Baby Story Time - Ducks!

So sorry for the long hiatus from Baby Story Time! I've been feeling a little bit "blah" about my story times lately - do you ever get that way?  I must have had the winter blues, but I'm trying my best to snap out of it!  In fact, a few weeks ago I tried a spring-y theme to cheer us all up - Ducks!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Roly-Poly" (from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, up, up, up
     (roll arms, arms reach up)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, down, down, down
     (roll arms, arms reach down)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, out, out, out
     (roll arms, arms reach out)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, in, in, in!
     (roll arms, bring arms together)

1st BOOK: Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters

This was a new one for me, and I really liked reading it! We were thinking Spring, for sure!

GUESSING GAME: "Where's Duck?"

Check out my Flannel Friday post about this simple little activity. It went really well!

COUNTING SONG: "Mama Duck" (from Peter Allard's cd "Sing It!, Say It!, Stamp It!, Sway It! Vol. 3)
This song is so much fun to do with babies.  Give your baby a bounce on every "Quack!" I always just sing this song so that I can control the speed and give directions between each verse.

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck and 1 little duckling - Quack! (one bounce)

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck and 2 little ducklings - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)

Keep going up to five bounces - be ready for lots of giggles!

2nd BOOK: Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates

Sing this one!

ACTION SONG: "Old MacDonald" (traditional)

I busted out our big-mouth puppets for this fun song! You can get them here.





We don't always use the same animals every time we sing this song.  This week we did cow, dog, pig, and ended with our duck.

RHYTHM TIME: SHAKERS!

"Six Little Ducks" (from Bob McGrath's cd "Sing Along with Bob #1)

We shook our shakers to this lively duck song with lots of quacking!

"Shake Your Shaker" (To the tune of "Old MacDonald")

1) Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

   With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,
   Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
   Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

2) Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

    With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,

    Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
    Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

3rd BOOK: Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

We didn't get to this book with my "Wonderful Ones" group - they were just too wiggly that day! The little babies enjoyed it though!

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.

We had a great time quacking our way towards Spring with ducks this week! And our actual Spring-themed story time is coming soon!

Want to see how Miss Kristie used Duckie's Rainbow with Toddlers? Click here.

Toddler Story Time - We've Got Rhythm!

I have been away from the Library Village for the last month but I am super excited to be back!  Big giant thank yous to all of my co-workers who have fearlessly jumped into Toddler Story Time to cover my weeks away!  I heard nothing but good things about their story time adventures.  It was so good to start back up with story time and see how much some of the little ones have grown (yes two year olds grow in only one month's time!) and see several new faces!

This week we got right down to business and had some seriously musical fun!  After we sang our usual Welcome to Storytime song and our sillies were shaken, I borrowed the action song, If You Want to Read a Story...  from Miss Sue!  We sang this song before each of our three books.  This time we stomped our feet if we wanted to hear the story Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig.  Great book, but perhaps a few too many animals..  I had to stop midway through the book to rescue my poster off the bulletin board so that may have been the reason we had extra wiggles during this book.

After the story, we sang a shortened version of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and played Pat a Cake.   NOW LET THE MUSICAL FUN BEGIN!!  First up: Egg Shakers!

To warm up, we shook our shakers to the song, Where is Shaker?  This is to the tune of Frere Jacques.  I found this great little song in the book 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children by Abigal Flesch Connors.  Awesome book, full of great ideas! 

Where is Shaker?
Where is Shaker?  Where is Shaker? (Shaker behind your back)
Here I am!  Here I am! (Bring shaker out and shake it)
How are you today, friend? Very well, I thank you. (Pretend to talk to shaker)
Run away, run away. (Hide shaker behind your back again)
There are other verses as well such as rolling on the floor, tapping on your hand, and shaking on your tummy.  I bet you could make up your own as well!

We used the shakers to sing our ABCs and we shook our shakers for the next installment of If You Want to Read a Story...  The second book was appropriately titled, Shake It Up, Baby! by Karen Katz.  This board book has a built in shaker in the spine.  We followed the instruction given in the story and had a great time shaking! 

After collecting the egg shakers, I used one of my go to quieting rhymes to get all the little ones seated.  I needed their attention in order to explain the rules for our next fun musical instrument, the rhythm sticks!  I've used them once before and it went really well so I was confident it would be great again.  This was quite a bit larger group, so I won't say I wasn't nervous, but with the assistance of many awesome parents, all the little ones used their rhythm sticks for making music only.

I started off with Hap Palmer's song Tap Your Sticks from his cd, Rhythms on Parade.  This song begins with simple instructions to follow such as tapping your sticks in the air and on the floor and rubbing the sticks together.  Then suddenly, it gets advanced!  I explained to the parents before the start of the song that I would be cutting it off at a certain point.  The little ones did fantastic!

