Program (Child) - Turkey Time

You may have noticed that I fell behind on my Picture Book a Day in November...well...I have a valid excuse for that. I got married on November 11th, followed by an 11-night honeymoon (didn't even plan it that way!). 


Anyway, I came back to work today for a program that I planned before I realized exactly when my honeymoon was ending and the Thanksgiving holiday started (everyone has been asking me why I didn't just take today off too). May I present to you : Turkey Time!

The program was advertised for 45 minutes (it ran a little over) for ages 4-7 (for two reasons: the kids needed to write for the crafts and I've never seen a child younger than 4 sit still for a non-fiction book in storytime). It was a very small group, but surprisingly more people showed up than were signed up (that's not generally the case for my library).


Program Put Simply:


1. Read:
~ Turkey Trouble (Silvano)
~ This Is the Turkey (Levine)
~ Happy Thanksgiving (Mercer)


2. Make:
~ Give Thanks Turkey Paper Craft
~ Fall-Colored Paper Chain


3. Play:
~ Thanksgiving Matching/Memory Game


Detailed Program:
We started out reading the book Turkey Trouble - the kids laughed at all of the Turkey's costumes and agreed that he never looked anything like the animal he was trying to disguise himself as. Next, we played a Thanksgiving version of a matching game. I just Googled "Thanksgiving" clip art and found 9 pictures to duplicate and hide behind the numbers 1-18. I was surprised at how difficult it was to get the kids just to try picking two numbers at first, but after someone finally volunteered (or was volunteered, I don't remember) they loosened up a bit and seemed to enjoy the game - especially when they got a match. We then read the book This is the Turkey, followed by the turkey craft mentioned above. I rarely read non-fiction books to the kids because they seem very disinterested, but I decided to read selections from the book Happy Thanksgiving (Mercer). On the page that talks about all the different foods, I had the kids raise their hands for the different foods they like (including pumpkin pie); I told them very briefly about the first Thanksgiving; we also briefly discussed football and the Macy's parade. I then surprised them with a real pumpkin pie and cool whip, which they all got to try and most of them seemed to like. (I do wish I had advertised Thanksgiving treats as part of the program - I probably would have gotten more people that way - they always seem to come for food.) After directing them all to the sink in the back of the room to rinse off any sticky hands, they got to do their last craft (which is basically one I came up with just prior to the program when I thought I had lost the turkey craft) - essentially all I did was give them strips of red, yellow, orange, and brown paper and told them they could write or draw anything Fall/Thanksgiving-related on them, then we turned them into paper chains so they could have Thanksgiving decorations at home. On their way out, they got our "Happy Thanksreading" bookmarks.

Random Note: I had planned on using two songs in this program - beginning with the Dragon Tales "Hello Song", and doing some sort of warm-up exercise-y song in reference to working off all that Thanksgiving weight! - but my iPod died. I also had the book "Thanksgiving Rules" (Friedman) on hand to read, but we ran out of time.

Review (Book) - Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier

The concept of this book is similar to The Loud Book (reviewed here), only children learn about various forms of dots, as opposed to loud noises.


While I feel like this is a book I could have illustrated using Windows' good old "Paint" program, it's very colorful (so it should be eye-catching to the kids), yet simple, and I think the premise is great. 


This book would be excellent for kids learning their shapes. I personally can't wait to use it in a storytime, as I see an excellent opportunity to not only ask the children what shape they're looking at (circles, obviously), but also what the circle is a part of (i.e. peas in a peapod, petals on a flower, etc.).


Sorry for the short review, I seem to be very scatterbrained today. If you have read this book, now would be an excellent time to share your own opinions to fill in my blank spaces.


I cannot find an age recommendation on Amazon, but I would not personally hesitate using this book for anyone age 2-5. In fact, I just had a co-worker use this book in her shapes program for ages 2-5 last week.


My rating:

Review (Book) - Best Buds by Maxwell Eaton III

I read this book as an eBook on my iPhone (first off, I do not recommend this - it made everything very small, even for me) while my fiance drove his best man and I to Orlando last weekend, so there was no summary on a non-existent jacket. So, I will do my best to sum it up - 


This book in the "Adventures of Max and Pinky" series concentrates on how Max and Pinky are best buds. Max is a boy who looks very much like Charlie Brown; Pinky is a pig who is obsessed with marshmallows. They do everything together, until one day when Pinky does not show up for "Adventure Day"...


This book was really cute. The pictures are very simple and resemble a comic strip. The story is simple as well and can either be read to younger kids by reading only the main text on the page, and to older children by incorporating the thought and/or speech bubbles found on most pages. Adults as well will enjoy the side notes in the dialogue balloons (at least I did). The author is hilariously random - a polar bear in the middle of the lake? Whose butt resembles a giant marshmallow? LOVE IT! I can't wait to read the rest of the series.


Amazon recommends this book for ages 5 and up, but I can easily see myself using this book for our 3-5 year-old storytime.


My rating:

Review (Book) - Who Has These Feet? by Laura Hulbert

"Find out why these feet, and those of eight other animals are perfectly adapted to their habitat.
With brightly detailed paintings and a simple, informative text, this fun guessing game will have children looking at feet in a whole new way!" (inside jacket cover)


While the inside jacket flap pretty much describes the entire book, I will go on a mini-rant about how much I love this book! I can't wait to read it to a group of kids - I love playing guessing games with them.


The illustrations are beautiful. Each page has the text "Who has these feet?" (obviously accompanied by an illustration of an animal's feet) in a large, fun, kid-friendly font, followed by a two page spread of the entire animal and a short, one-sentence explanation of why the animal has feet like that. This more educational sentence can be omitted for the very young so that this book can be read to a wide span of ages.


Amazon recommends this book for ages 3 and up, but as I just mentioned, I think this book can be easily adapted to appeal even to 2-year-olds.


My rating:

Review (Book) - The Little Little Girl with the Big Big Voice by Kristen Balouch

"In this vibrantly illustrated book, one loud little girl searches high and low for a friend to play with, but her BIG voice scares all of the animals! One by one, an elephant, a snake, and a crocodile run away from her. She finally finds the perfect playmate-one who doesn't mind her "roaring" voice." (inside jacket cover)


One thing's for sure - this definitely is a vibrantly illustrated book. Yet, I still don't really care for the pictures, because they are drawn in such a way that I'm not sure the kids would even know what they were supposed to be. For instance, on the first page with the picture of the elephant, I think the elephant more resembles a dachshund with a trunk for a nose who is missing his front legs.


Still (especially for our "Noise" week coming up), I would like to try reading this book to the kids. It will be interesting to see if they can determine from the pictures that the little, little girl is scaring away all of the animals with her voice, as there are no noise sounds written on the page (i.e. ARRRRRGH!, EEEEEK!, etc.). This also makes me wonder if I should go ahead and make these strange/loud noises to make the kids laugh, or if I should wait and see if they catch on themselves.


I couldn't find an age recommendation for this book on Amazon, but the publishing company (judging by the inside jacket cover) seems to think this book would be best for ages 2-5.


My rating:

.5

Random note: I love that she "comes upon a snake swinging in the tree" - can you say Sally the Swinging Snake?