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!

Adding Nursery Rhymes to Storytime

Research has shown that nursery rhymes are a wonderful way for children to learn about rhythm, rhyme, and vocabulary.  It can be fun to add nursery rhymes to storytime and you can easily find rhymes that fit your storytime theme.  For example, Three Little Kittens can go along with a variety of themes such as: animals, baby animals, kittens/cats, mittens/winter clothing, pie/eating, emotions, lost and found. 

Here are some ways to add nursery rhymes into your storytime:

Books

We have nursery rhyme books, such as Jane Cabrera‘s Old Mother Hubbard and Keith Baker’s Big Fat Hen.  

You can also read books with nursery rhymes within the text, such as Cindy Moo or play on nursery rhymes such as Hickory Dickory Dog by Alison Murray.  

You can also use a nursery rhyme anthology and read one or two from it. 

(My favorite is Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose, illustrated by Scott Gustafson)

Music

You can sing many nursery rhymes or play a CD based on nursery rhymes during your play and learn portion.

Interactive

Use flannel pieces to tell a nursery rhyme.  You can make pieces or buy pre-made from such places as The Felt Source. Pieces can also be printed from websites such as PreKinders and use them on the magnet board. 

Use puppets to introduce or “act out” a nursery rhyme

Let children fill in the last rhyming word.

Have children help you "read" the nursery rhyme with printed words and picture cues.  These sentence strips are from Literacy Centers & Activities for Nursery Rhymes (volumes 1 & 2) from Teacher Created Resources

Ask children to repeat the nursery rhyme with you.

Play and Learn

Have the children act out a nursery rhyme such as “Jack Be Nimble” (with an unlit candle, of course!)

Make a “fill in the blank” nursery rhyme with pictures.  Children cut out the pictures, glue them in the correct place and then “read” the rhyme.

Scavenger hunt  Hide several pictures or objects that go along with a nursery rhyme.  Make a picture list of items for children to find.

Lost and Found Storytime

This was one of those storytimes that just came together so perfectly!  I had seen Puffin Peter when I was planning my penguin storytime and knew I wanted to use it later.  When a colleague introduced me to Found I knew I had found my storytime!!  I've never done a Lost and Found storytime theme.  It was a lot of fun!

Books

Puffin Peter

Petr Hoacek

Found

Salina Yoon

Three Little Kittens

from Mother Goose Remembers

Clare Beaton

Songs/Magnet Board

Jumpy Jim Lost His Mom
Adapted from: Briggs, Diane.  Preschool Favorites: 35 Storytimes Kids Love.  American Library Association, 2007, p 87.

There was a little, lost joey
Whose name was Jumpy Jim.
His mommy seemed to be missing.
Oh what a fix he was in!

He asked a duck if she’d seen her
As she was waddling down the road.
The duck looked around in her area
And said, “I can’t find her, dear, no.”

He asked a funny monkey
If his mommy he could find.
But the monkey only scratched his head
And said, “I just don’t have the time.”

Next he asked a koala
With a sweet, little teddy bear face
If he had seen his mommy
And the koala said, “No, not a trace.”

Next came a chubby old hippo
And the joey asked her too
And when she couldn’t help him
He just didn’t know what to do.

It was then that a bright parrot
Flying high and as free as can be
Said, “Jumpy Jim, dry up your tear drops.
She’s napping right under that tree.”

Jumpy Jim jumped for joy
And ran to his mommy with glee.
He hopped in her pouch
Like a fuzzy old couch
And they jumped away happily.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Find the Dog His Bone

Little doggy whimpers and moans
Will you help him find his bone?

Supercharged
What I Did:  Talk about each of the characteristics of puffins that Peter tells the whale (funny and noisy--parrots; black and white--penguins; colorful beak--toucan).  Compare those characteristics to the animal the whale takes Peter to.

Parent Tip:  Nursery rhymes help to teach rhythm, rhyme, and vocabulary to children.  Many can be sung.  Nursery rhymes are also fun to share with children!

