Runaway Rabbit by Ron Maris started us off today. We followed the rabbit as he encountered other animals all around the farm. After this reading, we had fun with the motion song, “Little Bunny Foo Foo” – check out this version! After the Good Fairy turned Little Bunny Foo Foo into a goon, we read a story about a cat that gets turned into something else, Lynne Berry’s The Curious Demise of the Contrary Cat.

This grumpy pet led us into our next book, The Grumpy Pets by Kristine A. Lombardi. We practiced grumpy and happy faces as we read about Billy finding the perfect pup for him! We segued into Bow-Wow Wiggle Waggle by Mary Newell DePalma, a fun read-aloud full of onomatopoeia.

After our rocketship trip to the moon, we watched a farmer take a trip around the farm on his tractor with Will Hillenbrand’s Down by the Barn. The children were very observant during our reading and noticed the plot building in the background of the pictures.

Early literacy tip: picturebooks use the relationship between the words and pictures to tell their stories – even pre-readers can help “read” a picturebook by pointing out what they see in the pictures! Try asking your child a simple question: “What’s happening in this picture?” Follow it up with, “What do you see that makes you say that?” to have them practice their narrative skills! For more on this type of reading, head to The Whole Book Approach or check out Reading Picture Books with Children by Megan Dowd Lambert.

Thanks for joining me for storytime! See you next week!

~*Nicole