We also sang the song This is The Way..., to the tune of Mulberry Bush.  I found this great tapping tune at Ring Sing Play.

This is the Way...
This is the way we tap our sticks, tap our sticks, tap our sticks
This is the way we tap our sticks so early in the morning!
This is the way we rub our sticks, rub our sticks, rub our sticks
This is the way we rub our sticks so early in the morning!
This is the way we tap our knees, tap our knees, tap our knees
This is the way we tap our knees so early in the morning!

Rhythm sticks safely put away, we wiggled our fingers high and low and turned our attention to our last verse of If You Want to Read a Story...  This time we wiggled our nose.  Why you ask?  Because we read Wiggle by Doreen Cronin.  They loved it!  Great illustrations and funny story. 

And that wrapped up our musical story time!  It was a great morning and I think everyone deserved a good nap when we were through.  Or maybe just me..  We are very lucky to have access to such great props to use during our story times.  The little ones love it and I do too!

Baby Story Time - Welcome Fall!

Ok, so I jumped on the "Fall" bandwagon this week, not knowing how it would go over with the babies.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much they enjoyed it!

Wake-Up Rhyme: "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" (from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
Way up high in the apple tree,
     (raise baby's arms over head)
Two little apples did I see.
     (hold up two fingers)
So I shook that tree as hard as I could,
     (jiggle baby in your lap)
And DOWN came the apples!
     (lower baby between legs)
YUM! They were good!
     (rub baby's tummy)

1st Book: Mouse's First Fall by Lauren Thompson

 

I love all of Thompson's Mouse books! A little long for babies, but we made it through.  I love the last page where Mouse and Minka wear acorn crowns!

Action Song: "Five Green Apples"
(from Peter Allard's Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Volume 1)
*I sang this myself and shortened it from five to three green apples.

Farmer Brown had three green apples
Hanging on a tree.
Farmer Brown had three green apples
Hanging on a tree.
Then he plucked one apple
And he ate it hungrily!
Leaving two green apples a-hanging on a tree.
(Keep counting down until there are no apples left!)

I made this simple apple flannel board set a few years ago to go with this song:

I also taught the parents the ASL sign for apple:

(Picture found here)

Next, I passed out these little die-cut leaves, glued to popsicle sticks, which were a huge hit!  We waved them around while we did our next two activities.

Action Rhyme: "Fall" (I'm not sure where I found this originally, but you can find it here, along with some other great "fall" themed rhymes and songs.)  We did this rhyme twice!
Autumn winds begin to blow.
     (blow gently on baby's cheek)
Colored leaves fall fast and slow.
     (wiggle fingers downward)
Twirling, whirling all around.
     (roll hands)
Until, at last, they touch the ground.
     (lower baby between legs - they found this part hysterical!)

Action Song: "Leaves are Falling Down" (adapted from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time - her song is called "Raining is Falling Down")
Leaves are falling down,
Leaves are falling down,
Slowly, slowly,
Leaves are falling down.

2) Quickly, quickly
3) Quietly, quietly

2nd Book: Apples, Apples! by Salina Yoon

This lift-the-flap book has really nice illustrations, but is a little wordy.  I didn't read the text under each flap, but we still really enjoyed the book.

Rhythm Time: Shakers!
We shook our shakers to these next two activities:

Action Song: "Gray Squirrel" (from The Learning Station's cd Where is Thumbkin?)
Gray squirrel, gray squirrel,
Swish your bushy tail.
(2x)

Wrinkle up your funny nose,
Hold an acorn in your toes,
Gray squirrel, gray squirrel,
Swish your bushy tail.

There is a really long musical break in the middle of this song, but I used it to go around to each child with my little squirrel friend from Folkmanis! He was a hit!

Action Rhyme: "Clap Your Hands" (adapted from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
Clap your hands, 1, 2, 3.
Clap your hands just like me!

(Shake your shaker, roll your hands, stomp your feet, etc.)

3rd Book: Welcome Fall by Jill Ackerman

Little Scholastic has one of these books for each season, and they're really cute.  The text is short and sweet, and each page has some kind of texture to feel or flap to lift.

Next, it was time for our goodbye songs and "thank you" rhyme.  (See my Baby Story Time page for these.)  During playtime, I got the squirrel back out for any babies who wanted to see him again!

How it went:
This story time went much better than I expected!  I had a slightly smaller group today (only 15 babies) and they were just so attentive and relaxed.  I think they really liked the little leaves on a stick (which they were welcome to take home, chew on, etc.) as well as the squirrel puppet.  We had a fun day today!  Happy Fall!