Snow Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor
   This is a really cool story about a little family that lives inside a snowglobe. They are waiting for the day when the big family would shake the snowglobe and make a snowstorm so they could go sledding. This is a really fun story and it led in to our snowglobe craft.

Snow by Uri Shulevitz
  The kids really liked the illustrations in this book. Especially the "creepy" television reporter who they kept asking to see again and again.

Snowie Rolie by William Joyce
   The kids also enjoyed the illustrations of the magical snowy land in this book. The story is mediocre but it kept their attention.

Activity:
Crumpled Paper Snowball Fight

Divide kids into two teams and dump snowballs in the middle. Kids try to throw all the snowballs to the other teams side before time runs out.

They had fun with this activity but I couldn't judge the winner because they kept cheating :)

Craft:
Snowglobes with couscous snow.

Nighttime Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Bedtime Is Cancelled by Cece Meng
   This book was mediocre. The kids didn't seemed too impressed by it but they enjoyed it enough to listen attentively.

Oscar and the Mooncats by Lynda Gene Rymond
   This book gets a little creepy when the mooncats try to get Oscar to drink the moonmilk so he will be trapped on the moon forever. The kids seemed to like this one.

Activity:
Star Search-Find stars hidden around the room.
Star Catching- Catch stars (bubbles) in a cup.

Craft:
Shooting Stars

Fish Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Bright Stanley by Matt Buckingham
   This is an okay story but the book sparkles which makes it abit more exciting.
The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist
   The kids really enjoyed this story. And most of them figured out that it was based on the Three Little Pigs.
Rainbow Fish and the Sea Monsters Cave by Marcus Pfister
   An okay Rainbow Fish book. The kids seem to like Rainbow Fish because they know the character.
The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
   This is a really cute book and the kids liked repeating the "Blub-Bluub-Bluuub"  part with me.
Dogfish by Gillian Shields
   This was definitely the favorite of the fish books. The kids thought it was pretty funny.

Activity:
We made fishing poles with magnets and caught paper fish with paperclips attached to them.

Craft:
Sparkly Fish Puppets

Moose Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Moosetache by Margie Palatini
  The kids enjoyed this book, the illustrations of the moose with the moosetache were pretty funny. It also has good inspiration for crafts.

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham
   I had to do a little explaining before I started this book to set the scene, but once the kids knew what was going on they liked the story.

Making the Moose Out of Life by Nicholas Oldland
   This one has a few jokes that are over their heads but they seemed to enjoy the story.

Duck, Duck, Moose by Dave Horowitz
   I didn't really like this one but I read it anyway and, go figure, the kids loved it. One little boy begged to check it out after storytime.

This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers
   I ran out of time and didn't get to read this book but I love, love, love the illustrations.

Craft:
Moose with yarn moosetache.

Hat Storytime

School-Age

Books:
This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
   Love this book! So did the kids. I thought it might be over their heads but they definitely picked up on all the plot clues in the illustrations. They were all so surprised the the big fish actually ate the little fish in the end. I think they're used to stories always having a happy ending so the somewhat morbid ending was a bit of a shock.

Magritte's Marvelous Hat by D.B. Johnson
   This book was a surprising success. Again, I thought this might be over their heads but they were  enchanted by it. 

Do You Have a Hat by Eileen Spinelli
   This book highlights hats worn by different historical characters. It was a good lead in to our craft as it gave the kids some good ideas for their hats.

Game:
Toss a hat and give each child a chance to try to catch it on their head.

Craft:
Design Your Own Hat

Boxes Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
The Color Box by Dayle Ann Dodds
   I thought this book might be too short/young for this group but they really liked it. They were fascinated by the different worlds the box led too and many wanted to incorporate the story into their craft at the end.

My Snake Blake by Randy Siegel
  Kind of a stretch calling this a box story but the snake does come in a box so it made the cut.

Bridget Fidget and the Most Perfect Pet by Joe Berger
  I like this story. It has a little suspense as we wait to find out what's in the box and a pretty good payoff when we find out it's a cuckoo clock.

Mannie and the Long Brave Day by Martine Murray and Sally Rippin
   Definitely a little young for this group but they liked it all the same. It's a sweet little story and the kids appreciated it.

Craft:
Decorated Boxes

Names Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
   This one was a hit with the girls but our one boy was not too pleased with it.
Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
   Most of the kids knew the story but were excited to read it again.
Four Boys Named Jordan by Jessica Harper
   Short and sweet and the kids liked the concept. They often have multiple students with the same name in their classes so they could relate.

