Birthday Storytime!

The story time I've been doing this month has been one of my most successful, and I must give a big thanks to Dr. Seuss himself for it. This month's theme was birthday, and I was lucky enough to get to do two of the bigger groups on March 2, just in time to celebrate one of kidlit's most famous authors.

I started this story time with a song. I had all of the kids stand and pretend they were preparing for a party and we needed to sing a song. They loved this one.

(Make hands into a bowl)
Jelly in a bowl,
Jelly in a bowl,
Wiggle Waggle
Wiggle Waggle
Jelly in a bowl.

(Make hands into a jar) -- I had the kids guess what we'd be bringing next.
Cookies in a jar,
Cookies in a jar,
Shake 'em up,
Shake 'em up,
Cookies in a jar.

(Make all 10 fingers into candles) -- I asked the kids what went on top of a cake.
Candles on the cake,
Candles on the cake,
Blow them out,
Blow them out,
Candles on the cake.

After our song, I shared three stories:


I Want Two Birthdays by Tony Ross: This is a story about a girl who thinks she should have a birthday every day. I began by asking the kids if they wanted two birthdays (and strangely, most said they did -- their real one and the one they have their birthday party on). But by the end, the kids didn't want two birthdays anymore.

Happy Birthday, Monster by Scott Beck: This one's about a dinosaur that makes a birthday cake for his friend, who happens to be a monster (a dragon, actually). This one's a tough one to read aloud because there's a lot of hilarious dialog. I did end up reading the dialog to the kids who appreciated it. But it was a little annoying for me as a reader, so by the third time I read the story, I decided instead to just have the kids tell me what the weird creatures were doing. I also asked some questions about the pictures (such as, would the ghost be good at jump rope?). They liked it a lot both ways.


Don't Spill the Beans by Ian Schoenherr: I didn't care for this one as much as I thought I did. The story isn't obvious enough, and I was prepared to swap it out but my replacement book went MIA the morning of story time. Alas. I asked the kids if they knew what it meant to not spill the beans, and then I explained it to them. But their answers were better; one said it was a game he had at home and another said it meant (completely serious) not to spill the beans!

After stories, we sang another song -- we had to! How could you share a birthday story time without singing Happy Birthday? The first day, we sang it to "everyone," but then we were lucky and got to sing it to Dr. Seuss.

As I've mentioned before, the "Little Mouse" game is one of my favorite story time activities. It's an easy guessing game, and it helps the kids work on their color recognition skills. Well, I promised my favorite group (more on them in a second!) I'd switch it up this week. So instead of "Little Mouse" we had...

"Little Snake!" Naturally, he hid beneath a birthday cake.

This was extremely simple to create -- both the snake and the cakes were in my Word clip art, so I didn't even have to look hard for them. I then covered them in contact paper and stuck sandpaper squares on the back, and wham! I now have a new go-to game, and the kids were in LOVE with it. My favorite group has the most ridiculous (cute) habit, which is to beg to see the "little" friend every time I visit them. Why? Well, each and every one of them gives him a hug and a kiss good bye! This time, not only did the snake get his good bye, but each of the cakes also got recognition. Too sweet.

For the craft groups, we made our own sprinkled birthday cake:

A Google image search will give you twelve billion coloring page options for cake, but I liked this one because it let me add the key part of the craft: the glitter. I let each kid color the sheets and pick out 4 to 5 sequins for the inside of their cakes. Although mine had a cotton ball on top for the whipped cream, I didn't end up bringing that with for the kids.

While they colored, I came by each kid with a glue stick and glitter shaker. I let them pick where to put the glitter -- and I let them but it anywhere in any amount -- and then I glittered for them. It kept it less messy, and we didn't need a box lid to catch the excess.

This was a hit of a craft. Super simple and customizable, and each kid's product came out completely different. A real winner of a story time!