Tag Archives: picture books about horses

Hold Your Horses: A Storytime for the Year of the Horse

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For the last few weeks, our libraries have been celebrating Lunar New Year, which this year fell on February 17, but is often celebrated through the Lantern Festival on March 3. We’ve been lucky enough to have a Lion Dancers come to both libraries, which has been a blast (the first one was absolutely packed!).

Since this year is the Year of the Horse, I focused my last two storytimes on a combination of horse books and songs, and books about the Lunar New Year. Here’s what we did:

Books:

Tomorrow is New Year’s Day by Aram Kim

Most of the picture books we have about the Lunar New Year are focused on the Chinese traditions surrounding the holiday. I liked that this one centered around the traditions practiced by people from Korea. It’s also relatively short, and works well for storytime. In this story, Mina can’t wait to show off her beautiful hanbok to her class, and share tteokguk, a delicious rice cake soup. But she’s embarrassed when her little brother shows up crying and complaining about his own hanbok being itchy. Luckily, the compliments of her classmates calm him down. Includes a glossary of terms (with pronunciation), and instructions on how to make an origami hanbok.The kids like joining in on the “Waaahh!” when the little brother cries.

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

This is one of my favorite Lunar New Year picture books that focuses on Chinese traditions. It describes how one family celebrates the holiday by sweeping out the old year, getting haircuts, eating dumplings, and waking up the dragon. Sometimes I hand out pieces of bubble wrap (the kind that still pops) for the kids to pop when we get to the page with the firecrackers.

Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee

This simple, funny picture book works well for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. All the animals want to go for a ride with Mr. Horse, but when they complain that he’s going too fast, he skids to a stop, and they all fly into a haystack. Mr. Horse is very worried, but then they all beg to do it again. Lots of opportunities for kids to join in on the “Clippedy-Clops” (or stomp their feet), and make different animal sounds.

Horse Meets Dog by Elliott Kalan & Tim Miller

Funny story about an encounter between a horse and a dog, who are both confused about each other’s identity. The horse thinks the dog is a tiny baby horse, and tries to give him a bottle of hay. The dog thinks the horse is a very big dog, and tries to teach him to play fetch with a ball. The kids loved the part at the end, where they argue back and forth: “Tiny baby horse!” “Very big dog!” and the ending, when a bird thinks they are “two weird looking birds.”

If You Want to Ride a Horse by Amy Novesky & Gael Abary

This one is a bit too long for my Outdoor Musical Storytime crowd, but it worked well for the early elementary kids at my evening Family Storytime. It invites the reader to imagine what kind of horse they might like to have, the different ways they could ride it, and the different tools they would need to take care of it. It’s the kind of book I would have loved when I was a horse-obsessed girl.

Songs:

Ribbon Dancing

In honor of Lunar New Year, we handed out ribbon wands, and invited the kids to wave them in time to the song Gongs and Drums to Welcome New Year performed by the Taipei Municipal Chinese Classical Orchestra. This was a big hit!

Giddy-Up!

This is one of my all-time favorite baby/toddler storytime songs. It’s to the tune of the William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger Theme). For Outdoor Musical Storytime, we sang it with the parachute, shaking the chute in time to the song, and getting faster each time.

Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Giddy-UP-UP-UP! (bounce baby or toddler, or have older kids “gallop” in place)
Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Giddy-UP-UP-UP!
Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Giddy-UP-UP-UP!
WHOA, Horsey! (Lean back with baby/toddler, or have older kids stop and put their hands out)

Hop Up, My Ladies

There are lots of recordings of this traditional song, but the one by Dan Zanes is my favorite. It’s such a fun and happy song. We did it as our instrument play-along at the end.

[C] Did you ever go to meetin’, [G] Uncle [C] Joe, Uncle Joe?
Did you ever go to [G] meetin’, Uncle Joe?
Did you [C] ever go to meetin’, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe?
Don’t [F] mind the weather [G] so the wind don’t blow.

CHORUS:

[C] Hop up, my ladies, three in a row,
Hop up, my [G] ladies, three in a row,
Hop up, my [C] ladies, three in a row,
Don’t [F] mind the weather [G] so the wind don’t blow.

Will your horse carry double, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe…

CHORUS:

Is your horse a single-footer, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe…

CHORUS:

Say, don’t you wanna’ gallop, Uncle Joe, Uncle Joe…

Stay & Play: Paper Dragon Puppets

A teacher friend of mine gave me a whole envelope full of wooden chopsticks and New Year envelopes (we put stickers in these, and gave them out at the end of both storytimes).

Before the storytime, I cut out the dragon head and tail from krokotak.com (for some reason, I couldn’t get the template to load when I went back to the site, but here’s a photo of it).

I also cut sheets of red paper in half lengthwise to make the bodies.

For the Stay & Play, I put out the paper templates, markers, chopsticks, the half sheets of red paper, glue sticks, and Scotch tape. I showed the kids how to fold the red paper accordion style (the adults helped the kids with this too). Then they colored their dragons, and glued the head and tail onto either end of the folded paper. We taped a chopstick at the front and the back. The kids had a great time making their dragons dance.

Do you have favorite books, songs, or crafts related to Lunar New Year or horses? Please share them in the comments below.

The Year of the Horse

Posted in Rhymes and songs, Storytime themes by

Paper Rocking Horse by Kiki

Paper Rocking Horse by Kiki

This year, Chinese New Year begins on January 31, and it’s the year of the Horse (you can find a list of all the animal signs and dates on TravelChinaGuide.com).

