Jungle Animals - toddler storytime

Opening song - Open Shut Them
Book #1 - If I were a Jungle Animal by Ellery
 -  This book was a bit wordy for this age so I just summarized some of the pages. They liked it.
Song: I went to the Jungle -
 - not bad but I messed up a little
Flannel: Five little monkeys sitting in a tree
Fingerplay: Five little monkeys jumping on a bed
Book #2 - If You're Happy and You know it by Cabrera
 - we sang and acted out this one
Action song; Shake your sillies out
 - This is where I lost the 18 month olds
Song: The Lion Sleeps Tonight with shakers
 - On my uke. Went well
Song: Rhinoceros Tap - Boynton

Book #3 - Tiny Little Fly by Rosen
 - The 3 little ones were running around the room but the rest liked the story.
Closing song - May there always be sunshine - on the uke.

I was excited to do this one because I had a song to play on my uke and a puppet show based on It's a Tiger by LaRochelle. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the puppet show so I will save it for another time.

Baby storytime, early head start and head start storytimes....Farm Animals

On Saturday, I did a baby storytime and today and on Tuesday I did Head Start and Early Head Start.

I figured why not do Farm Animals...again! so I did!  It went great! I used my ukulele for Early Head Start and Babies. I did my usual The More We Get Together and May There always be Sunshine. I did the same books that I did last week for Toddlers with the addition of Book, Book, Book! by Bruss for Head Start. They are 3-5 years old so I thought they might enjoy it. They seemed to like the story but the last joke fell very flat...not surprisingly. And I did Farm Yard Beat with puppets which was a hit!

Tomorrow, Toddlers!!! Bring it on!!!

Body Parts - Toddler Storytime

Opening song - Open Shut Them

Book #1 - I Like Myself by Beaumont

Fingerplay - On my face

On my face I have a nose (point to nose)
And way down here, I have ten toes. (point to toes)
I have two eyes that I can blink (blink eyes)
I have a head to help me think (put hands on head)
I have a chin and very near (point to chin)
I have two ears to help me hear (put hands to ears)
I have a mouth with which to speak (point to mouth)
And when I run I use my feet. (pretend to run in place)
Here are my arms to hold up high (put arms up high)
And here’s a hand to wave goodbye (wave) 

The kids liked this so we did it twice.

Book #2 - Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Fox

Action songs -

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Tony Chestnut

Hands are for clapping - Gill

Book #3 - All of Baby Nose to Toes by Adler

I might have done a few too many action songs because this one I had to cut short.

Bean Bag Rock with beanbags

The kids just looked a me and shook their beanbags but the parents were doing the song. 

Closing song- What a Miracle by Palmer

Not too bad but there are many little ones in my group now that just graduated from baby storytime. This means more music and less books which I did. The two 4 year old girls might be encouraged to go to preschool storytime where they do more books but it is a scheduling issue for the caregivers.

Farm Animals - Toddler Storytime

Opening Song - Open Shut Them

Book #1 - Hurry Hurry by Bunting
 - Might not have been the best to start with...very young kids book.

Finger Play- Plant a seed
I plant a seed in the cold, cold, ground (put fingers on palm like planting)
Out comes the sun, big and round (arms for sun over head)
Down come the raindrops, soft and slow. (fingers wiggling)
Up comes the flower, grow, grow, grow (arms up and stand up to make tall)
 - did this one twice...they liked it!

If you're happy and you know it...ending with "if you want to hear a story"

Book #2 Farmyard Beat by Craig
 - I have done this one as a puppet show but I think I like it better as a book.

Song with puppets - Old MacDonald

Flannel - Chook chook chook
Chook, chook chook, chook, chook
Good morning, Mrs. Hen
How many chickens have you got?
Madam, I've got ten.
Four of them are yellow,
And Four of them are brown,
And two of them are speckled red,
The nicest in town.

Flannel/Finger Play -Little boy blue
Book #3 - Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails by Tafuri
 - a nice one but the toddlers were winding down at this point, the preschoolers present answered all the questions.

