Tag Archives: letter x picture books

X-traordinary Books! A Storytime About the Letter X

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Early Literacy Tip: Play the alphabet game, either while you’re out in the world, or reading books together. Challenge your child to find a particular letter, or look for each letter of the alphabet in order.

This week we reached the letter I have been dreading ever since I started my storytime journey through the alphabet: X! There are so few words that start with the letter X, and even fewer picture books that feature those words. So instead, we focused on words with X in them.

As usual, we started by drawing an upper and lower-case letter X in the air together, and then talking about words that started with that letter. The caregivers mostly supplied the few we came up with (X-ray and xylophone, although one little boy suggested expert). I pulled a few items out of a paper bag: a xylophone, a candle (made of wax), and a box.

Here’s the rest of what we did:

Books:

Book cover for 'Tyrannosaurus Rex vs Edna: The Very First Chicken' featuring a cartoon chicken with big eyes standing between the legs of a T-Rex.

Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Edna, the Very First Chicken by Douglas Rees; illustrated by Jed Henry

This book had one little boy in my Family Storytime literally cackling, and he quickly snatched it up to check it out after storytime. Very cute story about a T.Rex who bullies all of the other dinosaurs, until he meets a chicken who stands up to him. Warning: the chicken does get eaten, but only very briefly!

Illustration of a tea party featuring a friendly T-Rex in a whimsical setting, with two children enjoying snacks and tea at a table.

Tea Rex by Molly Idle

A cute, funny picture book depicting a little girl’s attempts to host a giant T. Rex at her fancy tea party. I read this one for Outdoor Musical Storytime, since it’s a less violent T. Rex title than Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Edna, the Very First Chicken, and that crowd tends to skew younger.

Cover of 'The Mixed-Up Truck' by Stephen Savage, featuring a smiling blue cement truck with a red and white striped drum in front of a red brick building with a neon sign.

The Mixed Up Truck by Stephen Savage

This book was a big hit at both storytimes (I can still hear one of the preschoolers at Family Storytime whispering “There’s an excavator!” reverently to his Mom, while pointing at one of the trucks in the illustrations). It’s a funny, simple story about a cement mixer who keeps mixing the wrong white powder with water, and ends up making a giant cake with frosting instead of cement for a building. In the end, he mixes up a bunch of soap for a giant bubble bath.

Cover of the board book 'Mix It Up!' by Hervé Tullet, featuring colorful paint splashes in red, yellow, green, and blue with the title prominently displayed in black.

Mix It Up by Hervé Tullet

My Family Storytime is in the evening, and tends to draw a smaller crowd. The kids there loved playing along with this interactive picture book, which asks you to “mix” different colors together by rubbing one colored spot and then another, to see what color it makes on the next page.

A colorful children's book cover titled 'Grace and Box' featuring a young girl with curly hair, a friendly dog, and a cartoonish cardboard box with a smiling face against a vibrant rainbow background.

Grace and Box by Kim Howard; illustrated by Megan Lötter

Very cute story about a little girl named Grace, and a refrigerator box, who transforms into all kinds of things: a rocket ship, a city, a house, etc. When Box starts to sag, Grace doesn’t know what to do, until she figures out how to work with Box’s changes, and keep the imaginative play going.

Songs:

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner

We sang this after reading Tea Rex in Outdoor Musical Storytime and after reading Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Edna, the Very First Chicken in Family Storytime. Always a hit!

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food on the [Dm] ground.
[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food, and [Dm] then we march [A] around.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest at the end of the [Dm] day.
[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest, and [Dm] then you’ll hear us [A] say…

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[A] And then we RO-AR-OAR!
[A] Because [Dm] we [C] are the [Dm]dino-[D]saurs!

Can You See the Color Red?

We sang this after reading Mix It Up. The kids always love pointing out different colored objects all around the room.

 To the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Can you [C] see the color yellow,
The [F] color yellow, the [G7] color yellow?
Can you [C] see the color yellow,
[F] Right here [G7] in this [C] room?

Can you see the color blue… etc.

We’re Making Veggie Stew

Similar to a song I came up with for letter V a few weeks ago. This time I wanted to incorporate the word “mix,” so I adjusted it a little. We threw plush veggies on the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime, and shook the chute in time with the song.

To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell:

We’re making veggie stew!
We’re making veggie stew!
Throw veggies in and mix them in,
We’re making veggie stew!

A carrot’s in the stew!
A carrot’s in the stew!
We’ll throw it in, and mix it in,
A carrot’s in the stew!

Some peas are in the stew…etc.

X Marks the Spot

I was having trouble finding a good letter X song, so I wrote this one. I actually ended up just singing the first verse and repeating the chorus several times. Each time, I asked the kids what “treasures” they would like to find in the chest, and we replaced the “chocolate coins” with their suggestions. They came up with apples and diamonds.

[C] We found an ancient [Am] treasure map
[F] Inside a hollow [G] tree.
[C] Showing landmarks [Am] far away
[F] In a land across the [G] sea.
[F] We climbed aboard our trusty [C] ship
[F] Our sails high and [C] unfurled,
[C] Sailing towards that [Am] letter X
[F] On the [G] far side of the [C] world.

