Fall for a Fantastic Fall Baby and Toddler Story Time!

The first book that I read for my baby and toddler story time was Full of Fall by April Pulley Sayre. This delightful nonfiction book depicts how the leaves change into yellow, orange, and red colors and then fall onto the ground "they drift and dry; their edges curl" and how in the water "they float and sink; snag and swirl". There are pictures of how the leaves fade, brown, and decompose, and the book ends with "Oh. Hello, snow!" The photographs are breathtakingly beautiful and there are two pages of bullet point facts about fall at the end; explaining how and why leaves change their colors.

This book can also be used to help teach colors by asking the children what colors the various different leaves are. 

This book may work better for a preschool story time because my babies and toddlers started to get restless halfway through while they were listening to the book. 

The second book that I read was In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes. The colorful and vibrant pictures depict the season of fall from the middle of fall until winter's arrival. Pictures of brightly colored leaves, frisky squirrels, brown dying sunflowers, bright red apples, and round orange pumpkins help to illustrate the season. The text is short and simple, but descriptive. I also like Kevin Henkes' book When Spring Comes. 

Kitten's Autumn by Eugenie Fernandes tells the story of a fall day in kitten's life through illustrations that resemble collages. The story shows how the other animals, for example how chipmunk, hummingbird, bear, beaver, and raccoon eat their meals. At the end of the story, kitten eats his meal by the fireside. 

Leaf Jumpers by Carole Gerber is a nonfiction book that illustrates the following types of leaves: red maple, sugar maple, white oak, basswood, birch, willow, gingko, and sycamore. The illustrations show a puzzled dog watching the leaves falling, children watching and collecting the falling leaves, and jumping into a huge leaf pile! A page about how and why leaves turn colors along with the various types of leaves appears at the back of the book. This book would be good for a preschool story time as well. 

Tree Story Time!

Today, I did a preschool story time with the theme of trees. It was a lot of fun for both me and the kids! 

The first book that I read was Shake the Tree! by Chiara Vignocchi. This delightful story starts with a mouse who sees a nut in the tree. He decides to shake the tree a little to the right and a little to the left to get the nut ..... but a fox falls out! The fox decides to eat the mouse, so the mouse runs right back up that tree! Then the fox shakes the tree and down falls a warthog! After the fox runs up the tree, the warthog shakes the tree and a bear falls out. When the bear shakes the tree all of the animals, all of the leaves, and the nut fall to the ground. Everyone is relieved and happy when the bear decides to eat the nut. It's fun to read this story and shake the book a little bit to the right and a little bit to the left as you read it. Also, this story is very interactive. You can ask the children the following questions: 
1. Who fell out of the tree?
2. Who ran up the tree?
3. Who wants to eat the nut?
4. Who wants to eat whom?

I finally got around to making a flannel board version of Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. The leaves for the trees that I made were loosely based on his illustrations. I added red leaves with pink hearts and blue leaves with white clouds. I kept the spring leaves, summer leaves, rainbow leaves, smiley face leaves, and jack o lantern leaves. This book is about a tree that has trouble changing its leaves in fall into the traditional fall colors of red, yellow, and orange. In the book, the tree never succeeds into changing into the fall colors, but in my flannel board it does. 

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson is one of my favorite story time books, along with her other book: Touch the Brightest Star. During the winter, you and the children tap the tree for leaves to grow! Rubbing the tree brings beautiful pink buds to the tree and touching each bud causes the buds to bloom. Give the tree a jiggle and watch the blooms fall off! Shake the tree to cause the red apples to fall. Pat the leaves and blow a breeze to get golden, red, and orange leaves. Clap your hands to bring the snow! Be patient as the bluebird builds a nest and lays a beautiful turquoise egg - your reward is a baby bluebird! 

Alternate Books: 

The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward 

Tree: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup 

Fall Baby Lap Time!

I am so happy to be presenting a baby lap time again! Today, I presented a baby lap time at the Covenant House in Washington, DC. The babies, caretakers, and I had a wonderful time! More baby lap times will be forthcoming.
Normally I only read one or two board books at the most during a baby lap time, but today I read three because a second group of babies joined us when the baby lap time was halfway over.

Fall by Ailie Busby introduces babies to fall by mentioning the delights you can experience on an autumn day, such as collecting acorns, kicking leaves, picking blackberries, and collecting apples, pears, and pumpkins in a wheelbarrow.

