Toddler Story Time - Roar! I'm a Dinosaur!

Roar!  Stomp your feet and show your claws!  It is time for a dinosaur story time!  I can't believe I didn't do a dinosaur story time sooner!  It was so much fun!  There are so many great dinosaur books to choose from.  Because this is toddler story time, I tried to pick books that were not scary and didn't show too much teeth!

Thanks to the always awesome rhymes over at Storytime Katie we started off story time with Dinosaur, Dinosaur.  This variation of Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear was perfect because it instructed the little ones to sit down, making them ready for our first book!

Dinosaur, Dinosaur
Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the ground
Dinosaur, dinosaur, reach up high
Dinosaur, dinosaur, wink one eye
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch your nose
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch your toes
Dinosaur, dinosaur, slap your knees
Dinosaur, dinosaur, sit down please

The first book I chose was How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen.  The dinosaurs learned that even when they are a little ornery, their mommies and daddies will always love them.  I think the parents particularly liked this book. 

After a round of hugs around the room, I passed out our super popular jingle bells.  I love the jingle bells!  A roomful of two year olds jingling bells is a wonderful sound! (No.. Really it is!)  In addition to jingling to our ABCs, we sang the super cute song, Little Jingle Mouse from the book 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children by Abigail Flesch Connors. To make it extra special, I used puppets to help us sing along!

Little Jingle Mouse 
I heard a little jingle,  (jingle bells softly)
Right inside my house.
It sounded like the jingle
Of a little jingle mouse.
He jingled to the ceiling,  (jingle bells high over head)
he jingled to the floor,  (jingle bells on the floor)
He jingled till he fell asleep,  (hold jingle bells in arms like a baby)
And he began to snore...
(snooore, snooore, snooore)  (jingle bells very gently with a tiny, squeaky snore)

I head a great big jingle,  (jingle bells loudly)
Right outside my door,
It sounded like the jingle
Of a jingle dinosaur.
He jingled to the ceiling,  (jingle bells high over head)
He jingled to the floor,  (jingle bells on floor)
He jingled till he fell asleep,  (hold jingle bells in arms like a baby)
And he began to snore...
(snooore, snooore, snooore)  (jingle bells with a very loud snore)

With the jingle bells put away, we stomped and flapped to the rhyme, Dinosaur.  Thanks Perry Public Library Storytime for the great rhyme!

Dinosaur
Dinosaurs lived long ago
Some walked  (Stomp feet)
Some swam  (Pretend to swim)
Some flew, you know  (flap arms)
Some were big  (hold hands high)
Some were small  (hold hands low)
Some were gigantic  (stretch arms out wide)
And VERY tall!  (stretch arms up high)

Keeping with my friendly dinosaur theme, Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein was my second book.  Love it!  Dinah is so cute..  This poor little dinosaur just wants to kiss but chomps and whomps instead. Whoops!  The little ones loved it!

Flannel Time!  This week's flannel story was the rhyme, Five Dinosaurs.  Instead of the usual felt dinosaur, I used dinosaurs from a Lakeshore kit.  These stuffed dinosaurs have velcro on their backsides, but were just too heavy for my flannel board.  Luckily, it worked well with the story to prop them up along the floor.  The little ones all gathered around to see.  This was a great counting rhyme because we counted down and them added each dinosaur back at the end!

Five Dinosaurs
Five huge dinosaurs
Sleeping on the cave floor
Wake up and started to roar  (Each time this was said, the little ones would roar!)
"There's no room, no more, no more,
No more room on this floor!"
They tossed and turned and pushed galore,
Till one poor dinosaur was shoved out the door.
Four huge dinosaurs... three... two...
One huge dinosaur
Sleeping all alone, on a cave floor,
Wake up and started to roar,
"I'm lonely, come back, it was better before,
It's more fun, crowded together on the floor."

What dinosaur story time is complete without the Dino-Pokey?  I found this great version (I altered it a bit) at SurLaLune Storytime!

Dino-Pokey
You put your claws in,
You put your claws out,
You put your claws in,
And you scratch 'em all about.
You do the dino pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!
You stomp your feet in...
You swish your tail in...

Last but not least, we read the book Dinosaur Roar! by Paul and Henrietta Stickland.  This book includes many dinosaur themed opposites that are fun to learn.  A great way to finish off this week's story time!

This week I also replaced our weekly Letter Box with a new Letter Bag!  I was excited and a bit nervous to see how the little ones would respond to the change.  The Letter Boxes are awesome!  I had a great time putting little items in them each week.  But, lately it has caused some tears from those who cannot participate in pulling something out of the box.  And the box just isn't big enough to put more than a few little things inside.  So...  my solution was to introduce the Letter Bag!  Each little bean bag is full of small items that begins with a letter of the alphabet.  We looked at the D bag for dinosaurs!  The little ones gathered around as we talked about what was inside the bag.  So much better!  

Hoping for spring soon!  Until next week...  Bye!