Storytime: Jungle

Books

Do Crocs Kiss? by Salina Yoon

Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins

We’re Roaming in the Rainforest: An Amazon Adventure by Laurie Krebs

The Perfect Siesta by Pato mena

Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae

“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly” Said the Sloth by Eric Carle

There are so many “jungle” books out there that have savanna animals in them instead. I tried to get away from this, but some of my chosen books still have animals in them that aren't really jungle animals. This is definitely true of Do Crocs Kiss?, but it's such a fun book with great opportunities for animal noises, that I decided to just add it anyway. They also often combine African and South American jungle animals in the same stories. This was even more difficult to avoid than the inclusion of savanna animals. So, while jungle is a fun theme, you are not very likely to get an accurate representation of jungle wildlife unless you pull nonfiction books as well!

Click read more for extension activity ideas.

Storytime: Hibernation

Books

Old Bear by Kevin Henkes

Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

Sleep Bear! by Shelby Alinsky

Hibernation by Margaret Hall

This was a really fun theme and a great one for including some nonfiction titles. There are a lot of fantastic books related to hibernation. As you can tell by the covers, most of them feature bears, but Time to Sleep, Hibernation Station, and Hibernation all talk about other animals that hibernate as well. I love Old Bear. It's a sweet story and the illustrations are so lovely!

For extension activities click read more!

Storytime: Dinosaurs II

Books

Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp! by Margaret Mayo

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton

I am NOT a Dinosaur by Will Lach

Dinosaurs from Head to Tail by Stacey Roderick

Dinosaur Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland

Tyrannosaurus Rex vs Edna the very First Chicken by Douglas Rees

I have a big backlog of storytme posts still sitting in my drafts, but this one was easy to get ready to post since I didn't have to take any new photographs for it and there was minimal formatting that needed to be done. As such, I'm posting it first and hoping I can get through some of my backlog in the next couple weeks!

This is my second time doing a dinosaur theme. I was going to wait about a year to recycle any themes, but I saw other librarians doing dinosaur themes for “Dinovember” and I couldn't resist! I used a lot of the same extension activities from my first dinosaur storytime, but I used a completely different set of books and found some new songs and rhymes as well. When I do dinosaur themed storytimes, I like to not have books that include dinosaurs and humans living together and also love to use books that have multiple dinosaur names included as well as nonfiction titles. I am NOT a Dinosaur was a great title to use because it outlines some prehistoric creatures that are often mistakenly identified as dinosaurs (like pteranodon and plesiosaur) which is a great teaching opportunity!

Click read more for the new dinosaur songs and rhymes I found!

Storytime: Mice

Books

Mouse and Hippo by Mike Twohy

Oops Pounce Quick Run by Mike Twohy

Mayday Mouse by Seb Braun

Hide and Squeak by Heather Vogel Frederick

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Mousequerade Ball by Lori Moretensen

There are a lot of great picture books and children's songs about mice. There's also everyone's favorite flannelboard, "Mouse in the House," so this storytime was a definite winner!

Click read more for extension activity ideas

Storytime: Flowers and Garden

Books

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn

What Does Bunny See by Linda Sue park

Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

There are a lot of great books about flowers and gardens out there and it is a perfect theme for Spring or Summer. I did this one in late Spring, even though I'm just getting to posting it now. Plant the Tiny Seed is a fantastic interactive book if you have a small group, though it may not work as well for a larger audience. It was my favorite of the book selections for sure. I used What Does Bunny See in my bunny storytime too, but I brought it back for some of my groups who hadn't read it the first time around.

Click read more for extension activities to go with this theme.

Storytime: Gnomes

Books

Go Big or Go Gnome by Kirsten Mayer

No, No. Gnome by Ashlyn Anstee

Lawn to Lawn by Dan Yaccarino

Good Night, Garden Gnome by Jamichael Henterly

The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren

Pip the Gnome by Admar Kwant

We didn't actually have all of these books at my library. I bought a copy of Pip the Gnome specifically for this storytime and my personal collection at home because I love gnomes! I ended up using it for the toddler storytime, so I'm glad I had it! If you like to use music from CDs or videos with your storytimes, definitely consider using Emily Arrow's "No, No Gnome" song along with the book!

I was so exciting for this storytime that I even dressed up for it both times I ran it, with different gnome themed dresses each time! I dress up for storyimes when I can. I should really try to get more pictures of that since that is what the "lookbook" part of my blog title was supposed to be. 

For extension activities click read more.

Storytime: Eclipse (Sun and Moon)

Books

Sun & Moon: A Giant Love Story by Lisa Desimini

Sun and Moon by Lindsey Yankey

What the Sun Sees/What the Moon Sees by Nancy Tafuri

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle

Sun and Moon Sisters by Kho Lê

Whose Moon is That? by Kim Krans

I have a backlog of other storytime posts to get to, but I wanted to share the eclipse one while it is still relevant! My library is not in the path of totality, but we are getting over 99% coverage with the eclipse coming up on Monday. As such, a lot of the people in the area are very excited about the eclipse. I thought it was only fitting that I do a Sun and Moon themed storytime in celebration. I was even able to find one book that has an eclipse as a central part of the story: Sun & Moon: A Giant Love Story! The rest of the books are simply about the sun and moon. I found a lot of songs about the sun and moon and modified lyrics to some of them to be more eclipse related. For those songs and other extension activities click read more.

Storytime: Cats

Books

Stack the Cats by Susie Ghahremani

Where is Tippy Toes? by Betsy Lewin

Cat Nap by Toni Yuly

Is There a Dog in This Book? by Viviane Schwarz

They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel

Quackers by Liz Wong

After this storytime, Stack the Cats became one of my new favorite books! It's a counting book, but it has so much more than just the standard one to ten. Other math concepts, like division, are included in the way the cats are stacked! A cat theme is very easy to find books for. In addition to Stack the Cats, I really enjoyed They All Saw a Cat for discussing how different animals and people have different perspectives on the same thing. We may see a cute and cuddly pet where a mouse may see a fierce and frightening predator!

For extension activities click read more.

Storytime: Robots

Books

~*1 Robot Lost his Head by Marc Rosenthal

*Bitty Bot by Tad McCanna

~*Hello, Robots by Bob Staake

~Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! by Todd Tarpley

Junkyard by Mike Austin

Sometimes I forget You’re a Robot by Sam Brown

I'm finally finishing this write up though I did the storytime quite a while ago. Books marked with ~ were used for the toddler storytime and ones marked with a * were used for the preschool storytime. There are tons of great books about robots out there so this was a really fun storytime to do! I was inspired to do the theme when I saw Bitty Bot on on the return shelf waiting to be re-shelved in the children's area. It looked so cute and I thought there must be some other fantastic robot books out there. Hello, Robots has some great silly mishaps, so it's a lot of fun to read and have the kids tell you what the robots are doing wrong.

Click read more for extension activities