Virtual Story Time: Spooky Stories -- October 2024

Each month, Miss Amy records a virtual Story Time that goes along with the monthly theme.  It will be posted monthly in the morning of the first Tuesday of the month.  (The video is available to watch for one month before a new one is uploaded.) 

Click HERE for this month's virtual Story Time.

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
The Skeleton in the Closet by Alice Schertle

Books:
Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere

A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown

Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

I Want to Be in a Scary Story by Sean Taylor

There's a Ghost in This House by Oliver Jeffers

Extension Activities:

- Discuss different fears with your child.  Come up with strategies to deal with these fears.

- Have a scavenger hunt with your child.  Hide several plastic spiders throughout an area and ask your child to find them.

- Hold a "scary" movie marathon with child appropriate movies.

All You Need for a Snowman -- 1/24/23

Story Times are held weekly on Monday and Tuesday mornings at 10:00 am.  Online Story Times will be posted monthly in the morning of the first Tuesday of the month.  (The video is available to watch for one month before a new one is uploaded.)

Click HERE for this month's virtual Winter Story Time.

All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle

Books:

The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler

The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

Froggy Builds a Snowman by Jonathan London

Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook

A Really Good Snowman by Daniel J. Mahoney

Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert

Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner

Craft: Looped Snowman

- Print template onto heavy paper or cardstock

- Color pieces

- Glue strips into tear-shaped loops

- Glue small loop to back of snowman's head

- Glue larger loop to back of the smaller loop

Extension Activities:

- Snowmen All Year imagines what a snowman might do for fun.  Ask your child to imagine what a snowman might do throughout the day.

- Try an exercise in creativity by asking your child to find unusual items around the house that could be incorporated into a snowman.

Template --

Virtual Story Time: Monkey Truck by Michael Slack -- 4/27/21

Join us weekly for an online story time featuring a book read by Miss Amy on Tuesdays at 10:00 am.  The video is available to watch for one week before a new one is uploaded.


Click HERE to view the latest video.


Monkey Truck by Michael Slack
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

Books:  (Trucks)

20 Big Trucks in the Middle of the Street by Mark Lee

Food Truck Fest by Alexandra Penfold

How to Track a Truck by Jason Carter Easton

I'm Tough by Kate McMullan

The Little Fire Truck by Margery Cuyler

Mighty Truck by Chris Barton

The Mixed Up Truck by Stephen Savage

Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton

The Runaway No-Wheeler by Peter Stein

Truck Stop by Anne Rockwell

Craft:  Little Blue Truck or Monkey Truck

- Color truck pieces (body and wheels) and craft sticks

- Glue craft sticks to truck as truck bed and circles as wheels

- Optional: Color monkey head and glue to truck cab to make into a Monkey Truck.

Extension Activities:

- Little Blue Truck is about treating others with kindness.  Talk with your child about things we can do show kindness to others.

- Review the different types of transportation we have read about this past month.  See if your child can name any other types of transportation (i.e. helicopter, bicycled, etc.).

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Virtual Story Time: Snowmen -- 1/26/21

Join us weekly for an online story time featuring a book read by Miss Amy on Tuesdays at 10:00 am.  The video is available to watch for one week before a new one is uploaded.

Click HERE to view the latest video.

All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Books:  (Snowmen)

100 Snowmen by Jen Arena

The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler

The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

Froggy Builds a Snowman by Jonathan London

Martin MacGregor's Snowman by Lisa Broadie Cook

One Snowy Morning by Kevin Tseng

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert

Snowmen at Work by Caralyn Buehner

Craft: Snowman Match

- Print and cut out template pieces

- Color pieces of snowmen

- Match shapes together along with the hat that fits those shapes

- Glue shapes together to make three snowmen

Extension Activities:

- Make a snowman by stuffing a water bottle with cotton balls.  Have your child stuff as many cotton balls as they can into the bottle.  Decorate by gluing on buttons, yarn, and paper pieces for the snowman's features.

- Do a science experiment to make a Melting Foam Snowman using baking soda, dish soap, salt, vinegar, and waterproof snowman accessories.  For directions on how to make and melt the Foam Snowman visit https://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/12/foaming-dough-recipe-magic-foaming.html.  

