• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • FAQ
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Community
  • Books
    • Books for Children by Age
    • Book Lists
    • Holiday Books and Activities
  • Reading Ideas
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • Kindergarteners & Early Elementary
  • Writing Ideas
  • Parental Involvement: Building Partnerships
  • Start Here!
    • WELCOME TO THE GROWING BOOK BY BOOK COMMUNITY
    • Subscribe
    • Contact
    • FAQ
      • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Shop
  • Home
  • Book Lists
    • Books for Children by Age
    • Book Lists
    • Holiday Books and Activities
  • Book Activities
  • Early Literacy
    • Alphabet Activities
    • Circle Time Activities
    • Phonological Awareness Activities

Growing Book by Book

  • Family Involvement
    • Start a Family Dinner Book Club
  • Start Here
  • Store
discovering with babies playing with toddlers exploring with preschoolers building with beginning readers

Bring joy and play into children's lives through books.

Yes, please!
Home » All categories » Storytime Ideas: Jamberry

Storytime Ideas: Jamberry

June 10, 2014 •

Sharing is caring!

1661 shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

We are in week two of our summer storytime ideas series. Each week we gather in our local park to read great books for kids together with our neighbors. This week we featured Jamberry by Bruce Degen and doing some super fun Jamberry book activities.

Storytime Ideas for Jamberry by Degen from growingbookbybook.com

This post contains affiliate links. 

Storytime Ideas: Jamberry

The Book

jamberry

Berries, berries and more berries is what you will find in this rhythmic story of a bear and boy who go on a berry adventure. The illustrations in Jamberry are full of all kinds of berries too. After reading, you will definitely be ready to eat berry jam on something!

Degen was inspired to write the book from his fond memories of picking berries with his grandparents in the fields when he was young. He vividly remembers eating their bounty with sour cream and sugar while blueberry pie and blackberry jam were being made.

The Group Activities

Pop Goes the Berry

We sang this cute interactive song about berries.  You can watch it below.  And go to the Jbrary site for the words to Pop Goes the Berry.

ABC Berry Sort
ABC Berry Sort to compliment Jamberry by Degen from growingbookbybook.com

For our storytime activity, I created printable ABC berries. I cut them apart and placed the berries into recycled berry containers. Each family was given a container of berries to sort. Possible sorts included: sorting by color, sorting by type of berry, and sorting/ordering the letters in alphabetical order.

As storytime ended, we held a giveaway for a copy of the book and a jar of strawberry jam!

Skill building: sorting, categorizing and sequencing

Follow-Up Activities

Picking Berries

Children would be delighted to pick berries. You may be lucky enough to have berries growing in your own yard. We planted three blueberry bushes in the fall and look forward to blueberries in a few years. Until then we visit local farms when the berries are in season. Check for farms in your local area for berry picking schedules in the spring and early summer.

Making Jam

Making jam can be pretty easy. We love to make freezer jam because we don’t have to go through the canning process. We just pop our jars into the freezer. It’s so nice to have homemade jam in the winter. We like to use the reduced-sugar freezer jam recipe from Creative Chicks.

Let the kids count the berries for a little math practice as they help prepare the jam.

Berry Tasting

Have a berry tasting party. Select a variety of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, etc.). For dessert one night, have the kids create a pattern on a skewer with the berries. Serve with a dipping sauce made with sour cream sweetened with sugar or honey. Using tally marks create a chart of which berry each family member liked the best for some extra math practice.

More Berry Themed Books

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Blueberry Shoe by Ann Dixon

Books About Fruits and Vegetables

Did you get your free list of Books Kids Will Beg You to Read?

Get It

Sharing is caring!

1661 shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Filed Under: All categories, Book Activities Tagged With: alphabet activities, books for kids

About Jodie Rodriguez

Jodie Rodriguez is a mom of two young boys and an early childhood/elementary educator with over 20 years of experience. Jodie's passion is helping parents, teachers, librarians and anyone else interested in nurturing and reaching ALL of our youngest growing readers.

Comments

  1. Tina at Mommynificent says

    June 19, 2014 at 9:42 am

    We love the book Jamberry so much!!! And I absolutely love that a group of you meet at the park to share books. That makes me so happy!!! Thanks so much for linking up on Booknificent Thursday this week. Always love to have you!
    Tina

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      June 21, 2014 at 9:52 pm

      Thank you Tina. We are having so much fun meeting new families each week.

  2. Amanda says

    June 18, 2014 at 10:30 am

    Great literacy connection! Featured it on the Playful Preschool Planner this week!!!!

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      June 18, 2014 at 1:38 pm

      Thank you so much Amanda!

  3. KB3Teach says

    June 14, 2014 at 8:51 am

    Fun! Perfect for the summer.

  4. Rosemond Cates says

    June 12, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    Awesome! I just posted about Jamberry not long ago: http://www.bighairandbooks.blogspot.com/2013/11/way-back-wednesday-jamberry.html

    I look forward to trying the berry sorting with my boys!

    Rosemond

  5. channon says

    June 11, 2014 at 7:37 am

    My children love anything with berries. You put together some really fun activities, and we are looking forward to them.

  6. Tracy says

    June 10, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    Wow! I love the book and all of the great activities. I can’t wait to see what you have cooked up for next week! 🙂

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      June 10, 2014 at 10:00 pm

      Thanks Tracy! We are looking forward to The Deep Blue Sea by Audrey Wood next week.

Trackbacks

  1. 22 Strawberry Printable Worksheets for Preschoolers says:
    March 10, 2019 at 9:11 am

    […] your preschoolers, and then have kids sort the berries by color, type, or abc […]

  2. 15 FREE Printables for Summer says:
    June 23, 2014 at 4:33 am

    […] 2. ABC Berry Sort {Growing Book by Book} […]

What can we help you find?

Subscribe to Growing Book by Book

lead magnet for growing book bybook
Welcome to Growing Book by Book!  Learn about the creator, Jodie Rodriguez.

Find More

alphabet activities
book lists for children
circle time button

Set Up for Circle Time Success

month by month circle time songs


Copyright ©2025, Growing Book by Book. All Rights Reserved. Custom design by Pixel Me Designs | Privacy Policy