Hugs & Kisses - Family Storytime

I had actually planned a Valentine's theme, but the crowd I ended up with was way too young for the only actual Valentine's Day book I had (Froggy's First Kiss), so I ended up using the shorter books I had pulled, which were all about hugs and kisses, though we still did some Valentine's songs/rhymes.

We started with our welcome song, and then I introduced the topic. We talked about how Valentine's day is about love, and the ways we can show we love someone, ending with hugs ("let's all give ourselves a big hug") and kisses "can you blow kisses?"). Then we got settled for our first book by singing our story song. 

For our first book I selected All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri because it focuses on familiar farm animals and the sounds they make, which I hoped some of the younger ones would recognize and be able to do. I also like that it shows mother animals with their babies, and introduces some new vocabulary with the specific names for the young, like "calf" for a baby cow, "kid" for a baby goat, etc. 

The text is short and simple, and the illustrations are Tafuri's typical sweet, simple, and slightly understated style (though I'd actually prefer slightly bolder).

We followed that with a little movement. I introduced the following rhyme by having them feel their heartbeat, then jump up and down and see how it beats faster.

I Have a Little Heart

I have a little heart    [place hand over heart]

It goes thump, thump, thump.     [pat chest 3X]

It beats even faster when I jump, jump, jump.     [jump 3X]

I get a special feeling when I look at you.     [point to eyes, then audience]

It makes me want to give you a hug or two!     [Hug yourself]

After repeating once, we moved on to a Valentine rhyme, and repeated it as well:

Valentines, Valentines

Valentines, valentines, how many do you see?

Valentines, valentines, count them with me.

One for mother, one for father, one for grandma, too.

One for sister, one for brother, and

Here is one for you!

(make heart shape with hands)

We went from kisses to hugs with our second book, Kitty's Cuddles by Jane Cabrera. I fell in love with this book as soon as I saw it because of Cabrera's bold, rich illustrations that have a heavy texture that makes me want to touch them.

In this book, Kitty shows us all of her friends, and we try to guess her favorite one to cuddle with. While the first book featured familiar farm animals, this one introduces some exotic animals, like the peacock, porcupine, and armadillo, and has short, simple text. 

After that, we did one more Valentine counting rhyme:

Five Little Hearts

Five little hearts, all in a row.

(Hold up five fingers, point to row)

The first one said, "I love you so."

(Hold up 1 finger, put up number 1, make sign for love)

The second one said, "Will you be my valentine?"

(Hold up 2 fingers, put up number 2)

The third one said, "I will if you'll be mine."

(Hold up 3 fingers, put up number 3)

The fourth one said, "I will always be your friend."

(Hold up 4 fingers, put up number 4, make sign for friend)

The fifth one said, "We'll be friends until the end!"

(Hold up 5 fingers, put up number 5, make sign for friend)

I debated on whether to read a 3rd book since my crowd was so young, but it seemed all the super wigglers had already bailed, and the remaining kids were having no problem listening, so I decided to indulge my dark sense of humor and end with a favorite funny book about kisses that is still short and simple, Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein.

In this story a hatchling dinosaur is exploring the world and after witnessing a kiss, decides she wants to try that next. But every time she tries to kiss someone, it goes horribly wrong as she accidentally whomps, chomps, stomps, or EATS her intended recipient! Then another dinosaur hatches out, and they have fun chomping, stomping, and whomping each other, then falling down in a fit of giggles.

We then sang a closing song, and moved on to our optional craft, which only a few of those attending were really old enough to do.

Craft

For our craft I had originally wanted to give them lots of hearts of assorted sizes and colors and have them put them together to make various animals, a la Michael Hall's My Heart Is a Zoo; however, our copy was checked out and our new ILS is so slow at processing requests that I didn't get a copy from another branch in time, plus I didn't have time to cut out all those hearts.

So I switched to something a little simpler, making a Valentine person with one large heart, accordion pleated strips of paper for arms and legs, and smaller hearts for hands and feet. I gave them red, pink, and purple small hearts to choose from, plus googly eyes (of course!) and crayons for making the face. [The example I showed had a more simple face, but I decided to embellish it a little afterward.]