CHORUS:
X marks the [G] spot
Where we’ll [F] find what we have [C] sought.
Don’t [G] know what riches there may be
But I [F] hope that it’s a [G] lot!
[F] Perhaps we’ll find some [C] chocolate coins (replace with treasures of your choice!)
And [F] gold and [G] emeralds too,
But the [C] greatest treasure [G] I have found
[F] Is the [G] time I’ve spent with [C] you.

We’ll [C] sail through wild and [Am] stormy seas
Where [F] dragons prowl the [G] deep,
Where [C] waves roll high
And [Am] mermaid songs will [F] lull us all to [C] sleep.
At [F] last we’ll find the [C] desert isle
And [F] dig until we’ve [C] found
That [C] shiny golden [Am] pirate chest
Of [G] treasure under- [C]ground.

CHORUS:

Abstract watercolor painting featuring vibrant swirls of blue, green, purple, and pink on a white background.

Crayon resist is one of my favorite process art activities. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, I put out white construction paper, watercolor palettes, cups of water, paintbrushes, and white crayons.

For Family Storytime, I actually decided to put out waterbrush brush pens (leftover from a Chinese calligraphy program years ago) instead of regular brushes. They are brushes with a built-in compartment that you can fill with water, so it comes out when you squeeze it. The kids LOVED the brush pens, and they ended up being a lot less messy than cups of water that often end up spilling.

I initially suggested that the kids or their caregivers could write a letter X or a word or drawing on the paper with the white crayon, and then paint over it with the watercolor paints to see it magically appear. A lot of the caregivers ended up writing their child’s name. It always takes kids a few minutes to learn how to wet the paint first when working with watercolor, but once they start painting, they are always very engaged.

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter X? Please share them in the comments below.

X is for X-Ray: A Storytime About the Letter X

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At last, the letter I have been dreading through my whole alphabet storytime: the Letter X! It actually wasn’t too bad, even though I had to focus on words that included the letter X, rather than words that started with it.

We started our storytime by asking the kids if they knew any words that contained the letter X. After a few examples, they actually thought of quite a few. Some of the older kids were suggesting words like exoskeleton and excavator, and even phoenix. I also showed them a xylophone, just to have an example of something that actually starts with the letter X, and we talked about how the smaller bars make higher sounds.

Here’s the rest of what we did (this is a combination of Outdoor Musical and Family Storytime):

Books:

My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister; illustrated by Alex T. Smith

This was my only book featuring a word that started with the letter X, and it was a big hit at Family Storytime. Matthew is convinced that his Mom must have X-ray vision because she always seems to know when he’s getting into trouble, and so he decides to test her. The kids really enjoyed guessing how the Mom knew what Matthew was up to, based on details in the illustrations.

Mix It Up by Hervé Tullet

Several of the kids were familiar with this book, but they all enjoyed following along by tapping the different colors on the page and pretending to mix them together (in my Outdoor Musical Storytime, which gets a bigger crowd) I just had them pretend to tap the pictures by tapping the air. They loved guessing what color each combination would make.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

This is one of those really simple books that works well for lots of ages. A little rabbit is asked why he is sitting in a box. “It’s not a box!” the rabbit insists, and the next page shows him driving a race car. The kids loved guessing what the rabbit is imagining the box is on each page.

Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox; illustrated by Patricia Mullins

A simple story, but full of suspense. When Hattie the hen sees a nose poking out of the bushes, the other animals are not impressed. But then she sees two eyes, two ears, two legs, and a body, until finally a fox leaps out of the bushes. Luckily, the cow scares it away with a loud, “MOO!” (the kids enjoyed joining in on that part).

Songs:

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

I did this one to go along with My Mom Has X-Ray Vision for Family Storytime. We sang it through three times, getting faster and faster.

Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes,
Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes,
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.

Do You See the Color Blue?

This song always gets the kids excited, as they look around the room pointing to things that match each color. It’s to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Do you [C] see the color blue,
The [F] color blue, the [G7] color blue?
Do you [C] see the color blue
Right [F] here [G7] in this [C] room?

Do you see the color red… etc.

The Jack-in-the-Box

Few things are as gratifying as demonstrating a jack-in-the-box at storytime. I brought one out today, and the kids LOVED it! They begged for me to play it over and over again. Then we sang this song together with the parachute.

The jack-in-the-box jumps up!
The jack-in-the-box goes flop.
The jack-in-the-box goes round and round.
The lid comes down with a plop!

A Hunting We Will Go

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!

Stay & Play: Letter X Brush Pen Resist Art

I adapted this activity from themeasuredmom.com, only I had the kids use brush pens instead of watercolors. Before storytime, I made X’s out of removable tape on pieces of cardstock. For the Stay & Play, I gave each child a paper with a taped letter X, and a variety of brush pens. They had fun decorating the paper, and then pulling away the tape to reveal their letter X.

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter X? Please share them in the comments below.