Includes more than forty selections, including action songs, chants, tongue twisters, musical games, and audience participation tales. Whether you are working with preschoolers or high schoolers, a story stretcher is a great way to create immediate rapport with your audience and within your group. These "two-minute miracles" from storyteller Naomi Baltuck will have children and adults, singing, moving, laughing, and begging for more. For each stretcher, she has included music, hand motions, tips for telling, or other personal touches developed during the countless times she has used it to hold the attention of her audiences. Time lengths and target audiences are also included so that you can select the best stretchers for every situation. Naomi has gathered these gems from her own childhood, from other storytellers, as well as from her children who bring home new activities from camp. Tried and true, these stretchers are a wonderful way to bring together family, friends, classes, Scout troops, and audiences everywhere.

“Rising above the usual singsong name-checking, Vestergaard celebrates not only the jobs these machines perform but also their marvelous mechanics.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Sixteen boisterous, rhyming poems — each one highlighting the job and personality of a different vehicle, from a backhoe to an ambulance to a snowplow — invite young children to meet their favorite trucks face-to-face. Cheerful illustrations show each one in action, digging (or dozing, or dumping) away. Engaging visual details like an anxious turtle crossing the street just ahead of a steamroller are sure to keep preschoolers poring over the pages as they consider the question, “Trucks as far as eyes can see. . . . Which truck would you like to be?”

Elephant is so heavy, and all the other animals are so light. How will the seesaw ever go up and down? Toddlers will be drawn in by repetition, opposites, humor, and an unexpected twist in this board book story about Elephant's quest to get the seesaw to teeter. A cast of friendly animals--who are all so light--try to help move the seesaw, but Elephant's side won't budge. He's so heavy. Then what happens when a child swoops in with other plans? Short, simple, and memorable, this board book offers a satisfying story arc. "Such a heavyweight for such a light little book—delightful" — Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW "An amusing introduction to the concepts of weight, balance, and opposites" — Publisher's Weekly

Includes 450 lesson plans for use with 90 titles.

Two mice have fun playing on a teeter-totter, but as more and larger friends join them, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay balanced.

Activities for 90 different children's books, covering time, art, cooking and snack time, creative dramatics, housekeeping and dress-up, music, movement, block building, science fun, nature study, library, mathematics (math fun).

A collection of ideas for activities to use in conjunction with over 90 children's books.