How It Went 

This was a perfect storytime for 2-4 year-olds. Unfortunately, I had a bunch of infants and 1-year olds! I had such a sinking feeling when I realized this, especially since at first it was all babies, until thankfully one family showed up a few minutes late with two boys around 3-4. I just froze mentally and didn't know what to do, other that power through what I had planned.

I have extensive experience with preschool storytime, but I have never done a baby storytime and only a couple toddler storytimes, and was not at all prepared for such an overwhelmingly young crowd, and did not know how to change gears that drastically at the last minute. It was a very frustrating and humbling realization. I should have incorporated a couple of baby bounces, but my mind just went blank since it's not something I've done since my own kids were babies! I always have a couple of longer books in case I get older kids, but I realize I have not been adequately prepared for an even younger than the usual young crowd.

Despite the program not really being quite developmentally appropriate for most of the audience, it went okay, though I did lose some of the audience right away. But that always seems to happen anyway as our storytime area opens into the play area, and some kids are just too distracted by the other children playing behind them. Some of the younger kids could be heard making animal sounds, or seen trying to imitate some of the motions we did, and though the two oldest got a little bored during the second book, they LOVED Dinosaur Kisses and laughed and giggled. Thankfully, most of the parents participated and helped answer for their babies, and reinforced what I was doing.

I am definitely going to have to work on my repertoire of songs and bounces to use with the little ones, and make sure I have at least 1 or 2 prepared for each storytime in the future. Just when I start thinking I've got the hang of this family storytime, it throws me curve ball... 

A Perfectly Love-ly Storytime

Yesterday I had the best storytime! You know the kind where the kids are just so into it, engaged, and enthusiastic that you leave with a smile on your face and warmth in your heart and feeling guilty for getting paid to do this (well, almost 😉).

So I get there and introduce the topic, and one of the kids asks me if I have a "Froooogggggyyy!" book, which made my day because I love reading Froggy's First Kiss. I said I just might, but he'd have to wait and see. So we continued talking about how we loved different people and things in different ways, did our letter-of-the-day (Ll), and sang our story song. 

They were still asking for a Froggy book, and were thrilled when I pulled out Froggy's First Kiss, of course immediately going "Ewwwww" at the mention of a kiss. They helped say "Froooggggyyyy!" each time, laughed at Froggy staring at Frogilina and bumping his head, identified the treats, were appropriately grossed out by Frogilina's unexpected kiss, and empathetic when Froggy's friends teased him about having a girlfriend. One little boy was very puzzled as to why Frogilina kept giving Froggy food, saying "He has his own food at home."

As soon as we were done, they said "Let's read another one!", and someone asked for a dinosaur book. Well, lo and behold, I luckily had Dinosaur Kisses, another favorite of mine (I'm a sucker for dark humor), and they stomped, and chomped, and giggled at all of the unfortunate outcomes of Dinah's attempts at kissing. Of course in their childlike innocence, they assume everyone is okay in the end, and the creature she accidentally ate would somehow get out and be fine. In the beginning I asked if they would let a dinosaur kiss them, and a few said they would, but by the end, they all agreed that they would not want dinosaur kisses!

Once again, as soon as I finished that book, a chorus of "Let's read another one!" rang out, so I pulled out another book I knew they would love, and that I really enjoy, Who Wants A Hug? by Jeff Mack. In this story, Bear loves to give out hugs, and everyone likes him, but Skunk, who is secretly jealous of Bear's popularity, does not like hugs, is grumpy, and no one likes him. Skunk decides to play a series of stinky tricks on Bear, trying to make him so stinky that no one will want to be around him anymore, but every trick backfires and Skunk ends up even more stinky that before! In the end, he gives in and accepts a hug from Bear and discovers that Bear was right, hugs are great! The kids all love the humor in this book as trick after trick backfires and gets Skunk instead.

"Let's read another one!" Normally I do work in some extension activities, but when the kids are so engaged and beg for more books, I can't say no! And really, my main goal is to first and foremost try to establish a love of reading. While our time was up, since it was my last session of the day I could spare the time to indulge them with one more story. I decided it was time for a story that was more sweet & sincere than funny, so I pulled out The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. I love this cute little story, but I HATE that they printed it soo tiny, and didn't even use the full page at that. So I made props to go with it, and someday I'll remember to copy & enlarge it.

