Traveling storytimes this new school year have gotten off to a great start.  It has been really nice to meet some new children at some of the day cares and to continue to see familiar faces as well.  I continue to be impressed each time as the children join in on the songs and fingerplays and are attentive and interested in the stories being read.

At most houses this month, I started with the big book version of Jump Frog Jump by Robert Kalan, a wonderful interactive story that gets the children to join in and shout “jump frog jump” to help the frog get away.  At the end of the story, the frog is captured in a basket turned upside down and still needs to get away!  This story was followed by a “Five Green and Speckled Frog” fingerplay.

Another story enjoyed this month was Turtle Day by Douglas Florian.  This book simply tells the adventures of a turtle throughout a day, including sunning on a log, playing with other turtles and escaping from big fish.  We followed this book with a fun song about a turtle drinking the water and eating the soap in a bathtub, with the fun chorus of “Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, POP!”

Fireman Fred by Lynne Rowe Reed is another simple story that follows a firefighter as he works with his team to put out a house fire.  When done with this work, Fred finds a stray dog that needs a home.  The dog (and Fred) end up with a lovely solution!  Read the book to find out what happens and then sing “Hurry Hurry, Drive the Firetruck” as you pretend to put out fires together.

Other stories and songs were read and sung at different houses this month depending on requests and needs of the children.