Cookie Storytime

This week our preschool storytime was all about every kid's favorite snack: Cookies! This was an action-packed storytime filled with activities to make this theme extra special.

We read:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
A classic book! The story covers a circle of cause and effect, beginning and ending with a cookie.

Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington
A baker goes into his shop, makes and decorates cookies, and then sells them to happy children. I used this book as a way of talking about the cookie baking process.

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
Two children have twelve cookies to share between the two of them. But then the doorbell rings and two more friends arrive and the cookies must be shared. Then it rings again and again, and soon there are barely enough cookies to go around.

During storytime we went on a cookie hunt. To prepare for this activity, I printed, cut out, and laminated a few dozen pictures of gingerbread men. After storytime began an aid hid them in the children's area, hiding enough so that each child could find 2-5 (depending on group size). They could be found sticking out of picture books or sitting on tables so they were fairly easy to find. When it was time I briefly told the story of the gingerbread man up to the part where he runs away. I then sent the kids into the library to see if they could find all of the runaway gingerbread men. The kids then returned to the storytime area with their cookies, stuck them on my felt board, and we all sat down and counted the cookies.

We also did another action rhyme all about baking cookies:

Gingerbread

Stir a bowl of gingerbread,
Smooth and spicy brown.
(stir)
Roll it with a rolling pin,
Up and up and down.
(roll out dough)
With a cookie cutter,
Make some little men,
(cut out cookies)
Put them in the oven,
Until half past ten.
(put in oven)

To cap off this special storytime, each child was given a cookie to decorate with frosting and sprinkles (with a grown-up's help, of course). The kids were welcome to eat their treat in the storytime room, or they could get a plastic bag to take their cookie home in.


This is an activity that I can get away with only because I have fairly small storytimes - I imagine that this activity would get a bit more complicated and expensive with large groups.