One of the kids did correctly guess the necklace of hearts was for a dog (another said her mom), but they thought it was very strange when she glued the cottonball to another valentine, and cut holes in still another. They loved it when we saw at the end that there was a very logical reason for gluing a cottonball in the middle of a valentine, after all. One little boy was so cute, at first he was a bit zoned out, but for some reason this story and the idea of it raining hearts really got his attention! Afterward, he told me all about how if it ever rains hearts here, he was going to catch them and make valentines for his friends and for me.

And guess what I heard after that? Yep....."Let's read another one!".... I hated saying no, but by that point we had gone past our usual 30 minutes and I didn't want to disrupt their schedule, but I could've kept sharing stories with them until my voice gave out, as long as they were that enthusiastic and engaged. I just love seeing kids excited about stories, reading, and learning, and I sincerely hope it carries on beyond storytime!

I just love seeing the kids really connect with the books, and the more engaged they are, the more I get into it. While I'd like to think it was because I'm such a spectacular storytime planner and presenter, I think it was just one of those times that the kids were in just the right mood and everything just came together perfectly. I'd done 4 other storytimes on the same theme of Love/Valentine's Day at another daycare that morning that were fine, but there was something magical about this last one.


There is a world of difference between the two daycares to start with; the first was a large, church sponsored daycare/preschool with mostly comfortably middle-class, educated families. The latter is a very small daycare with mostly the kids from lower income, working class families. These kids tend to be much more appreciative of books and storytime, while the others enjoy them, they also take it for granted because they have many other opportunities so it isn't as special for them. I'm so glad we are able to bring this experience to those kids who might otherwise miss out, and it's so rewarding to see them enjoy it so much.

I hope everyone has an awesome Valentine's Day! Or just a Wednesday full of love and happiness, for those who don't celebrate it. 

My Funny Valentine

I actually did this storytime the other day, but had so many other posts to catch up on, I didn't get to it until tonight.  Unfortunately, once again my storytime fell on the day of a class party, so I tried to pull shorter books, and books that I thought would keep their attention with humor, and fit in with the holiday.  Though none were actually Valentine stories, they all had to do with love, hugs, and kisses.

We started with our welcome song, then a brief introduction, followed by our story song.  For the first story I chose Hugless Douglas by David Melling.  This is the story of a young bear who awakens in the spring in need of a hug.  He tries to hug different objects and animals, but none are quite right.  Finally, the rabbit leads him to a cave where he finally finds the perfect someone to hug him, his mother.  This story is a little longer, but it is cute and humorous, and this group did so well last time, I though they could handle it.

After that, we sang a song about loving our parents, to the tune of "My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean".

"Hugs and Kisses"

 

My mother says, "I love you."

My father says, "I love you," too.

I give them hugs and kisses,

Because I love them, too.

Hugs and kisses,

Hugs and kisses, I love you!

Hugs and kisses,

Hugs and kisses for you!
 

For our second story I stuck with something very short and simple, with simple, bold illustrations.  I used this on the Storytime Bus and found the kids really seemed to like it.  The Cuddle Book by Guido Van Genechten shows different parent/child pairs cuddling with a simple phrase, like "Cats cuddle playfully."  You can invite participation by asking the kids to name the animal, and asking questions, such as "would you want to cuddle a crab?" or "do you know what a baby kangaroo is called?".

Next, we did a couple of rhymes with a little movement since the kids were pretty restless.

 

"I Have A Little Heart"

 

I have a little heart    [place hand over heart]

It goes thump, thump, thump.     [pat chest 3X]

It beats even faster when I jump, jump, jump.     [jump 3X]

I get a special feeling when I look at you.     [point to eyes, then audience]

It makes me want to give you a hug or two!     [Hug yourself]

"Valentines, Valentines"

(count on fingers)

Valentines, valentines, how many do you see?

Valentines, valentines, count them with me.

One for mother, one for father, one for grandma, too.

One for sister, one for brother, and

Here is one for you!

[make heart with thumb and fingers]

 

Then we were ready for our last book, which I chose because it was short, funny, and had been a big hit with every other group I had used it with, Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein.  This is the story of Dinah, a newly hatched dinosaur who is exploring the world and trying new things.  She sees two other animals kiss, and decides to try that next, but finds it is more difficult than she thought.  This has some dark humor, with Dinah accidentally stomping on or eating the one she was trying to kiss, which some adults were a little shocked by, but all of the kids loved it.

