Pre-K Opposites Storytime, Friday, January 20 @ 10:30

Books:

• Pop-Up Book: Animal Opposites by Horacek.  Gorgeousity.  Great attention getter.
• Caldecott Winner and a true Gripping Tale: Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney. Although I admired the beautiful pictures in this book as much as anyone, I never thought I'd be using it for a storytime. But the very traditional tale worked out perfectly. Because it's a wordless book, it really lends itself to prediction -- prediction is all there is! What are those men unloading? A net! (A gasp goes up.) The kids ALL listened, even 20 month old Peter. This works year after year.  
• Fun Read: I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. I love this cute, funny tale, and so did the kids. Very short, repetitive text as the squid cruises by all the smaller critters. The kids had a great time calling out the different sea creatures on each page -- shrimp, crab, etc. The poor bragging giant squid came to a bad end in the end -- in the belly of a giant whale.
• Sophie's Big Bed by Tina Burke or My BIG Boy Bed by Bunting or Board Book Big Enough for a Bed, Board Book Jordan, starring Elmo.  The kids were impressed with their own maturity on this important issue, so I went ahead and read this book and it was well received. It helped that it was so short, too.
• Rodzilla by Rob Sanders.  Intro w. a lot of "What kind of a monster is this? Does this look like a grown up monster?  
• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins, 591.41 Jenkins.  I always use this beautifully illustrated Jenkins book which depicts the ACTUAL SIZE of a gorilla's hand (front cover) a Giant Squid's eye, etc. We interact with it; the kids take turns putting their hands on the gorilla's hand. I hold up the eyeball of the giant squid next to a parent's face, and they can see how much bigger the giant squid's eye is. I hold up the bear head on top of a child's shoulder, and the the crocodile, etc. Very fun. 
• How Do Dinosaurs Go Up and Down board book Yolen. Even though this is right on theme, it didn't capture the kids.  Next year I'll stick with You are (Not) Small.
• You are (Not) Small by Anna Kang. Geisel Award.  Strips big and little concept down to two bears arguing, a big one and a little one. To read:  I sat down and read up at the ceiling for the little bears and stood up and read down to the chair as a big one.
• Pop-up: Big Frog Can't Fit In by Mo Willems. Poor Big Frog! He's too big to fit inside this book! Oh, look how sad that makes him! Luckily he has these nice little froggie friends who make the book (back cover) bigger, and now he fits! Sure, it's a dumb premise for a book, but the pop-ups are fantastic and it's great for big/little.

PROPS:

• Big and little pom poms.
• Shaker eggs, played loud and soft.
• Boxes in different sizes. Little bear in a little box.  BIG GIANT bear in a BIG GIANT box.
• Babies and grownups!
• My NEW TOYS!!!  I made a slit in a small box at the top, tied scarves end to end, and stuffed them in one at a time so that when I pulled the end, they slowly fed out, gorgeous color by gorgeous color.  They all wanted to get in on that -- they ended up forming a color line and parading around the room.
• I bought myself a present. "Right now, this can is down, way down low. Let's see if anything changes when I take off the lid." Be careful to point away from the kids! 
  
• GAME:

Pom pom sorting.  Have them sort out the big and little pom poms. I threw them out on the ground and had them pick them up ("Big! Big!" Now medium sized!" etc.) and put them in a big basket in the middle.

To Frere Jacques:

This is big, this is little. I added this for sound:

This is quiet, this is quiet
This is loud, this is loud.
Quiet, hushed and whisper
Quiet, hushed and whisper
Loud roar SCREAM
Loud roar SCREAM

Bread and Butter, Jelly and Jam
This is little, this is big
Clap, clap clap your hands as slowly as you can
Motor Boat
See the Bunnies Sleeping
Itsy Bitsy Spider

CRAFT: Painting with TP rolls and small square boxes.