Thursday, March 31, 2016

Spring Outline for Baby Storytime

Opening

Clap, Clap, Clap
(tune: Wheels on the Bus)

Take your little hands and go clap, clap, clap
Clap, clap, clap
Clap, clap, clap
Take your little hands and go clap, clap, clap
Give a little clap!

Additional verses:
Foot--tap
Feet--jump

Hello Song
(tune:  Good Night Ladies)

Hello ________
Hello ________
Hello ________
We're glad you're here today!

Opening "Script"

Little Bear
Little Bear in the tree
Sitting oh so still
Won't you come out?
Yes, he will!
He looks to the left
He looks to the right
He looks straight ahead
Then he pops out of sight!

Songs/Bounces (2)

I Have a Little Duck
(tune: Wheels on the Bus)
with puppets

I have a little duck that says quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack
Quack, quack, quack
I have a little duck that says quack, quack, quack
All day long!

Additional verses with other animals puppets

Tiny Little Baby
(tune: Shortenin' Bread)

Tiny little babies love bouncin', bouncin'
Tiny little babies love bouncin' yeah!
Tiny little babies love bouncin', bouncin'
Tiny little babies love bouncin', so...
Bounce to the left, bounce to the right
Now hug that baby nice and tight!

Baby Hokey Pokey
You put your arms up, 
You put your arms down
You put your arms up
And you wave them all around
You tickle, tickle, tickle
And you wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
That's what it's all about!

Additional verses:
Feet
Baby

Roly-Poly
Roly-poly, roly-poly
Out, out, out
Roly-poly, roly-poly
In, in, in
Roly-poly, roly-poly
Touch your nose
Roly-poly, roly-poly
Touch your toes
Roly-poly, roly-poly
Up to the sky
Roly-poly, roly-poly
Fly, fly, fly!

Read Aloud Book

Traditional Songs (2)

Pat-a-Cake
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Three Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Wheels on the Bus
If You're Happy and You Know It
I'm a Little Teapot

Nursery Rhymes (1-2)

Hey Diddle, Diddle
Humpty Dumpty
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill
Hickory Dickory Dock
Pease Porridge Hot

Movement (1--repeated)

Toast
I am toast in the toaster
I'm getting very hot
Tick...tock...tick...tock
Up I POP!

Tick Tock
Tick tock, tick tock
I'm a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock, tick tock
Now I'm striking one o'clock!

(Repeat with two and three o'clock)

Acka Backa
Acka backa soda cracker
Acka backa boo!
Acka backa soda cracker
Up goes you!

Shared Reading

Closing (1)

Parachute
with Jim Gill's Alabama, Mississippi

Scarf Song
One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow
Wiggle it high
Wiggle it low
Shake it fast
Shake it slow
Put it behind your back
Where did it go?

Hug, Hug, Hug
(tune: Wheels on the Bus)

Take your little arms and go hug, hug, hug
Hug, hug, hug
Hug, hug, hug
Take your little arms and go hug, hug, hug
Give a little hug!

Lips--kiss
Hand--wave bye-bye

Play and Learn

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Kindergarten Kickoff

The district hosted Kindergarten Kickoff events at all of our libraries!  This was to encourage early registration, share kindergarten prep with parents, and to give the children who will be entering kindergarten some hands-on activities to do that help foster skills children need to be successful.

Our kickoffs were built around the book, The Kissing Hand (by Audrey Penn) and focused on the six early learning domains:  Language, Social-Emotional, Literacy, Physical, Math, and Cognitive, plus Science.  Most of the activities involved several of the domains.


Raccoon Puppet

Raccoon Dot-to-Dot

Nocturnal Animal Sort

Shape Raccoon

Heart Relay
(using a spoon pick up a heart, carry it to the bucket on the other side of room while walking along a masking tape line)

Information we had available for parents and families

Our partners at Accelerate Success offered these five keys for parents to help get their child ready for Kindergarten.  Health (immunizations, dental), Play, Learn, Talk, and Register.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Books that Sing Storytime

Since I had such a good time doing books that sing with my baby storytime I decided to try it with my all ages storytime.  It was a great hit and so much fun!!

Books

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
by Eric Litwin 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?
by Bill Martin Jr.; illustrated by Eric Carle
Just like in Baby Storytime we sang this book to the tune of "Baa, Baa Black Sheep".  We went nice and slow and the children were able to sing right along!

Songs/Rhymes

Today we used the Song Cube to choose our songs!  It's a 14x14x14 cardboard box (from Wal-mart) covered in white paper with a song title on each side (if I ever remember to take a picture!).  We rolled the dice three times throughout storytime and sang:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

The Wheels on the Bus

Play and Learn

Brown Bear Activities from 1+1+1=1

  • Heads and Tails
  • Clothes Pin Numbers
Button Activities
  • Give Pete the Cat four groovy (sticker) buttons and then color 
  • String buttons on a pipe cleaner
  • Practice using buttons with a Felt Button Chain I made

There were supplies left over from our Busy Bag workshop for the Brown Bear Clothes Pin Number activity so I had all the supplies for the moms to make one to take home!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Singing Baby Storytime

This was our last week of "Books that Sing" theme for baby storytime.  It has been a lot of fun--definitely one I will use again!  I will also be introducing new songs/rhymes and bounces in two weeks.

