Baby Story Time - Bears!

We made some big changes to Baby Story Time with the new year! My groups were so large that I decided to split them in two - ages 3-12 months in the Baby group, and ages 12-24 months in a special 'Ones' group.  With the winter weather affecting our numbers, it is hard to say how this will go, but I'm excited to try it!

On to story time! Bears always seem like a wintry theme to do:

Wake-Up Rhyme: "Acka Backa" (from Baby Rhyming Time by Linda Ernst)

Acka backa soda cracker, acka backa boo!
     (bounce baby)
Acka backa soda cracker, I love you!
     (give baby hug)
Acka backa soda cracker, acka backa boo!
     (bounce baby)
Acka backa soda cracker, up goes you!
     (lift baby in the air)
Acka backa soda cracker, acka backa boo!
     (bounce baby)
Acka backa soda cracker, I love you!
     (give baby hug)

1st Book: Mama's Little Bears by Nancy Tafuri

These playful bears explore the woods, finding surprises all around them!

Flannel Board Matching Game: "Little Bear, Where is Your Mommy?"
Check out my Flannel Friday post to see what this simple game looks like.

Action Rhyme: "'Round and 'Round the Garden" (from Baby Rhyming Time by Linda Ernst)

'Round and 'round the garden goes the teddy bear,
     (make circles on baby's tummy)
One step, two step,
     (walk fingers up baby's arm)
Tickle you under there!
     (tickle baby!)

Action Rhyme: "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" (traditional)

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, show your shoe.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, I love you!

Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb upstairs.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, brush your hair.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say "Goodnight!"

2nd Book: Funny Face by Nicola Smee

A little boy goes through a range of emotion after a big bear takes his ball!

 

Rhythm Time with Shakers:

 

We shook our shakers to the song "Rattle My Rattle" from Elizabeth Mitchell's cd Little Seed, while I visited each child with my bear puppet from Lakeshore Learning.



 

 



Action Song: "Shake Your Shaker" (adapted from 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children by Abigail Flesch Connors) (to the tune "London Bridge is Falling Down")

Shake your shaker in the air,
Shake it here, shake it there.
Shake your shaker in the air,
My fair baby!

Shake your shaker way down low,
To your knees, to your toes.
Shake your shaker way down low,
My fair baby!

3rd Book: The Bear Went Over the Mountain by Michelle Dorenkamp

This is a simple book to sing along to, with great illustrations!

 

We finished up with our regular goodbye songs and rhymes (visit my Baby Story Time page for these), and it was play time!  What a fun wintry story time!

 

Want to see how you can use Bears in a Toddler Story Time? See Miss Kristie's post here.



Flannel Friday - Mama and Baby Matching Game

A "Bears" theme is perfect for a winter story time. Here's a simple matching game for babies and toddlers - can you help Baby Bear find his Mama?

I borrowed this idea from Mel's Desk, see her version here.  The idea is to place several "mommy" animals, including a bear, on the flannel board, and then help the babies to find their mommies.

To save time, I actually borrowed premade "mommies" from a Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? storytelling kit that we purchased years ago from Lakeshore.  I just chose the largest pieces, and then made felt babies to match.

Baby Bear, where is your Mama?

There she is!

And here is a close-up of my babies.  I just drew them freehand, based on clipart I found using Google images.  They are outlined in black Sharpie marker, and I added googly eyes.  And voila!

 

 

Big thanks to Future Librarian Superhero for hosting Flannel Friday this week!



Toddler Story Time - Shh.. It's Bedtime

Shhh...  This week's story time was about bedtime.  This was the perfect opportunity to get out the teddy bears and scarves and enjoy quieter fingerplays and rhymes.  Did it work?  Not a chance with 18 little ones under 3, but it was lots of fun!

Books I read...
Llama Llama Red Pajama   By Ann Dewdney

Baby Llama wants misses his Mama Llama at bedtime.  Love, love, love this story..  And I loved how four little ones sat at my feet mesmerized by the tale.  I don't think they even blinked!

