Categories
Story Times

Baby Themed Storytime

Hello songs

Book 1: Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep by Janay Brown-Wood

Theme Songs:

Charlie Chaplin Diaper Song

(baby can sit on grown-up’s lap or grown-up can lay baby down on knees or floor as if they’re changing a diaper)

Charlie Chaplin went to France
To teach the babies how to dance
First they did the rumba, the rumba, the rumba
Then they did the kicks, the kicks, the kicks
Then they did the samba, the samba, the samba
Then they did the splits, the splits, the splits

Open Shut Them

Open shut them
Open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap lap lap
Creep them crawl them
Creep them crawl them
Right up to your chin, chin, chin
Open up your little mouth but do not let them in!

Peekaboo Song

Peekaboo
Peekaboo
I see you
I see you
I see your button nose
I see your tiny toes
Peekaboo
I see you

Transition song

Book 2: Fiesta Babies by Carmen Tafolla

Favorite songs and goodbye!

Categories
Story Times

Snow & Winter Storytime

This snowy storytime was a very successful virtual program! I tried to really pump up the levels of interaction so that the children who attended remained engaged the whole time.

Book 1: I Love Snow! By Zeta Elliott

A simple, excellent read aloud book for that snowy time of year. Children of all backgrounds and abilities play in the snow in different ways, but also experience the gray slushy side of a snowy winter. Despite this, they still continue to love snow in the end!

Felt Board Theme Game: Snowman Mitten Hunt

In this interactive felt board game, the children helped the snowmen find the missing mitten. Each snowman was a different color, and each snowman was hiding a different colored mitten. We shouted “Snow man, snow man where is your mitten???” and revealed each one until we found the missing yellow mitten.

Transition Song

Book 2: Bunny Slopes by Claudia Rueda

A super interactive book in which children help the bunny ski down the mountain until she eventually falls into her own burrow, where mom has hot chocolate waiting for her.

Favorite Songs (with Peter the bunny puppet) and Goodbye!

Categories
Story Times

Horse Story Time

This was such a special story time. Many of my story times have been outdoors this summer (Summer 2021), so as a fun treat I invited our local mounted park rangers to crash story time! The kids just loved it!

 

Hello songs

Book 1: Hello, Day! by Anita Lobel

Theme Song:

This might be the easiest theme song ever as it only has one phrase. With baby on your lap you sing the William Tell Overture using the phrase “Giddy-up.” It’s super simple but you can get so silly with it!

Re-focus song

Book 2:  Giddy Up! Let’s Ride! by Flora McDonnell

Favorite songs and goodbye!

 

Categories
Story Times

Playing Pretend/Imagination Story Time

Hello songs

Book 1: Meeow and the Little Chairs by Sebastien Braun

Theme Song:

This was a great theme song because while it’s about playing pretend, it’s also about cats. The end also leads nicely into the second book.

I’m A Little Kitty Cat

I’m a little kitty cat
Nice and sweet
Here are my whiskers, here are my feet
When I go out hunting mice beware
Because you might just have a scare!

Re-focus/transition song

Book 2: Can You Make A Scary Face? by Jan Thomas

Favorite songs and goodbye!

Categories
Story Times

Feelings & Emotions Story Time

Hello song

Book 1: I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont

A wonderful modern alternative to Dr. Seuss if you’re not into that right now.

 

Theme Song:

Shake My Sillies Out

I’ve gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
And wiggle my waggles away

I’ve gotta clap, clap, clap my crazies (or kookies) out
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out
Clap, clap, clap my crazies out
And wiggle my waggles away

I’ve gotta jump, jump, jump my jiggles out
Jump, jump, jump my jiggles out
Jump, jump, jump my jiggles out
And wiggle my waggles away

I’ve gotta yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out
Yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out
Yawn, yawn, yawn my sleepies out
And wiggle my waggles away

I’ve gotta shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out
And wiggle my waggles away (on the last wiggle my waggles I always turn around and wiggle my butt, the kids love it!)

Re-focus song

Book 2: Why The Face? by Jean Jullien

Favorite songs and goodbye!

 

Categories
Story Times

Dinosaur Story Time

Hello songs

Book 1: Hi, Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter

Theme Song: 

I’ve done a couple different theme songs for this story time. My latest one was playing Laurie Berkner’s We Are The Dinosaurs on a loud speaker and doing big fun movements along with the song.

I’ve also done this song:

Dino-Pokey

Put your claws in. Put your claws out.
Put your claws in and scratch them all about. Do the dino-pokey and turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.

Put your teeth in… chomp them all bout. Put your feet in…stomp them all about. Put your tail in…wag it all about.

Re-focus song

Book 2: We Love Dinosaurs by Lucy Volpin

Favorite songs and goodbye!

