Story Time Monday

We've started Story Time Mondays again at school this year.  Yesterday I reading fun books about school and libraries, good subjects for the month of September.

In Book! Book! Book! Deborah Bruss tells a cute story of barnyard animals who are bored on the farm so they all go into town to find some action.  When they see happy people outside the public library they decide to go in and find something fun to do.  One by one they each go in to talk to the librarian, but she doesn't understand any of them until the hen comes in and squawks "Book, book, book!"  Then the librarian, thinking the hen wants a book, gives her three to check out and the animals head back to the farm where the all enjoy reading, except for the frog who says "I read it! I read it! I read it!"

This is an an easy book to introduce; simply "quiz" the kids on what noises the various animals make.  Everyone loves to identify and make animal noises, and as long as your chicken noise is "book, book" and not "cluck cluck," they'll understand that sound when they hear you read it in the book.

I like to use this book during the first library times of the year since it promotes in a fun way the idea that books and librarians are fun and interesting.

The Kindergarten students heard a different book, this one about Morris the Moose who wants to buy candy.  But he doesn't know how to read signs so he walks into the fish store instead of the candy store, and he doesn't know how to count so he can't count his pennies to see if he has enough money for the candy he wants.  The salesman says "Don't you go to school?" so Morris decides he should do that.  Being a moose, he has some entertaining adventures as he tries to fit into school life, but he (and his sainted teacher) hang in there and he does learn to read and count.  The final scenes show him making a very successful visit to the candy store, all because of what he learned at school.   

The kids like this book because they get to count and read letters along with Morris, and because it shows them how great it is to be able to read and do basic math.  

But mostly they like it because it's funny.  As a matter of fact, a 5th grader who was in the library today picked it up off the Preschool display rack and read it, chuckling away to himself, and then checked it out, I guess to share with a brother or sister at home.