The regular cycle of the calender offers a wealth of story time ideas. Each holiday and season is a new theme for decorating and book selections. In addition to the traditional hand print turkeys and clothespin reindeer, craft projects can involve coloring seasonal or holiday scenes, dressing paper dolls appropriate to the occasion and decorating seasonal trees. Another interactive idea is using finger puppets to act out scenes from holiday origins.
In addition to the more obvious choices you get from looking at the calendar, another option is introducing children to special months, such as Black History Month in February and Women's History month in March. There are a variety of age-appropriate books on these topics. For Women's History Month, for example, you can teach songs like "Bread and Roses," match up cards of famous women and what they're famous for and set up a mock ballot box and election.
Animals are a popular subject for preschool children. You can create a matching game with various animals and the type of food they eat. Kids can make animal masks out of paper plates by gluing on construction paper ears and drawing faces with crayons or markers. Similarly, they can use paper lunch bags to create animal puppets. Other activities include coloring in animal habitats and teaching children how to make different animal noises.
Planes, trains, automobiles, buses and boats are more popular subjects for young children. A fun way to make story time interactive is to set up chairs like the inside of a plane, train or bus. Alternate different children as the conductor, engineer, pilot and flight attendant. Craft ideas include making paper boats and seeing if they float or using colored construction paper to build airport runways or bus routes and having kids act as airplanes and buses.