Activity:
Close your eyes and point to a letter from a page of letters then pick a new name starting with that letter. The kids really enjoyed doing this and some even made their craft with their new name.

Craft:
Name Bookmarks with letter stickers.

Paints and Markers Storytime

School Age Storytime

Books:
Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch
   This book is great. We all really enjoyed the story.
Oh, Were They Ever Happy! by Peter Spier
   Even though this book is older the story is still exciting and we loved to see what the kids did to the house in the end.
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont
   This is a funny little story and the kids liked guessing what body part she was going to paint next.

Craft:
Tape Initials

Food Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller
   I love this book but it's really long and really detailed so it's best to read it to a smaller group so everyone can see what's going on in the illustrations. The story is awesome and the kids really seemed into it despite it's length.

Eat Your Peas by Kes Gray
   The kids loved this book. They were absolutely shocked that she wouldn't eat her peas even after her mother offered her all that good stuff. Afterwards we talked about what their least favorite foods were and what it would take to get them to eat the foods they didn't like.

Craft:
Boxes of Doughnuts

Carrot Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Silly Tails by Jan Mark
   A longer story with some fancy vocabulary but I explained/changed some of the words and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
   Short and sweet, a nice addition to carrot storytime.

The Enormous Carrot by Vladimir Vagin
   A little too repetetive. But the kids liked looking at the carrot feast at the end and talking about other carrot food they could make.

Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds
   Loved this story!  (At the end of Creepy Carrots we had a creepy surprise; a creepy carrot was peeking through the window on the activity room door, courtesy of Carol.)

Craft:
Creepy Carrots. The kids all wanted theirs on a fishing pole so they could make it "float" and scare people with it!

Kids Behaving Badly Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Martha Doesn't Say Sorry! by Samantha Berger
Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard
Watch Your Tongue, Cecily Beasley by Lane Fredrickson
David Gets in Trouble by David Shannon

Activity:
Give Kids sentences to say with their tongues sticking out (like Cecily Beasley), or kids take turns whispering phrases for you to say with your tongue out and the other kids try to guess what you're saying.

Craft:
Mean Mask

Secrets Storytime

School-Age Storytime

Books:
Hen Hears Gossip by Megan McDonald
Olive and the Big Secret by Tor Freeman
Pass It On! by Marilyn Sadler

Game:
Whisper Down the Lane

Craft:
Diary aka. Book of Secrets
with Pipe Cleaner Key and Key Chain

Monster Babies! Storytime

School-Age

Books:
The Baby That Roared by Simon Puttock
Where's the Baby by Pat Hutchins
When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor

Craft:

Cute sleeping baby?

No! It's a monster baby!!!

Wolves

School-Age

Books:

Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen

Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra
The Red Wolf by Margaret Shannon

Craft:
Wolf Pie to keep the wolves away.

Robots

School-Age

Books:

The Three Little Aliens and the Big, Bad Robot by Margaret McNamara

Clink by Kelly DiPucchio
Wodney Wat's Wobot by Helen Lester

Game:
-Robot Imitations
-Robot Remote Control (Control kids "actions" at random times throughout program. ie. robot remote control says...go to sleep.)

Craft:
Build a Robot from a box full of "robot parts".
 

Two

Afterschool Storytime

Books:
Two Heads Are Better Than One by Michael Dahl
One Eye! Two Eyes! Three Eyes! by Aaron Shepard
The Boy With Two Belly Buttons by Stephen J. Dubner
Two of Everything by Lily Toy Hong

Craft:
Two Headed Monster Masks

Land of Giants

School-Age Program

Books:
Chicken Big by Keith Graves
Big Scary Monster by Thomas Docherty
Wicked Big Toddlah by Kevin Hawkes
How to Make Friends with a Giant by Gennifer Choldenko
Watch Out! A Giant! by Eric Carle

Craft:

Giant Memoirs: How it Feels to be a Giant

Trees

School-Age Program

Books:
Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Big Bear Hug by Nicholas Oldland

Craft:

                                            Tree Man

Talking Books!

School-Age Program

Books:
A Book by Mordecai Gerstein
Have I Got a Book for You by Melanie Watt
The Purple Kangaroo by Michael Ian Black and Peter Brown

Craft:

                                  Pop-Up Talking Books

Afraid of the Dark

School-Age Program

Books:
The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark by Deborah Diesen
Dark Night by Dorothee de Monfreid
Lights Out by Aurthur Geisert
The Dark, Dark Night by M. Christina Butler

Craft:
Deep Sea Scratch and Sequin Art