Surefire Read-Aloud Hits: the MO Building Block Picture Book Award
The Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award is sponsored by the Missouri Library Association’s Youth Services Community of Interest. The Award was created to help Missouri public libraries focus on the importance of picture books to foster reading aloud to children. By reading aloud to children we encourage language development and pre-reading skills and development of visual perception/discrimination.
By offering this award’s nominees each year we hope to provide parents, caregivers, and teachers of young children an introduction to a variety of authors and illustrators of quality books, with diverse themes, cultures and topics.
This past year, with thanks to schools and libraries across the state we had over 20,000 children vote on the Building Block Award. With your help, we hope to continue to increase the number of children who participate next year and beyond.
More information on the Missouri Building Block Award, along with related books and activities to use with each nominee can be found at http://molib.org/awards/buildingblock/index.html
The Missouri Library Association has created a listserv dedicated to the award to which we invite you to subscribe. You can find more info at http://molib.org/membership/index.html#email
If you’re interested in participating in the Building Block committee, either as a member/reader or as a listener, please feel free to contact Julie Schwartz , 2012 Chair, or Amy Held, , 2013 Chair.
How to Vote:
The voting period runs from September 1 until December 31. The award is designed for kindergarteners and younger, but any child who benefits from the Building Block Award may vote for their favorite title from the list. Children must listen to at least 5 of the 10 nominees before voting. If there are just a handful of children voting, the easiest way to vote is to go to our website and submit each individual vote electronically. The electronic component of our website will be available starting September 1. If a whole classroom or grade level votes, send the total number of votes for each book by email, mail, or fax to the Awards Chair. The Awards Chair for 2013 is:
Jerilyn Hahn
Callaway County Public Library
710 Court Street
Fulton, MO 65251
Phone: 573-642-7261
Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award 2013 Nominees
http://molib.org/awards/buildingblock/index.html
Even more great ideas!
I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black
• Talk about all of the things that kids can do. Have the kids make and decorate dice (I made mine out of cheese boxes) and make labels for 6 of the things that they can do (I used: jump, clap, stomp, spin, wiggle, stretch…other ideas: sing abc’s, count to 10, etc.). Kids add numbers and labels to the dice and roll the dice to find out what to do and how many times to do it. You can also do this collectively in story or circle time with giant dice.
• Make a Mr. Potato Head bag puppet. Let kids choose which eyes, nose, mouth, hair, etc. to use on their puppet. Get printable templates for the various body parts here: http://mimiandtheboy.blogspot.com/2011/04/potato-head-bags.html
• Make flamingo and potato stick puppets and let the kids act out what they think will happen next in the story.
Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj
• Play Copy Cats: Choose one child to be the Cat and do an action in front of the group. (clap, jump, make a silly face, etc.) The other children watch and listen and then become the “Copy Cats,” imitating whatever the “Cat” does. Rotate until each child has a chance to be the cat.
• Scat the Cat flannel story
• By Dr. Jean Feldman
http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2009/02_Feb/pg16.html
I’m Scat the Cat.
I’m sassy and fat!
And I can change my color,
Just like that!
• Pair with Pretend You’re a Cat by Jean Marzollo; kids can imitate many different animals.
• Play a version of the song “Alley Cat” and have the kids dance like cats. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fFf0ClVLao
• Make a cat bag to keep your cat secrets in (great idea courtesy Summer’s Stories Bookstore in Indiana). Add cat ears, eyes, whiskers & mouth to a paper bag.
Who’s Who? by Ken Geist
• Create an animal pairs matching game. There’s a great printable template on the “Signing Time” website that includes instructions for signing the names of each of the animals pictured: http://bit.ly/XSOxyF
• Sing a version of “Two Little Blackbirds” using pairs of different colored birds, as described at the “Fun with Friends at Storytime” blog:http://kdr4xmom.blogspot.com/2013/02/little-birdies.html
Two little blue birds sitting on a hill...named Jack and Jill
Two little red birds sitting on a wall...named Pam and Paul
Two little yellow birds sitting in a tree...named Doug and Dee
Two little purple birds sitting on a stone...named Jeff and Joan
Two little green birds flying to a cloud...named Quiet and LOUD!
Two little pink birds hopping on the ground... named Up and Down.
Two little orange birds flying in the air...named Cliff and Clare.
• Play a flannel board matching game. Hand out flannel board pieces of different animals. Sing “The More We Get Together” with a different verse for each animal (“The more owls get together, the happier they’ll be”). Kids put their flannel piece on the board while you’re singing the appropriate verse.
Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton
• Pair with other favorite “George” books: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer, Curious George by H.A. Rey and George and Martha by James Marshall.
• Decorate a milk carton doghouse for George. Make a George stick puppet and that can go in and out of the doghouse.
