Story Time Theme – Amy Krouse Rosenthal
This week’s story time author/illustrator was Amy Krouse Rosenthal – another favorite author of mine whose books are funny, poignant, and can help children learn valuable life lessons. Again, I think these books may have faired better with a little older audience (I’m thinking preschool age), but they are still great books! Spoon teaches children that being who you are is most important – spoon wants to be like everyone else until his mother points out all of the great things that he can do that knife, fork, and even chopsticks have no way of doing. Little Pea is one of my favorites of Rosenthal about a little pea that doesn’t want to eat candy for dinner – a perfect story to read right before Halloween. And then I read The OK Book which is about a character who is “ok” at a lot of different things and one day will be GREAT at something. I added a little aside to parents about the fact that it’s alright for their children to try a lot of different things and not be spectacular at them all! Overall, story time went fairly well considering it’s Halloween week making kids a little crazy with costumes, candy, sugar, and all around nuttiness!
Opening
- Traditional: Put Your Hands Up In the Air & Open Shut Them
- Yoga: Warm-Up (Rock n Roll, Zip up Spine, Deep Breaths, Cat/Cow, pounce from child pose (lunge forward), Dog)
Book 1: Spoon
Transition
- Traditional: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
- Yoga: Sun Salutations (Mountain, Reach Up, Touch the Ground, Hands at Knees (flat back), Plank Pose, Cobra, Downward Facing Dog, Walk Toward Hands, Repeat)
Book 2: Little Pea
Transition (changes weekly)
- Traditional: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain
- Yoga: Warrior (Star, Warrior II (both sides), Triangle, Warrior I, Ragdoll)
Book 3: The OK Book
Closing
- Traditional: Shake Your Sillies Out Puppet Show
- Yoga: Cool-down (Bridge, Happy Baby Pose, Star Pose/Deep Breaths) & Namaste