Baby Story Time - Spring is Here!

There was a dusting of snow on the ground, but darn it, it is SPRING! I won't let the silly weather mess with my story time!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Roll, Roll Sugar Babies"
Roll, roll sugar babies
Roll, roll sugar babies
     (roll baby's arms)
*Up, down
     (arms up, arms down)
Clap, clap, clap!
     (clap)

Repeat with alternate verses:
*Out, in
     (arms out, arms in)
*Right, left
     (lean baby right, then left)
*Back, front
     (lean baby back, then front)


1st BOOK: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

We used this amazing pop-up version and everyone loved it!

(Warning: It's a little tricky to hold and read at the same time)

ACTION SONG: "Walking, Walking" (from the cd Songs for Wiggleworms)

I like to sing this song without the cd so I can control the pace and stop to give directions between each verse. This is perhaps a little advanced for babies, but I have lots of walkers who tend to wander around, so this was a way to channel all that energy, and I made their caretakers dance with them!

(to the tune of "Frere Jacques")
Walking, walking,
Walking, walking,
Hop, hop, hop!
Hop, hop, hop!
Running, running, running,
Running, running, running,
Now we stop!
Now we stop!

2nd verse: replace "walking" with "tip-toe"
3rd verse: replace "tip-toe" with "marching"

FINGERPLAY: "In and Out"
I made up a really simple tune to sing with this rhyme because, well, everything's better with music!

In and out, in and out,
Now I roll my hands about.
First up high, then down low,
This is the way my fingers go!

2nd BOOK: Baby Loves Spring! by Karen Katz

Very cute and simple!

COUNTING RHYME: "Five Spring Flowers" (I borrowed this from Miss Sue)

Five Spring flowers all in a row.
The first one said, "We need rain to grow!"

The second one said, "Oh MY, we need water!"
The third one said, "Yes, it's getting hotter!"

The fourth one said, "I see clouds up in the sky!"
The fifth one said, "I wonder why?"

Then BOOM went the thunder and ZAP went the lightning!
     (clap on "BOOM")
That springtime storm was really frightening!

But the flowers weren't worried - no, no, no!
The rain helped them to grow, grow, grow!
     (raise baby's arms on "grow...")
 





We used Miss Kristie's BEAUTIFUL flowers - she made them to go with Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert, but they work perfectly for this rhyme!

3rd BOOK: Peek-a-Bloom! by Marie Torres Cimarusti 

A simple lift-the-flap book!

CLOSING SONG: "If You're Happy and You Know It" *

GOODBYE SONG: "Babies, Bye-Bye" *

CLOSING RHYME: "Thank You" *



*Check out my Baby Story Time page for the words to all of my weekly songs and rhymes.

Happy Spring!

Toddler Story Time - Welcome Spring!

I waited a little bit to do a spring story time this year because, well, it hasn't felt like spring!  But, I felt like I couldn't wait any longer, so on a cold, rainy morning we celebrated spring!  (April showers bring May flowers?)  I have really been looking forward to starting some warmer weather themes in story time.  This week, I even printed my handout on pretty yellow paper.  So springy.

We started off story time with the rhyme, During the Spring from Storytime Katie.  The little ones really liked becoming flowers at the end!

During the Spring

During the spring, it often showers (flutter fingers down)

Or the sun shines for many hours  (form circle in the air with arms)

Both are good for the flowers!  (cup hands and extend arms like a flower)

Because the week had been so raining, I decided to add a book and rhyme at the last minute.  I read Split! Splat! by Amy Gibson.  Such a cute book full of crazy sounds!  Super fun read aloud.  

We also did the fun action rhyme, The Rain is Falling Down from Storytime Katie.

The Rain is Falling Down

The rain is falling down,  (flutter fingers down)

SPLASH  (clap loudly once)

The rain is falling down,  (flutter fingers down)

SPLASH  (clap loudly once)

Pitter patter pitter patter

The rain is falling down,  (flutter fingers doen)

SPLASH  (clap loudly once)

This was a fun addition to my story time theme.  Now back to spring!

