A Colorful Storytime

Week two of my September storytimes! This week’s theme was colors. Once everyone got arranged and comfortable on the floor, we sang our hello song and read our books:

The Color Box, by Dayle Ann Dodds
Alexander the monkey finds a box and crawls in, discovering multiple worlds of different colored objects and animals. Each color leads to another, and he eventually finds himself back in a world that contains all the colors together. Great opportunities for kids to identify different colors one by one.

Blue Chameleon, by Emily Gravett
The blue chameleon is feeling, well, blue. So he becomes the color of all the things he meets and tries to make friends with them. A yellow banana. A brown boot. A stripy sock. But no one is interested in a matching friend, until he stumbles upon another chameleon, who is all the colors! They are happy to be colorful together. Very silly, more to look at than read or listen to, but fun and not too demanding on little attention spans.

Moo, Moo, Brown Cow, Have You Any Milk?, by Phillis Gershator
A young boy travels around the farm, asking each animal if they have something for him. Down from the goose, milk from the cow, honey from the bees. Each animal gives him something, and tells him what he can make with it. Fun, rhyming verse that holds kids attention.

In between the second and third books, we had a little action rhyme about red apples. I was quite happy with the result of this one, as I forgot some words to “Pat-A-Cake” last week. The kids definitely got a kick out it, and they really got into the motions. I thought I’d share it with you because it was quite fun!

Ten Red Apples (Rhyme – Author Unknown)

Ten red apples growing on a tree. (Hands high, fingers extended)
Five for you and five for me. (Wave one hand, then the other)
Let me shake the tree just so, (Shake hands!)
And ten red apples fall down below. (Lower hands with fingers extended and wiggly)
One, two, three, four, five, (Count fingers on one hand)
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten. (Count fingers on other hand)

Source:
1,000 Fingerplays & Action Rhymes: A Sourcebook & DVD, by Barbara A. Scott

Once we finished our books and our apple song, it was time for crafts! Keeping with the color theme, we made rainbow streamers. Each kid was given a paper cloud, a handful of cotton balls, and crepe paper streamers in five bright colors. They made their paper clouds “fluffy” with the cotton and attached the streamers to the edges. The kids enjoyed the cotton and all seemed very pleased with the finished product.

Hope everyone has a colorful weekend!