Dog Storytime, Friday, July 28 @ 10:30

Hark, hark the dogs will bark at Gulf Beaches storyhour this Friday!  

Books

• The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems. Always a hit.
• Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton. I am a major fan of Chris Haughton even though he's only written three books. I invited the kids to chorus in on the "Oh No, George!" and the involvement really pretty them in.  Then we did "Well done, George!" with upraised power fist. 
• Is There a Dog In this Book? by Viviane Schwartz.  This is a very cute lapread, but I'm not all that sure about it for storytime. The lift the flaps might be a bit hard for a crowd to see. 
• Ivan the Terrier by Peter Catalanotto. As I turned each page to a familiar new story, 3 bears, 3 little pigs, etc., the children waited for Ivan to put in his appearance. Pictures and text bounce along. But the kids really don't seem to quite get the sarcasm of Ivan making his appearance.  Next year I might use my old favorite Widget. 
• Dog's Colorful Days by Emma Dodd.  We had to read this because it was our craft! I could tell there was a five year old in the audience because she knew what all the plus 1s were,

No More Bows by Cotterill 
Dog Rules by Jef Czekaj.  Dogs raising a bird, pretty funny.
Widget by Lyn Rossiter McFarland. My little fuzzy stuffed white dog sends this sweet little tale right over the top. It's a perfect storyhour book. It has barking dogs, meowing kittens and a very, very nice story about a little dog who finds a home.
Excellent Ed by McAnulty  v. funny
I'm the Best by Lucy Cousins. The nice little moral wrapped up in Cousins' bright and cheerful illustrations has worked in earlier years but not this one.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx  (See Bark, George!)

Songs

(this worked really well -- I was able to remember it, and the kids really liked the "It's over here" when I lunged at the audience.)

One, two, three
Doggie’s got a flea, doggie’s got a flea
And now it’s on me! 
One, two, three
Doggie’s got a flea, doggie’s got a flea
And now it’s on me! 
It’s on my nose, It’s on my toes,
It’s on my ear, It’s over here
It’s on my tum, It’s on my thumb
One, two, three
Doggie’s got a flea, doggie’s got a flea
And now it’s on me! 
One, two, three
Doggie’s got a flea, doggie’s got a flea
And now it’s on me!

Craft: 

Dog's Colorful Day:  We added dots to Dog with crayon.  Some just scribbled, but most, with prodding from moms, found nine colors and made their marks on their dogs. Then I gave them new blank dogs to just color in any way they wanted.

Oh I wanna be a dog, I wanna wag my tail

Chase cars knock over garbage cans

Bit the lady that brings me the mail

Oh I wanna be a dog

I wanna dig big holes

I wanna chase French poodles and basset hounds

and look for telephone poles

Oh I wanna have dog breath

I wanna learn to growl

Scratch fleas and ticks, and run after sticks

The moon's gonna make me howl