Storytime - Springtime

This week I wanted to talk about Spring, although here in Maryland, it's felt like Spring for the past month! I asked the kids to tell me something special that happens in Spring when they introduce themselves. They said cute things, like baby birds are born, flowers grow, the Easter Bunny comes. Of course, my son said that the Grinch comes in Spring. Poor guy. Easter Bunny, the Grinch, its all the same :)

The first book I read this week was Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand. This is from a series of stories about a big bear and his woodland friends (a mole is the other main character of this story). In this story, Mole tries different tactics to wake the bear out of his hibernation slumber until he finds bears sweet spot (and tires himself in the process). The kids thought this one was very funny and they all enjoyed it (in fact, my son and I reenacted the story later that day).
The second book I read was And Then It's Spring by Julie Folgiano and Erin Stead. Wow, the kids LOVED this book! Essentially, the book is about the long wait for plants to grow, and imagined perils to the plants in the meantime. The illustrations are gorgeous and the kids loved combing through the pictures to identify what was growing and all the silly things happening in the pictures. In fact, they spent the whole story huddled around me pointing to things in the book. It was adorable; I love to see the kids get excited over a book!

I had planned to read a third book (about the Easter bunny) but it didn't arrive in time and reading the second book took significantly longer than I expected due to the kids' enthusiasm, so it worked out for the best.

This week's craft I had bought on sale at Michael's a few months ago with this theme in mind. The kit came with everything needed to make 10 each of 2 different crafts (ladybug and daisy). The kids enjoyed making these (all they required more glue than I expected) and were happy to take them home.