The Tortoise and the Hare

Our second classic story was The Tortoise and the Hare.  Unfortunately I really didn't like any of the versions that we had here at the library.  Instead I ended up reading "Hurry Up and Slow Down" which is a Tortoise and the Hare story but definitely not the traditional one.  We also watched the movie of Chicken Little on the Smart Board which kids really liked.

Our craft was to make turtles.  The kids all decorated
their tortoises in different colorful ways.  

The kids liked this book, though many of them obviously
came from health conscious families since they were horrified
by all the junk the Boars were eating!

This was our main story as well as the one I made a felt board for.  

We have three strawberries, a tea cup, a lettuce leaf, a book, a river
with stone, a hare and a tortoise.  

Storytime Zoo Penguins!

I Love Penguins.  For that reason at least once a winter I do a Penguin Storytime.  Luckily unlike my rogue snowman storytime, penguins actually can be found in the Zoo.  I had three books planned to read to the kids but they were so fidgety we ended up doing two rounds of the penguin dance, and one penguin song instead.  (The penguin song was us mostly walking around grocking like penguins...)

This is one of my favorite stories and not just because
Toni Buzzeo came to my library when I worked in ME.
But because the kids find this book hilarious!

I was really hoping to read this one because it
is cute and we have it as a "Big Book" normally I
try to include one big book in each program but
the kids were so squirmy I didn't use it.  

I don't know why I don't use pop up books more
often.  The kids love them and we have a ton here
at the library.  This one they thought was funny
since who would ever expect a penguin to be cold!

For our song instead of singing "Two Little Snowbears"
we sang "Two Little Penguins" the tune worked the
same and it fit my theme better.  

We made these cute heart shaped penguins in
honor of valentines day and the fact that I love
multicolored penguins.  The kids had fun gluing just
about everything.  

The Three Little Pigs

In Terrific Tales this winter I have decided to use a selection of "Classic Stories."  For most of them since the children are already familiar with the tales I can use one traditional version, and then one new interpretation.  The kids seem to be enjoying it, but they also are routinely very confused by the redone versions.

I seem to be on a Pig kick this week.  We read "If You Give
a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff and this was the felt
board that I created for it.  The kids found the sweater for the
pig highly amusing.

I used our "Big Book"version.  So while I
held the giant version and read the kids
helped me put up the flannel board pieces.

This version of the Three Little Pigs was highly confusing to the kids
Even though they found it funny that the pigs left the story
they totally didn't get it.  

Our craft for the day came from my book "Cut, Tear, and Fold"
which is put out by Mailbox Books.  We took normal clean pigs
and then let them roll around in the mud till they were very very
dirty

Snowmen Storytime

Storytime Zoo kicked off the new year with stories about a very elusive animal, the snowman!  He is able to be seen only in the coldest of winter months and only to the discerning eye.  

We made paper plate snowmen using cotton balls.  

Our first book was "The Biggest Best Snowman" by Margery Cuyler

Our second story was "Snow Balls" by Lois Ehlert.  

My storytime Guide.  I don't always end up doing exactly what I say but I try!