We finished up with our closing song and stickers.

How It Went

I had high hopes after this class was so good last time, but I knew with it being the day of their class Valentine's Day party they were likely to be wound up, and of course they were.  They were all happy to see me, with lots of cries of "Miss Jennifer, Miss Jennifer" and hugs, but they really had a hard time settling down, especially one little group that kept bickering among themselves.

I was a little disappointed they didn't have more interest in Hugless Douglas, as I think it's a very cute story and other groups have loved it, but I think it was just too long for them on this particular day.  They didn't participate very well in the song, either, which surprised me since this group typically likes to sing.

They did better with The Cuddle Book and they loved Dinosaur Kisses, and participated much better in the two rhymes.  Overall, they did okay, and some of them listened very well, and if it had been a different day I'm sure they would've done even better.

Flannel Friday - Hearts!

I made a couple of quick and easy felt sets to use for my "Love"- themed storytime. 

First, I cut out 5 red felt hearts using an Ellison die cutter, then I printed out the letters to spell "HEART" in a large font to use as patterns and cut them out of pink felt.  I would first place the hearts on the board, having the audience count them as I did.  Next, I would put the letters up one by one.  I would see if the kids could tell me the beginning and ending letters by their sounds, and for the middle ones I would put them up and see if they could name them.  Then, we would sing a spelling song to the tune of "B-I-N-G-O".

"H-E-A-R-T"

I know a shape and it means "Love,"

and "Heart" is it's name-oh.

H - E - A - R - T

H - E - A - R - T

H - E - A - R - T

and "Heart" is it's name-oh!

 

Then for each successive verse, I would remove one letter and we would clap in it's place, leaving the blank heart as a place-holder, until all the letters were gone and we only clapped:

 

 

I know a shape and it means "Love,"

and "Heart" is it's name-oh.

[clap] - [clap] - A - R - T

[clap] - [clap] - A - R - T

[clap] - [clap] - A - R - T

and "Heart" is it's name-oh.

 

Then at the end, I would see if they could remember all the letters and put them back up.  One of my volunteers brilliantly pointed out how there were several other words hidden within the word "heart":  "hear," "ear," "art," and "he."

 

 

Then, since I like to multi-purpose, on the other side of the hearts I drew faces and added googly-eyes (because googly-eyes always make things better, of course), then cut out the numbers 1-5.  I used these with a couple of different rhymes.

 

"Five Little Hearts"

 

Five little hearts, all in a row.

(Hold up five fingers, point to row)
 

The first one said, "I love you so."

(Hold up 1 finger, put up number 1, make sign for love)
 

The second one said, "Will you be my valentine?"

(Hold up 2 fingers, put up number 2)
 

The third one said, "I will if you'll be mine."

(Hold up 3 fingers, put up number 3)
 

The fourth one said, "I will always be your friend."

(Hold up 4 fingers, put up number 4, make sign for friend)
 

The fifth one said, "We'll be friends until the end!"

(Hold up 5 fingers, put up number 5, make sign for friend)

 

"Valentines, Valentines"
 

Valentines, valentines, how many do you see?

(hold hands out, palms up)

Valentines, valentines, count them all with me.

(gesture to self)

One for father, one for mother

(Hold up first and second fingers, put hearts on board with or without numbers)

One for grandma, too.

(Hold up third finger, put another heart on board)

One for sister, one for brother,

(Hold up fourth and fifth fingers, put up remaining hearts)

And here is one for you!

(Make heart with thumbs & fingers)

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

To see more Flannel Friday posts from other bloggers, go to this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up hosted by Kathryn at ""Fun With Friends At Storytime"", or visit the Flannel Friday Pinterest board for tons of inspiration.  For more information about Flannel Friday and how to participate, visit the Flannel Friday site. 

Love - The Activities

These are the various songs, rhymes, and activities that I used during the two-week rotation of the "Love" theme for the Storytime-To-Go program.  See my previous post "Love - The Books" for all the books I used.

I made a set of felt hearts with the letters in the word "heart" and numbers 1 through 5, plain on one side, and with faces on the other.  These could be used in various ways with different songs and rhymes.

"H-E-A-R-T"

(to the tune of "Bingo")

I know a shape and it means love,

And "Heart" is it's name-oh.

