Cat Storyhour

What a great session we had! I got out my face paint set from Klutz and did about a half dozen children in only about five minutes.  

Books

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend. I love to read books in bad foreign accents.

Boris and the Wrong Shadow by Leigh Hodginkson.

• Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj. Very interactive. I put on my cat makeup, so thata I looked like a cat so the cats in the book would tell us their secrets.  (No one else would let me make them up.) But they all purred, and stretched, etc., so it was a good opener. 
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin.  No book better.
• Cat Up a Tree by John and Ann Hassett. All the moms were giggling at this charmer.  Great formula: the number of cats increase on each page, and on each page concerned Nana Quimby calls a different institution for help, always unsuccessfully.  I did the city officials in pompous, officious voices. I didn't count the ever increasing cats because the group was a bit young. A surprise hit.
• There Are Cats in This Book by Viviane Schwarz. This book deserves to be read slowly. It's very interactional because the cats ask a lot of questions as you turn the pages, and the die cuts make for very nice surprises. I had a ball of yarn when I used props for the younger crew, and EVERYBODY wanted a piece of it. Bring a couple next time so the kids can do group play with them. Very big bulky yarn.
• The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend. I love reading this book and doing bad foreign accents, but I don't know if the kids quite get this tale.
• They All Saw a Cat.  Wenzel.  A must.

Plays
Have You Seen My Cat?  by Eric Carle.  I acted it out with puppets.

Songs

This is the way we like to purr, like to purr, like to purr

This is the way we like to purr so early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our paws...

This is the way we play with a ball...

This is the way we hiss at dogs...

This is the way we like to purr, like to purr, like to purr

This is the way we like to purr so early in the morning.

The Old Grey Cat

The old gray cat is sleeping, sleeping, sleeping,

The old gray cat is sleeping in the house

The little mice are dancing, dancing, dancing (children dance)

The little mice are dancing in the house

The little mice are nibbling, nibbling, nibbling (children nibble)

The little mice are nibbling in the house

The little mice are resting, resting, resting (children rest their heads on hands)

The little mice are resting in the house

The old gray cat comes creeping, creeping, creeping (cat begins to creep)

The old gray cat comes creeping in the house

The little mice go scampering, scampering, scampering (children run in place)

The little mice go scampering in the house 

And when the bus went for its usual circuit, there was a cat and a dog on it inside of a baby and a mom. 

Craft

Stolen from Literary Hoots  This one turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser and it was really easy for me to prep, so win-win. I did do a bit of instruction for the kids before starting so that they knew what to do with their plain pieces of black construction paper (I did no pre-cutting). Basically, you just fold in half and cut out the letter "C". Use one cut-out piece for the head and the other piece you cut one more "C" to make a tail

We made a messier and more fun version of these by using our oil pastels to color them.  Some very intensely orange, red and yellow cats were created.

 These fingerpuppets are made of rolled crepe paper for the body (Hello Kitty, of course), and dried baby wipes (they dried out sometime in the last three years) for the others.  This gave them a little flexibility. I downloaded some famous heads, we taped them at the top with double sided tape, and I cut up a leftover Fancy Nancy boa for some very effective fur.

Next year try Drat that fat Cat! by Pat Thomson