K-2 Book Adventure Program Summary: Cats and Dogs

K-2 Book Adventure Program Summary:  Cats and Dogs 

Our first K-2 Book Adventure of the school year was on “Cats and Dogs.”  So we picked out some cat stories, some dog stories, and one that featured both. 

Along with the stories, we did a recurring “Cats vs. Dogs” feature.  This is where Sheila (as a dog) and Terri (as a cat) face off with different types of cat and dog books.  So we

started with a “Poetry Slam.”  They each read a poem for their animal from Douglas Florian’s Bow Wow Meow Meow.  And each did a concrete poem (with the image projected on the

screen) from Betsy Franco’s books:  A Curious Collection of Cats and A Dazzling Display of Dogs.  One thing I really like about this program:  It gives us a chance to promote poetry almost every time. 

Then we did our first story, an act-out of Officer Buckle and Gloria which also used projected illustrations.  (Details here).

Our next “Cats vs. Dogs” was “Fascinating Facts.”  They shared a bunch of amazing facts, using Cats and Dogs by Steve Jenkins and Cats vs. Dogs by Elizabeth Carney. 

The “Bad Kitty” books by Nick Bruel are fun early chapter books.  We scanned several illustrations and used them to help tell a few scenes from the Bad Kitty Meets the Baby:   When Kitty meets the dog;  When Kitty meets the baby;  and a bit from the “Kitty Olympics.”  The visuals on the screen along with the humor of the story really gave the kids a good feel for what those books are like. 

To balance the Cat/Dog theme, we took a similar approach with Down Girl and Sit.  This time we just used a couple scans and had “Ruff” (the man) explain to the kids why his dog is called “Down Girl” and the neighbor dog is called “Sit.” 

Another “Cats vs. Dogs” interlude:  this time on Jokes and Riddles.  Dog and Cat each did a few riddles, culled from a few books because it’s actually hard to find really good riddles.  And we projected illustrations from the books at the same time.

Then it was Pete the Cat, told with three people.  Details are here.  For a stretch break, we extended this story by having the kids stand up and calling out other stuff for Pete to step in.  Then acting it out while reprising the song.  I was surprised that no one picked the first thing that came to my mind (hint:  it’s brown), but I guess maybe 6 and 7 year olds are more polite than me. 

Our last Cats vs. Dogs segment was “True Stories.”  Terri did a quick booktalk for The Bravest Cat by Laura Driscoll.  Then Sheila finished up with Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson.  A nice one to finish with since the it’s really about a dog and a cat who work together.  Although we then finished with an enemies tale…

Our final story was an act-out of Why Dogs Chase Cats, which we’ve done before for Storytime (see here).  This was also the story we used for the K-2 Previews we do at our two Primary Schools.  We acted it out just to the part where you realize that Cat thinks it’s “my ham,” not “our ham,” then told the kids to come to the library to see what happens.  And lots of them did.