What a classic and brilliant theme for storytime! This theme is used in preschools and daycares and much more, so it’s always fun to put a library spin on it! If your library does extension activities with your storytimes, there are a great number to add onto this, both craft and STEAM.
Introduction: With this storytime, there’s so much you can talk about. What kind of animals they’ve seen in their back yard or park during the winter, what kinds of animal tracks have they seen, what do they think animals do to protect themselves from the cold? Then we sing our Hello Song.
Sign of the Day: We learned the sign for polar bear today, which is essentially the signs “white” and “bear” together. The below gif differs from what I learned the word for “white” is.
Book: Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft
I begin with this book because it’s a good introduction to some nonfiction and does a good job of featuring a lot of different and interesting animals.
Song: Let’s All Do a Little Clapping. I change this song up a bit to make it fit the theme. I talk to the kids about how I love nature and like to protect and celebrate it. So I change the end words to “to celebrate (insert the animal)” Then we take animal movements to replace the clapping portion of the song. Some examples would be “Let’s all do a little waddling/to celebrate penguins,” “Let’s all do a little pouncing/to celebrate foxes.”
Book: William’s Winter Nap by Linda Ashman
I love this book, not only because it rhymes and is cumulative– bringing so many great ways to practice and hone early literacy skills– but also because it encourages kindness.
Felt Rhyme: Something in the Snow. With just a few felt pieces, we played a fun guessing game.
There’s something in the snow, now what can it be?
There’s something in the snow that I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound…Aw-ooooo!
A wolf is what I found! Aw-ooooooo!
Other Verses:
…Grrr, Grrr, Grr/ polar bear
…Arrrf, Arrrf, Arrrf/ seal
Whoo, Whoo, Whoo/ snowy owl
…waddle, waddle/ penguin
Book: Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep by Maureen Wright
This is a funny book to end our storytime on! Bear mishears when Old Man Winter tells him to sleep for the winter. Bear obediently completes each misheard task. Afterwards, we talked about hibernation and bears. I used the following prop activity to present a great talking opportunity.
Prop activity: I grabbed a few bear stuffed animals (a brown bear, a black bear, and a polar bear). We talked about the physical differences and then about some of the unseen differences such as their diet and hibernation habits.
Closing: We review our ASL sign of the day and then sing Tickle the Clouds.
More Books to Check Out:
Librarian Ginny 