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces

Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands
Good Morning To You
Little Bear
When Cows Get Up in the Morning
Roly-Poly
Humpty Dumpty
If You're Happy and You Know It
Toast
Parachute Opposites (sung to The Farmer in the Dell)
Up/Down; Fast/Slow

Read {Sing} Aloud

Five Little Ducks
Ivan Bates

Shared Reading {Singing}
A variety of board books that can be sung including:


Five Little Ducks

illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey

BINGO
illustrated by Rosemary Wells

Play and Learn

Another fun, new activity for the babies today!  The library ordered a roll of fabric for a project and I got the long, sturdy tube it was on!  I had three hard balls that fit in the tube and the babies loved to run after the balls as they came out the end.  One little guy would put the ball in the tube and let go, then stick his arm in up to his elbow trying to get the ball back!  Another one was determined to to make the balls go up the tube!  A couple of the older babies (18 months) seemed to kind of get the idea of the ball rolling down the tube and coming out the other end!

I think I will hold onto the tube for another time!

Green Storytime

With storytime landing on St. Patrick's Day I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a GREEN storytime!  I have done a similar program for my preschool outreach storytimes this week.

Books

Froggy Gets Dressed
by Jonathan London; illustrated by Frank Remkiwicz

Little Green
by Keith Baker

OR

Camping in Green
by Christianne C. Jones; illustrated by Todd Ouren

Songs/Rhymes

G-R-E-E-N
(tune: Bingo)

Before singing I showed a little demo with yellow and lube paint in a Ziploc being mixed together to make green.


I take some yellow, I take some blue
I mix them together to make something new
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
G-R-E-E-N
And green is that color.

I take some yellow, I take some blue
I mix them together to make something new
G-R-E-E-(clap)
G-R-E-E-(clap)
G-R-E-E-N(clap)
And green is that color.

Continue to take letters away one at a time from the back of the word until...

I take some yellow, I take some blue
I mix them together to make something new
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
And green is that color.

I Can Walk On Two Feet

We started with jumping like frogs...

I can jump on two feet, on two feet, on two feet
I can jump on two feet all day long!

Additional verses:
Run
March
Tiptoe
Hop (on one foot)
Walk

Turn around, sit down, and give our feet a rest!

Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Traditional

Play and Learn 

Green Doubers

Green Collage


 Shape Sorter

Pom-Pom Sensory Bin

Animal Magnets Matching Halves

I also had several children who enjoyed using my pointer and singing the ABCs!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Piggyback Songs

An internal blog post

A piggyback song is a song that uses a well-known tune with alternative words.  A few reasons I love to use piggyback songs are:
  1. I don’t have to read music or find a recording of the song; I already know the tune!
  2. Parents and caregivers know the tune and can help sing along
  3. Children usually know the tune too!
  4. If I forget the tune I just have to “sing” the original song in my head.
  5. Because it is not a recording you can slow down the song
  6. You can make up your own words to go with any theme!
  7. You can even sing books!  Just last week at baby storytime we sang “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” to the tune of Baa, Baa Black Sheep.  The parents were great at joining in with the singing!

Common tunes to use for piggyback songs:
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  • Bingo
  • Mary had a little lamb
  • Here we go ‘round the Mulberry Bush
  • The Farmer in the Dell
  • Old MacDonald had a farm
  • Three Blind Mice
  • Frere Jacque
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Jingle Bells
  • Wheels on the Bus
  • London Bridges
  • Muffin Man
  • One Little, Two Little, Three Little…
  • Row, Row, Row Your Boat
  • Happy Birthday
  • Did you ever see a lassie?
  • Yankee Doddle

Here are a few of my favorite piggyback songs

Farm Animals--to the tune of Wheels on the Bus
The cow on the farm goes Moo, moo, moo…
All day long!

Are you sleeping?—to the tune of Frere Jacque
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Little bear, Little bear?
[snore]
Wake up little bear!
Wake up little bear!
Grrr, Grrr, Grrr!
Grrr, Grrr, Grrr!
Other animals: bunny (hop), bird (flap), crocodile (chomp) etc.

I created my own Welcome to Storytime song using the tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/ABC Song

Welcome all to storytime
We will sing and we will rhyme
Read a book and then we’ll play
Time for storytime, hip, hip, hooray!
Now we’ll sing our ABCS
We’ll do them all just wait and see!

ABCDEFG
HIJKLMNOP
QRSTUVWXYZ
Now I’ve sung my ABCs
Let’s start storytime yes siree!

Our baby storytime morning song (I learned from Mrs. B) is to the Happy Birthday tune!

Good Morning to You
Good morning to _______________
Good morning to _______________
Good morning dear _____________
It’s nice to see you!

A few fun resources I found online about Piggyback Songs include:


Jean Warren's Preschool Express

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Community Helpers

Last year I was assigned to visit a preschool/child care center and they had requested Community Helpers.  This year I was assigned to visit them again--and once more their theme was Community Helpers.  I wasn't thrilled because I really didn't like the storytime I had put together last year...but I worked on it again and developed a storytime that I actually liked.  So I will use it for my other multi-age outreach storytimes in March.

