Baby Storytime--April and May

I love, love, love Baby Storytime...but I've found that putting the outline on the blog every week is somewhat redundant since the program is almost the same every time.  So instead I will be posting once a month or so...

Read Aloud Book
(1 per storytime)

Ten Tiny Babies

by Karen Katz

The Very Busy Spider

by Eric Carle

Ten Tiny Toes

by Caroline Jayne Church

Elephants Can Paint Too!

by Kaya Arnold

**to go along with our special ART Week**

You and Me, Baby

by Lynn Reiser and Penny Gentieu

Songs/Bounces/Rhymes

*Hello Song
*Good Morning to You
*Little Bear
*There was a Little Duck
Baby Hokey Pokey
Tiny Little Babies
Pat-a-Cake
Itsy Bitsy Spider
I'm a Little Teapot
Three Little Monkeys
Hey Diddle, Diddle
Pease Porridge Hot
Hickory Dickory Dock
*Toast
Tickle the Clouds
Parachute Song (sung to Mary Had a Little Lamb)
One Bright Scarf

*every week

Flannel Board

Three Little Piggies
3 little piggies rolled in the mud
Oh, my goodness! They need a scrub!
The farmer took one piggie out
Oink, oink, oink! that pig did shout!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear
Using color circles I did as many verses as I thought the babies would enjoy

Brown bear, brown bear
What did you see?
I see a red bird looking at me...

I've added a pink pig and a gray elephant


Shared Reading
We've been using (discarded) Babybug magazines, which have been fun to share!

Play and Learn

We continue to pull out our "regular" baby toys--balls, discovery boxes, ring toys, stacking cups, blocks, sensory bottles, and puzzles.

ART week for the library district was May 15-19.  We made Mess-Free Paintings and Chalk Art!

Zoo Storytime

I have had a lot of fun with this theme.  I was spoiled when I lived in the Omaha area and could visit the Henry Doorly Zoo many times a year.  A lot of kids around here have never been to a zoo, so I told them that we get to visit the zoo in the books!  I did this storytime at preschool and all ages storytimes and two early learning classrooms.

Zoo Day: A My First Experience Book
by Anne Rockwell; illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

After reading the book we went back to the zoo map and followed the family's path talking about all the animals they saw.

Two at the Zoo: A Counting Book

by Danna Smith; illustrated by Valeria Petrone

Graph Question

What animals would you like to see at the zoo?
Elephant, Lion, Giraffe, Monkey

Songs/Rhymes

ABC Welcome

What Did Henrietta Bring?

At the Zoo
(The Wheels on the Bus)

I saw an elephant go stomp, stomp, stomp
Stomp, stomp, stomp
Stomp, stomp, stomp
I saw an elephant go stomp, stomp, stomp
At the zoo!

Monkey--oooh!oooh!
Lion--roar!
Snake--slither
Bird--fly/flap
Giraffe--stretch
Sea Lion--ark!

Play and Learn

Use a variety of animal stamps to create you own zoo

Some had fun drawing themselves vising the zoo!

Sheep Storytime

Kind of have an animal theme going on for storytime! (from May 9)

No Sleep for the Sheep!

by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

Where is the Green Sheep?

by Mem Fox; illustrated by Judy Horacek

Mary had a Little Lamb

We first decided on something that's a certain color (ex. yellow=banana) then we sang the song with the sheep being that color.  The kids had fun thinking of different objects of the different colors!

Where is the Green Sheep Magnet Board Guessing Game

I had a green sheep with different colored bushes it could hide behind.  We did the game 3-4 times so that everyone had a turn to guess a color.

We made the classic sheep craft--gluing cotton balls onto a sheep cutout.

Tissue Paper Art

Thursday Thing--Tissue Paper Art 

Fun for all ages!

Star Wars STEM

Our first Thursday Thing activity landed on May the 4th, so of course we had to do something with Star Wars!

We had four different STEM activities related to Star Wars:

Dagobah Slime

We used this recipe

Mix together:  1/4 cup of glue

1/4 cup water

Several drops of food coloring

Stir in 1/4 cup liquid starch  

Keep stirring until all liquid is absorbed

Ewok Catapults

Just before the program started I got the idea of making the little Storm Troopers for kids to try to knock down.  (small pictures of storm troopers taped to clothespins)

Relative Size of Star Wars Ships

Definitely for the older kids, but it was interesting...

Use the Force
Without touching your hands to the 3rd cup, place it on top of the the other two.  Supplies given:  cups, craft sticks, yarn, paper clips, paper binders, clothes pins, rubber bands, paper plates

Here are a few of the creative ways the kids meet this challenge!

I had two teen volunteers to help (thank heavens!) with 25 attending the event (which is a good number for my little library)

The library district provided some Star Wars crafts...

Star Wars activity sheets, Chewbacca bookmark, origami Yoda, and (leftover) Styrofoam balls to make a Death Star or planet.

Here is a Death Star the library page made as an example: