Flowers for Henrietta

A special storytime girl brought flowers for Henrietta!  Ava told us all about how she made the the white flowers blue by putting them in blue water for a few days.  So sweet!

Kids Club: Titanic!

This was a very fun event planned by a colleague.  I was relieved when two families showed up (the library had been very slow all afternoon--probably due to the nice spring weather).

Read Aloud Book

Pig on the Titanic

by Gary Crew; illustrated by Bruce Whatley

Stations

Leak-proof Bag

Did you know you can fill a heavy-duty Ziploc bag with water and then poke pencils all the way through without water coming out?  Give it a try--just make sure your pencils are very sharp and that you poke the pencil straight through (not at an angle).

Here's some proof:

Build a Boat

The kids were asked to make a boat using a variety of miscellaneous supplies.  If only glue dried faster...

Cargo

After building a boat the kids got to float them...and then add "cargo" (unit cubes) to see how much weight their boats could hold.

2 liter bottle with three holes down the sides experiment (find instructions here)

Good Eats! Storytime

A storytime all about eating and food?!  Couldn't get any better than this...well, unless we had some real food to eat.

Books

Mouse Mess

by Linnea Riley

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?

by Jane Yolen; illustrated by Mark Teague

Giant Pop-out Food: A Pop-out Surprise Book

Flannel Board/Songs

Four Hungry Ants

4 hungry ants, marking in a line
Came upon a picnic, where they could dine.
They marched into the salad
They marched into the cake
They marched into the pepper
Oh-uh!  That was a mistake!
AAACCCHHHOOO!

Continue counting down through one.

Popcorn Parachute
(tune: Are you sleeping?)

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels
In the pot, in the pot
Shake 'em, shake 'em, shake 'em
Shake 'em, shake 'em, shake 'em
'Til they POP! Pop, pop, pop!

I put big(ish) pom-poms in the center of the parachute to be the kernels.  I could not get the kids to start shaking slowing--they went straight for the pop.  Tried three times.  But they did have a lot of fun!

Play and Learn

Spaghetti Slurping Plate (a super cute idea from a colleague) 

Put a small hole in a large paper plate.  This will become the mouth.  Cut a long piece of yarn and string it through the hole on the plate.  Tie knots on both ends.  Have children a face on the plate.  Have them hold the plate in front of their face and while making the slurpping noise, pull the "spaghetti" up through the hole.

Counting Strawberries Game (from Lakeshore)

Play food and dishes (from Lakeshore)

Giant Sandwich (Melissa and Doug)

On the Go Baby Storytime

Very active babies today so we didn't all our "regular" songs...but that's OK!

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces
Here is the post to the words.

Come Along and Clap with Me
We Say Hello!
Little Bear
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
Baby Hokey Pokey
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Tick Tock
Our Hands Say Goodbye

Read Aloud Book

Time to Say Bye-Bye

by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Babies were very squirrelly today.  I skipped all the pages with the baby saying "bye-bye" to different items and also changed the words from "But it's time to say bye-bye" to "It's time to go".  So really the book I read should be titled, "Time to Go" 

Shared Reading
Board books about things that go including:

Donald Crews' Freight Train 

National Geographic Kids Look & Learn: Things That Go

Supercharged

What I did:  Encourage parents/caregivers to point or help child point to different body parts while we did "Rub-a-Dub-Dub".

Parent Tip:  (Before reading Time to Say Bye-Bye) Routines are important for babies and children.  I encourage you to make reading a part of your everyday routine--something that babies can look forward to, just like the child in this book.

Play Time

Since our book was shortened and we didn't do all the songs we started play time about 10 minutes early...and boy, were the babies ready to play!

Rainy Storytime

This storytime was rather tricky because I had two preschool children and all the rest were toddlers.  I know my storytime is "all ages" (2-5) but it is challenging keeping the young one engaged and still offering something for the older children too.  If I knew who would consistently attend it would be easier to play.  I will continue to work on the best ways to do this storytime and try to be flexible!

Books

Raindrop, Plop!

by Wendy Chyette Lewison; illustrated by Pam Paparone

Raindrop Roll

by  April Pulley Sayre 

I love this new book about rain with it's gorgeous photographs...but I think it was lost on my young storytime group today.

