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HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN’S BOOKS PRESENTS PICTURE PERFECT STORYTIME People have been telling stories since the beginning of time, in many different places and in many different ways. Share the power of these stories with new listeners! TEN TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL STORYTIME 1. Choose books and materials that make you excited 8. After finishing the book, spend a few minutes about storytime. The children will pick up on your talking with your group. Ask them questions to enthusiasm and follow your lead. see if they’ve made any connections with previous knowledge, or answer new questions that might 2. Plan a variety of activities during storytime. Know have come up during the book. Let your group that every storytime group will have different needs. react and process the book together. If you overplan your storytime, you will be prepared if a group needs to be more active. 9. Get up and move once you finish a book. Your group will likely be ready for an activity after sitting for a 3. Define your storytime space. Use a rug or chairs and book. This is especially important if you’re reading cushions to show the area where you’ll be reading. to younger children who have a harder time sitting Before beginning storytime, set expectations for still. your listeners so they’ll know how to behave during storytime. 10. Once your storytime is over, take some time within the next day to evaluate how it went. If this is a 4. Practice reading the book aloud before taking it consistent group of children that you see on a into storytime. Make note of any tricky passages or regular basis, jot down notes about what elements difficult words to read. Use sticky notes attached to worked well or what you would change for next the back of the book to remind yourself of questions time. you want to ask the group or facts/details you want to point out. 5. Use an opening routine to help children realize that storytime is starting. This may be a song that you sing together, a rhyme like “Crisscross Applesauce,” or it can even be putting a magic reading hat on your head. 6. Introduce the book by reading the title. Depending on the age of the group, include the author and illustrator as well. Ask the children what they think the story will be about based on the front cover. Follow up with these predictions at the end. 7. Take natural pauses as you read the book. Ask questions, call attention to smaller details in the illustrations, define new vocabulary words, and check the children to make sure that the group is following the story line. www.harpercollinschildrens.com Storytime tips prepared by Katie Salo, an Early Literacy Librarian in the Chicago suburbs. Art copyright © 2018 by Holly Hatam. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. THE DIGGER AND THE FLOWER BY JOSEPH KUEFLER ABOUT THE BOOK Each day, the big trucks go to work. They scoop and hoist and push. But when Digger discovers something growing in the rubble, he sets in motion a series of events that will change him, and the city, forever. STORYTIME ACTIVITIES • WE BUILT THIS CITY: In the story, the trucks construct • PLANT A SEED: Digger was heartbroken when Dozer cut tall buildings, roadways, and bridges. Provide small down the little flower. But when he noticed the seeds groups of children with building materials such as left behind, Digger knew he could preserve the flower’s blocks, Legos, magnetic tiles, or cardboard. Ask life cycle. After discussing this with the children, have the children to collaborate, design, and build a city them plant flower seeds and take them home. Ask them together. Then have them write about it, including to observe the plants as they grow. Ask the children if creating a name for their city and providing descriptions they can identify the seeds in the plant. Ask parents to of some of the city’s components. Provide kids with an gather the seeds from the flower and plant them so the opportunity to view and read about each other’s cities. children can perpetuate their flower’s life cycle. • TRUCK STOP: This story features a crane, a bulldozer, • FABULOUS FLOWERS: Assign small groups of children and an excavator/digger. Introduce the kids to different a color. Have them research different types of flowers kinds of construction vehicles. Then have the children of this color. For example, the group that researches choose a vehicle to draw, label, and cut out. They can flowers such as the little blue flower in this book might glue the vehicle onto another piece of paper and add a name the delphinium, morning glory, and cornflower. brief description about its function. Collate the pages Have each group create a poster that includes at least into a book. eight flowers having that color. • PARK IT: Discuss how the story ended. Where did Digger plant the seeds? What happened to the flowers? Then show the children a map of Manhattan. Ask if they can identify the large green rectangle in the center of Manhattan (Central Park) and discuss how the city built in this book could have been designed differently. Ask the children if they think it would have been possible to include a garden or park in this city. Why or why not? www.harpercollinschildrens.com Art copyright © 2018 by Joseph Kuefler. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. WHAT’S COOKING, MOO MOO? BY TIM MILLER ABOUT THE BOOK Moo Moo serves up another half-baked scheme—and loyal Mr. Quackers goes along for the ride—in this madcap follow-up to Moo Moo in a Tutu. Bon appétit! STORYTIME ACTIVITIES • RESTAURANT ROW: Ask the children to imagine they are • FOOD FAIR: Hold a Food Fair by asking the children to opening a restaurant. Have them choose a name for their bring in one of their favorite foods. Each food should restaurant and create a menu by drawing and labeling be accompanied by a recipe and ingredient list (in 6–8 foods they would “serve” at their restaurant. Then case children in the group have allergies). Discuss have the kids add prices to their menu items. Young which foods were new to children and why they liked children should price items 10 cents or less, while older each other’s contributions. Collate the recipes into a children can use larger amounts. Then divide the group cookbook. in half and explain that one group of children will be “customers” going to a restaurant and “ordering” food, • TAKE A VACATION: Moo Moo and Mr. Quackers decide while the other group will be the “restaurant owners.” to go on vacation, but it doesn’t turn out to be the kind The owners should have order pads (staple several small of vacation Mr. Quackers envisioned. Ask the children sheets of lined paper onto a piece of tagboard). When to write about their ideal vacation destination. Where the customers “order” their food, the owners should would they go? Why? What would they do there? record their choices on the order pad. Then they must total up the bill. The customers can use plastic coins • BANK ON IT: Moo Moo finds Mr. Quackers’ piggy to “pay” for their food. Then have the children switch bank filled with his life savings and decides to buy a roles so that everyone has an opportunity to be both restaurant. Ask the children to think about what they an owner and a customer. would do with their life savings. Have them “turn and talk” with a partner to share their ideas. Then have the children design a bank they can use for saving their allowance, birthday money, etc. Banks can be made from materials such as cartons, plastic containers, or boxes. • SAME AND DIFFERENT: Ask the children to think about Moo Moo’s and Mr. Quackers’ personality traits. How are the two characters alike? How are they different? Have children discuss this in small groups. Then ask the children to think about which character is more like themselves and explain why in writing. www.harpercollinschildrens.com Art copyright © 2018 by Tim Miller. Permission to reproduce and distribute this page has been granted by the copyright holder, HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. WIDE-AWAKE BEAR BY PAT ZIETLOW MILLER ILLUSTRATED BY JEAN KIM ABOUT THE BOOK Every baby bear knows the warmth of spring only comes after sleeping through the cold of winter. For little cub Elliott, however, it’s not that easy. First, something tickles his nose, rousing him from a dream, and then every shadow, noise, and passing thought keeps him up. No amount of fluffing of his pillow or tossing and turning will help. He even tries nudging his mom out of her slumber! But he’s . Still. Wide. Awake. STORYTIME ACTIVITIES • WHO HIBERNATES?: Discuss why animals hibernate. will be writing a “how-to” story describing how to fall Then, in small groups or individually, have the children asleep. Introduce the temporal words first, next, then, research and write about animals that hibernate. They and finally, and have the children use these words in should include a drawing of their chosen animal and their story. list several facts about it. Then these pages can be collated into a book. • HOLDING PATTERN: After reading the story, ask the children to recall what part of the story keeps repeating • SUPER SPLENDID SYNONYMS: The author sometimes (“Still.

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