Toddler Storytime kicked off last April 2018 in time for the 99th anniversary of the Cebu City Public Library. Since then, I have been on a trial-and-error mode in trying to figure out which songs and dances to perform and which books to read to an audience composed of toddlers (between 18 months and 3 years old).
Mario’s Special Day (or it’s Binisayang Sugbuanon version, Espesyal nga Adlaw ni Mario) is my go-to big book for a classroom of six to 10 children along with their enthusiastic parents.
Mario’s special day is his birthday — and his parents, addressed in the story using the Filipino words of “Nanay” and “Tatay,” are taking him to zoo.
While he goes about his tasks of eating breakfast, taking a bath and getting dressed, different animals pop out from every corner of the house! There are pigs, tigers, cats, dogs, giraffes ans the list goes on…
This is also a good book to teach children to count. My toddler storytime lesson plan places this under the following themes: birthday, numbers and animals.
I have the regular book in English which I bought for Php 99 from National Book Store. I have the big book in Binisayang Sugbuanon language, which I bought for P100 (on sale from Php 275 during the Manila International Book Fair from the Adarna House booth.
Mario’s Special Day is book that stretches the child’s wild imagination. It is a book that makes them excited to go to the zoo and meet all those animals. Read this before your children to the zoo or wildlife center to mentally prepare them about what they will see.
Check out the Toddler Storytime page in this blog to download my lesson plan for the June 28 Toddler Storytime session when we had the theme “animals, numbers and birthdays.”
Have fun reading!
