9 Picture Books About Parades

 

With Thanksgiving next week, this seems like a good time to think about parades. The following books will help your preschooler get into the marching spirit!

Parade Day
by Bob Barner
This rhyming text takes the reader through the entire year by pointing out the celebrations held in each month.

Hooray Parade
by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Hyewon Yum
When Grandma comes to visit, she brings along a parade of toy animals, which she and her granddaughter use to play a shadow guessing game. 

The Day Ray Got Away
by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Luke LaMarca
A big sunshine-shaped balloon decides to run away on parade day.

Baby Parade
by Rebecca O'Connell, illustrated by Susie Poole
Babies traveling in many different ways and wearing many different colors invite young readers to wave to them as they march by.

A Pig Parade is a Terrible Idea
by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
It might sound like great fun, but this book explains in hilarious detail why having a parade for pigs is a poor choice.

In the Forest
by Marie Hall Ets
An exuberant young boy walks through the forest blowing a horn, which attracts a parade of animal companions who begin to follow him.

Christmas Parade
by Sandra Boynton
An animal marching band celebrates Christmas with lots of musical noise and clever rhymes.

Parade
by Donald Crews
A beloved children's author shares his visual interpretation of the parade experience.

Knick Knack Paddy Whack
by Steve Songs, illustrated by Christiane Engel
This retelling of This Old Man features a parade of children from all different cultures playing a variety of instruments.

LibraryAdventure.com: 25 Questions to Spark Book Discussions with Young Readers

Today I'm over at The Library Adventure sharing some conversation starters that will get kids talking about books. Click here to read!

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Flannel Friday: What’s On Your Plate?

It’s hard to believe, but I haven’t participated in Flannel Friday since June! Though I have used flannel boards a few times in story times for my mothers groups, I’ve been relying on old favorites and haven’t had much time to come up with new ideas. But with Thanksgiving coming up, I’ve been looking for fun ways to incorporate the holiday into Little Miss Muffet’s playtime, and inspiration struck!

This “flannel board” is a piece of cardboad with felt stapled to either side of it. On it is a set of clipart from KizClub.com which makes up a single place setting. With older kids, setting the table properly could be a flannel board activity unto itself. Preschoolers could help you figure out where each item goes and correct you if you make a mistake. With an almost-toddler, though, I’m lucky to keep the pieces on the board for more than 5 seconds!

Once the table is set, either choose a piece of food or ask a child in your audience to make the choice. Say, “2-4-6-8, tell me what is on your plate!” Call out the name of the food as you set it on the plate, and then sing this song from Sharon, Lois, and Bram. (In the Sharon, Lois, and Bram version, they repeat each meal at the end of every verse, but that seems a bit tedious, so I’d probably skip that part, even with kids who were old enough to remember them all.)

This flannel board works for Thanksgiving because of the food connection, but it could really be used any time of year to accompany food-themed books.

This week's host for Flannel Friday is Linda at Notes from the Story Room. For more about this weekly round-up of story  time ideas visit, the official website.