Fall Storytime: Fruit Salad

This week, we had a fruit salad storytime! Here's what I did:

Opening Song: Glad to See You

Memory Box: This week's Memory Box item was a spoon from The Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood.

Book: Gladys Goes Out to Lunch by Derek Anderson. At the zoo, Gladys eats bananas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. One day she smells something amazing and goes in search of what food it might be. Is it pizza? No. Is it ice cream? No. It's banana bread! The large, colorful pictures make this one perfect for sharing and my group definitely dug it.

Book: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood. Definitely one of my storytime favorites and a favorite of the kids as well.

Felt: Five Red Strawberries (idea from Mel's Desk!). Instead of reading the rhyme, I used my mouse puppet to hide the strawberries, asking the kids to help me find the tall, skinny strawberry and the wide strawberry and the unripe strawberry. Although it's something different than we've done in my storytimes, I think the kids got a lot out of it.

You could, of course, also do this rhyme, which is a play on the Five Red Apples rhyme that I've done previously:

Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.

Four red strawberries, sitting in a tree. 
Bear came and ate one and then there were three. 

Three red strawberries, one for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two. 

Two red strawberries, shining in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one. 

One red strawberry, left all alone. 
Bear came and ate one and then there was none.

Action Song: Fruit Salad Salsa by Laurie Berkner Band. I just played this song and we did the actions that go along with it (one hand out, shake shake shake, jumping, spinning around). I stopped the song just we went in and out, so I didn't play the whole thing. The kids liked it and one of the moms asked me what the CD was afterwards, so I guess the moms liked it, too!

Book: Jamberry by Bruce Degen. I love the language in this book and I told the kids before we started that we'd have some silly words in this book. Some of the kids were riveted with this one and some were distracted (but I think that the distracted kids would have been distracted by anything, it's not the book's fault!).

Felt Activity: Making fruit salad! I passed out the fruit and told the kids we were going to make our own fruit salad. I sang this song and as I called their fruit, kids were invited to bring it up to the board and put it on there.

(To the tune of Ten Little Indians or The Paw Paw Patch)

Add the strawberries to our fruit salad
Add the strawberries to our fruit salad
Add the strawberries to our fruit salad
Way down yonder in the library!

(Repeat with oranges, bananas, kiwis, and blueberries!)

Book: Little Mouse's Big Secret by Eric Battut. Little Mouse finds an apple and, wanting to have it all to himself, hides it by burying it in the ground behind him. Mouse is still telling everyone that he will NOT tell his secret, even as the apple tree begins to grow up behind him. I just wish the illustrations were a little easier to see, especially when the apple tree sprout is very small.

Ending Song: Do You Know What Time It Is?

Take-Home Craft: Fruit Loop activities. I made this one up! Each packet had a fruit card (made from online clipart and printed on cardstock), a little bag of Fruit Loops, and a handout explaining different activities that they could do with their card. For example, they could match the colors of the Fruit Loops to the colors of the fruits on the card. They could line up the right number of Fruit Loops next to each fruit. They could string their Fruit Loops on a length of yarn (great for fine motor skills). And of course, they could eat their Fruit Loops as a snack!

Alternate Books:

If you don't like or don't have any of the above books, here are some others that would fit in fine:

Blueberry Mouse by Alice Low
A New House for Mouse by Petr Horacek
One Little Blueberry by Tammi Salzano
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg (Dr. Seuss)
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
Too Many Pears by Valerie French

PS: I will never get "Fruit Salad Salsa" out of my head. Thanks, Laurie Berkner. :)