Storytime: Birthdays

Storytime for children ages 3-8 and their families, with a craft.

Books:


Don't Spill the Beans
by Ian Schoenherr



Froggy Bakes a Cake
by Jonathan London and pictures by Frank Remkiewicz



A Birthday for Cow!
by Jan Thomas

Additional Books:

The Birthday Box by Leslie Patricelli

Birthday Zoo by Deborah Lee Rose and pictures by Lynn Munsinger

Going Up! by Peter Sis

It's My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury

Mouse's Birthday by Jane Yolen and pictures by Bruce Degen

Tell-A-Bunny by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

What's Cookin'? by Nancy Coffelt

Songs and Fingerplays:

Birthday Cake

Ten candles on a birthday cake

(hold up hands with palms facing out and fingers extended)
All lit up for me
(wiggle fingers)
I'll make a wish and blow them out
Watch and you will see.
(blow and bend fingers down)

from www.thebestkidsbooksite.com 

Five Candles

Five candles on a birthday cake
Five, and not one more.
You may blow one candle out,  
[make blowing sound and motion]
And that leaves four!

Four candles on a birthday cake
There for all to see.
You may blow one candle out, 
 [make blowing sound and motion]
And that makes three!

Three candles on a birthday cake
Standing straight and true.
You may blow one candle out, 
 [make blowing sound and motion]
And that leaves two!

Two candles on a birthday cake
Helping us have fun.
You may blow one candle out,  
[make blowing sound and motion]
And that leaves one!

One candle on a birthday cake
We know its task is done.
You may blow this candle out, 
 [make blowing sound and motion]
And that leaves none!

from earlylit.net

Print out this Cake and Candle and make a magnet or flannel board for the above rhyme.



Since it was a party we danced to Jim Gill's "Silly Dance Contest" from Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes.



I also recommend Mickey's Party Songs for background music.


Craft:

Birthday Cake

Draw and copy a cake or use the template here. Instead of using the candles that come with the pattern, I simply cut out strips of colored paper to use instead. I also gave the children yellow dot stickers to "light" their candles. A little bit of crayon coloring on the cakes, and I had happy kids on my hands.