Another Suspenseful Storytime!

Since we had so much fun with the last one, I decided to do another Suspenseful Storytime using a couple of books I had wanted to use, but were checked out before, and one that someone had suggested to me. As I've said before, these are my very favorite kind of storytime books to read; I really love building up the suspense, being very dramatic and spooky, then surprising them with an unexpected, and happier, ending.

We started with our welcome song and story song, then got right to the first book, Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka, one of my favorites. I had wanted to read it last time, but discovered our copy had gone missing and couldn't get another copy soon enough. 

In this story we see all the animals running away and hiding after Wolf's howl announces his approach. Eventually, he reaches the house, and everyone must be still and quiet so he doesn't know they are there. Wolf opens the door, peers inside, and everyone jumps out and yells "Surprise!" It was Wolf's birthday! This book is so much fun, and the dark, eerie illustrations help set the mood, though there is a clue on each page that there is more to the story.

From there I led into a cute little fingerplay about little wolf cubs that I got from the Allentown Public Library and modified slightly:

"This Little Wolf"

This little wolf liked to howl. (howl)

This little wolf preferred to growl. (growl)

This little wolf was panting to play. (pant)

This little wolf chased bunnies all day. (make bunny ears)

This little wolf needed a scratch. (scratch)

How many little wolves is that? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!  (count)

After that it was onto an even scarier topic with Ed Vere's Bedtime for Monsters. Though I've used a couple of his books before, I had not seen this one until a reader suggested to me, and it is very fun and cute, and perfect for this theme. We see a land of monsters, and one monster in particular seems to be licking his lips and thinking of ....YOU! Oh, no! Is he thinking of eating you?

Here he comes. Is he thinking of how good you'll taste, perhaps with ketchup or on hot buttered toast? He's coming up the stairs, and it's worse than we thought. The monster doesn't want to eat you; he wants to give you a big, slobbery monster goodnight kiss! Ewwwwwww......

Of course we had to follow that with something that would allow the kids to act like the little monsters they are, so we sang "If You're A Monster and You Know It" based on Ed Emberley's book of the same name:

If you're a monster and you know it, snort & growl.

If you're a monster and you know it, snort & growl.

If you're a monster and you know it, then your growl will surely show it.

If you're a monster and you know it, snort & growl.

Smack your claws, stomp your paws, twitch your tail, wiggle your warts, give a roar, do them all.

Then our last book is a relatively new on that I have been wanting to use, Bear and Chicken by Jannie Ho. Bear finds a poor frozen chicken while out walking in the snow, and brings him in the house to warm up. 

Chicken awakens to see Bear preparing to cook something (and Bear's mouthful of sharp teeth)! Chicken soon fears he is on the menu and jumps down and tries to run away, only to be caught by the much faster Bear. But, as it turns out, Chicken had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Another very cute story with cute illustrations.

Then we ended with our closing song and stickers.

How It Went

It was Spring Break, so I had a smaller group than usual, and a few stragglers were still eating breakfast. One cute little boy didn't want to miss anything and told me "Miss Jennifer, you can't read any stories until I'm finished with my breakfast." At the end, the same little boy asked for more stories, and when I told him we had already read all three books I brought, he asked me if I would bring some more tomorrow. It's so nice to know that they really do enjoy and appreciate storytime.

The liked all the books, but I think Wolf's Coming was the one that had them on the edge of their seats. They loved the twist, and one boy insisted we sing "Happy Birthday" to Wolf, so we did. Monsters had more cutesy rather than dark illustrations, so it was more fun than dramatic, and by the third book they were kinda on to things, so had a feeling that Bear really wasn't planning to cook Chicken. The loved doing the "If You're A Monster And You Know It" song and acting like little monsters.

Suspenseful Storytime

Today's storytime didn't really have so much of a theme as a mood. The class I visited today really needs highly engaging books to keep their attention, with lots of interaction, drama, and/or humor. I LOVE reading very dramatic books, so I decided to go with that since I really needed a fun day after the last couple of weeks!