The first spring book I read was Wake Up, It's Spring! by Lisa Campbell Ernst.  Such a sweet book!  We added sound effects to the different things waking up so it was even more fun!  

After the book, we pretended to bloom with the finger play, Watch It Bloom from Perry Public Library Storytime.  This rhyme was so sweet.  The little ones looked so cute making their tiny little buds.  We did this one twice!

Watch It Bloom

Here is a green leaf  (hold out one palm)

And here is a green leaf  (hold out other palm)

That, you see, makes two  (hold up two fingers)

Here is a bud  (cup hands together)

That makes it a flower  (slowly open hands)

Watch it bloom for you  (slowly open hands)

For a fun musical interlude, I chose the song Over in the Meadow from Raffi's cd Animal Songs.  I played this song while the little ones still had their egg shakers from singing their ABCs.  We shook the shakers throughout the song, and made the animal noises.  This song also includes counting to five, so it is a great song for story times!  

Before we sat down for another book, we pretended to garden with the song, Planting Time (to the tune of Rown, Row, Row Your Boat) from Perry Public Library Storytime.  This song was a big hit, so we sang it twice!

Planting Time

Dig, dig, dig the earth  (pretend to dig)

Then you plant your seeds  (pretend to plant)

A gentle rain  (fingers flutter down)

The bright sunshine  (arms circle overhead)

And flowers you will see  (open arms wide)

The second spring book I chose was Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson.  I almost always choose a Mouse book if it can relate to the theme I am doing.  Love these books!  This time, Mouse and Momma are exploring a spring day.  In the end, Mouse finds his Momma and gets a hug and a kiss.  My grown ups love books that give them a chance to hug their little ones!

I knew I wanted to include The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle in my story times as soon as Miss Kristen told me how much the babies loved the pop up version we have.  This pop up is amazing!  The pages are beautiful and the little ones loved them!  It is a little difficult to hold and read, so this would be a good book to memorize beforehand.   

Before I read the book, we sang the song, Little Caterpillar, (to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot).  I found this song on YouTube here.  I just recently discovered that there are a lot of great people on YouTube sharing their ideas.  It is a great place to go to hear songs and flannel stories!  The video included the signs for caterpillar, hide, rest/sleep, and butterfly.  It was fun to teach it to the little ones and use those as the motions to this song!

Little Caterpillar

I'm a little caterpillar crawling by

I make a cocoon to go and hide

I rest for a while and sleep inside

When I come out, I'm a butterfly!

After the book, we finished our spring story time with the song, Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) from Storytime Katie.  This was such a nice song to end a great spring story time with.  We all flapped our "butterfly wings" and said good bye.

Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly

Flutter, flutter, butterfly

Floating in the spring sky

Floating by for all to see

Floating by so merrily

Flutter, flutter butterfly

Floating in the spring sky 

Everyone made their very own spring flower to take home with them.  I had seen on the Internet people making flowers with cupcake wrappers.  We didn't have any, but we did have coffee filters!  Little ones used the dobbers to add color to their flower (Ink goes right through the filters!  Put down newspaper!)  Then, they glued precut stems, leaves, and their flower to a piece of cardstock.  So simple a cute.  You could even add multiple coffee filters to make a puffy flower.

And because great minds think alike, Miss Sue also used Eric Carle's pop up version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar in her Letter C Story Time!  You can check it out here!

Preschool Story Time - The Letter of the Month is C

Moving on from the letter B, we come to a challenge.  The letter C.  Hmmmm.  Two natural sounds - that sound like other letters.  Combine C with a 'friend' for a whole new sound.  This was a very difficult thing for everyone to process.  I might have stuck with a hard C and not tried to introduce so much information.  Here's what we did:  First up we always do our Mail Call.  Here's my original post on the Mailbag with letters.

Our mailbag offerings for this month include  5 envelopes with various C words.  This month it was the letter C, a cat, a cow, a coat, and our Animal in Underwear (Todd Parr): Chick.  Chick started off our way-too-lengthy discussion of the weird C sounds.  Again, I think I should have stuck with the hard C sound.

Then we sang our usual "Letter of the Month" song to the tune of Old MacDonald:
Our librarian has a book - E-I-E-I-O
And in that book there were some Cs - E-I-E-I-O
With a cuh, cuh, here and a cuh, cuh, there.
Here a cuh, there a cuh, everywhere a cuh, cuh
Our librarian has a book - E-I-E-I-O

(and then we repeated with the soft C sound.  I accompany them on ukulele)

Then it was on to the books!

Aside from the fact that no one knows what a typewriter is anymore, this one was a hit and got a lot of laughs.  I used to read this one to preschoolers years ago, but this was the first time I did it in my story time.  Sadly, this book might need to be updated to "Laptop."

We paused for some C songs here.  This is to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel

Round and round the paper I go.  What fun to go around like so.
What have I made, do you know?  I made a circle.

This one is to the tune of Row, Row, your boat:

Drive, drive, drive your car safely down the street!
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, don't for get to beep (BEEP BEEP!).

Easy little song but the kids enjoyed pretending to drive and honk. Don't forget to go BIG on your motions!

Last minute switch, but a good one!  Each animal gets their due feed, but the cow loves cookies!  Why does the cow love cookies so much?  Another good one for story time.

After halftime, it was time for my Flannel Story!

I pulled out my Pete the Cat felt board for today!  I actually have two sets of Pete to go with this book.  One has standing Pete - like this book, and one has sitting Pete, which uses only 2 shoes per color.  I have the standing Pete for larger crowds because 16 shoes is better than 8 when your numbers are larger. My Versatile Pete posts are HERE and HERE for more about how I do Pete's other stories.
Everyone loves Pete the Cat - so this was a very easy one to do.  It takes a long time to get through though, so be ready for lots of pauses for costume changes on Pete!

Happy Anniversary to The Very Hungry Caterpillar!!!  I won't tell you which one of us is older, but it's a pretty close call.  Everyone loves this book. I did the pop-up version today which was stunning for the kids to see.  Lots of Oooohs and Aaaaahs.  A warning!  Like Kristen says in her Baby Story Time, this one is harder to read in a crowd because everything opens up at funny angles and it's hard to read along.  Be creative!


I was torn between two books at this point, as we were over time.  I wanted to read Chicken Little by Ed and Kimberly Emberley, but since I had no more time, I went with Cookie Count because it was pretty to look at.

Not really a great story time book, but since it was a pop up, it was fascinating.

And the craft today - Well, the letter of the Month is C!!  So, C is for caterpillar.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar at that.

This craft was a big hit with the kids.  They drew a C on their paper, and then they would do a pattern or all one color or just randomness with the greens.  Owning a circle punch in several sizes is one of the best bits of advice I can offer.  It makes craft prep so much easier!

I won't get to see this project through to Z, as I only have three story times left.  I hope I have passed on some great tips on how to do a Letter of the Month story time at your library.  Just have fun with it.  The kids will be in school soon enough.  Some will already know their letters and sounds, and some won't.  No matter, make story time fun, and the leaning will just happen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flannel Friday - Little Cloud By Eric Carle

It's Flannel Friday time!  This week I have made a flannel set based on Eric Carle's book Little Cloud.  I made this for a weather themed story time I have coming up in a couple weeks.  It could also be used for talking about shapes.  I really loved the illustrations in this book and thought this would be a great story to tell on the flannel board. 

It begins with Little Cloud...

Little Cloud floats above the houses and trees while the other clouds float up and away!

With the other clouds gone, Little Cloud decides to change into a giant cloud!

Little Cloud then changes into other objects - a sheep, an airplane, a shark, two trees, a rabbit, a hat, and a clown!

The other clouds float back and call to Little Cloud to join them.

 Little Cloud joins the other clouds to form one big cloud and it begins to rain!

 The End

I had a lot of fun creating this set.  The pieces were all drawn by myself based on the illustrations.  I hope the little ones enjoy this story as much as I did making it!