Cute Little Animals - Outreach Storytime

Today was my monthly outreach visit to a nearby daycare, and with it being Spring (finally), I decided to do stories with cute, fluffy animals. I see ages 1 through 4 years old, so I need a range of books, and I start with mostly songs for the youngest, then end with mostly books for the oldest. Since I only have 20 minutes per group, I do an abbreviated storytime and start with a shorter "Hello" song than my usual opening song.

1-Year Olds 
The babies still do best with songs, so after the "Hello" song, we did "Itsy Bitsy Spider" twice, then "The Wheels On The Bus", and "Little Bunny Foo Foo". Then I read Mary Murphy's Say Hello Like This. This book is short and sweet, and features animals and their sounds, which little ones usually like and it's good for phonological awareness. I also like the bold, simple illustrations with heavy outlines for the younger kids, since simple, high contrast images are known to hold their interest. We finished with our "Storytime Is Over" song. Though I love the babies, I couldn't wait to get out of there as they all had nasty, snotty noses!

2-Year Olds 

The 2-year olds really surprised their teachers with how well they did last time, and today they [almost] all sat down and were ready to listen almost right away. After the "Hello" song, we sang the ABC's and "The Wheels On the Bus", then I read Five Little Chicks by Nancy Tafuri, which is a short, simple story that begins with the Mama hen and five eggs, which hatch, producing five little chicks. 

The five little chicks then each start looking for something to eat and investigating different things: worms, beetles, butterflies, fish, and strawberries, then finally their mother shows them how to scratch in the dirt near the corn field to look for corn and other seeds. The kids can identify each potential food, and comment on whether they would like to eat it or not.

After that we stood up for a very fun and interactive book, Ellie Sandall's Everybunny Dance! This is a great movement book, as the kids get to pretend to be bunnies and act out the story, dancing, pretending to play instruments, and singing, until the fox comes out and they run and hide! But, as it turns out, the fox only wants an audience. Sometimes I follow this by doing the "Bunny Hop" conga dance, but I thought these kids were too young to follow the steps.

3- & 4-Year Olds 
Today they were expecting me, fortunately, so I didn't have to wait very long for them to sit in the story area and get settled. I started with the "Hello" song, then my "If You're Ready for a Story" song. I had planned to do Everybunny Dance! with them as well, but the space was just too cramped, so I had to change my plans. Instead, I read Wee Little Bunny by Lauren Thompson and John Butler, which was probably a little on the simple side for this age, but they were okay with it. The story shows a new little bunny as he plays and frolics, meeting a new friend along the way, then goes home at the end of the day and tells his mother all about his busy day.

Then I asked the kids if they knew what today was. They knew it was the first day of April, but didn't know about April Fool's Day. So I explained that it was a day people played silly little tricks on each other, just like we would see in our story, Barnyard Fun by Maureen Wright. I was SO excited when I found this book! It is the only April Fool's Day book I have found that is suitable for storytime. It is April 1st, and Sheep has a bunch of barnyard pranks to pull on his friends. He sets Rooster's alarm an a hour earlier, replaces Dog's can of food with a can of springy "snakes", serves Pig a "cake" that is just box covered in icing, and connects Cow's dots to make smiley faces. Then Horse decides to give Sheep a taste of his own medicine, with hilarious results!

I concluded with showing them my April Fool's joke, a nice pan of "brownies".

How It Went 

This was my third visit to the daycare, and the kids seem to be remember me and are getting used to the routine, so it is going more smoothly each time (not that it's ever gone badly). Today I was greeted by lots of smiles and "Hi!"s, and even a couple of hugs.

Everything worked really well, and I was glad to have the chance to read Barnyard Fun for April Fool's again, and share my little prank. They all laughed and thought it was hilarious when the other animals gave Sheep a taste of his own medicine by shearing him to look like a poodle!

Brown-E's, Anyone? April Fool's! Preschool Storytime

Since my regular storytime last week got cancelled because of the daycare being closed for Good Friday, I rescheduled it for today and used the opportunity to plan an April Fool's Day storytime. I found several good books either about playing tricks or tricking the reader.

First we sang our welcome song, then I explained that it was April 1st and how April Fool's Day was all about having fun playing silly (but not mean) tricks and jokes on each other. We sang our story song then read our first book, Barnyard Fun by Maureen Wright and Paul Ratz de Tagyos. I was so excited when I found this book! I had doubted whether I could find a book that was suitable for a preschool storytime that was actually about April Fool's Day, but this one is perfect. In this story, Sheep plays April Fool's tricks on all the other farm animals, but gets a taste of his own medicine in the end. The illustrations are clear and the text short and rhyming, and the humor is not too sophisticated for preschoolers.

The second book I chose was Who Wants A Hug? by Jeff Mack, featuring a friendly Bear who loves to give free hugs and a grouchy skunk who wants to put a stop to all of Bear's hugging. Skunk's plan is to use his box of stinky tricks to make Bear smell so bad that no one will want to hug him, but all of his tricks end up backfiring on him instead! This is a hilarious book that kids love, that demonstrates both karma, and showing compassion to those who have wronged you (or tried to!). The kids can say Bear's repeating line, "I'll save you one for later." (There is also a sequel called Who Needs A Bath? where Bear tries to trick Skunk into taking a bath that would work for this theme as well.)

The third book I choose was a little bit different. Instead of having characters that trick each other, the book plays tricks on the reader. Guess Again! by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex has riddles told in rhyming quatrains, that along with the illustrations, deliberately mislead the reader/audience into making an obvious, yet wrong, guess. Then, just when they think they've got it all figured it out by the end, it tricks them again. This is pretty short and simple (or so I thought), but the 3-year old's didn't quite seem to get, but it works really well with older kids.

