Read Around Town: Hair Salon

Read Around Town is a series where I highlight picture books that celebrate the people and places in a young child's immediate community. These would work well for preschool classes or homeschool groups taking tours of local businesses, or for any child interested in learning about his or her neighborhood. Today's post includes ten picture books about hair and hair salons.

Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
No one knows why Josh wants to wear a bag over his head until they see what happened to his hair! 

Mop Top by Don Freeman
A red-haired little boy does everything he can to put off his haircut in this vintage picture book by the creator of Corduroy.

Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott
Every full moon, a young boy whose father is a barber cuts the hair of the neighborhood monsters, including Frankenstein's monster and Medusa.

Super Hair-o and the Barber of Doom by John Rocco
Rocco is convinced that his super powers reside in his long red hair, which he is reluctant to cut.

Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg
Stanley is embarrassed when he gets all ready for crazy hair day only to find that he got it mixed up with school picture day!

Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

A man explains to a little girl all the things that can be found inside his crazy hair.

I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, illustrated by E.B. Lewis

A young girl named Keyana doesn't like it when her mother tugs on her hair, but she finds a sense of pride in the many ways it can be styled.

Birdie’s Big-Girl Hair by Sujean Rim
When Birdie gets a fancy grown-up hairstyle, it becomes difficult for her to play and run around like she normally does.

Ruby’s Beauty Shop by Rosemary Wells
When Ruby and her friend Louise start a beauty shop, Max joins in, first as a customer, and then as a stylist with an interesting approach to beauty.

The Longest Hair in the World by Lois Duncan, illustrated by Jon McIntosh

When Emily makes a birthday wish for the longest hair in the world, she isn't quite prepared for the consequences.

Colors Board Books

Children may not learn the names of the colors until they are two or even three years old, but it is never too soon to begin talking about color vocabulary. These board books introduce the colors in baby and toddler-friendly ways.

Red Truck, Yellow Bus by Children's Press (ISBN: 9780531208526)

This Rookie Toddler title uses different vehicles to introduce each color of the rainbow. Since most toddlers are obsessed with cars and trucks, this is a perfect way to also get them excited about colors. 

Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe by Tana Hoban (ISBN: 9780688065638)In this vintage book originally published in the 1980s, photographer Tana Hoban introduces different everyday objects, each labeled with its proper color.

I Love Colors by Margaret Miller (ISBN: 9781416978886)
Each baby in this book has been photographed wearing a different-colored item. Little ones will love to look at the expressions on the babies' faces as you tell them which color each one is meant to represent. For more fun, you can sing about each item to the tune of "Mary Wore Her Red Dress."

Spot the Animals by American Museum of Natural History (ISBN: 9781402777233)

This lift-the-flap book is a color-themed guessing game which invites readers to find an animal hidden on each page. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers can all enjoy this book together! 

MOPS Story Time, 2/17/16

I've been saying that my last story time was six months ago, but it turns out that, before this morning, my last story time was actually July 10th, which was 7 months ago. I did have a ukulele sing-along at the end of July, but other than that, it has been a very story time free existence for me since the start of my third trimester with Little Bo Peep.  That's the longest story time break I think I have ever taken since leaving the library in 2013. I mention this because the story time I did yesterday morning for my local MOPS group (the same one I visited around Easter last year) felt very different than any I have ever done previously. It wasn't necessarily bad, but I was clearly very rusty, and I did not feel the usual rush I would normally have after doing a regular story time performance. Part of this is because it was a room full of strangers (I am only connected to the group through an acquaintance from MOMS Club), and part of it is that I tried to use new or unfamiliar materials, which is not usually wise, and part of it is that I haven't been feeling well, and was not at the top of my game. Still, it was strange to walk away from a story time without a strong feeling of either success or disappointment, which, in itself, is somewhat disappointing.

In any case, here is what I presented to yesterday's group. The theme was sounds.

Opening Song: Hello, How Are You?
If I ever have a regular story time gig again, I have got to let this hello song go. It's not as engaging as it once was, and it does not get people excited.

