October Thank You's

Before moving on to the details of November storytime, I would like to give a special thanks to the following storytimers from October...

NORA
Thank you for teaching us the song your teacher taught you, "The leaves are falling down..." I like how clearly, and beautifully you sing the words. And how you make your hands look like graceful leaves falling to the ground. Thank you also for singing it more than once so that I had a chance to learn it properly. I have been singing it ever since!

ELLIE
You have been coming to storytime since you were a wee baby, always watching & listening to me but never talking to me; and for the first time last month, I heard your voice! It was exciting to hear what animals you noticed on the page and what color leaves you wanted painted on your arm.

ANDREW
Thank you for showing me that there is more than one way to sit on a carpet square! Who is to say that you can only sit on the fluffy side? You are very creative.

HERITAGE CARPET
Speaking of carpet squares, I would also like to give a great big thanks to Jim & Carolyn Taylor of Heritage Carpet & Interiors in Hartland for donating the squares that make our circle times special. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

Photo credit, CvH Studios

LEAVES Are Falling

This I do know:
Where a Leaf Man will land, only the wind knows.
So listen for a rustle in the leaves.
Maybe you'll find a Leaf Man waiting to go home with you.
- Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

In her author's note from this book Ehlert says that colored leaves "are among the most beautiful art supplies in the world."

Join us tomorrow October 2nd at 10am for storytime at the Little Red Store. We'll read Leaf Man, sing a song about falling leaves, and then use nature's art supplies to make a leaf collage of our own to take home. As always, snacks and coffee too...

Hope you can come for some FALL fun!

But I LOVE colors all mixed up!

Red is pretty for a cherry,
Purple for an elderberry,
Yellow for a buttercup.
But I LOVE colors all mixed up!

- from Colors Are Nice by Adelaide Holl

Never had an elderberry before, but LOVE this book from my childhood (and how the word LOVE is really capitalized like that). Let's celebrate COLORS and how we LOVE them tomorrow as we read this book in an interesting way at the Little RED Store-ytime at 10am!

Wear or bring something along that is YOUR favorite color as we go back to the basics for our smaller set (now that the big kids are back in school*) with a storytime about COLORS!

Schedule:

9:30 Doors open
10:00 Circle time - book, song, fingerplay
10:30 Snack, see snack info below **
11:00 Hand, Arm or cheek? Painting - Some little ones are intimidated by the term Face Painting (I've learned from 3 year old zoo class), so I like to offer a choice. Wait your turn (a great skill to practice at any age) to have something colorful painted on your hand, arm, or cheek! While you wait you can watch others being painted, or learn some simple folding with your grown up to make a cute COLORful origami dog (I know origami also sounds a little intimidating, but trust me grownups this one is really easy and no glue or scissors required), or go chalk-up the patio circle outside.
11:30 Clean up and say goodbye

* With the big kids back at school, I would also like to share how our September meeting will be bittersweet for me as longtime storytimers move on to full-time 5K/SKers and will no longer be attending. Best of luck to you all as you continue to grow. I will miss you.

I would also like to say a special storytime farewell and heartfelt thanks to Mrs.Taylor for all her help this year and over the years with our group. Your countless (Spanish and English, edible and non-edible) contributions will always be appreciated. Adios and best wishes to you as you return to full-time teaching Espanol to the much, MUCH bigger kiddos; they are lucky to have you!

** In Sarah's absence I will be keeping snack time very simple, and we will be having a COLORful fruit - I'll keep you guessing...(but I will say that it is juicy so wear something expendable). Also please remember that BYOSnack is always welcome too.

I love butterflies and things
With lovely splotchy-colored wings;
Brownish fawns all whitely spleckled,
People's faces nicely freckled.

Who has freckles? Look around to see. And then take some time to look at the beautiful and REAL butterfly and deer things I have to show you. See you tomorrow!

F is for FROG

FROGS are popular characters in children's literature and one prolific author in particular loved to write books about them, Mercer Mayer.