H - E - A - R - T

H - E - A - R - T

H - E - A - R - T

And "Heart" is it's name-oh.

[After each verse, remove one letter and clap in it's place]

"Five Little Hearts"

Five little hearts, all in a row.

[hold up 5 fingers, gesture to hearts in a row]

The first one said, "I love you so."

[hold up 1 finger, make sign for "love"]

The second one said, "Will you be my valentine?"

[hold up 2 fingers, hold hands outstretched]

The third one said, "I will if you'll be mine"

[hold up 3 fingers, point to audience, then self]

The fourth one said, "I'll always be your friend."

[hold up 4 fingers, make sign for "friend"]

The fifth one said, "We'll be friends until the end"

[hold up 5 fingers, make sign for "friend"]

"I Have a Little Heart"

I have a little heart.

[put hand on chest]

It goes thump, thump, thump.

[pat chest 3X]

It beats even faster when I jump, jump jump!

[jump 3x]

I get a special feeling when I look at you.

 [point to eyes, gesture to audience]

It makes me want to give you a hug or two!

[hug yourself]

Matching Activity, or

"Healing Broken Hearts"

For this activity, I found a printable with 10 hearts with different patterns from "Preschool Printables".  You could simply print out two of each, but I decided to add a "puzzle" element to it by cutting each one in half in different ways so that each one would only fit together with it's mate.  [These are printed on cardstock, cut out, laminated, and magnets attached to the backs.] 

First, I handed out one half of each of the hearts to the audience and kept the other halves.  First I tried just putting one up on the board at a time, and calling for whoever had the matching piece to bring it up to place on the board, but this proved to be too challenging for several of my groups.  So then I tried putting all my halves up on the board at the same time, and calling the kids up one at a time to find the match for their piece and put it up.

This seemed to work much better.  I would start with one of the adults, since it is the most challenging at the beginning and all the pieces are available, and they could talk it out and model the problem-solving.  After the first match was made, I would ask the kids what shape it made, then at the end I would ask if they agreed that all were matched correctly and we would count them. 

Props to go along with the book The Day It Rained Hearts

 

These aren't really an activity, but props to accompany the book The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond.  It's a really cute story, but the book is small, and the illustrations don't even fill the page.  I cannot understand why on earth they chose to make the illustrations so tiny and hard to see.  So I made models of each of the valentines that the character in the book makes to hold up and show the kids so they can really see them, and see why they are perfect for each friend they were given to.

How It Went

I was a little disappointed in how the these activities went.  I've used them before and thought they worked well, but most of the groups I used the song and rhymes with did not get into them or participate very well.  I will have to try some others next year.

The matching activity did go over well, however.  Generally, the kids really respond to activities where they each get their own "piece" to do something with (though I did have one girl who was very shy and cried because she did not want to do it, so we let her choose a friend to bring hers up for her).  The only drawback was that I could only use it with groups of 10 or less since I only had 10 different hearts. 

Love - The Books

This is a new storytime kit I'm developing for the Storytime-To-Go program with a "Love" theme.  I wanted it to be a nice mix of books, with a few about Valentine's Day, but with others that were just about love, hugs, and kisses in general, and showing different kinds of love (romantic, platonic, maternal, paternal, etc.) so that we wouldn't have to worry about where in our rotation Valentine's Day fell. 

So I pulled a bunch of books and gave them a test run to see what worked well before I ordered copies for my collection.  Since I used so many books, I'm going to once again divide it into two posts, with this one just about the books, and one to follow with the various songs, rhymes, and activities I used.

Froggy's First Kiss written by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz is one of my favorite storytime books.  The kids love giggling at a lovesick Froggy bonking his head repeatedly and saying "Ewww" when Frogilina kisses him.  The audience can join his teacher in calling out "FROOOGGGGYY!" each time as well.

Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein is short and simple, with some dark humor as newly-hatched Dinah tries to figure out how to kiss, but accidentally whomps, chomps, stomps, and eats those she attempts to kiss.

The Cuddle Book by Guido Van Genechten is a nice short, simple book that is perfect for the younger, wigglier groups and shows how different animals cuddle, such as "cats cuddle playfully" and "porcupines cuddle carefully".  The illustrations are not too busy and are set off by a heavy outline.

