I try to pick one folk tale each month to highlight in Storytime. I try to find 3-4 different books that tell the same tale and I use a new book each week in Storytime. There are some folk tales that are part of our cultural experience. I have even heard that some teachers as part of the 4 and 5 year old Kindergarten screening will be asked questions about folk tales that every child should know, such as “The Three Little Pigs”. So, why not tell these stories in Storytime? And, why not use Passive Programs to re-emphasize these stories once Storytime is over?

Some of the kids have picked up on how I keep telling the same story each week, but the pictures are different. That is an excellent way to bring up asides to parents that critical thinking skills and observation are at work in child’s life!

This January I am using the tale, “The Mitten” as my featured folk tale for January. Margaret, one of our librarians, created this very cute passive program that we have available whenever the library is open. She used our die-cut machine to cut out 100 mittens using scrap construction paper. I then cut little sections of yarn in about 5″ sections, as well some small shapes out of paper. I made two mittens, one using the yarn, and the other using the paper shapes, and displayed both options in our table topper. Kids and parents use the glue sticks to attach the yarn and/or the paper shapes to design whatever they would like their mitten to look like. And, a wonderful project for this cold winter!