Christmas Storytime - Wake up, Dormouse, Santa Clause is here

Wake up, Dormouse, Santa Clause is Here
By Eleonore Schmid
Laptime preshcool - 2nd grade
Story Circle - preschool - 2nd grade

Gus the Dormouse always misses Santa's visit to the forest because he hibernates through the winter. This Christmas he doesn't want to miss Santa but how will he stay awake? Thanks to his friend the Owl, Gus gets his wish.
This book is illustrated with lovely watercolor and pencil pictures of the forest and the creatures who live there. It is a wonderful vehicle to prompt learning about the animals that live in the forest and about hibernation. A different view of Santa is presented here, which could prompt discussion of the ways that different cultures view Santa Clause.

Laptime and Story Circle Activity:
Talk about the different gifts of food that Santa brought to the animals. Which animals ate what treats? Have some of those treats for snack time.

Laptime Activity:
A good book to read before naptime or bedtime. After you read the story pretend to be Gus all curled up in his nest or in Santa's pocket falling...fast.....asleep.....

Story Circle Activities:

1. For older children - Break the class up into 5 groups and have each group learn about one of the animals from the story - dormouse, woodpecker, fox, squirrel, owl. Have them answer some basic questions: What does the animal eat? What part of the forest does the animal live in? Does this animal hibernate? You will have to do some research yourself to have appropriate books from the library and websites for the class to use. Have each group present their findings to the class.
2. Crayon resist water color forest pictures - You will need: newspaper to cover the tables, white sheets of drawing paper,dark color crayons, watercolor paints, paint brushes and smocks. Talk to the class about the way that the illustrator used watercolor paints and pencil for her pictures. Have the children draw a forest creature with a dark crayon, then paint over the picture with a watercolor wash (make your brush heavy with water but not dripping. Pull the brush a couple of times over the color of paint and apply to the paper, repeat until the entire paper is covered). The wax in the crayon will resist the paint and show the animal through the watercolor wash. Different colors of wash may be used for the sky, ground, and to fill in the body of the animal.