My Bus

My Bus, by Byron Barton is a fun little book that's sure to become a read aloud favorite.

Joe drives a bus.  He picks up and drops off a variety of brightly-colored chunky-sized cats and dogs all over town.  As the animals board the bus the count is predictable....one dog gets on at stop number one, two cats get on at stop number two, etc, until the bus is full of cats and dogs.  When the animals get off the bus, however, they do so in random groupings -(two cats and one dog, one cat and two dogs, etc.),  and with varying purposes and destinations, (some board a boat, others take a plane...) and so it goes until only one dog is left on the bus with Joe.  This is Joe's own dog, as it turns out, and the two leave the bus at the station and head for home in Joe's little car.  

More than a good little story, this book introduces the concepts of ordinal and cardinal numbers as well as different forms of transportation, a variety of verbs to convey different kinds of action, and simple counting from one to ten.  It's perfect for toddlers and a good choice for preschoolers or even beginning readers. 

-Miss Meg

Bears on Chairs

Counting! Rhyming! Bears on Chairs! There is a lot to like about Bears on Chairs. This book combines Shirley Parenteau's bouncy, preschool-friendly rhymes with simple and sweet illustrations by David Walker.

While children already have strong ideas about right and wrong, Bears on Chairs tackles two important concepts for preschoolers that can sometimes seem to be in conflict: fairness and sharing.

All is well in the pastel world of bears Calico, Fuzzy, Yellow and Floppy. Each is happy to be sitting on his or her own chair. One chair apiece is clearly a fair and equitable distribution of seating resources, but the arrival of Big Brown Bear complicates the situation. How to share four chairs between five bears? After some experimenting, a solution is found to satisfy even the most stringent of pint-sized moralists. All of the bears share by pushing their chairs together into a kind of bench that can hold everybody.

There are many points to talk about as you read this book with your child. How many bears and how many chairs do you see on the cover? How do you think Calico, Fuzzy, Yellow and Floppy got their names? What would you do to help Big Brown Bear? You probably have everything you need at home to keep the story going into playtime with your own stuffed bears and your own chairs.

Check it out! Use Bears on Chairs as a fun way to read, talk and play with your child today.

~ Miss Robin