Shakers to "Down on the farm" by Raffi

Closing song - What a Miracle by Palmer

For my first storytime of the year I decided to do an old standby. This is a theme I could do in my sleep which is good because I am recovering from a cold and didn't have much of a voice or much energy. The kids have bunches, however :-)

Head Start and Early Head Start

Today I had outreach for Head Start and Early Head Start. My plan was to do snow but I got a call from one of the teachers who said they were doing a unit on roads and could I do a book about roads. I did a reference interview and found out they were learning about how a road is made and what a road is made of. There is only one book about that so I read it first. Then I did snow.

Opening song: The More We get Together - on uke
Book 1 - Road Work by Sutton

Finger Play: Snowflake Snowflake - This is supposed to be an action rhyme but the kids were so stuffed onto the "circle time rug" I did it sitting.

Snowflake, snowflake dance around
Snowflake, snowflake touch the ground
Snowflake landing on my nose
Snowflake landing on my toes
Snowflake, snowflake flutter to the ground.

Book 2 - Snowmen at Work by Buehner

Song - Shake your Sillies Out - they needed to get up at this point.

Song - Happy and you Know it

Book 3 - Snowmen at Night by Buehner
 - a little too much like Snowmen at Work but they weren't really paying attention at this point anyway.
Closing Song - May there Always be Sunshine by Gill - on uke

Then for Early Head Start I did some singing and reading books.

Book 1 - If You're Happy and you Know It! by Cabrera

Book 2 - Skip To My Lou by Westcott

Songs:
Wheels on the Bus
I Know a Chicken by Berkner
Alabama Mississippi by Gill
May There Always be Sunshine by Gill - on uke

Fingerplay
Roll, Roll, Sugarbabies by Jbrary
- just not enough adults for this one.

Toddler Storytime - Food, Glorious Food!

For this week, I took my pizza storytime and my cupcake storytime and smashed them together to make a food storytime.

Opening song - Open shut them
Book #1 - If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Numeroff
    I wish I had done our big book for the If You Give a Moose a Muffin because I had a very large group. But it went okay.

Action rhyme:
Fruit Salad (Jbrary)

Flannel rhymes: Hand me down Pizza by Irving
Five Little Cupcakes by Dr. Jean

Book #2 - Soup Day by Iwai

 This one might have been too long but I liked doing something multicultural.

Action songs: Spaghetti Legs by Gill and If you're happy and you know it (ending with if you want to hear a story sit right down)

Book #3 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Carle
 - I would have liked to do this as a flannel but I have one child who enjoys taking my flannel pieces and destroying them so I just read the book.


Scarf songs -
  Popcorn Kernals (Jbrary)

  Baking Pizza (Abby the Librarian)

Closing song - What a Miracle - Palmer

Got out the Parachute - They loved it but it was a little disorganized. I am going to prepare more if I do it in January. I am not doing toddlers until January 6th, but I have one more outreach before vacation.

My Early Literacy tip was about play. Something like this: The most critical aspect of play as it relates to language development is that children learn to think symbolically. They learn that one thing, like a block, can represent another think like a phone. It is the very kinds of thinking that is used in language. A picture of an apple or the written word apple represents the real apple.

Penguins in toddlertime

This was a good one!

Opening song: Open Shut them

Book #1 Penguin and Pinecone by Yoon
 - I got some ahs from the caregivers
Penguin Puppets - I made paper penguin puppets (laminated) for the kids and we did up, down, in, out, high, low, around etc. Storytime ABCs is where I got this idea.
 - very good
Book #2 - Flip and Flop by Apperley
 - some of the younger ones started running round. Ignored them and kept on.
Action songs - Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Penguin Pokey and If you're happy and you know it. Last one "If you want to hear a story sit on down"
 - brings them back for a last short story

Book #3 - I am Small - by Dodd
 - definitely lost most of them but it is short so I finished it. I thought about cutting it short but it is so cute I had to finish it.

Shaker songs - Penguin Shuffle by Grunsky and "I know a Penguin" (thanks L. Berkner) that I sang

Closing song: What a Miracle by Palmer

The kids were a bit antsy today but it went okay. The only annoying thing was the parents first sat in the very back of the room - some of the kids came closer as time went on but even though I said something about how it is more of work for me if they sit back there, they weren't budging.