We started with our welcome and story songs, and then I read one of my current favorite books from one of my favorite storytime authors, The Doghouse by Jan Thomas. This books is SO much fun to read out loud to a group! Cow, Pig, Duck, and Mouse are playing kickball, when the ball rolls into...the doghouse (cue thunder and ominous music). One by one the animals go in to retrieve it, but they don't come out! 

I love building up the drama and suspense as each animal disappears, and hearing the audible gasps when Dog says Duck can't come out because he's "...having Duck for dinner!" But of course, when we peak inside the doghouse we see all is well and that Dog is just having a everyone over for a dinner party. I also take this is an opportunity to talk about how some dogs may look scary, but most of the time they are friendly (though you should always have your parent's and the owner's permission to pet them).

After that we pretended to be doggies with this cute action rhyme. I don't remember where I first saw the first verse, but I wrote the second verse myself:

Some Dogs

Some dogs bark, (bark)

Some dogs growl. (growl)

Some dogs yip, (yip)

Some dogs howl. (howl)

Some dogs beg, (beg & whimper)

Some dogs play catch. (pretend to catch frisbee)

Some dogs sit, (sit down)

And some dogs scratch (scratch behind ear)

But all dogs wag their tails! (wag tail)

After that we sang a quick verse of "B-I-N-G-O":

There was a farmer who had a dog,

And "Bingo" was his name-oh.

B - I - N - G - O,

B - I - N - G - O,

B - I - N - G - O,

And "Bingo" was his name-oh!

I had originally wanted to do Wolf's Coming by Joe Kulka for our second book, but, alas, our copy has been lost 😭 So I chose another book I had not gotten around to using before, Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman & Nick Maland, which is clearly inspired by the rumors of alligators living in the sewer systems from being kept as illegal pets. As the story opens, we see an open manhole cover, then the alligator slinking up the stairs of an apartment building, getting closer, and closer! This is another book that is fun to read very dramatically. Just when you think the children are doomed, they turn the tables on the wayward alligator.

Of course we had to follow that with everyone's favorite rhyme about monkeys and an alligator:

"Five Little Monkeys"

Five little monkeys, swinging in a tree.

(hold up 5 fingers, move back and forth)

Teasin' Mr. Alligator, "You can't catch me!"

(waggle hands, shake head)

Along comes Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be,

(whisper, move hands like alligator)

And SNAPPED that monkey right outta that tree!

(move arms like jaws and clap loudly)

[Repeat, counting down to zero]

They love the suspense, knowing the alligator is going to snap! After that, I introduced another rhyme about an alligator that also has a dramatic part that one of my former volunteers taught me:

"There Once Was An Alligator"

There once was an alligator, laying on a log.

(lay one arm on top of other)

Down in the water, he saw a yummy frog.

(make alligator's head look down)

DOWN dived the alligator!

(say "down" loudly and quickly dive down)

Around spun the log!

(roll arms)

SPLASH! went the water!

(fling arms out)

And away swam the frog!

(make swimming motions)

They liked that one so much, and since it was new, we did it twice. Then we sang our closing song and passed out stickers.

How It Went

I had a lot of fun with this storytime, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it, too. They liked both books, but they really LOVED The Doghouse with it's simplicity of text, bold graphics, and almost unbearable suspense. I never get tired of hearing them gasp when they think Dog is eating everyone. Jan Thomas books are great for storytime (and I'm really not happy that her publisher is changing them to the smaller early reader format that doesn't work as well for groups).

The loved the song and rhymes, with a good mix of new a familiar. They were so cute wagging their little tails like puppy dogs, and shrinking in suspense, knowing Mr. Alligator's jaws were about to SNAP!

I'm glad we had such a good day, as this class is particularly challenging. This is the 4th year I've been coming to this same classroom, and this group has definitely been the most difficult to get, and keep, engaged. They are sweet kids and are always glad to see me, but have trouble sitting reasonably still and listening, and require the most highly engaging books to keep their attention, and I'm running out of ideas!

If you've seen any really good, super engaging new books in the last year or so, let me know in the comments! They like things that are very dramatic, or very silly, and highly interactive. But, they are only 3, so not much text, and simple, bold illustrations.