Cool “Jazz Baby”
“Brother’s hands tap.
Sister’s hands snap.
Itty-bitty Baby’s hands clap-clap-clap!”
I don’t think it’s possible to read Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler and R. Gregory Christie aloud without bouncing a bit. This book, which earned the Geisel Honor Award, works on so many levels. Your Music Smart kids will be pulled into the the rhythm of the rhyme (and no one does rhyme as well as Lisa Wheeler). Your Body Smart kids can snap or tap along as you read. With all the “doo-wop-doo”s and “bop-bop-bop”s, this is a perfect springboard to introduce onomatopoeia. Brainstorm a list of sound words with your kids and have them find objects in the room (a pencil against an old coffee can) that make those sounds. Put on a jazz cd and let them experiment with keeping the beat. Take photos of your students making the sounds, print them off, and have the kids write the corresponding sound words to make a “Jazz Kids” class book. Cool, daddio!
“The Pout-Pout Fish”
I can’t help but smile whenever I read the New York Times Bestseller “The Pout-Pout Fish” written by Deborah Diesen and illustrated by Dan Hanna. I can’t keep my listeners from grinning, either, or from chiming in on the refrain with this dreary-weary, permanently-pouting fish: “Blub. Blub. Blub.” With a little help from an unexpected friend, Mr. Fish does find a way to turn that frown upside-down. This rhyming story is great for building phonological awareness, and I love the finger rhyme that Debbie Diesen came up with to go with the book:
“Five little pouty fish swimming ’round the bed,
One blub-blubbed his grumpy head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
‘Read a good book and he’ll smile instead!'”
For more fun activities and free reproducibles, go to her website: deborahdiesen.com and be sure to check out “The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark”.
Read MoreShoo, “Old Black Fly”!
Old Black Fly gets into everything in this bouncy, rhyming alphabet book written by Jim Aylesworth and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. He nibbles on noodles, pesters the parrot, sniffs the salami, until the end – swat! The refrain of “Shoo fly, shoo fly, shoo!” (repeated on almost every page) is perfect to get little ones chiming in. Before we read the book, I tell my listeners to help me shoo that fly away by waving their hands on the cue of “shoo fly…” After reading, I put on “Shoo Fly – Don’t Bother Me” by Sweet Honey in the Rock (from their album I Got Shoes, Music for Little People, 1994). We get out the scarves and practice shooing flies away while we dance. It’s a great letter-knowledge/phonological awareness/rhyming lesson for your Body Smart wiggly ones!
All You Need for a Snowman
All You Need for a Snowman written by Alice Shertle and illustrated by Barbara Lavallee is one of those “perfect for a storybox” books. The plot is simple – all you need for a snowman is some snow, rolled into one big ball. That’s all. Except…for a middle-sized ball, and a small one, and a hat, etc. The text has a great rhythmic flow and the pictures are colorful and large enough for group sharing. But because it’s all about building a snowman, it’s the perfect book to make a feltboard storybox. Even folks who are craft-challenged like me can cut three white circles out of felt! Ms. Marge, our library’s craft guru, made the feltboard pieces you see below. You can build the snowman piece by piece as you read the story aloud to your group, then hand out pieces to kids to help you build the snowman during your rereading or picture-walk through the book. Not enough pieces to go around? Use a diecut machine to make lots of snowflakes – you need lots of snowflakes to make a snowman! After storytime is done, put the book and the felt pieces in the storybox by a feltboard so little ones can go through the book and make the snowman on their own. Felt pieces, a felt board, and a great book – that’s all you need to make a snowman storybox!
Guess Who Is Out of the Den?