Flannel Board/Songs

R-A-I-N-Y
(sung to Bingo)

There is a day when I get wet
And rainy is the weather
R-A-I-N-Y
R-A-I-N-Y
R-A-I-N-Y
And rainy is the weather.

I borrowed this adorable R-A-I-N-Y flannel board from a colleague.

I like to take the letters away from the end of the word.  I find that the children are able to say the letters and clap more easily when I do it this way.  I turn letter over when we "take it away" to remind them how many times to clap.

There is a day when I get wet
And rainy is the weather
R-A-I-N-(clap)
R-A-I-N-(clap)
R-A-I-N-(clap)
And rainy is the weather.

There is a day when I get wet
And rainy is the weather
R-A-I-(clap)-(clap)
R-A-I-(clap)-(clap)
R-A-I-(clap)-(clap)
And rainy is the weather.

Continue taking way letters until you have no letters and five claps.

There is a day when I get wet
And rainy is the weather
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)-(clap)
And rainy is the weather.

Plip, Plip, Plop
(sung to Jingle Bells)

I have the children shake jingle bells while we sing!

Plip, plip, plop
Plip, plip, plop
Rainy April days
Springtime showers water flowers
So they'll bloom in May!

Plip, plip, plop
Plip, plip, plop
Rainy April days
Springtime showers water flowers
So they'll bloom in May! Hey!

Itsy Bitsy Spider
(traditional)

Supercharged
What I did:  Talked about words that start with the letter R.  Pointed out lowercase letters in our Rainy song.

Parent Tip:  Occasionally share books with children that have photographs instead of illustrations.  The photos in Raindrops Roll are amazing and children love to see the world around them.

Play and Learn

Musical Instruments

Puddle Jumping (into hula hoops)

Clouds in the blue sky (cotton balls)

Blocks

Coloring Sheet

Baby Storytime--Movement

A very fun group of babies today!  We had a lot of fun singing and playing!

Song/Rhymes/Bounces
Words can be found here.

Come Along and Clap With Me
We Say Hello!
Little Bear
Rub-a-dub-dub
Baby Hokey Pokey
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Tick Tock
Humpty Dumpty

Read Aloud

Ten Tiny Toes

by Caroline Jayne Church

Shared Reading

Books about movement including:

Move!

by Liesbet Slegers

Who Can Jump?

by Sebastien Braun

Supercharged
What I did:  We pointed to and touched all the different parts of the body as we read Ten Tiny Toes.

Parent Tip:  Make each book you read to your child interactive.  Point to body parts that are named; make animal sounds; name animals, colors, shapes, letters; if the book invites tickling, jumping, hugging be sure to do those things with your baby!

Play Time

Parachute  We ended our story portion of storytime with the parachute (accompanied by Jim Gill's Alabama, Mississippi)  The babies had so much fun shaking the parachute and going underneath it, the parents continued to do the parachute with most of the babies while I got the toys out for the few that were done.

My First Match-ups (from Lakeshore)

Baby Storytime--Nursery Rhymes

A second week of Nursery Rhymes, but this time with some very energetic babies!  They were not in the mood to sit still for songs and rhymes, let alone books!  So we had a shorter storytime and an extra long play time!

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces

Come along and sing with me
We Say Hello
Little Bear
Rub-a-dub-dub
Tick Tock
Our Hands Say Goodbye

Here is the post with all the words.

Read Aloud Book

First half of One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Jane Cabrera

Shared Reading
Variety of nursery rhyme books including

Clare Beaton's Rhymes 

Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling

Tracey Campbell Pearson

Supercharged

What I Did:  Questions during "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe":  Do you have shoes on? Where are your shoes? Can you kick your legs?  Parent help your child "jump"!  What sound does a chicken make?

Parent Tip:  Nursery rhymes are a fun and easy way to interact with your child.  Nursery rhymes teach rhymes, rhythm, and vocabulary.

Play Time

I bought some textured balls that light up when bounced.  The babies loved watching them, throwing them, and, of course, chewing on them!

I found them at Toys R Us and Wal-greens for just a dollar each!