Early Literacy Tip: Before you read a book together, ask your child what they think will happen in the story. For example, for the book You Don’t Want a Unicorn? you could ask if they would like a unicorn, and why it might not be a good idea to have one. Making predictions about a text is an important skill for building reading comprehension, and also a great way to engage kids in the story, to see if their predictions come true.
This week we had fun celebrating underpants and unicorns in our Letter U Storytime.
As usual, we started by writing an upper and lower-case U in the air together, and then talking about the different sounds that the letter U makes. When I asked the kids if they could think of any letter U words, they suggested us, up, and usually. I also pulled a few things out of a paper bag: a toy unicorn, a utensil (spoon), and a paper drink umbrella.
Secret Words: At the end of storytime, I had the kids pick a slip of paper with a “secret word.” They included: up, underwear, unicorn, and umbrella.
Books:
Polar Bear’s Underwear by tupera tupera
This is a cute, funny book featuring a polar bear and his friend mouse who are trying to find polar bear’s missing underwear. They find many different types of underwear, but they all belong to different animals. Finally, polar bear realizes that he’s already wearing his underwear. He just can’t see them because they are white. The kids at Family Storytime enjoyed trying to guess the animal who owned each pair of underwear.
Those Are Not My Underpants by Melissa Martin; illustrated by Troy Cummings
I read this one at Outdoor Musical Storytime in place of Polar Bear’s Underwear (mostly because the outdoor group is so large and spread out, and this book relies slightly less on the illustrations). In this story, a baby bear is trying to find the owner of a pair of underpants that was hanging on a tree. He asks lots of different animals, who each explain why it couldn’t be their underpants (it’s not smelly enough for Skunk; Snake only wears long underwear, etc.). In the end, his mother points out that they are HIS underpants. The kids laughed at several of the animals in underwear.
Upside Down Animals by Danielle McLean and Matt Hunt
I don’t usually read board books, but this one worked well for Family Storytime. Each page features an animal that appears to be doing one thing until you flip the book upside down. The sleeping cat turns into a leaping one; the swimming duck appears to be diving, etc. The kids enjoyed naming the animals on each page.
You Don’t Want a Unicorn by Ame Dyckman; illustrated by Liz Climo
I love Ame Dyckman! In this story, the narrator warns a boy dropping a coin into a wishing well that he shouldn’t wish for a unicorn. When he wishes for one anyway, he finds out for himself that they shed, scratch the furniture, and poop cupcakes everywhere. Worst of all, they get lonely and invite all of their friends to a unicorn party. The kids at both storytimes really enjoyed this one.
The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates & Juniper Bates
I read this book years ago for a Welcoming Week Storytime. It’s a lovely allegory about an umbrella that welcomes literally everyone, and always has room for more. The illustrations are quirky and sweet.
Songs:
A Hunting We Will Go
We sang this at Family Storytime after reading Polar Bear’s Underwear. I asked the kids to suggest different animals we could catch (I always put out animal puppets at that storytime, so they mostly named those), and we brainstormed rhymes for each one: we’ll catch a mouse and put it in a house; we’ll catch a cat and put it in a hat, etc.
Oh, [C] a-hunting we will go!
A-[F]hunting we will go!
We’ll [G7] catch a fox and put it in a box,
And then we’ll let it [C] go!
Repeat with other animals…
Merry-Go-Round
This is one I used to use a lot when I was leading baby storytimes, because it’s a fun lapsit song. For Family Storytime, I had the kids each choose one of our storytime puppets to lift up and down.
(To the tune of This Old Man)
Merry Go Round (lift stuffed animal up and down, or stand up and squat down)
Merry Go Round
We all ride on the merry-go-round
Now we’re UP
And now we’re DOWN!
We all ride on the merry-go-round.
Down to town, down to town
We go riding down to town
Better be careful you don’t fall DOWN (lower stuffed animal to the floor or pretend to fall down)
We go riding down to town.
Rain is Falling
I made up this song to use with the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime. It’s to the tune of Are You Sleeping, Brother John?
Rain is falling, (shake the parachute in time to the song)
Rain is falling,
From the sky,
From the sky.
Get under the umbrella, (lift up the parachute and have the kids run under)
Get under the umbrella,
Where it’s dry!
Where it’s dry!
Under a Shady Tree by Laurie Berkner
We sang this as our instrument play-along at the end of both storytimes.
[C] Under a shady tree, you and me.
Under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Under a shady tree you and me.
Lying under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Can you [G7] feel the breeze blow by?
Can you [C] feel it on your face?
This is our [F] special [G7] place.
[C] Under a shady tree, you and me.
Under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Under a shady tree you and me.
Lying under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Can you [G7] feel the soft cool grass?
Can you [C] feel it with your toes?
We can [F] sit here while it [G7] grows.
[C] Under a shady tree, you and me.
Under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Under a shady tree you and me.
Lying under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
If you want to [G7] close your eyes,
And [C] sleep beneath the tree,
You can [F] rest your head on [G7] me.
[C] Under a shady tree, you and me.
Under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Under a shady tree you and me.
Lying under a [G7] shady tree you and [C] me.
Stay & Play: Paper Umbrellas
There are a lot of variations of this craft online. Before storytime, I had one of our interns cut out a pie-wedge shape out of white paper, and cut a selection of pipe cleaners in half.
For the Stay & Play, I put out white construction paper, the cut-paper shapes, the cut pipe cleaners, glue sticks, tape (to tape the pipe cleaner down), and markers. The kids had fun decorating their paper umbrellas and drawing the rain and other details around them.
Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter U? Please share them in the comments below.