Who Wants A Hug? by Jeff Mack is a very funny story about a bear who loves to hug and a grumpy skunk who finds him annoying and tries to ruin Bear's hugging by setting booby-traps to cover Bear in stink.  But all of Skunks traps backfire, leaving him even stinkier than usual.  This is a little longer,  so probably better for slightly older groups.

Poor little Love  Monster lives in a world of soft, cute, cuddly creatures and feels left out and decides to set off to find someone who will love him just the way he is.  At first it doesn't go well, but then, just as he loses hope, love finds him!  Very cute, bright illustrations and interesting fonts.  Written by Rachel Bright.

Felicia Bond's The Day It Rained Hearts is a cute story, with young Cornelia Augusta collecting hearts that rained from the sky and using them to make valentines for her friends.  Great little story, but the illustrations are way too small!  I made valentines like those described in the book to help with the visual, but I think next time I'm going to have to either print enlarged pictures, or turn it into a flannel board story.

In Mouse's First Valentine by Lauren Thompson and Buket Erdogan, Little Mouse spies big sister Minka scurrying around collecting an odd assortment of items.  What could Minka be doing?  This story is good for audience participation as they can try to guess what each item is Minka collects, and what she is doing with them.  I did find the kids didn't seem to know what lace is, so I would recommend having a piece to show them.

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague is always guaranteed to get the kids attention with it's dinosaurs and rhyming text.  Just be sure you know what kind of dinosaurs they are and how to pronounce them correctly!

Laura Numeroff's Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! is nice because it emphasizes giving valentine's to friends, and appreciating what makes each friend unique.  Many kids will recognize Mouse from If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.  Illustrated by Felicia Bond.

How Do I Love You? by Leslie Kimmelman and Lisa McCue shows the love of a mother alligator for her child, through all the things they do together.  I like that this book counts all the way up to 20, whereas most counting books just count to 5 or 10.

Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine by Sarah Weeks and Fumi Kosaka shows various animals giving their significant other a Valentine treat.  The rhyming text gives a hint to what the treat is, which is revealed by lifting a flap.  This is a cute book, but most younger audiences won't be able to guess what the treats are, even with the contextual and rhyming clues, and the book is on the small side.

In Slug Needs A Hug by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross, poor Slug is sad that his mother doesn't ever hug him and thinks it must be because she doesn't love him.  All the other animals give him advice on how he needs to change his appearance, with ridiculous consequences.  A rhyming text helps the story flow, and the children will often point out that his mother can't hug him because she doesn't have any arms!

Mary Murphy's A Kiss Like This is a short and simple lift-a-flap book that shows different types of kisses, as illustrated by various animal parent-and-child pairs.  A lot of people like this book, but I think it's a little boring.

Hugless Douglas by David Melling has another creature in need of a hug.  Douglas tries several different hugs, but none work out quite right, until he finds a cave with someone special in it.  Kids find this book entertaining, and it's good for making the point that you shouldn't hug someone who doesn't want to be hugged.  The endpapers show illustrations of many different kinds of hugs.

Won't You Be My Hugaroo? by Joanne Ryder and Melissa Sweet also shows different kids of hugs, but for whatever reason does not seem to be as engaging to the kids as some of the other books.

How It Went
Overall, this assortment of books was pretty well received, and some of the volunteers commented on how much they liked it.  For the groups who can handle them, the longer, funny books were all big hits:  Froggy's First Kiss, Who Wants A Hug?, Hugless Douglas, and Love Monster.

Dinosaur Kisses was also a huge hit with everyone, and since it is so short and simple, it was perfect for the younger and more wiggly groups.  A couple of the adults were a little taken aback by the dark humor, but all of the kids thought it was funny.  Little Mouse's First Valentine was also well liked as the kids enjoyed guessing what each item was, and could relate to making Valentines for loved ones. 

The Day It Rained Hearts also worked pretty well with the props, but I still had to get up and take the book over to let each child look at the pictures because they are so small.  I would LOVE to have a "big book" version of this!  The Cuddle Book, while very short and simple, really seemed to engage the kids and was enjoyed by everyone.

Some books that didn't seem to capture the kids' interest were Be Mine, Be Mine, Sweet Valentine, Won't You Be My Hugaroo, and A Kiss Like This.

I will include all the songs, rhymes, and flannel boards I used with this theme in my next post, "Love - The Activities", in order to keep this from being an incredibly long post.