Song: If You'd Like to Read a Book
I got a lot of participation with this song - everybody caught on right away to the tune and they seemed to enjoy the hoorays.

Book: Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
I have absolutely no idea if the kids liked this book. There were babies, toddlers, and preschoolers in the room, all the way up to age 4, so it clearly did not appeal to every child. My own Little Miss Muffet (age 2) didn't even look at me during this story. She was watching the audience watch me instead.

Song: Let Everyone Whistle Like Me
This is a song I know because of Bob McGrath from Sesame Street and Pete Seeger, both of whom have recorded it as "Let Everyone Clap Hands Like Me." I changed the words to suit my noisy theme, so the verses were as follows:

Let everyone...

• whistle
• laugh
• bark
• cry
• yawn
• snore 

Book: The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
I asked everyone to say "ding-dong" every time the doorbell rang, and most of the moms did it.

Song: Hands Up High
Everyone liked this one.

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Book: Rain by Robert Kalan, illustrated by Donald Crews
This book was most appropriate for the babies and toddlers of the group, but it didn't engage the room as a whole. (Except my own kid, who said she loved it, and did actually turn around to face me and listen to it.)

Song: I Like to Hear the Raindrops Fall
This is normally a piggyback song about the five senses, but I made some alterations to have it focus just on hearing. We sang about hearing raindrops fall, thunder clap, puddles splash, and breezes blow.

Rhyme: Quiet Quiet said the Queen
I wrote this as a flannel board. I love it. I tried it as an action rhyme. I made them do it twice. Never have children looked at me with such confusion. I almost cut this from the plan, but thought I would regret not doing it. Now I regret doing it. It would have gone over fine with a different group, I'm sure (one little girl did the whole thing with me), but it will be a while before I have the guts to try again.

Book: Hush Little Baby by Margot Zemach
This was my weakest book choice, but it didn't seem to have any particular impact on the audience, for the positive or for the negative.

Songs: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Early Literacy Around the House: The Bedroom

For many families, bedtime is the traditional time of day for reading stories, singing songs, and engaging in other quiet early literacy activities together. Here are some suggestions to add to your own evening repertoire.

• Have a special bedtime poem. When my daughter was still less than six months old, we borrowed Here's a Little Poem from the library. In it were several bedtime poems, and I read them to her every night before bed until the book went back to the library. When it was due, I made sure to memorize my favorite one of the poems - "Silverly" by Dennis Lee - so I could continue to share it with her every night. Not only is poetry a great way to introduce language to young babies, it is also a perfect way to signal that it's time to go to sleep. We have gotten out of the habit of saying the poem as regularly now, as toddler bedtime is so much more boisterous than baby bedtime, but when we do have a moment, we still share that poem. I hope to continue the same practice with baby #2!
• Say prayers. As Little Miss Muffet has entered toddlerhood, we have started to include prayers as part of her bedtime routine every night. She has several board books (My First Prayers with Mary, My First Bedtime Prayers and A Small Child's Book of Prayers) which contain kid-friendly prayers accompanied by illustrations, and each night after her teeth are brushed, she has the opportunity to choose the one we will say. Like poems, prayers introduce rhythm, rhyme, and vocabulary, and, if you are hoping your child will eventually memorize certain prayers, saying them at bedtime also helps with that learning process. (For more Christian-themed early literacy activities, see my post about Church.)
• Share a book with a stuffed animal. A stuffed monkey and a baby doll are Little Miss Muffet's two bedtime loveys. Sometimes, we will snuggle with them and read a favorite board book before bed. (For some kids, this activity might be too stimulating to settle them, in which case it is also fun to do first thing in the morning!) 
• Review the day. As Little Miss Muffet gets ready for bed, I often review with her what she has done that day. I start with the morning, and just list a few of the highlights - where we went, who we played with, what toys we enjoyed, and what we did when Daddy got home. This gives her the language to hopefully express her own thoughts about the day as she becomes more verbal, and it also calms her down so that she is in the right frame of mind for drifting off to sleep.