Baby Storytime--Textures

After missing storytime for TWO weeks it felt great to be with them again!!

Today we did a little bit with textures...and we will do some more next week.  Babies love to touch and explore with their hands, fingers, and mouths.  This is an excellent opportunity for parents and caregivers to talk with their baby about what something feels like--soft, fuzzy, hard, slick, sticky and so forth.

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces
(for words see this post)

Welcome Song
Little Bear
This is the Way the Lady Rides
Hello Song
Mix and Stir
Itsy-Bitsy Spider
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Jingle Bells
Round and Round the Garden
Humpty Dumpty
Two Little Hands

Read Aloud Book

I Love My Mommy Because...

by Laurel Porter-Gaylord; illustrated by Ashley Wolff

We did the animal sounds and actions when we could.

Shared Reading
Today we shared a variety of books that had textures, including DK's Baby Touch and Feel, and Noodle books by Marion Billet

Play and Learn

In addition to our "regular" toys I filled quart size, double zipper Ziploc freezer bags with shaving cream and a couple of drops of washable, non-toxic tempera paint.  I invited the babies to touch, poke and squeeze the bags!

Martin Waddell Storytime

A favorite book I used to read to my children--Owl Babies...so I just had to share it and other books by Martin Waddell.

Books

The Super Hungry Dinosaur

Owl Babies

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel Board

Din-o-saur!

(Tune: Five Little Ducks)

1 little dinosaur went out to play

On a bright and sunny day

He had such e-mor-mus fun

He called another dinosaur to come:

"Din-o-saur!"

2 little dinosaurs went out to play

On a bright and sunny day

They had such e-nor-mus fun

They called another dinosaur to come:

"Din-o-saur!"

Continue counting up through 5.

Last verse (spoken)

But another dinosaur didn't come.

Instead they heard their mommies calling

"Dinner!"

5 little dinosaurs went home to eat!

Dinosaurs All Around (adapted from PreschoolExpress)

(Tune: If you’re happy and you know it)

There are dinosaurs stomping, stomping all around

There are dinosaurs stomping, stomping all around

There are dinosaurs all around, stomping round and round

There are dinosaurs stomping, stomping all around.

There are dinosaurs flying, flying all around x2

There are dinosaurs all around, flying round and round.

There are dinosaurs swimming, swimming all around x2

There are dinosaurs all around, swimming round and round.

There are dinosaurs eating, eating all around x2

There are dinosaurs all around, eating round and round.

Dinosaur Stomp

(Tune: Row, row, row your boat)

Stomp, stomp, stomp around

On your great big feet!

Swish your tail and turn around

Now let's take a seat!

Five Little Owls
Five little owls learning to say, “Who”.

They flap their wings and then say ___________. 
(words that rhyme with who--shoe, zoo, glue, blue)

Mama owl cried, “No, no, not _____________!”

“Please, oh, please say ‘Who, who-who’!”

Enrichment Activities

Owl Craft (similar to this one)

Dinosaur Sorting

Dinosaur Matching (from PreschoolMom)
Instead of the spinner, I made dice to roll

Dinosaur Bowling (from Lakeshore)

Cookie Storytime

Yum, yum!!  COOKIES!!  What a delicious storytime! (If only we could have had real cookies to munch on!)

Books

Baking Day at Grandma's by Anika Denise; illustrated by Christopher Denise

Who Ate All the Cookie Dough?  by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  by Laura Joffe Numeroff; illustrated by Felicia Bond

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel Board

Five Little Cookies

Five little cookies at the bakery shop,

Shining bright with sugar Look so yummy with frosting on top.

Along came a ____________ with a nickel to pay,

He buys the __________ one and takes it away.

I had a cute cookie action rhyme to do, but the kids were pretty wiggly, so we sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes several times!

Who has the cookie? 

(Flannel Board Guessing Game)

Cookie, cookie soft and sweet

Who wanted to eat the tasty treat?

Enrichment Activities

Playdough and cookie cutters

Cookie Memory from Oriental Trading Co.

Decorate “cookies” with “sprinkles” (cutting activity)  
I just cut out circles with the die cut machine in brown and white.  I had small rectangles of various colors so the children could snip off pieces to make sprinkles.

Cookie Maze from Homeschool Share

Blocks

Storytime Blogs

I am definitely an idea gatherer.  I love to sift through other people’s ideas, gather together the ones I like the best, and blend them into something my own.  I rarely come up with anything “original”.  One thing I love about storytime presenters is that they love to share what they have done!  Online collaboration is a great resource we should use to keep our ideas fresh and exciting and to share things we have done that have worked well (and sometime sharing what didn’t go well is beneficial too!).

I have several storytime blogs I follow and I turn to them when I need ideas for themes, great books that fit a theme, new books, songs, fingerplays, and flannel boards and sometimes activities we could incorporate into our Play and Learn.  I love these resources because they are written by fellow storytime presenters who are actually doing storytime regularly at public libraries. 

Here are a few storytime blogs you may want to explore when you need fresh ideas!

Intentional Storytime http://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/

Mel’s Desk http://melissa.depperfamily.net/blog/

Abby the Librarian http://www.abbythelibrarian.com/

Storytime Katie http://storytimekatie.com/

What are some of your favorite storytime blogs?

Baby Storytime--December 26 and January 2

One baby + Mom + Grandma the day after Christmas--so we just did bubbles, Little Bear rhyme, played with toys, and looked at board books.

* * * * * * * * 

We had 14 the day after New Year's Day!  I was surprised we had such a big group.  We started out with just 6 so we did bubbles, sang our good morning song to each child, then did Little Bear.  The storytime room is so large it's hard to keep the babies' attention when so few are there!  I got about halfway through Nancy Elizabeth Wallace's Baby Day!

And then we got out the toys and board books for playtime.

Hopefully we will be back to somewhat "normal" size next week!!