The Lion is a Bookworm: Storytime: Houses

Age: 18-36 months (coloring page instead of craft), 3-5 years (with craft)

This school year in storytime I decided to use the alphabet to give me inspiration for themes. So this week, H is for Houses!

1) These Are My Glasses - Laurie Berkner
My current opening song that we sing acappella every week. I start by asking them to show me their glasses and their book so that they remember the signs. We sing it through twice, then I'll ask them to quietly put their "books" in their lap.

These are my glasses (make the letter o with each hand)
And this is my book (hands together)
I put on my glasses (put "glasses" over eyes)
And open up the book (open book hands)
Now I read read read (hold book up in front of face like reading)
And I look look look (put glasses over eyes and look around room)
I put down my glasses and… (lower glasses)
WHOOP! Close up the book. (clap as if closing a book quickly)

2) Mystery Box
This week I built a tiny Lego house to put in my box.

3) The Three Little Pigs - James Marshall

This was one of the best versions of this story I could find, even if some of Marshall's humor is over the heads of my kids. I ended up paperclipping together everything between the third pig and the chimney scene. It's a pretty long story for my toddlers.

4) Song – Shake Your Sillies Out - the Wiggles

5a) Building a House - Byron Barton (18-36 mo)

I love Byron Barton's bold, simple pictures. This one was neat for the kids to see how a house gets built! I'd wanted to also read it with my older group, but I was afraid I'd run out of time and I really wanted to do the next story with them...

5b) Little Orange House story (3-5 yrs)
This is on Scholastic's site. I practiced first and could totally see where it was going. When I asked the kids if they wanted to see inside the house, they were SO into it. I opened it up and watched their faces light up as they realized what I'd made. :) Even the parents liked it!

6) Shape house
Found this at Read Sarah Read, originally from Finger Tales by Joan Phelps. Since we'd just built a house in #5, I asked if they could help me build a house too! I handed out the pieces and asked them to bring them up when I said their shape. I added the colors of the pieces when I read it to help the kids know which pieces were which.

Some houses are wood, and some are stone.
But let's build one with shapes alone!
Start with a square, but we won't stop.
Add a triangle up on the top.
Then a rectangle for the door.
Now square windows 1, 2, 3, 4!
A little circle just for fun.
Now our shape house is all done!

7) Purple Little Bird - Greg Foley

A cute little book that has potential for being read in lots of different storytime themes!

8a) Bird Houses Flannel
I found this at Erin's Falling Flannelboards. I made four houses of different colors with different shaped doors, just like she did. The kids did a great job of telling me with words which house the bird belonged in, and I made sure we mentioned both the color and the door shape.

8b) Little Mouse
It was so easy to include the Little Mouse game with the bird houses flannel. I simply put the mouse behind one of the houses before I hung them up. "Little Mouse, Little Mouse, are you in the red/green/orange/blue house??"

9) Do Lions Live on Lily Pads? - Melanie Walsh

The kids thought this was a really silly book. They enjoyed guessing the correct animal each time before I turned the page.

10) H is for House coloring page (18-36 mo.) or H is for House craft (3-5 yrs)
Got this idea from Crystal. If you stick a triangle on top of the letter H, it really does look like a house! I traced an H on three different colors (so the kids could choose the color of their house), then actually had them practice cutting the straight lines. The other pieces I pre-cut for them, and put out crayons for them to decorate their house.