By Jonathan London, Illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz We had snow in the library… Find cutouts here: http://www.kizclub.com/storypatterns/froggy.pdf We made snow! Lots of fun with frogs and snow! Go here for more ideas to go with this book:
By Claire Messer What does a bad mood look like or feel like? We stomped our feet too! We tried to shake it off too… Grumpy underpants? Hahah – you know the children love this page. Then we all take a deep breath. Reading always makes Miss Library feel better! What do you do when… More GRUMPY PANTS
By Margaret Wise Brown During this busy time, this story is always calming and focuses on the wonder of Christmas. I love how these illustrations challenge the “traditional” Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and so beautiful. The children really love to play with this nativity set. This is what was playing on the projector: Super secret… More A CHILD IS BORN
By Anna Dewdney Make sure to watch until the end – where you will get to say hi to Moses! 🙂 I am going to admit I can relate to Llama, llama. I sometimes find it hard to wait, and have had meltdowns too. Hahah – we probably all have! This is a great book… More LLAMA LLAMA HOLIDAY DRAMA
By Leslea Newman, illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker We had so much fun learning all about Hanukkah this week. This book is a clever story about a runway dreidel similar to The Night Before Christmas. It has wonderful rhymes and colorful illustrations. I dear friend lent me one of her menorah’s – how cute is this?… More RUNAWAY DREIDEL!
By Margaret Sutherland, illustrated by Sonja Lamut “Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to remind children of gratitude. Who makes you laugh? We love our teachers. We are also thankful to pet Beatrix Of course… More THANKSGIVING IS FOR GIVING THANKS!
Henny Penny by Paul Galdone This book is so wonderful for preschool. Just getting the children to repeat the names of the characters is so great for their speech. It is also repetitive, which helps the children remember the story. Even nonsensical rhyming is helpful for emerging readers and for language. What does it feel… More THE SKY IS FALLING!!
By Stan and Jan Berenstain never gets old! There are so many reasons to love this book for preschool children. Easy text for early readers – they love the fact that they can “read” the first page after we talk about how many bears and if they are little or big. It is also a… More THE SPOOKY OLD TREE…
by Mercer Mayer Haven’t we all been afraid of a monsters at some point in our lives? I wonder if Mercer Mayer knew what was in my head when I was a child? These illustrations are the best. But what I really love about this book is the power this little boy gains over the… More THERE ARE MONSTERS EVERYWHERE
by Linda Hayward, for POLICE WEEK in the library. We had fun putting on “our safety vests” and trying to direct traffic in the library: We also thought about what mode of transportation we would like to use if we were police officers: This part of the book always gets their attention, they all want… More A Day in the Life of a Police Officer…
by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal Hispanic Heritage Month is a wonderful way to introduce Spanish and Spanish speaking cultures to preschool children. The books and ideas are endless. I really love this classic fairy tale, with a dash of Spanish and hint of a different culture. After reading the book, the children… More LA PRINCESA AND THE PEA
By Lauren Thompson and Buket Erdogan We are all so excited to be back in the library this year! I seriously think B the Book Bunny might be the happiest. He loves all of the attention from the children. Mouse’s First Day is a colorful book about all the things that mouse finds in a… More MOUSE’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Of course we had to surf… We surfed to this song: https://youtu.be/2s4slliAtQU And we played with beach balls… And we looked at a few shells… Some of us have a beach trip planned, some don’t, but it sure is fun to pretend like you are at the beach – even in the classroom! For some… More BEACH FUN IN THE CLASSROOM…
This book is an entertaining read aloud. There are lots of opportunities to make fun noises, and to have the children join in with you. An engaging, entertaining, and interactive book. Perfect for the end of the year excitement that seems to be radiating out of every classroom. Of course, we all washed out our… More “Hey, Mud Puddle!”…
Our chicks have hatched! We read about chicks and chickens in this book by Joyce Markovics: Beatrix loved meeting the chicks as much as the children did (watch more of B with the chicks at the end of the above video): The children had to learn how to pick up and touch the chicks gently.… More Meet Our New Chicks!
OPVIPAROUS! This week we read CHICKENS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES by Ruth Heller and found out what oviparous means! The perfect book to go along with the hatching of our eggs and our spring science table. I brought in a few eggs to compare sizes: This year our chicks were right on time! Day 21:… More OVIPARO WHAT?
