Toddler Story Time - Let's Make a Rainbow!

I always love a good color themed story time!  There are many awesome books available to read and loads of rhymes and fingerplays!  But this time, I wanted to make it just a smidge more special, especially with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner.  And I couldn't think of any better way to do this than making a rainbow!  Who doesn't love rainbows?!

The rainbow fun began with the action rhyme, Colors.  Thanks King County Library System!  This was a great warm up rhyme and it has the cutest ending.  It received lots of giggles.

Colors
Blue is the lake,  (point to the floor)
Yellow is the sun  (point to the sky)
Silver are the stars,
When the day is done  (wiggle fingers in the air)
Red is the apple,  (make circle with hands)
Green is the tree  (raise arms over head like branches)
Brown is a chocolate chip cookie  (rub tummy)
for you and me!

Our first book was Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd.  This book is a great color book and counting book.  We counted the dots on each page giving us lots of practice!  Next time I use this story, I may do a flannel version of it.  How fun!

After our ABC's and some finger wiggling, we were ready for our second book.  I love Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry!  I have used it several times before.  It has simple text, bright colored pages, and it is shaped like a rainbow!  So cute!  The little ones always get excited when they realize the book is becoming a rainbow.

Flannel Time!  This week we made a delicious Rainbow Stew.  Thank you to Storytime ABCs for the wonderful idea.  I brought in a bowl and spoon and we stirred the stew into a beautiful rainbow!  The little ones loved it!  (I did have a couple who were VERY curious about what was in my bowl..  Shhh..  It's magic!)  You can check out the the flannel story in its entirety here!

After our bellies were full of rainbow stew, I passed out rainbow scarves!  These are wonderful and I really should use them more often because we always have a great time.  I had several activities planned to use with them, so we jumped right in!

Let's All Twirl (Sung to the tune of "The Mulberry Bush")
Let's all twirl with our scarves today,
Scarves today, scarves today,
Let's all wirl our craves today,
All around the room.

Let's Make a Rainbow!
Let's wave our scarves high!
Let's wave our scarves low!
Let's wave our scarves fast!
Let's wave our scarves slow!
Now let's crumple up our scarves.
One, Two, Three!  (Throw scarves into the air and watch the rainbow of colors fall to the ground.)

Rainbow Song (Sung to the tune of "Hush, Little Baby")
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow Orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.
Come and count
The colors with me
How many colors
Can you see?  (Count the colors!)
Rainbow purple
Rainbow blue
Rainbow green
And yellow too
Rainbow Orange
Rainbow red
Rainbow shining over head.
(This rhyme can be found here.  I changed it a little bit.  The first two I found in a story time resource book that I can't remember but I will add the credit as soon as I find it!)

The third book I read was Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.  I had never read this book before.  I must live under a rock!  I love it!  The different sheep are so funny and cute!  The little ones and their grown ups joined in to ask Where is the Green Sheep?.  Thank goodness we found him at the end!

Did you think I was done?  Not yet!

Because we don't have a story time for St. Patrick's Day, I included a bonus St. Patrick's Day book and rhyme!  We read the little board book, St. Patrick's Day Countdown by Salina Yoon.  This little book has sparkly shamrocks!  A cute way to celebrate the holiday!  And we finished with the rhyme I'm a Little Leprechaun, sung to the always popular tune, "I'm a Little Teapot".  I found this great little rhyme here.

I'm a Little Leprechaun
I'm a little leprechaun  (hold hands on hips)
Dressed in green,  (point to shirt)
The tiniest man  (hold thumb and index finger about an inch apart)
You've ever seen.  (point to the other people)
If you ever catch me, so it's told  (make a motion like you're grabbing at a leprechaun)
I will give you my pot of gold!  (make motion like you're giving something away)

As a special treat, we made paper rainbows instead of playing toys.  They were super simple to make!  I precut half circles that got a little smaller with each color of the rainbow.  With a grown ups help, the little ones stacked the colors from biggest to smallest and it made a rainbow!  I also had cotton ball clouds to glue on.  A punched hole along the top and a bit of yarn..  Ta da!  A beautiful rainbow!  

I hope this colorful story time encourages some warmer weather!

I am headed off to the PLA tomorrow..  Maybe I will meet some of you there!  Thanks for stopping by!