Toddlers

Mr. Cookie Baker
by Monica Wellington


Fingerplay: Making Cookies
I am making cookie dough
Round and round the beaters go
Add some flour from a cup
Stir and mix the batter up.
Roll them, cut them, nice and neat
Put them on a cookie sheet.
Bake them, count them, one, two, three
Then serve them to my friends for tea.

My Bus

by Byron Barton

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Five Trucks
by Brian Floca

Song: Five Little Monkeys


Preschool

Clothesline Clues to the Jobs People Do
by Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
illustrated by Andy Robert Davies

Song: Five Little Monkeys

Smash! Mash! Crash! Here Comes the Trash!
by Barbara Odanaka; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

Flannel:  The Garbage OR Song: Garbageman, Garbageman (see below)
(borrowed from a co-worker)

Goodness gracious, oh what luck
Here comes the neighborhood garbage truck!
Rumbling down my family's street
Full of junk that's really neat!
Pizza boxes, cowboy hats
Brussels sprouts and baseball bats
Ice cream cones and jelly jars
Single mittens, apple cores
Picture frames and dirty socks
Paper towels, cuckoo clocks
Garbage trucks eat everything
All the garbage you can bring!

Train Man
by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha

OR

Mr. Cookie Baker
by Monica Wellington

Pre-K

Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash!
by Barbara Odanaka; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

Garbageman, Garbageman

Turn around
Touch the ground
Dance on your toes
Touch your nose
Bend down low
Touch your toe
Jump up now
Take a bow

Additional verses included:  astronaut, doctor, teacher, etc.

Last time through end with:
Stomp your feet
Take a seat

Hardworking Puppies
by Lynn Reiser

Magnet Board Guessing Game: Puppy Wants a Job
(tune: Do You Know the Muffin Man?)

Puppy wants to find a job, find a job, find a job
Puppy want to find a job, what will he be today?

Turn a Book into a Song--Baby Storytime

On Friday I demonstrated how to turn a book into a song for baby storytime.  First we read the book through like usual, stopping to name the animal, talk about the colors and make animal sounds.  We did a wiggle song, then I told the parents that sometimes we just a nice calming book and one way to do that is to sing a book.  Because the book was well known and very repetitive the parents were able to join in singing with me!  The babies loved it!

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces

Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands
Good Morning to You
Little Bear
When Cows Get Up in the Morning (included bunny hopping today)
Roly-Poly
I'm a Little Teapot
Wheels on the Bus
Hey Diddle Diddle
Toast
Scarf Song
Tickle the Clouds

Read {Sing} Aloud 
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle
Sung to tune of: Baa, Baa Black Sheep


Shared Reading
A variety of board books that parents could sing to their child including:

Itsy Bitsy Spider
by Annie Kubler

The Itsy Bitsy Snowman
by Jeffrey Burton; illustrated by Sanja Rescek
(sung to [of course] Itsy Bitsy Spider)

Play and Learn

I finally, finally, finally pulled out something new for our play time today!!  Jumbo muffin tins with balls/shapes from other toys.  The babies loved putting the things in the cups, pulling them out, then putting them back in!  Other toys made it into the muffin tins too including wooden blocks.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Baby Teeth Storytime

Today we had a very special Baby Storytime!  We had a special guest reader, a member of Community Minded Enterprise who wrote a grant about early education of oral health.  It is called The Tooth Fairy Project.  She gave parents and caregivers a lot of great information about oral health for their little ones.  Later in the program the Tooth Fairy visited!

Books

Brush, Brush, Brush
(Rookie Toddler)

Teeth Are Not For Biting
by Elizabeth Verdick, illustrated by Marieka Heinien

Song

Roly-Poly (a variation of the one we usually do)
Roly-poly, roly-poly out, out, out
Roly-poly, roly-poly up, up, up
Roly-poly, roly-poly clap, clap, clap
Roly-poly, roly-poly lay them in your lap.

2nd time through we did it B-I-G!
3rd time through we did it "baby" (just using pointer fingers)

Play and Learn

The Tooth Fairy was excellent interacting with the parents and babies!






One little guy in particular loved brushing the giant teeth as well as the bear's teeth!



Each child received a toothbrush and a book!

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Singing Baby Storytime--Old McDonald

Our 2nd Singing storytime was all about animal sounds!  We started out with just a small group, but more came, and more came, and still more came!  I think it was the biggest baby group I've had!

Song/Rhymes/Bounces

Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands
Good Morning to You
Little Bear
When Cows Get Up in the Morning
Roly-Poly
Itsy Bitsy Spider

Hey Diddle Diddle
Toast
Tickle the Clouds


Read {Sing} Aloud

Old MacDonald had a Farm
Jane Cabrera


Shared Reading {Singing}

A variety of books you can sing including:

Wheels on the Bus
Raffi; illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz Wickstrom

I'm a Little Teapot
Annie Kubler
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Play and Learn