Night and Day!

[From my daycare storytime set last spring, I discovered a few that I had never transferred from write-ups to the blog. Previous entries in the Opposites series are here: Stop & Go and Up & Down and Loud & Quiet.]

I decided to do this storytime as almost a “day” block and a “night” block of activities. Naturally, we started with greeting the morning with “Hello, Day!” by Anita Lobel.

Animal noises are a wonderful way to start off storytime! The kids really participated with this book, eagerly repeating the animal noises after I read the page. Then, we stood up to greet the day ourselves with a song:

Action Song: “Mister Sun”
Oh, mister sun, sun, mister golden sun, please shine down on me
Oh, mister sun, sun, mister golden sun, hiding behind a tree
These little children are asking you to please come out so we can play with you
Oh, mister sun, sun, mister golden sun, please shine down on me
Credit: Childhood

Then we read the book that I was dying to read, hoping that they would love it as much as I do: “Yes Day!” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

This is a fun, imaginative story about a little boy who has a day where every question that is asked is answered with a “yes!” This book is definitely for preschoolers, in my opinion. I don’t think that two-years and under would necessarily understand what was going on without a lengthy explanation. But my group was hugely amused by this one. Afterwards, I had a lot of questions about when we could have a yes day at the library!

Then it was time to switch to night with our flannelboard: “Ten Teddy Bears Sleeping in the Bed,” followed by an action rhyme:

Action Rhyme: “Going to Bed”
This little child is going to bed (point to self)
Down on the pillow he lays his head (rest head on hands)
He wraps himself in covers tight (wrap hands across body)
And this is the way he sleeps all night (close eyes, nod head)
Morning comes, he opens his eyes (raise head, eyes open wide)
Off with a toss the covers fly (fling arms wide)
Soon he is up and dressed and awake (jump up)
Ready for fun and play all day (clap hands and turn in a circle)
Credit: Best Kids Book Site

And then it was time to read some sleep stories. I started with “A Book of Sleep” by Il Sung Na.

I have loved this book since it first came out and we purchased it for the library. It has such gorgeous illustrations! It was a natural fit with this theme. As was…”Kitten’s First Full Moon” by Kevin Henkes.

Another book that I adore. The kids kept reminding that Kitten was wrong — that the moon was NOT a bowl of milk. I loved that this book was a bit of an adventure book to remind the kids that nighttime isn’t always so quiet! Speaking of being not quiet…our next action song was hysterical:

Action Song: “Ten In the Bed”
There were ten in the bed and the little one said, “Roll over, roll over.”
So they all rolled over and one fell out! Boom! (count down until…)
There was one in the bed and the little one said, “All to myself!”
Credit: Childhood

The kids had a lot of fun rolling, clapping their hands, and counting down with me. But I saved the best for last: “Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me” by Eric Carle.

The pop-ups in this book are stunning! I love the full moon spread, the variety of how the pages open up. This is a great storytime book. (Though it doesn’t always fare well in the collection — lots of rips and tears!) I would have to say that this was definitely the favorite book of the day at storytime.

We ended storytime with another flannel of “Hey Diddle Diddle” and an extra closing song of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” before moving on to our craft:

We made “Night and Day” door hangers. The other (less interesting) side was a big sun and said “Day.” My daycare teachers were in love with this craft, and I was super proud because I came up with it myself!