Category Archives: Storybox Idea

It’s time to Bawk & Roll!

Elvis Poultry and his back-up chicks are back, so hop on this tour bus and get ready to Bawk & Roll! Tammi Sauer and Dan Santat made this follow-up book just as irresistible as their first tail-shaker, Chicken Dance. Marge and Lola are now officially back-up dancers for the King of the Roost himself, Elvis Poultry. But when the lights go down and the curtains go up, Marge and Lola are truly chicken, too overwhelmed to flap a wing or shake a feather. Picturing the crowd in their underwear doesn’t help them (although your kids will looove that scene!), relaxing with bubble baths and meditation doesn’t do the trick, but with a little help from their friends, these chickens end up really cooking on stage.

For those of us looking for great books to compare/contrast to meet the Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Common Core State Standard (RL 3.9 if you’re playing CCSS Bingo at home), share Chicken Dance and Bawk & Roll with your kids. Compare what Marge and Lola do in each book – how they overcome their fears, how the other characters in the books help them, etc. Tammi Sauer and Dan Santat have so much fun, free stuff on their website: elvispoultrybooks.com. You can print off and make your own rockin’ Elvis Poultry sunglasses and wear them while you watch the author and the illustrator teach you how to do different dances! These books would be fantastic for Readers’ Theater scripts and so fun and easy for a Storybox if you put cut-out characters with book for kids to retell the story. Guaranteed, all your little ones will say after hearing Bawk & Roll, “Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.”

Follow the Bawk & Roll tour bus as it rolls across the internet:

TEAM BAWK

April 2-6 Rob Sanders: Picture This!

http://robsanderswrites.blogspot.com/

April 3 Julie Danielson: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/

April 4 Jennifer Bertman: From the Mixed-Up Files of Jennifer Bertman

http://writerjenn.blogspot.com/

April 4 Kristen Remenar: Author, Librarian, National Speaker – Hey, that’s me! 🙂

http://kristenremenar.com/

April 5 Julie Hedlund: Write Up My Life

http://writeupmylife.com/

April 6 Jennifer Rumberger: Children’s Author

http://www.jenniferrumberger.com/

For more information, visit tammisauer.com or dansantat.com.

The Teeny Tiny Woman

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In one teeny tiny tale, you can have teeny tiny listeners more than a teeny tiny bit hooked on a book. There are several versions of The Teeny Tiny Woman (the one pictured is retold by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by R. W. Alley) but if you have a teeny, tiny bit of trouble finding this one, check out versions by Barbara Seuling, Paul Galdone, or Arthur Robins.

The teeny tiny woman goes for a teeny tiny walk and finds a teeny tiny bone. Back in her teeny tiny home, she puts the teeny tiny bone in her teeny tiny cupboard. Soon, a teeny tiny voice begins to call, “Give me my bone!” This story is a teeny tiny bit scary, just right for listeners who want a spooky story for Halloween but don’t want to be *really* scared. With all the teeny tiny repetitions, kids will be chiming in and repeating the story in no time. Retelling a story is an important pre-writing skill, and this story is perfect for retelling. You can either make a teeny tiny house with a teeny tiny woman, or if you have a dollhouse and dolls, encourage students to use them along with the book to retell the story to a friend. Make a teeny tiny bone and a teeny tiny ghost from paper, clay, or any other crafty material you have. Great, big fun from a teeny tiny book!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

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Halloween is coming, and do you know what is scarier than a pumpkin head floating all by itself? Seeing how much my book budget has been slashed for next year! AHHHHHHHHH! Perhaps you, too, have limited funds but an unlimited desire for good children’s books. In the next few weeks, I’m sharing some of my favorite classic books that should be easy to get at your local library, in case you’re finding it tricky to get your hands on all the new books you’d love to have.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything written by Linda Williams and illustrated by Megan Lloyd is one of those books I can’t resist using every year. Even when she’s followed home by scary things, like two shoes going CLOMP, CLOMP and one shirt going SHAKE, SHAKE, this little old lady is not afraid. In fact, she takes all those scary things and puts them to good use, making a scarecrow to keep crows away from her garden.

This cumulative story is perfect for a feltboard or magnetic board retelling. Cut pieces of felt into the shapes of the shoes, shirt, etc., or draw those objects on paper and glue them to magnets (I always grab extra free magnets from pizza parlors and drugstores just to make magnet stories). Kids can use the pieces to retell the story. Keep the book handy with the pieces so kids can refer back to the book as they retell. I know some teachers who aren’t afraid of anything (though I would never refer to them as little old ladies) who brought in real shoes, shirt, pants, etc. to build a life-size version of this story in their classrooms. Enjoy sharing The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything with your students, but beware: after one reading, you may find your classroom full of shoes that go STOMP, STOMP and many voices saying “More, more!”

MINE!

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When I first saw MINE! written by Shutta Crum and illustrated by Patrice Barton, I thought it’d be fun to use with my little ones in storytime. After all, it’s about two toddlers (and the cutest, drooly puppy) learning how to share a pile of toys. So, it’s a book for toddlers, right? But then I thought of how my kids giggle over laughing baby videos on Youtube. Who doesn’t love silly, little babies? MINE! is a great book to build early reading confidence for preschoolers and kindergartners. The text is simpler than simple: “Mine!”, “Mi-“, and “Woof!”, and the pictures are so cute. Before reading this book, ask your listeners if they have little brothers, sisters, cousins, who are grabby. Chances are, you’ll see lots of hands waving and heads nodding. Read MINE! to the group and let kids share stories about babies they know, or stories about themselves as babies. Then, let your readers who need a confidence boost practice this story to perform for Readers’ Theater. It is such a fun, easy read, you’ll have all your readers saying MINE!

For more information, visit shutta.com or patricebarton.com.

Retelling with file folder puppet theaters

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Kids retell stories all the time: they tell what they did over the weekend, what happened on the playground, who really put the building blocks in the fish tank, etc. Retelling is an important skill, and one fun way to retell a story is with puppets. I snagged this idea for making file folder puppet theaters off of this super-cool website: fairy dust teaching (Sally Haughey is one of those amazing teachers who has ideas I love to lift.) Cut windows in two file folders, attach them so you have a sturdy stand, decorate with scrapbooking paper, and ta da! Puppet theater! So now that folders are on sale for pennies a pack, I’m stocking up to make puppet theaters!

Puppet retellings work best with stories that have a limited number of characters and a straight-forward plot. One Dark Night by Lisa Wheeler and Ivan Bates is perfect for puppet theaters. One dark night, Mole and Mouse creep from their wee tiny house on a journey through the mush-mucky swamp, under sharp thistle thorns, into the marsh-misty wood. Meanwhile, a big giant bear in his big giant lair is feeling hungry. He leaves his den in search of food and finds Mole and Mouse. “Mole shivered. Mouse shook. Their fur stood up straight.” (Your listeners will be on the edge of their seats right about now.) The big giant bear towers over the wee beasts and grumbles, “You’re late!” Bear has been waiting for his two friends, who join him for a feast in his den.

Kids can make Mole, Mouse, and Bear puppets out of paper and popsicle sticks, and retell the story in their own table-top puppet theater! Or, if you’re lucky enough to have fantastic stuffed-animal-type puppets, put Mole, Mouse, and Bear, along with the book inside your Storybox and let the kids practice retelling that way, too.