I’m Not Sleepy   By Jonathan Allen

It’s morning and Baby Owl is determined to stay awake!  This book gave us a chance to talk about how owls sleep during the day.  Most didn't know this and thought that was pretty silly!

 

Yawn  By Sally Symes

This rhyming board book is super fun.  It has a hole through the pages that follows a yawn from critter to critter starting with a little boy named Sean.  I really like using books that have a unique feature like this. 

How it went...

A great finger play for bedtime (or nap time) is Here is a Baby (Another great idea from Perry Public Library Storytimes!).  This can also be used for a younger audience by using the babies and not your fingers.  Babies would love to be rocked during this! 

Fingerplay: Here is a Baby

Here is a baby                                  (index finger)
Ready for a nap
Lay her down in her mother's lap.     (place finger in palm)
Cover her up so she won't peek.        (curl fingers around index finger)
Rock her till she's fast asleep.            (rock)

The next finger play I used was adapted to fit in nicely after reading Llama Llama Red Pajama.  It was originally about elves (Thanks to the 2012 Dream Big SRP!) but worked great with llamas too.  There wasn't much action to it other than counting fingers, but it was still super cute. 

Fingerplay: Tired Little Llamas (count on fingers)

Said this little llama "I'm as tired as can be"
Said this little llama "My eyes can hardly see"
Said this little llama "I'd like to go to bed"
Said this little llama "I want to rest my head"
Said this little llama "Come climb the stairs with me"
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 they tiptoed          (tiptoe fingers)
Just as still as still could be    

I had not had the opportunity to use scarves at a story time yet, but discovered how cool they are recently.  This theme fit perfectly for trying out something new!  Scarves quickly became wash clothes as we all got ready for bed! 

Action Song:  This is the Way We…
This is the way we wash our face, wash our face, wash our face.
(rub scrunched scarf on face)
This is the way we wash our face,
When we get ready for bed.
…wash our toes…
…wash our arms…
…wash our tummy…
(Thanks Sunflower Storytime!)

This story time was FULL of props for the little ones to play with.  Children learn a lot about language through playing!  So far, we had used scarves, musical instruments (for our weekly rendition of ABCs), and now the teddy bears marched in!  You get a teddy bear..  You get a teddy bear..  And you get a teddy bear!  (I was very popular by the end!)  We used our little teddy bears to act out the popular action rhyme, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.

Action Rhyme: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.            (Turn around)

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground     (Touch the ground)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, show your shoe.      (Point to your shoe)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, I love you.                (Hug yourself)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb upstairs.         (Pretend to climb stairs)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, brush your hair.       (Pretend to brush hair)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light.    (Pretend to switch off the light)
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say “Goodnight.”     (Hands together and lean head on them)

Flannel Time this week was also about teddy bears, so I let the little ones keep their bears while I told the flannel story Red Ted Said (Thank you to Loons and Quines for the idea!).  This also seemed to help with not touching the flannel board.  I made simple colored teddy bears to go along with a bed made by Miss Sue.  I decided not to include the group participation portion of this flannel story even though I really liked the idea.  I had a lot of activities to fit into my small window of time and knew having the little ones come up would take a huge chunk of it. 

Flannel Time! Red Ted Said

There were five in the bed, and Red Ted said,
"Roll over, roll over".
So, they all rolled over and yellow fell out.
There were four in the bed, and Red Ted said,
"Roll over, roll over".
So, they all rolled over and brown fell out.
There were three in the bed, and Red Ted said,
"Roll over, roll over".
So, they all rolled over and green fell out.
There were two in the bed, and Red Ted said,
"Roll over, roll over".
So, they all rolled over and blue fell out.
There was one in the bed, and Red Ted said,
"I'm lonely, so lonely".
So they all climbed back in, and their momma said,
“Good night!”

I have been filling in during Baby Story Time for Miss Kristen the last couple weeks and learned her closing rhyme.  Many of the toddlers are new graduates from Baby Story Time and I think it is really cute so I decided to include it this week before we shook our ribbons to Looby Loo! 