I didn’t know much about Chinese New Year until we moved to the Bay Area, but it’s such a fun and colorful celebration.  At my son’s school, each Kindergartner decorates a box in bright colors, with holes in the front so they can wear the box on their heads and still see out.  One of the teachers wears a big dragon’s head, and the kids line up behind her, making a huge 60-person dragon that winds around the play-yard, while the first graders pop big sheets of bubblewrap behind them.  It’s something the whole school looks forward to every year.

For storytime this week, I read books about horses and Chinese New Year.

dragon dance

Dragon Dance: A Chinese New Year Lift-the Flap by Joan Holub; illustrated by Benrei Huang (Amazon.com link)

This one was new to me, but the kids always love Lift-the-Flaps (although they argue over who is going to get to open them).  It’s a simple rhyming book that explains the different parts of the New Year celebration: sweeping away the old year, buying fish and flowers at the market, getting red envelopes, and of course, enjoying the big dragon parade.  The illustrations are warm and colorful.  A good introduction to the holiday for toddlers on up.

clip

Clip Clop by Nicola Smee (Amazon.com link)

This is actually a board book, and unfortunately out of print, but it’s a great horse book, especially for younger kids (I read it again today to both a preschool class, and a toddler storytime, and they all loved it).  Mr. Horse offers a cat, a dog, a pig and a duck a ride on his back, but when he gallops too fast, and then stops suddenly, they all fly off into a haystack.  The kids enjoy saying the repeated, “Clip Clop!  Clippety Clop” lines.

unicorn

Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea (Amazon.com link)

Okay, I know unicorns are not horses, but I thought the kids would love this one, and they did.  It was the clear favorite of the evening, for the 5 year-olds especially.  Goat is jealous of Unicorn, and why wouldn’t he be?  Not only can Unicorn fly, he makes it rain cupcakes!  But when Goat finally meets Unicorn, he finds that he’s got some special talents of his own that Unicorn admires, and to Goat’s surprise, they end up becoming friends.  I love all of Bob Shea’s books, especially I’m a Shark and Oh, Daddy!

my pony

My Pony by Susan Jeffers (Amazon.com link)

This is the book for little girls who love horses.  I would have been all over it as a kid.  The little girl in this story wants a pony more than anything else in the world, but her parents say a pony is too expensive, and they don’t have room for it.  So she draws a pony instead, a beautiful dapple-gray she calls Silver, and together they fly through the sky and meet lots of other ponies.  The illustrations are gorgeous.

SONGS:

Giddy-up!

I do this one often as a bouncing rhyme for babies and toddlers.  This time I had the kids gallop in a line around one of the bookshelves.  They especially liked the sudden “Whoa!” when we would all stop short. You sing it to the tune of The William Tell Overture:

Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up-up-up!
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up-up-up!
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up-up-up!
WHOA, Horsie!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

INSTRUMENT PLAY WITH A CD: Hop Up, Ladies from Putumayo Folk Playground (Amazon.com link)

CRAFT: Paper Rocking Horses

photo (67)

Paper Rocking Horse by Kiki

I adapted this craft from AHC Arts & Crafts, which has a tremendous number of craft ideas.  I printed their template, but since I wanted the kids to be able to color their rocking horses however they liked, I traced the template onto white card stock and cut it out (I had to redraw the lines for the base).  I folded the paper in half before I cut it, so it would make a mirror image of the horse.  Then I folded it over, so the two horse shapes lined up.

I gave each child a pre-folded horse to color in with markers on both sides, and a paperclip to put on the back, clipping the two horse shapes together.  If you bend the bottom of the two horses slightly apart, it will stand up.  If you touch the tail lightly, it will rock just like a real rocking horse.

Other Chinese New Year Books:

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin (Amazon.com link)

This is the book I usually read for Chinese New Year, and I still love it.  It’s shows a family preparing for the New Year by sweeping their house, making get-rich dumplings, getting haircuts, and looking forward to seeing the dragon, which is presented on pages that fold out into a big spread at the end.  In the past, I’ve brought bubblewrap for the kids to pop on the page with the firecrackers.  Simple enough to work for toddlers as well as preschoolers and older kids.

This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong; illustrated by Yangsook Choi (Amazon.com link)

I didn’t get this book in time for my storytime, but it’s a good one.  A Chinese-Korean boy shares what the New Year means to him and his friends from other cultural backgrounds.  I like that the story gives a sense of having a fresh start: a chance to clear away all the mistakes of the past and look forward to the future.  A little too lengthy for toddlers, but I think this would work well for preschoolers and elementary school kids.

My Lucky Little Dragon by Joyce Wan (recommended by Sapphira Edgarde)

Sapphira writes, “Our daughter is a dragon, but this book describes a child who has a good trait from each of the signs. Then at the end it says how lucky the reader is to have this particular baby, and there’s a heart-shaped mirror on the last page, which is always a big hit.”

Other Horse Books:

Are You a Horse? by Andy Rash (Amazon.com link)

When Roy gets a saddle for his birthday, he sets out to find a horse.  The problem is, he doesn’t know what a horse looks like.  Kids like shouting out the names of the other animals he thinks might be a horse, including a snake, a crab, a lion, and a zebra.  Plus it has a funny surprise ending.

What are your favorite horse or Chinese New Year picture books?