Picture Perfect Storytime With HarperCollins Children's Books

We all know that reading to our kids is important.

Looking for what to read next with your child can be a challenge. HarperCollins Children's Books is helping to promote a love of reading and help parents by rolling out this Picture Perfect Storytime Book Series. We got together with Miss Cyndi, Miss Jen, Miss Jane, the students of Rainbow Room Preschool and their parents to read two of the ten titles in the series. Then we made a sensory bag to go with the book "A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars" and planted "Sarrot Ceeds" to go along with "Runny Babbit" Returns.

The Picture Perfect Storytime series is geared towards kids aged 2-6, but really focuses on stretching a child's curiosity. In the instance of "A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars", numbers and how they are all around us in our daily lives is the focus. A pretty complicated concept to tackle, but with the prose by author Seth Fishman and illustrations by Isabel Greenberg, the kids found it fun and relatable. One boy in our group shouted out "Earth" and "Saturn" when the book talked about planets. Pictures of familiar things like rabbits, trees and people kept kids engaged. Who can't imagine ten quadrillion ants!

In the end, the author emphasizes that with all of these humongous numbers, there is only one "you". That's a great message for kids to hear.

Want to hear a little bit yourself? Here's a trailer from the book (you read that right...there are now Book Trailers!)

We made a sensory pouch to illustrate giant numbers to the kids. You can find more fun activities on the HarperCollins website here.

Here's how we did it.

Supplies

Ziplock bag (heavier weight)
Hair gel ($1 at the Dollar Tree)
Glitter-to represent all the things that are too many to count
Foil stars-to represent the things that you CAN count
ONE of something different-we used colored googly eyes-to represent "YOU"
Clear packing tape-because yes, you want to make sure the opening is secure.
Black card stock or poster board

How to:

Open the ziplock bag and squeeze in a generous portion of hair gel.
Add some foil stars, glitter and the unique "YOU" item.
Zip to seal, squeezing out most of the air.
Tape the pouch to the card stock or poster board on all 4 sides making sure that if the unique item is one sided, the right side is facing up.
Let kids enjoy squeezing-you might find that you enjoy it too!

Next up, we read "Runny Babbit Returns" by beloved author Shel Silverstein. With his black and white illustrations, he helps kids understand the topsy-turvey language that Runny Babbit speaks with his woodland friends. Talk about a tongue twister! 41 of Shel Silverstein's archived poems and spoonerisms are collected in this book.

To show kids how WE could talk Runny Babbit's crazy lingo, we had fun reversing the kids' first and last names. Here are some more fun Runny Babbit ideas from HarperCollins.

Our hands on activity was simple and perfect for 4 year olds. We planted Runny's favorite food...Sarrot Ceeds! They all got to take them home to watch them grow along with a Runny Babbit coloring sheet and other goodies from HarperCollins. One Dad, a fan of Norse Mythology and traditional nursery rhymes like Peter Piper, was especially smitten with Runny Babbit!