St. Patrick's Day Storytime

  

I've received a few emails recently about my SurLaLune Storytime pages hidden away on the main SurLaLune site. Apparently the area has many fans of its own. The pages are webpages from my personal notebook of the odds and ends I gathered when I presented several storytimes a week as a children's librarian. I haven't updated it very often with new titles, but it is filled with songs and finger plays as well as book suggestions for many, many storytime themes. I had never posted the St. Patrick's Day page so the emails were searching for it since it was missing. This week I programmed it and now it is online.

I found some more books that appear suitable for toddler and preschool, but when I was doing storytimes, I mostly had to stick with a color green theme because most of the books are either too small format for a storytime setting or way too wordy for a young audience. Hooray for St. Patrick's Day! (Lift-the-Flap, Puffin) was fine for toddlers, for example, but it's a small book and was horrible for reading to a group of people.

  

Despite all my best efforts genealogically, I haven't a touch of Irish blood in me although we believe my husband has some way back--most of his family is Pre-Revolutionary War--so we're talking way far back. Still, so many of us enjoy the day who have zero blarney blood. I'm sporting green nail polish this week (well, I do most weeks if it's not blue) and I am already anticipating at least one meal or more of corned beef and cabbage. Believe it or not, my favorite rendition in recent years was at Cracker Barrel where the cabbage was not so overcooked it was disgusting. Besides, my friends and family are not obliged to eat the same dish if we eat out. Apparently, not everyone is a fan of cabbage which I rather adore if it is cooked well. I cook it it in other dishes but prefer not to cook corned beef myself since I don't do it often enough to be competent. Although I am tempted when I see it in the store, I just don't cook a variety of meats often enough. I'm not a vegetarian, but a lot of my cooking imitates one.

  

So here are some books, many of these pictured here are not for preschoolers, as well as the link to the storytime page if you are looking for some inspiration for celebrating the day with a young one or ones next week.

Deal of the Day: Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics (Scholastic Storybook Treasures)

Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics (Scholastic Storybook Treasures) (Thinpak) is the Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day. It is usually $77.49 for the sixteen DVD collection, but today it is $44.99.  If I didn't already own most of them, I would snatch this one up. I have used these DVDs many times over the years and I can even justify sharing it here because many of the stories in the collection are fairy tales.

If you are interested in a smaller set, they have also released Treasury of 25 Storybook Classics: Fairytales, Magic... and More! (Scholastic Storybook Treasures) is not a Gold Box Deal but it is comprised of fairy tales specifically.  I believe all of these are in the larger collection, too.

25 magical children's stories are faithfully adapted and brought to life in this 4-DVD collection. From James Marshall's zany fairytales to classic stories by Hans Christian Anderson, to classic folk tales, parents and children alike are sure to enjoy these storybook treasures brought to life and featuring celebrity narration by John Lithgow, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Christopher Lloyd, and many more!

The James Marshall Collection
Includes:
Red Riding Hood
James Marshall's Cinderella
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Little Pigs
Hansel and Gretel
Space Case

The Hans Christian Andersen Collection
Includes:
The Ugly Duckling
The Emperor's New Clothes
Nightingale
The Red Shoes
The Little Match Girl
The Swineherd

Rapunzel ...and more classic fairytales
Includes:
Rapunzel
The Elves and the Shoemaker
The Talking Eggs
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story From China
Princess Furball

Strega Nona ...and more stories about magic
Includes:
Strega Nona
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
The Stonecutter
The Amazing Bone
Teeny-Tiny and the Witch Woman

But I recommend the entire set.  Owning the video versions of Goodnight Gorilla and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight (Jane Yolen narrates it herself) and several others is worth the price of admission alone.  And, no, they don't replace the books but they can be used to enhance the reading experience.  These days I can't read Goodnight Gorilla without the lovely music from the DVD in my head.

It would also make a great gift for a teacher in your life.  My sister used these in her first grade classroom regularly before she became a full-time mom.

Finger Puppet Fun: Artfelt

Yesterday's post of handmade felt finger puppets reminded me of my favorite resource for quality handmade finger puppets. I learned about Artfelt when I worked as a librarian in California and was quickly converted by the materials, especially the flannel board. I had always hated doing flannel boards until I started using this board and many of the kits.

The puppets are sewn to be used either as finger puppets or as flannel board pieces. They adhere very well to a flannel surface. And in fitting with the blog, here are the fairy tale themed kits that are available, although several more with other themes are also produced.


The Three Little Pigs

Goldilocks and the Three Bears


A Gingerbread Man Story-Rhyme Arfelt also has rhymes and stories with each set and I have used the Gingerbread Man one several times over the years to tell the story.

"Once there was a Gingerbread Man,
Baking in a gingerbread pan,
Rasin eyes and cherry lips,
Trimmed right down to his finger tips.
A Gingerbread Man in a gingerbread pan!"

The Three Billy Goats Gruff


And this isn't a fairy tale, but this set is the one I've used so much that I have two just in case pieces disappear. It's a favorite and I still receive emails and inquiries about it. It's Five Elephants in a Bathtub. See my Elephant story time ideas on SurLaLune Storytime. Mouse Paint runs a close second though...


And finally the boards. They come in two colors and two sizes. I have this blue one and treasure it. I used it over Christmas for some activities. It's heavyweight but folds flat so it is easy to store. It also doesn't tip over when placed on a flat surface, so it is safer around the toddlers who manage to knock over so much with no sharp corners to cut skin like so many of the metal framed versions do from other resources. The pyramid shape also allows for easy prestaging on the backside (both sides are covered in high quality felt) or puppets can be hidden in the interior. Love it.

I imagine the puppets I featured yesterday would also work well as flannel board pieces since they are made of high quality felt, too.

I am not affiliated with Artfelt--I'm just a fan and I have ordered from them for many years. My flannel board is about seven years old now--I bought my own after leaving the library--and it still looks almost new despite much traveling and usage.

Princess and the Pea Craft

After digging through my files, I rediscovered this craft that I regularly used for Bedtime themed storytimes when I was working as a children's librarian. This was always a favorite with kids and parents, especially after hearing the tale by Hans Christian Andersen. With summer here and so many children out of school, I thought I'd clean it up a little and create a new pattern to share here.

When I used this craft with large groups, we used wallpaper scraps to create the mattresses as you can see in the completed image above which was made for me by one of the girls who regularly attended my storytimes.

For the SurLaLune version of the pattern, I've created some mattresses out of clip art patterns that can be colored. The bottom blank is the base of the bed or can be used as a pattern for cutting mattresses out of different paper. Of course, the bedposts and base also are wonderful when made out of brown construction paper. The possibilities for adaptation are endless, but if all you have is a printer and some white paper, that's all you need to create this craft. Don't forget to draw a pea or paste a split pea below the lowest mattress. Enjoy!



I've made the craft available in full size in three different file formats:

Princess and the Pea JPG

Princess and the Pea GIF

Princess and the Pea PNG

Printing Tips: If you are on a PC, right click over the image to get a menu and save it to your computer. Then use a photo editor program to print it without any clipping of the image. Printing it from the internet browser will most likely cause clipping unless you adjust your printer settings to print to size. Or you can copy and paste the image to a word processing program such as Word and then adjust margins to avoid clipping before printing.

This is a smaller version of the pattern for illustration purposes only. Use the links above to get bigger images.