Closing: “Thank You” Rhyme

Our hands say thank you     (Hold hands up)       

With a clap, clap, clap;        (Clap hands)                      
Our feet say thank you         (Point to feet)         
Clap, clap, clap;                    (Clap hands)
Tap, tap, tap.                         (Tap feet)
We roll our hands around,    (Roll hands)                                           
And say, “Good-bye.”          (Wave good-bye)

I must say, by the end of this story time I was ready for bed!  The room was full of happy contagious energy.  Thankfully, I chose a nice quiet craft to finish things off, inspired by a craft I saw on Storytime Katie.  It was super simple - black cardstock plus a precut crescent moon and eight sparkly star stickers equals a darling night sky.  I saw many beautiful constellations as they left this week.  Good night! 

Show less

Show more

Show less

Toddler Story Time - Let's Go on a Picnic!

A great summertime theme for story time is picnics!  This theme was fun to plan and super fun to do!  The little ones loved it! 

 

Books I read…

 

Biscuit’s Picnic by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

I love to use Biscuit books!  The stories are just the right length for toddlers.  Biscuit never disappoints with his crazy dog adventures and I think the little ones like to hear me woof.  

 

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

This book is one of my son’s favorites, so I was super excited to find an opportunity to use it in story time.  The interactive qualities and great illustrations made it a winner for both the little ones and the grownups.

 

One, Two, Three, Picnic! By Susan Schade and Jon Buller

This board book was from my personal collection, belonging to my sons when they were young.  It is a simple counting book about a group of animals that collect so much food for their picnic that they can no longer pick up their picnic basket.

   

 

How it went…

 

To start things off right, we sang the song Summer Time is Picnic Time (to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb” from Perry Public Library Storytime.(Thanks:http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76). 

This was a great little song to get the kids excited about our picnic.

Summertime is picnic time, picnic time, picnic time.

Summertime is picnic time, time to have some fun.
We will eat our picnic lunch, picnic lunch, picnic lunch.
We will eat our picnic lunch, and play when we are done.

After reading our first book, I passed out small teddy bears to each child.  We danced to Teddy Bears’ Picnic from Anne Murray’s cd There’s a hippo in my tub!.  And we did the action rhyme, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. 

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Jump up now
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Take a bow
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Find your nose
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your toes
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Arms up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Wave good-bye!

The kids were so excited to hold their own teddy bears!  Their eyes lit up when I passed them out.  Luckily, the rhyme ends with putting the bears to bed, so it was easy for the little ones to quietly return their teddy bears.  Shh..  We didn’t want to wake them!

To complement the book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, I used the Strawberries flannel I found from Storytime Katie.  (Thanks:http://storytimekatie.com/2012/08/24/flannel-friday-strawberries/) 

I added a bear puppet to the fun and with the assistance of a helper, the bear gobbled up each flannel strawberry.

Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.
Four red strawberries, growing near a tree.
Bear came and ate one and then there were three.
Three red strawberries, for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two.
Two red strawberries, sitting in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one.
One red strawberry, left all alone.
Bear came and ate it and then there were none.

 

And what picnic would be complete without a line of marching ants!  Using the ant clipart from the Internet, (Thanks: http://www.clker.com/clipart-ant-13.html)  I made small ant puppets for each child with cardstock and a popsicle stick (I do this quite often.  I let them take them home!).  We marched around with our ants to the song The Ants Go Marching on the cd Here is Thumbkin!. 

We finished story time with our very own picnic!  I brought in a picnic basket full of pretend food.  Everyone sat on the floor around the basket.   I started the activity with the song Picnic Packing (To the tune of “A Tisket-A Tasket”) from Perry Public Library Storytime.  (Thanks: http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76)
A-tisket, A-tasket,
Let’s pack a picnic basket.
We’ll fill it up with food to munch.
What is in our picnic lunch?

After a couple rounds, I let them free play with the food.  The grownups got served lots of pretend picnic meals!  They loved it!  I will definitely do this story time again in the future.