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Snowmen Story Time: January 28-29, 2018

Books:
100 Snowmen by Jen Arena *
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle *
Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright *
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner
Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner


Craft: Melting Snowman Picture
This week's craft is pictured to the left.  Children glued squares of white paper to colored paper to make a melted snowman.  They then could color and glue a hat, two eyes, a nose, and two branch arms to the picture.

Extension Activities --
- Build a snowman.  If you do not have snow outside, you can do a human snowman with plastic trash bags or toilet paper.
- Snowmen at Night and Snowman All Year imagines what snowmen might do for fun.  Ask your child to imagine what their snowman might do throughout the day.

Skeleton Hiccups (Monster) Story Time: October 1-2, 2018

Books:
Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler
Skeleton for Dinner by Margery Cuyler
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler *
The Skeleton in My Closet by Alice Schertle *
Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi *

Craft: Skeleton Picture
Kids glued a skull and small strips of paper (bones) to a simple skeleton outline on a piece of paper.


Literacy Extensions:
- Practice number recognition when doing the craft.  Write numbers on the strips of paper (bones) and have your child glue them to the picture in order.
- Monsters are a common fear for young children.  Discuss reasons we fear things and why we do not need to fear the monsters we are reading about.


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Snowmen Story Time: January 25-26, 2016

Books:
100 Snowmen by Jen Arena
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle *
Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright *
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert *
Snowzilla by Janet Lawler

Craft: Name Snowman
This week's craft was based on the picture at right.  Each child was given enough paper circle snowballs to write out their name.  They also got a snowman's head to color.  All the snowballs were then glued onto a long strip of paper.

Literacy Extension:
- Practice spelling by having your child spell the names of their family members.
- After reading Snowballs and looking at the back of the book at the various items used to make their snowmen, ask your child to gather a bag's worth of items to use for snowmen.


Template for Snowman's Head --

Skeleton Hiccups Story Time: October 20-21, 2014

Books:
Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere
The Skeleton in the Closet by Alice Schertle *
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler *
Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie: A Revolting Rhyme
              by Judy Sierra
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Craft: Skeleton Picture
Children glued cut out bones and a skull to paper with an simple line-drawing skeleton.

Literacy Extensions:
- Talk about why people have / need bones.  Check out a nonfiction, informational book about skeletons and look at the pictures of the different bones in the body.
- Pick a simple recipe and make it with your child - discussing the various steps as you do them (i.e. Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie)

Notes:
This story time is not for children with fears of monsters.  While the children found Skeleton Hiccups funny, several of the children were scared by The Skeleton in the Closet and Bedtime for Monsters.  I suggest reading the books yourself before sharing with your children.

Colors Story Time -- Blue: March 4, 2014

Books:
Blue Chicken by Debrorah Freedman
Chicken Chuck by Bill Martin, Jr. *
Dog Blue by Polly Dunbar *
Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle *

Craft: Feather Headband
We made feather handbands so we could be like Chicken Chuck.  Children colored a paper feather that was then glued to narrows strips of paper into a headband.  A large blue sequin was glued to the headband as the blue seed.

Literacy Extensions:
- See how many things your child can list that are the color blue.
- Go over animal sounds (i.e. Little Blue Truck)

Snowmen Story Time: January 27-28, 2014

Books:
** Note:  Since our Snow Story Time was cancelled earlier this month, I also included a couple of general "snow" books in our story time this week.
All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle *
Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright
Snow by Uri Shulevitz *
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner *
Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner
Snowzilla by Janet Lawlor
Winter Woes by Marty Kelley *

Craft: Snowman
We made a very simple snowman this week.  Children glued together a large circle and a small circle to make the snowman's body.  They then glued on a hat, two boots, and a two long strips for arms.  They could then decorate their snowman by either coloring on its features or gluing on sequins.

Literacy Extensions:
- Try an exercise in creativity by asking your child to find unusual items around the house that could be incorporated into a snowman.
- Work with your child on identifying letters.  Have them point out all the letters that make up the world "snow" on a certain page of a book.  For example, find all the "O"s on the cover of the book, all the "S"s on the title page, etc.