs are getting down. Except for the sow bug! We see everyone else\u00a0having a grand old time dancing and eating, but the sow bug is definitely missing out. Luckily, all this fun inspires him to at least try. Not only does he find that dancing is fun, he also catches the eye of a lady sow bug. The Big Bug Ball<\/em> presents a message (you never know if you really like something or not until you try it) in flowing rhythmic text and clever illustrations (one bug is depicted as a Saturday Night Fever John Travolta).<\/p>\n Finally, we have Karma Wilson’s\u00a0A Frog in\u00a0the Bog<\/em>.\u00a0A frog sits on a log, catching all matter of insects. With each insect, he grows bigger.\u00a0But why does the log have eyes and snapping jaws? This book presents ample opportunity for hamming it up\u00a0(“eww! ugggh!”). It’s also a counting book! This may be a *little* too long for a toddler storytime (I had to\u00a0skip over some lines this morning), but perfect for preschoolers.<\/p>\n You need some bug-oriented fingerplays as well. There’s always the “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” My toddlers loved doing this so much, we did it twice (we usually perform our fingerplays twice anyway). Again, familiarity is very comforting!<\/p>\n There aren’t any ladybugs (that I remember) in the books mentioned above, but we couldn’t leave the ladybugs out. This is a simple action rhyme; just flap your arms as indicated. The tune is “Three Blind Mice,” but it isn’t necessary to sing it. This fingerplay can be found on a multitude of storytime\/fingerplay websites.<\/p>\n Fly, fly fly<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Ladybugs fly<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Fly over here, fly over there<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n They fly up high and they fly down low<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Around and around and around they go<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n They fly fast, and they fly slow<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n Oh ladybugs fly<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n \u00a0Here’s a fingerplay to follow The Very Hungry Caterpillar<\/em> (from The Giant Encyclopedia of Science Activities for Children 3 to 6<\/em>):<\/p>\n Roly poly caterpillar into a corner crept (creep one hand up opposite arm)<\/strong><\/p>\n Wound himself around a blanket (winding motion with hands)<\/strong><\/p>\n For a long time slept (lay head on hands)<\/strong><\/p>\n Roly poly caterpillar waking by and by (pop head up)<\/strong><\/p>\n Found himself with beautiful wings, changed to a butterfly (hook thumbs together and flap hands)<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you have any favorite books about bugs? Fingerplays or activities?<\/p>\n Books mentioned in this post:<\/p>\n And the only prescription….is more cowbell! Well, no. That’s not the point of this post. (However, including rhythm instruments during storytime=always good. Unless\u00a0the\u00a0kids begin to whack each other with the instruments. That would be bad.) But whether you are buggy for bugs or insane about insects, consider these titles for a bugalicious storytime. I have a wide range of listening abilities in my storytime group. Some are ready for longer picture books, while others are not quite there\u00a0yet. It can be a challenge to find books that will interest the younger children but not bore the older children. Felicia Bond’s Tumble Bumble worked nicely for my group. It’s the story of a young bug out for a walk. Simple enough, right? Well, he meets a variety of animals along the way,\u00a0including a cat, a crocodile, a young\u00a0pig, and a mouse. There’s a cause and effect relationship between the animals that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[71,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-jennifer-schultz","category-childrens-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n