After that, I asked them if they wanted to play an April Fool's joke on their teachers, and of course they did. So I showed them the pan full of letter "E"s cut out of brown craft foam, and explained they were "brown-E's", like "brownies". I let them take turns holding the pan of brown-E's and asking each adult as we went around the school if they'd like any brown E's, then saying "April Fool's!" Then I let each child have one of the E's to take home so they could play the joke on their families.

Brown E's

After that, we re-grouped back in the classroom to sing our closing song, and line up for hand stamps.

How It Went

I was really looking forward to this storytime, thinking it would be a lot of fun, but I have to admit it was a bit disappointing. Because it was spring break for the public schools several of the kids were absent, leaving me with only six. And it just so happened that of the six that were there, five of them were among the most immature of the class, and none of the more mature, engaged kids were there to help set an example. Even though the first book should have been perfectly suited for them, they just could not settle down and pay attention enough to follow what was happening.

You might notice I deviated from my usual book-activity-book-activity-book plan today. There were several factors that led to this. First, I really couldn't find any good songs/rhymes to go with the theme. The best I could come up with were some silly songs that mixed things up, but not really anything about playing jokes or tricks. Second, I've had either a cold or allergies playing havoc with my throat this week, which makes singing particularly difficult. Third, the kids were just finally starting to settle down by the end of the first book.  So I decided rather than stirring them up again to do a song I wasn't really feeling, I'd just proceed straight to the second book. Fortunately, they really liked the second book, with all the funny tricks backfiring on Skunk; "Serves him right!" said one little girl.  

I lost them a little on the third book; they just didn't quite get it. I would love to do that book with a slightly older group sometime! However, when it came time to play our little April Fool's prank on the teachers, the kids really got into it. We went through the daycare as a group, letting each child take a turn carrying the pan of "brown-E's" and asking our mark if they'd like a brown-E and saying "April Fool". The teachers really liked it, too, and I liked that it had a literacy component. [My 13-year old son did not find it amusing when I tricked him, however.]

I still think this was a great selection of books under normal circumstances; hopefully I'll get a chance to use them again with a slightly more mature group of kids.  For a few more book suggestions for April Fool's Day, see my previous post, "Seven Great Picture Books for April Fool's Day".

Seven Great Picture Books For April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a fun theme, yet it is surprisingly hard to find good picture books to fit. Some people just go with a silly books, but I really wanted books that had some element of trickery in them, either characters playing tricks on each other, or the story tricking the audience. I also had not completely given up hope of an actual April Fool's Day book, even though I had been told there really weren't any good ones suitable for storytime. But, here's the list I came up with:

The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak (of the television show "The Office" fame).  

This book has reportedly been a huge hit, especially with school-aged audiences. It fits the April Fool's theme because first you trick the kids by telling them you are reading a boring book with no pictures. But then they realize how hilarious it is as the book "tricks" the grown-up reading it into saying silly things that grown-ups, especially teachers, do not usually say, like "Boo-boo butt".  Don't be surprised if the kids beg you to read it again.


That Is NOT A Good Idea! by Mo Willems.

One day a very hungry fox meets a plump goose, and one of them tricks the other one into becoming their dinner. But, the victim is not who the audience is expecting! This starts out with the feel of a folk tale, but with a surprise ending. This story has twice the trickery, with one character tricking the other, and the story tricking the audience with an unexpected twist.


Guess Again! by Mac Barnett and Adam Rex.

This book will trick audiences into guessing wrong again and again! For each round of guessing, there is an illustration and a rhyming quatrain that provides the riddle. Both the illustration and the rhyme provide misleading clues that will prompt the kids into guessing the obvious, yet completely wrong answer. By the very last one, they think they finally have it all figured out, just to be tricked yet again.

Who Wants a Hug? by Jeff Mack.

This is a hilarious book I recently used around Valentine's Day that the kids loved. In this story, Bear loves to give out free hugs, but grouchy Skunk finds him annoying and decides to put a stop to his hugs with his box of stinky tricks. Skunk thinks if he makes Bear get all stinky, then no one will want to hug him. But, all of Skunk's terrible stinky tricks backfire hilariously, leaving Skunk more stinky than ever. A very funny story with plenty of tricks.

Who Needs A Bath? by Jeff Mack.

In this sequel to the above Who Wants a Hug, Bear is planning a party for Skunk, but the other animals won't come unless Bear can do something about Skunk's odor, so Bear decides to trick Skunk into taking a bath.

Bear tries several different approaches, but they all end up backfiring, leaving Bear all wet!

April Foolishness by Teresa Bateman, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott.

An actual April Fool's Day book!  The grandkids keep running in the farmhouse with tales of various farm animals getting loose and causing mayhem. Yet Grandpa inexplicably ignores them and continues calmly cooking and eating breakfast. When Grandma asks why he isn't rushing out to round-up the animals, Grandpa says he knows the grandkids are just trying to play an April Fool's trick on him. But Grandma sends him into a panic when she replies that April Fool's is not today, but tomorrow! As he rushes out the door to find everything as it should be, Grandma smiles and calls, "April Fool!"  Not too long, but the humor might be just a little hard for younger kids to follow.

And now, the Holy Grail of books for an April Fool's Day storytime:

Barnyard Fun by Maureen Wright and illustrated by Paul Ratz de Tagayos.

This story is all about April Fool's Day tricks, it's funny with easy to understand humor, has clear illustrations, and is not too long.  It is short enough for younger kids, but funny enough for the older kids as well, so would work with a fairly broad age range.

In this story Sheep decides to play April Fool's Day tricks on all the other farm animals, setting Rooster's alarm clock an hour early, filling Dog's dogfood can with springy snakes, icing a box to look like a cake, and more.  But he gets a taste of his own medicine in the end with hilarious results.