Wednesday Night Storytime: Eric Carle Books

I am always looking for ways to make Wednesdays a little easier. Matt is out late, and the kids and I enjoy quite a bit of "quality time" midweek. There have been several Wednesdays this winter when we didn't leave the house or go outside, and by the time Matt arrived home, I had what my best friend Ashley and I call "the crazy eye!" So in an attempt to avoid "the crazy eye," I am always looking for ways to simplify Wednesdays while making them a bit more fun.

One important step in avoiding a midweek meltdown is to make sure we leave the house on Wednesdays. I've been trying to plan some sort of activity each Wednesday because we usually stay home all day on Tuesdays and often all day on Thursdays. Last week we met Matt for lunch, and this week we went to a Valentine play group in our neighborhood. Getting out even for a little bit makes a long day feel a bit shorter. 

Another fun thing we've started doing on Wednesdays is having an extra-long storytime with a theme. This began when we had a "bunny" storytime and gathered up our bunny stuffed animals and our favorite books about bunnies. Tonight we had Eric Carle night. Part of the fun of having a "themed" storytime is watching Sophie look for all the books that fit our theme! We have so many of Eric Carle's books that I thought we might need to spread them over two weeks, but we made it through most of them. We also have some fun Eric Carle toys, so we broke those out as well, and had a fun night. 

While Eric Carle books are a little light on storyline, they are wonderful pattern stories and have beautiful illustrations, particularly of animals. Tonight we read:
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? - I think this was Will's favorite tonight, and we have a neat toy that goes along with the story which he really enjoyed
  • Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? - Sophie loves this one because it includes her favorite animal, a flamingo
  • Baby Bear, Baby Bear What Do You See? 
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar - probably our first Eric Carle book, one of Sophie's very favorites
  • Animals - a book of poems by various poets, illustrated by Eric Carle. Tonight we read poems about an octopus, a turtle, and a cat
  • Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth - we've enjoyed learning about the sloth in this funny book
  • 10 Little Rubber Ducks - another fun book with a rubber duck sound on the last page
  • The Very Lonely Firefly - we love this pretty book, particularly the last page with all the fireflies lighting up; (We were disappointed tonight to find that our battery needs to be replaced!)
  • The Very Busy Spider - this book is neat because the spider web has a texture to it, and the web grows more complex with every page
  • The Secret Birthday Message - a very neat book, with cutout pictures; lots of fun to read!
  • Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me - we ended on this sweet story; beautifully illustrated with fold-out pages; we are crazy about the moon, especially Eric Carle's illustrations of it, so this book is a treat for us!
Another fun storytime this week. We will definitely keep up our Wednesday theme nights in an attempt to keep Wednesdays fun and simple - not to mention keeping "the crazy eye" at bay!  


Comments

Matt Roden said…
Glad we skipped the lesser known Eric Carle book, "Angry Bear, Angry Bear, What Have You Done?"
February 28, 2009 at 10:48 AM
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