Monster Storytime – Nothing To Be Afraid Of!

I spent this past Saturday at our local Farmers’ Market and hosted a Monster Storytime there as well! I didn’t want to head straight into a Halloween-themed program because so many people don’t celebrate specific holidays. Instead, I focused on monsters – Halloween related, but not specifically holiday focused. Unfortunately, I only had three (really) little kids, but we all had a great time! And I think it’s important for the community to see storytime in action – that it’s not just reading a story! Storytime is interactive learning, sharing early literacy tips with parents, and a performance, not “just” reading stories.

Storytime Plan

Opening: Bread & Butter (Jbrary)
Bread and butter
Marmalade and Jam
Let’s say hello as quiet as we can
(whisper: hello)

…loud as we can
…slow as we can
…fast as we can
…high as we can
…low as we can
…nice as we can

Book: The Monster At the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Mike Smollin

Activity: Pumpkin Chant (Jbrary)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin bread!
(Hold hands flat in front, palms up, on lying on top of the other)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin head! (Put hands on head)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin pie! (Hold hands in a big circle)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin eye! (Curve hands around eyes)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin cake! (Hold Hands flat, one palm up, one palm down five inches above the other)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin shake! (Hold fists up close to years and shake hard)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin stew! (Pretend to stir stew)
Pumpkin, pumpkin,
Pumpkin BOO!

Book: Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

Activity: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Book: Monster Love Colors by Mike Austin

Closing: Bread and Butter
Bread and butter
Marmalade and Jam
Let’s say goodbye as quiet as we can
(whisper: goodbye)

…loud as we can
…slow as we can
…fast as we can
…high as we can
…low as we can
…nice as we can

Craft:

For this simple craft at the end of our Monster Storytime, I printed out a bunch of these monster faces from the Preschool Alphabet blog on different colors of paper. Then I offered kids crayons and a bunch of little pieces of scraps. The scrap paper came from our Ellison die-cut machines and is all the leftover cutouts of letters and shapes from other projects. They were perfect pieces for creating eyes, ears, noses, hats teeth and more!

For More Fun:

I’ve got plenty more storytime themes that are perfect for children’s librarians, preschool teachers and you can use them at home too!