Crickets!!

One of the sounds of summer's end is crickets chirping in the evening into the night. Today we read stories about them and talked about how we can listen for them, perhaps even in the daytime! We started Storytime with The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle, a story about a little cricket who grows into his voice. Then we read Cricket Song by Ann Hunter, about a boy who listens to the sounds of crickets as he falls asleep and other creatures in community get ready for the night. Our last book was I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe, a story about a small cricket who has been convinced that he's ugly and the surprise that lets us all know how beautiful he and his song really are.

We made crickets from cut out paper legs (six of them, of course!) and head and a paper plate body. We covered the paper plate with green tissue paper squares and glued on the body parts. Red reinforcements worked for eyes and gold pipe cleaners made the antennae.

This young Storytimer even made her cricket smile!