Can We Do This Every Week, Please?

I really love musical illustrations for picture books! This week John Cox, french horn player with the Oregon Symphony, did a superb job honking, mooing, neighing and buzzing like a mosquito. It was unbelievable what he could get out of that horn (french horn, steer horn, and conch shell, actually)! He also did a wonderful demonstration of sound vibration with a long hose, attaching a simple funnel to one end, and his mouthpiece to the other. He even got music out of that!

The books we read were:

Honk! by Chris Demarest. This lift-the-flap book has a duckling greeting many farm animals.

Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell. John had a "voice," french horn, steer horn, or conch shell for each of the babies.

The Thing That Bothered Farmer Brown, by Teri Sloat. John got an amazing array of animal sounds from his horn. I especially liked the mosquito and horse.

Tacky the Penguin, by Helen Lester. I talked John into this one, and he thought it was pretty fun. It's one of my favorite read-alouds, and he did a good job with the pretty penguins.

I had my doubts that he'd be able to get all those preschoolers to make an actual sound on his horn, but he did it! Wonderful!

Tuesday Preschool Storytime

Our theme was "Monkeys," so we did the fingerplay "Five Little Monkeys Swinging In a Tree," and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." Lots of naughty monkeys!

We read:

Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina. I know I read it with the clarinetist last week, but you just can't do a monkey theme without it! Only a few children on Tuesday had heard Mark Dubac the previous week, but those that had did a good job making monkey sounds.

The Escape of Marvin the Ape, by Caralyn Buehner. Marvin blends in perfectly all over the city after he escapes the zoo. We found the police officers on every page who were looking for him.

I also told the story of the Monkey and the Crocodile on the flannelboard and drew pictures for Monkey Face, by Frank Asch.

Toddler Time

It's funny how groups of people take on their own personalities. Sometimes the Toddler Time group of parents sings and laughs and gets into the motions of the songs and rhymes. Sometimes I feel like I'm all by myself putting on a show as the kids just stare and the parents are silent and motionless.

Our books were:

The Seals on the Bus, by Lenny Hort. One day the whole room was singing, one day it was crickets.

Spot Goes to School, by Eric Hill. Lift-the-flap books are always a hit.

Baby Time

One mom was worried that her little guy always wanted to explore everything BUT the other babies and the toys. Not a problem. From his perspective, he probably thought the big room was more interesting than babies and balls and blocks that he's seen before. One purpose of Baby Time is to give children new experiences, and that's what he's getting!