September Storytime Briefly

I love Thursdays because that is when I get to read stories to first- and second-graders at my local elementary school.  Here are some of the highlights from September:

We talked about predators and escaping danger.  We read

• Oh No! by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann
• Ol' Mama Squirrel by David Ezra Stein
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni
• What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins

Oh No! is a favorite book at our house; my three-year-old loves to recite it, especially the kudzu vine and banyan tree parts.  The other day as we were driving down the road she said, "Wow! Look at that cloud--it's a 'whopping big branch.'"  Yep, guess she picked up that vocabulary.

We talked about making friends and read

• Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf
• Hello, My Name is Ruby by Philip C. Stead
• My Name Is Elizabeth by Annika Dunklee, illustrated by Matthew Forsythe

I brought a butternut squash to class, and after we read Sophie's Squash, we took a vote--eat it, or name it and put a face on it? . . . Meet Bentley.

After we read Hello, My Name Is Ruby, I turned to the illustration of the little birds flying in an elephant-shaped formation.  In each of the classes students recalled the little fish making a big fish in Swimmy.  We talked about similarities and differences in the two illustrations.

We read about sharks and trains.

• Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
• Crossing by Philip Booth, illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline 
• Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Dan Santat
• "About the Teeth of Sharks" by John Ciardi

The kids loved the poem by John Ciardi (and I love my Folkmanis shark puppet).  The second-graders even requested an encore.  But here is the interesting thing: When I first memorized this poem, I took it from National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar! edited by J. Patrick Lewis, but later my daughter was reading You Read to Me, I'll Read to You, and the version there is different.  What a difference a word makes.