Preschool Story Time - Cats!

Here at the Village, we are no strangers to using cats in our story times.  With a perfect plethora of material, the options are endless.  Quite frankly, I had little time to prepare for this one - but no matter!  What I lacked in planning I made up for in execution!  Here I will show what my plan actually was, then add some alternatives pulled from other story times we have done at Library Village.  I hope you enjoy them!

So What's it Like to be a Cat? - Karla Kuskin

In this darling book written in verse, a young boy asks his cat "What's it like to be a cat?"  The boy continues to interview his cat and discovers what his days are like.

Finger Play - a Kitten

A kitten is fast asleep under a chair (hide thumb under one hand).   

And Donald can’t find her anywhere!

He’s looked everywhere (Fingers circle eyes to look).   

Under a table (look under one hand).   

Under a bed (look under the other hand) 

He looked in a corner and then Donald said: “Come Kitty, Come Kitty (hands up to mouth) 

This milk is for you! (cup hands like a bowl) 

And out came the kitty calling “Mew Mew” (thumb walks across lap)

 


Or if you prefer, Miss Kristie completely rocked it with her Hey Diddle Diddle Felt Set:

 Click HERE for more on the Hey Diddle Diddle Set!

The Three Little Kittens - Galdone

This is an absolute classic nursery rhyme.  Paul Galdone has renewed many classic rhymes and tales with his fresh illustrations.  With this particular book, you can do the text a number of ways.  You can read it, of course, you can sing it, or you can do it as a felt set or finger play.  Check out some YouTube videos on how the tune goes.  It is really quite simple.  Truth be told, I learned a completely different tune growing up, so I left a lot of mom's baffled.  Luckily I could switch over to the 'right' tune so I could have moms sing along with me.

Activity - Matching Mittens

This activity couldn't come at a better time as we finish the The Little Kittens book and song!  Because imitation is the best form of compliment, I humbly snitched this idea from Storytime Katie.  I even used her photo from her blog because, quite frankly, I didn't improve any on this activity!!  Storytime Katie is the best and I thank her for providing me with some of 'my' best ideas.   Please visit Storytime Katie's Blog for more.

For this game, I handed out one of each of the mittens (mine were laminated paper mittens actually) and had the mitten mates on the clothes line behind me.  One by one (and not in any order), I pointed to one and asked who had the matching mitten?  Then the child could come up and place the mitten under the clothes pin with its mate.  The preschoolers had a really great time with this activity.

Pete The Cat - Eric Litwin

Alternate Felt Set for Pete The Cat!

This is the full set for Pete The Cat - I Love My White Shoes that I made quite a long time ago.  With so many kids in story time, he needed so many shoes so everyone could participate.

BUT -  I also made another Pete set with a standing Pete.  There are fewer shoes, but more options to use Pete with his other picture books:

Click HERE  for more on this set!


Did you hear the one about Grumpy Cat!  Immortalized in felt!

Click HERE for how I used this piece in story time.

Cat Secrets - Jeff Czekaj

I am a huge fan of Jan Thomas and really enjoy books where the characters appear to speak right to the reader.  Cat Secrets is written in the same vein.  The little listeners leave the book feeling like they tricked the cat into spilling all of their secrets.  Fun!

Craft - 3 Little Kittens Puppets

This is just a sample of the die-cuts I had available for the children to create their own Three Little Kittens puppet set.  I let them decorate them any way they wanted.  They made as many as they wanted too.  I wanted to encourage story retelling.  Definitely not a fancy craft, but sometimes the easy ones for us are the most enjoyable ones for the little ones.

Thanks for stopping by!