House and Home Storytime

When I began my planning last fall, I was running out of ideas for storytimes.  I've covered so many themes, I simply could  not think of anything new!   So, what did I do?!?!  Why I asked my dear friend for suggestions; one of them being "houses".    "Hmmm", I thought.  "I can't remember the last night I did a storytime on houses."  And so the planning began.

Books were easy.  So many fun ones to choose from!   Here are a few of my favorites:

This Is The House That Jack Built by Pam Adams
*A fun version of this classic, cummulative tale

If the Shoe Fits by Alison Jackson
*The old woman who lives in a shoes wants to move out with her kids, but can't find an accomodating space in this tale featuring many nursery rhyme characters.

Duck at the Door by Jackie Urbanovic
*Max the duck doesn't want to fly south for the winter, so he ends up staying with the human Irene and her animal companions (picture book series).

A great felt board story to share is The Three Little Pigs.   Typically if you do this with a group of preschoolers they are going to know the story and be able to chime in.   Hmm did I say "chime in"???  they'll probably be shouting out the whole story with you.  That's good, active learning!

Next, I needed to come up with a craft project.  What could we do for houses?!?   Finally it dawned on me that we  could design (decorate) house shapes.  I folded over a piece of 9"X18" construction paper and cut out a basic house shape, leaving the folded side pretty much intact so that the house could be "opened" like a card.

To decorate, I left out magazines, markers and scrap paper.  They cut out doors and windows, made beds, and included lots of toys (every house needed toys in it!).   They turned out super cute and were so easy to do!