By Awnali Mills
Last week’s storytime (actually, two storytimes) was all about bears. The books I chose were Never Ask a Bear by Louise Bonnett-Rampersaud, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
I started with If You’re Happy and You Know It. Unfortunately, our library doesn’t have a good bear puppet. After grumping about this for a while, I pulled out a squirrel puppet and used him in storytime. He brought us our letter B and all of our B pictures, but when I mentioned “bear,” he ran and hid under my arm. We couldn’t convince him he was safe, so he hid on my cart while we read Never Ask a Bear. This went over fairly well with my first group, but kids were pretty scattered for this the second group.
Then we sang a bear version of Thumbkin. I used two little blue and purple bears, and the children used their fists.
Where is bear? Where is bear?
Here I am. Here I am.
How are you this winter?
Very tired, thank you.
Go to sleep. Go to sleep.
(Have kids shout “WAKE UP BEAR” to do the song again.)
Credit: Preschool Education Music & Songs: Animals > Winter
A rousing chorus of If You’re a Bear and You Know It followed. The kids loved growling.
If you’re a panda bear and you know it, clap your paws
If you’re a polar bear and you know it, show your teeth
If you’re a grizzly bear and you know it, growl real loud
Credit: https://storytimekatie.com/2011/01/13/bears-2/
Next, I pulled out my ukulele and we sang The Bear Went over the Mountain, and I used the verses and flannels that I got from Storytime Ukulele. The song went over really well. Then, I pulled out Brown Bear. I’ve avoided using this in storytimes, which is silly. Yes, the children knew it already. But they were just as thrilled as they could be when they saw it come out. I read it, then on the last page, I said the color, pointed to the picture, and the kids filled in the rest. And, when I brought out the book, I pointed out that it was part of our banned book scavenger hunt. Yes, Brown Bear was banned in 2010 because Bill Martin Jr. shared a name with another Bill Martin who had the temerity to write a book about Ethical Marxism, and some folks were afraid that a little brown bear was going to be the death knell for capitalism *eye roll*.
Our last activity was a flannel, Ten Teddy Bears from Storytime Katie. I’ve done this one before, and it just seems too long to me, so I did it as Six Teddy Bears. I had the kids grab imaginary blankets and pull with me, and clap for BOOM. They also got to tell me which colored bear fell out of bed, which they really enjoyed. I finished up with another B word—bubbles. I don’t do these too frequently, so they’re a real treat when they come out.
The Librarian Is on The Loose 