With his recent passing, we've been reading more of his books lately and the wordless ones from the boy/dog/frog series in particular. If you enjoy wordless books, do not miss these! Frog Goes to Dinner and Too Many Frogs are my other favorite titles in this series, but also be sure to check out Where Are You, Frog? from his Little Critter series (love, love, love Little Critter).

Anyway, as a personal tribute to one of my favorite authors and his love of FROGS; and also inspired by Leap Frog class at the Milwaukee Zoo (pretending to swim like an aquatic frog with 2 year olds is time well spent) as well as my face-to-face meeting with a giant but calm bullfrog out at Fox Brook Park last week, it only seems fitting that...

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 7th at 10am at the Little Red Store-ytime, we will celebrate our fine amphibian friends, FROGS!

AMERICAN Animals

Come soar with us tomorrow, July 3rd at 10am at the Little Red Store as we read this and other books about AMERICAN ANIMALS.

In lieu of adult registration, we are accepting donations for our American animal friends at Elmbrook Humane Society. There are many interesting things needed so be sure to check out their wish list.

Sarah is making red, white & blue M&M cookies for snack, and we will also have coffee.

The weather will be hot but the a/c will be on, so come join us!

Animal Daddies and My Daddy

Daddy Giraffe is tall as a tree.

My Daddy is tall.

He's twice at tall

as all of me.

from Animal Daddies and My Daddy by Barbara Shook Hazen

Comparing fathers to animals is fun! Beavers, porcupines, polar bears and elephants; what do they have in common with Dad?
Come join us this Tuesday, June 5th at 10am for a storytime at the Little Red Store as we find out while reading this book and others about FATHERS. If your dad can make it, great bring him along! If not, don't worry, we'll learn a fun counting game you can play with him later. Sing a song about an animal father you can teach him to sing with you. Make him a quick, thoughtful craft you can give him on Father's Day. There will be cookies and coffee inside, and chalk and water painting outside afterwards on the circle. Hope you can join us!

FLOWERS and BEES

Birds and bees,
and these,
and these
sip NECTAR from the FLOWERS.
- from The Reason For A Flower by Ruth Heller

Tomorrow, is May 1st, May Day! Come join us at The Little Red Store at 10am as we celebrate the symbol of May Day, FLOWERS. And the animals that help make more flowers, BEES!

In Wisconsin Animals, an outreach program I teach at the Milwaukee Zoo, we talk about BEES. How they are social insects and live in big groups in a special home called a HIVE where "200-200,000 bees can be living and working together! Imagine living with that many people in your house?!" The boy bees are called DRONES and the girl bees are called WORKERS. Which ones sting? And who is the one special girl BEE in the hive??? That's right, the QUEEN BEE! And then the teacher stands up, and we say "Hello, Queen Bee," and discuss some other fun bee facts and why bees are so important, "They give us honey and help make more FLOWERS!"

Let's get back to FLOWERS and May Day...

Tomorrow we will ring, sing, rhyme, and count about flowers. We will talk about stems and petals and how flowers need water to grow. Speaking of water, we will have a vase filled with it. If you are able to, please spend a little time in the yard tomorrow morning with the little one(s) and clip a few flowers to bring along to storytime and contribute to the group bouquet! All flowers are welcome, even dandelions :)

We will pretend to be a seed that grows into a flower as we sing a song Nancy taught us (to tune of I'm a Little Teapot, but sung much, much slower)...

I'm a Little Seed in the deep, dark, ground - crouch down and be a seed.
Out comes the yellow sun, big and round - make a big circle with your arms.
Down comes the cool rain, soft and slow - make raindrops with your fingers.
Up I come now, grow, grow, grow - sprout up from the ground.

We will have a simple (much simpler than last month - no scissors required!) flower craft in the craft corner.
Sarah is baking up some Beehive Bar Rice Krispie Treats for snacktime, and serving up some Spanish vocab and counting practice.

And of course let's not leave out one of my very favorite fingerplays, "This is a beehive, but where are the bees??? Hidden away where nobody sees..."

Looking forward to seeing those of you that are able to buzz on down to the Village on May Day!