Mice by Rose Fyleman
Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley
Given basic parts, children can construct mice similar to those used in Lois Ehlert’s illustrations and talk about how mice move and use their senses, what they eat, where they like to live, etc.
Or try some of the activities at http://www.preschool-plan-it.com/mice.html.
Collect and show pictures of animals in the rodent family. Talk about how they are the same and different.
Hands: Growing Up to Be an Artist by Lois Ehlert
Lots of Spots by Lois Ehlert
Oodles of Animals by Lois Ehlert
There are several activities to tie science and art together at:
http://artfulparent.com/childrens-artful-science-experiments
Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant
Since wind is the source of energy for most scarecrows, fastening streamers to a fan or bringing in a decorative scarecrow to use a fan on, would work well to demonstrate this concept.
For some other preschool activity ideas regarding Potential to Kinetic Energy, some sites to explore include:
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/kinetic-energy-activities-kids-46975.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/562636-kinetic-energy-activities-for-kids/
http://tomandmarta.com/post/60318912550/energy-is-everywhere-harness-that-preschoo
Aesop’s Fables by Jerry Pinkney
After/while reading “The Crow and the Pitcher,” demonstrate the displacement of water by using your pointer and thumb as the crow beak to pinch some stones and add them to a container of water one by one. Children can join in by making a crow’s beak with their fingers and helping to displace the water until it is high enough for the “crow” to take a drink. Helpful hint: Try this ahead of time to see how many stones are needed and how much water to begin with. Make a mark on the back of your container so you can use it as a fill line when you do this with children.
A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
The Sleep Sheep by Anna McQuinn
The first book examines the different ways animals sleep.The second examines the difficulties of getting to sleep.
Experiment with listening to lullabies. Make a chart to show who feels sleepy and who does not after listening to a lullaby.
Or you could do the same with “counting sheep.” Provide children with paper sheep and have them gently jump their sheep over a paper fence. Chart who begins to feel sleepy and who does not.
Dogs by Emily Gravett
This book presents a good opportunity to talk about how there are different breeds of the same kind of animals. Use a size comparison chart you can find online to laminate and cut apart so children can divide breeds into classification groups of small and large dog breeds. This classification sorting activity could also be extended to other breed characteristics, for example, which dogs have brown (black, white, spotted, long, short) hair?Tails? Ears? Etc.
Science in Storytime 