Traveling storytimes to Family Day Cares in Chelmsford continued this month with great visits to many homes.  The children are usually pretty excited when I walk in the door and they quickly sit down, ready for the stories and songs.  During the past few weeks, the children have heard a few books about animals and people having birthdays!  After the story, I pull out a birthday cake (made of paper) and the children do some counting and put candles on the cake.  We sing Happy Birthday to the bunny in the book or even to a child that is having a birthday soon.  “Happy Birthday” is always a fun song to sing and brings great smiles as we all think about birthdays and cake and all that goes with it!

Another fun book that has been making the rounds lately has been Hi, Pizza Man!  First we talk about how a pizza can get delivered to your home.  Some friends are familiar with this and others are hearing about it for the first time.  We have fun with the book as we keep turning the pages to find out who might be delivering the pizza.  The book ends with many of us hungry for pizza!

Often the family day care provider has a few questions about ways to incorporate more literacy activities into their program.  I always make sure to have time to chat with the provider and together we come up with some ideas that feel comfortable to try to implement.  When I return the following month, I often get great reports of how the activities went for the provider and the children.

Some of the books from this month have included