Play and Learn

Find the matching dinos in the rice sensory bin

Duplos

Three Little Kittens Scavenger Hunt
I hid the larger set of objects around the children's area of the library--on wall or on ends of bookcases, at eye level for the children.  They had a lot of fun finding the items.  I even had some kids go on multiple hunts!

Help the dog find the ball Maze from worksheetfun.com

Magnet board:  Hide and Find the dog's bone

Baby Storytime--Nursery Rhymes

I really wanted to stress the importance of sharing nursery rhymes with children.  However, I've found nursery rhymes for babies are more suited to reciting or singing.

Songs/Rhymes/Bounces

The More We Get Together
We Say Hello!
Rub-a-Dub-Dub
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Tick Tock
 Here is the post with all the words.

Humpty Dumpty
Jack and Jill

Read Aloud

One, Two Buckle My Shoe

Jane Cabrera

(1-10 only)

Shared Reading

A variety of nursery rhyme board books.  Some were single rhymes, others anthologies.

Tomie's Mother Goose Flies Again

Tomie DePaola

Wee Willie Winkie

Salley Mavor

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/Social Time

We ended storytime with the parachute.  The babies love to walk/crawl/stand under the chute as the adults lift and lower it!

Supercharged Storytimes

My library district is taking part in Supercharged Storytime Training.  As part of the Develop Young Learners Team will be "attending" a weekly training webinar.  I am always looking for ways to improve my storytimes--so I am excited to participate.

Our district has already done an overview training of the training several weeks ago.  Many great things were taught and I was reaffirmed that I am on the right track when I do storytime.  I take lots of time to ask questions, ask children to predict, and point things out things in the text/book.  We are to do so much more than "just read a book"!!  (I learned that from my wonderful mentor, Mrs. B)

Two important things I took away from the training were:

1. Be more intentional during my planning.  Sometimes planning storytimes feel second nature to me and I don't always think about why I choose certain books, song, rhymes.  Put into words the why.
2. Share more early literacy tips and the why of storytime with parents/caregivers.  I will do this occasionally, but I know this is one area I can definitely improve on. (My last blog post for my fellow storytime presenters was really for me!!) 

I will try to add my "supercharged" ideas to my storytime posts.  I'm sure they will be developing quite a bit over the next few weeks during training.

Duck Storytime

I'm excited that I will be doing this storytime twice this month, at two different libraries.

I found this cute little duckling on on the Internet and couldn't resist posting it!

Books

Little Quack

by Lauren Thompson; illustrated by Derek Anderson

Come Along, Daisy

by Jane Simmons

The second time I did the storytime I had a more attentive/older group so we read Fluffy and Baron for our 2nd book.

Fluffy and Baron

Laura Rankin

Songs/Flannel Board

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

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!

I have a little duck that bobs up and down

Up and down

Up and down

I have a little duck that bobs up and down

All day long!

I have a little duck that goes splash, splash, splash

Splash, splash, splash

Splash, splash, splash

I have a little duck that goes splash, splash, splash

All day long!

I have a little duck that goes waddle, waddle, waddle

Waddle, waddle, waddle

Waddle, waddle, waddle

I have a little duck that goes waddle, waddle, waddle

All day long!

The children added verses for dancing and running!

Five Little Ducks

5 little ducks went out to play

Over the hills and far away

When the mother duck said,

“Quack, quack, quack, quack”

4 little ducks came waddling back.

Continue counting down to “no little ducks came waddling back”

But when the Daddy Duck said,

“QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!”

5 little ducks came waddling back!

Supercharged 
What I did:  Count the ducks along the bottom of the page in the book Little Quack
Point out the numerals in the book, Little Quack

Parent Tip:  Take time to count with your child.  You can count just about anything!

Enrichment Activities

Water Table with plastic ducks

Duck in the Pond craft

Three activities with buttons

• Sort by color
• Count buttons for ducks' treats
• Count buttons in cupcake tin

Blocks