Family Program / A Friday Fling with Skippyjon Jones

We've had two Friday Flings this month (special themed story times for preschoolers), one based on the Gossie and Friends books by Olivier Dunrea, and the second based on the Skippyjon Jones picture book series by Judy Schachner.  Skippyjon is another one of our favorite characters in the Children's Room.  In case you haven't read these seriously fun picture books, they feature a Siamese cat who thinks he is actually a Chihuahua.  Of course, hilarity ensues as the incorrigible Skippito-friskito finds his way through all sorts of adventures which usually begin in his magical bedroom closet.

For our program, I started off with a quick singing of Raffi's Shake Your Sillies Out (a regular story time favorite!) and a reading of Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner.  This was the only book I read with the kids that morning since Friday Flings aren't designed as full length story times.  After our story, I explained the activities I had prepared for kids to do and let them go around the room as they wanted.  I had some Skippyjon coloring sheets set out as a crafty activity, a spot-it challenge, and a matching game.  

The spot it challenge was super simple: I just printed out the Life of Skippy panorama from the Skippyjon Jones website using Block Posters to make it a little larger.  Then I posted a list of simple things for kids to look for like 6 different Skippyjons, 11 yellow dogs, and 1 big bumblebee.  The matching game I made from scratch using Spanish words used in the books.  On one card I wrote the English word with a matching picture and on the matching card I wrote the Spanish word with the same picture.  Each pair of cards had an outline in a different color to give kids an extra clue to figure out which cards belonged together.  If you'd like to print out a set to use, download it here!

We had a great time with this program & and so did our families!  Hopefully these ideas help you with planning your own Skippyjon-themed program!