• Use the following fingerplay:
One little, two little, three little kittens were napping in the sun (hold up three fingers)
One little, two little three little puppies said “Let’s have some fun! (hold up three fingers of other hand)
Up to the kittens the puppies went creeping, as quiet as could be (creep puppy fingers up to kitten fingers)
One little, two little, three little kittens went scampering up a tree! (climb kitten fingers quickly upward)
• Have the kids pretend to be puppies (on all fours), and do this action rhyme:
Puppy dog, puppy dog, turn around
Puppy dog, puppy dog, paw the ground
Puppy dog, puppy dog, sit and beg.
Puppy dog, puppy dog, shake your leg!
Puppy dog, puppy dog, scratch those fleas.
Puppy dog, puppy dog, do bark, please!
Puppy dog, puppy dog, wag your tail
Puppy dog, puppy dog, don’t you wail!
Puppy dog, puppy dog, say good night.
Puppy dog, puppy dog, curl up tight!
It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle
• Make a paper plate tiger mask: http://specialpreschool.blogspot.com/2012/02/roar.html.
• Sing this song, written by Sandra Andert, to the tune of “Did You Ever See a Lassie?” Guitar chords are included.
F
Oh once, there was a tiger,
C7 F
A tiger, a tiger,
Oh once there was a tiger
C7 F
With black and orange stripes.
C7 F
He growled and growled,
C7 F
And roared and prowled.
Oh once, there was a tiger
C7 F
With black and white stripes.
• Have the kids clap their hands on their knees to create a beat, then chant this rhyme. This idea comes courtesy the Perry Public Library. Find more ideas here: http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/95
Down in the jungle with the beat in your feet,
Think of an animal that you’d like to meet.
(Have kids shout out a jungle animal)
A tiger, a tiger! I want to meet a tiger!
ROAR!
Keep going, naming animals and using your growls, screeches, hoots and roars!
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin
• Watch Michael Levine tell the story and sing the song on the Youth Services Community of Interest page of the Missouri Library Association website - http://molib.org/ci/ya/
• Find lots of great ideas on the Missouri Building Block Pinterest page, including the Pete the Cat flannel with popping buttons, and Counting Buttons with Pete –
http://pinterest.com/mobuildingblock/2013-pete-the-cat-and-his-four-groovy-buttons-by-e/
• Teach your kids how to count in sign language. You can use this over and over again with counting rhymes and songs – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_swqFWSc-E
• Share an old folk song from 1893– The Cat Came Back. Sheet music for a kid’s version can be found at Kididdles - http://www.kididdles.com/pdf/catcamebacksheet%20Music.pdf
One Special Day by Lola M. Schaefer
• Sing John Brown’s Baby with motions - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn4WtdTN4SI
• Make a color sorter with a cardboard egg carton - http://pinterest.com/pin/547257792189650312/. This would make a great activity for big brothers and sisters to set up for little brothers and sisters.
• Make a baby doll puppet and make and decorate an envelope bed to tuck baby into.
• Dance (and bounce!) to the Caspar Babypants song “Bounce Your Baby”
Find a Cow Now by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
• Are you incorporating digital elements into your storytimes? The app Nursery Rhymes with Storytime by ustwo has a great interactive version of Hey Diddle Diddle.
• Cow Song by Anitra Steele from Kansas City Public Library
(roughly to the tune of Polly Wolly Doodle)
C G
We have a cow down on our farm, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.
C
She gives milk without alarm, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.
G
One day she got caught in a frozen stream, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.
C
Ever since then she’s given ice cream, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.
• Tell the story, Too Much Noise, as a flannel story. I use a simplified version called Too Noisy! by Sonja Lamut.
• Do a super simple dog origami - http://www.keystoneblind.org/wiseweb/images/origami_sm.gif
Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas
• Sing the lullaby – you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjX94kOX23c. I’ve also given you the sheet music for those of you who want to try to play an instrument for the kids!
• If you go with a cowboy theme, you can make a horseshoe from the pattern in the 2004 Summer Reading Program Manual – Discover New Trails. I print it on cardstock, cut it out, and then let the kids cover with foil. If you want, they can then decorate with markers.
• Or you could go with an all Jan Thomas theme. She has some amazing ideas at her website - http://www.janthomasbooks.com/thingstodo.html
The Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems
• You could go with a cookie theme and use books like Cookie Count, a great pop-up by Robert Sabuda.
• Sing the Sesame Street Cookie Monster song, C is for Cookie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8mB6VsUHw. I’ve included the chords for those who are instrumentally inclined.
• Play a gingerbread cookie game. Each child gets a copy of the gingerbread man. In teams, they take turns rolling a die, whatever number they get, they color in a space with the matching number. The first to color in his/her whole cookie is the winner.
http://pinterest.com/pin/547257792189753551/
• Make a cookie puzzle with large craft sticks. Tape the sticks together side by side into a square. Have kids draw a cookie on the flat surface with washable markers, encourage them to decorate with bright colored chips that cross the lines. Remove the tape and the kids have a puzzle they can put together again and again.
• You could go with a Pigeon theme and use lots of great ideas from Mo Willems website - http://www.mowillems.com/