By Mo Willems Who doesn’t like a bit of Mo Willems? He really does make reading fun. The children loved this song. A easy way to introduce them to the word Bonjour: I myself can relate to Nanette. I have picked up a warm baguette in Paris, and managed to eat ALL of it…who can… More Nanette’s Baguette
by Christie Matheson. A fun, interactive book for the children. Perfect for any kind of planting activity for the spring. After we read the book, we planted zinnias. We are hoping to see some sprouts soon. We talked about the importance of butterflies, bees and the birds that enjoy the flowers. We also talked about… More PLANT THE TINY SEED…
Bunny Bus by Ammi-Joan Paquette, Illustrated by Lesley Green Withrow This Easter book has colorful pictures, and some nice rhyming words for the children to listen for. It is an easy book to incorporate some physical activities to go with it. During the week before Easter, Easter egg hunts and lots of excitement, it is… More Hop on the BUNNY BUS!
By Brendan Wenzel This book is a 2017 Caldecott Medal award winner. What a lovely book to introduce perception, perspective and different points of view. This book is so creative and beautifully illustrated. It really captures the children’s attention. This phrase occurs throughout the book, a great way to pull the children back in (if… More They All Saw A Cat
This week we had fun with Red Riding Hood by James Marshall. A colorful and somewhat silly version of Little Red Riding Hood. In this picture Red Riding Hood’s mother is making custard for Red’s Granny. We always stop and count the cats in the picture. NINE!! In the kitchen? (Hahah! How much cat fur… More And Granny, What Big Teeth You Have…
For Dr. Seuss week! We love to CELEBRATE READING with Dr. Seuss week! MONDAY: We started the week off with a parade. The Transitional Kindergarten class made a wonderful “birthday cake” for Dr. Seuss during their maker space time in the classroom. To see the parade go here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLMnEszH8–/ Look at all of the green… More GREEN EGGS AND HAM
A story about emotions by Anna Llenas This book is a simple, bright and easy to follow story about feelings. Perfect for preschoolers. Yellow is happy. Blue is sad. I made a little “feelings walk” with some felt. The children loved it, and it was a fun way to play with some of the feelings.… More The Color Monster
Retold by BG Hennessy, Illustrated by Boris Kulikov A classic Aesop’s fable about honesty. Some of the younger children don’t truly grasp the whole meaning behind this story, but they do understand that he is not telling the truth. The colorful, funny illustrations keep them engaged. Looking for those wolves: And then the wolves –… More The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Or happy Lunar New Year. At our school we celebrate Chinese New Year (but many other Asian countries celebrate this holiday). It is the year of the Ox! We started the week off with a spectacular parade. The transitional kindergarten class made some wonderful dragons. We had music, drums and made lots of noise. Short… More Gung Hay Fat Choy -Happy Chinese New Year!
Queen Library: I used the first part of this music for my “entrance” into each classroom (A very royal book entrance – you can find a video on my Instagram): The children loved this book. It is entertaining, funny and has colorful and expressive drawings. Truly terrible..scribbling in books? NO!! Tamed by a story!! Now… More DRAGON WAS TERRIBLE by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
You gladly accept it and read TACKY THE PENGUIN by Helen Lester, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger. I mean – why not? As you can probably guess, the children were delighted. We learn that Tacky is an “odd bird”, but sometimes that is not a bad thing! (Right? Clearly Miss Library is an odd bird!) After… More When Someone Gives You a Penguin Costume…
By Caralyn Buehner, pictures by Mark Buehner Who knew how busy snowmen could be at night? They have some great winter adventures. The children love finding the “pickle nose” snowman in this book. When they see him, they scream at the top of their lungs: “PICKLE NOSE” and fall over laughing. The snowmen are having… More Snowmen at Night aka “Pickle Nose”!
Is there anything better than to wake up to find crisp clean snow everywhere? This book is so simple, and really captures the joy of Peter’s adventures in the snow. Fingers crossed that we get some snow this year, so the children can have their own adventures. Until then, we use our imaginations to make… More THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats
By Jan Brett I am a huge fan of Jan Brett. I think her books are just beautiful. I also love the clues she leaves for her readers. The children are learning about foreshadowing in literature. 🙂 Print mittens and animals to color and cut out from here: https://www.janbrett.com/put_the_animals_in_the_mitten.htm During non-covid times we would normally… More The Mitten