In Duck & Goose Find A Pumpkin by Tad Hills, duck and goose look everywhere for a pumpkin! They look in a leaf pile, in the apple tree, under the water, and on top of a stump. Then Thistle walks by and suggests that they try the pumpkin patch.

In The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri, squirrel is too busy to nibble a pumpkin with mouse, rest on a branch with bird, hop rocks with frog, lie in the sun with cat, run in the field with dog, and watch the moon with owl. At the end of the day, squirrel is fast asleep.
You can't have a baby lap time without a lot of songs and rhymes. In my baby lap time today, we did the following: Bumping Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Two Little Blackbirds Sitting on a Hill, Five Little Ducks, Tony Chestnut, and Roll, Roll, Roll Your Hands.
If you're not familiar with Two Little Blackbirds Sitting on a Hill, this is how it goes:
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,
One named Jack.
One named Jill.
Fly away, Jack.
Fly away, Jill.
Come back, Jack.
Come back, Jill.
I held up two fingers to represent the blackbirds.
If you're not familiar with Roll, Roll, Roll Your Hands, this is how it goes (Tune: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"):
Roll, roll, roll your hands
As slowly as can be.
Roll, roll, roll your hands
Slowly just like me.
Roll, roll, roll your hands
As quickly as can be,
Roll, roll, roll your hands
Quickly just like me.
I used two other verses; one with clap your hands and one with shake your hands.
I found some other board books about Autumn that I liked, but did not read. These books are the following:

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell

In My Tree by Sara Gillingham is also good as a one on one read aloud book because baby can pat the soft fluffy baby owl throughout the story.

Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

I Love Fall! by Alison Inches is also good as a one on one read aloud book because baby can rub the soft scarf, pat the smooth pumpkin, feel the shiny pie tin, touch the leaves, and feel the smooth wicker on the fall basket.

Fall Story Time!

Hocus Pocus, It's Fall! by Anne Sibley O'Brien features beautiful illustrations with eleven gatefolds that open to reveal even more beautiful illustrations. All you have to do to get them to open is to say the magic words, such as the following: Alakazam!, Open sesame!, Abracadabra!, and Shazam! The page with the picture of the "spiky pods that are brown and dried" opens to reveal the fluffy white seeds floating and drifting away from the pods. Other gatefolds include the following: a beautiful bunch of trees with red, orange and yellow leaves; children and a dog playing in piles of fallen leaves; chipmunks storing nuts; and an apple pie that wins first place at the fair! The children enjoyed saying the magic words and guessing what the scenes in the gatefolds might be.

Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson tells the story of Mouse and Minka playing in piles of fallen leaves. While I was reading the book, the children helped me identify the colors of the leaves and count the leaves. We also identified the shapes of leaves and found Minka when Minka was hidden in a leaf pile.

We finished story time with Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley. In this story, a tree tries to change its leaves into the traditional colors of fall leaves: yellow, orange, and red. Instead it changes into a rainbow tree, a happy face, a tree with purple and yellow leaves, a tree with red and white leaves, a hamburger tree, a tree with blue and green leaves, and a jack-o-lantern tree. The children had fun pointing out the different leaves and patterns on the tree and laughing.
I didn't read the following books at story time, but they were books that I picked out as possible story time books.

Leaves by David Ezra Stein tells the story of Bear's first fall. He doesn't understand why the leaves are falling and he tries to catch the leaves and put them back on the tree. As he grows sleepy, he fills a hole in the ground and hibernates during his first winter. When he wakes up in the spring, he is happy to see the budding leaves and the leaves that have just started to unfold. He enthusiastically welcomes them!

In Little Tree by Loren Long, a little tree's leaves turn yellow, orange, and red, along with the rest of the trees. But even though the rest of the trees drop their leaves, Little Tree is afraid to do so. He hangs on tightly to his! A squirrel, a doe, a duckling, and a fox try to get Little Tree to drop his leaves, but he refuses. But when Little Tree can no longer feel the sunlight and can no longer hear the mourning dove's song, he drops his leaves. Eventually, he grows into a great big tree.

In the Middle of Fall by Kevin Henkes, is a book with beautiful and amazing illustrations by Laura Dronzek that show the beginning, middle, and end of fall. Apples are described as ornaments and other pages feature bright orange, yellow, and red leaves, frisky squirrels, a gray sky, brown gardens, and big round orange pumpkins. This book would make a good one on one read aloud.