Categories
Story Times

Lions, Tigers & Bears Story Time (Toddler/Family)

Hello songs

Book 1: It’s A Tiger by David LaRochelle

Theme Song: 

Bear Song

Grizzly bears are big and brown, big and brown, big and brown
Grizzly bears are big and brown
And live in the woods
Polar bears are soft and white, soft and white, soft and white
Polar bears are soft and white
And live in the cold
Teddy bears are just my size, just my size, just my size
Teddy bears are just my size
To cuddle with at night

Re-focus/transition song

Book 2: If you”re Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition by James Warhola

Favorite songs and goodbye!

 

Categories
Early Literacy Workshops

Early Math Skills Early Literacy Workshop

This is a workshop my colleague and I hosted with parents at a local school. The following is the format/outline of the workshop and the points we covered all through casual but directed conversation and through fun activities. 

Math + Literacy Early Literacy Workshop Outline:

Quick review:

What is early literacy? (Discussion)

Definition: Early literacy is what a child knows about reading and writing before they have the ability to read and write ex: scribbling with a crayon, recognizing shapes

5 Foundations of Literacy? (Discussion)

Read, Write, Talk, Sing, Play (I like to sing it to a beat, drum on table, helps us remember)

Major Talking Points:

  • Count
  • Point out shapes
  • Talk about patterns & relationships
  • Make music

Counting: How can we count at home?

  • Grocery store (Ex: How many apples should we buy? How many apples should we buy if everyone in the house gets 1 apple?)
  • While cooking: (Help with measuring, How many of X do we need you think?)
  • General counting by sight: (counting steps, counting ppl on the street, counting stripes on a shirt, counting sidewalk cracks)

Shapes: How can we encourage our child to notice and acknowledge shapes?

  • Easiest thing to do is point out shapes you see, maybe pick a shape of the day
  • Can be done on train, at home
  • Ask how do you know it’s X shape?
  • Make it a game: Play “I spy” “I spy a green circle” (a traffic light?)
  • Playing with shapes such as legos, tangrams, blocks, drawing and cutting shapes, tracing shapes to make a story

Patterns and relationships: How can we encourage our child to notice patterns?

  • Recognize repetition (of lines, colors, shapes) great at the grocery store & clothing store
  • Use math words to describe change (I am taller than I was last week!, I dumped blocks out of the bucket, then I put them back in the bucket when I cleaned up, this is the very beginnings of algebra)
  • Where are patterns? On street, in bathroom, at stores, on clothing
  • Finding all the squares in a book
  • Sort blocks (by color, shape)
  • Matching capital and lowercase letters
  • Larger smaller
  • Matching lids, bottle caps to containers

Making Music:

  • Clapping to a beat helps children understand rhythm, numbers, patterns. Rhythm=pattern
  • Read rhyming books
  • Listen to music
  • Sing songs (1,2, buckle my shoe, 5 little monkeys, 5 little ducks, really all songs have rhythm)

Song Break!

(I chose this song because it has a lovely rhythm, a built in word pattern [tick tock tick tock] and some numbers!)

Tick Tock

Tick tock tick tock I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock tick tock now I’m striking 1 o’clock CUCKOO! (jump up and sit back down)
Tick tock tick tock I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock tick tock now I’m striking 2 o’clock CUCKOO CUCKOO! (jump up and sit back down)
Tick tock tick tock I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick tock tick tock now I’m striking 3 o’clock CUCKOO CUCKOO CUCKOO! (jump up and sit back down)
Tick tock tick tock now it’s time to STOP

General tips:

  • Have natural discussions, not just questions and answer sessions
  • Patience, math talk takes time!

Activity:

Two possible activities: Lego Time &/or DIY Tangrams

Legos & Discussion Time

Ingredients: Legos and that’s it!

  • Making & recognizing patterns with legos
  • Sorting legos
  • Making shapes out of legos
  • Counting legos

DIY Tangrams:

There are many places online where one can find printable tangrams and instructions for DIY tangrams with measuring and whatnot but I like to think of the simplest possible way to do things because I think that’s more realistic for parents, so here’s my short and sweet and super simple DIY tangram recipe!

Ingredients:

  • Cardboard box
  • Scissors
  • Markers or crayons

Instructions:

  • Draw shape outlines on box
  • Color in each shape as desired
  • Cut out each shape
  • Make fun new shapes, designs and characters out of your tangrams!

This is a great activity to do together with a child and then continue to leave out on a table or the floor as an invitation to play.

Extension activities:

  • Only color one side of shape and then play a “matching” game where child tries to match colors
  • Close eyes and try to match shapes just by feel
  • Add numbers to each shape and play number matching game
  • Shape sorting, counting and pattern making
  • Invite child to turn shapes into characters based on a story you have read

 

 

Categories
Story Times

Water Story Time (Toddler/Family)

Hello songs

Book 1: Wet by Carey Sookocheff

Theme Songs:

Umbrella Song 

Down come the rain drops SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH! (stamp feet on the splashes)
Let’s run for cover, DASH, DASH, DASH! (run on the spot)
Pitter patter, pitter patter, DRIP, DRIP, DROP! (clap hands in rhythm)
I’m under my umbrella till the raindrops STOP! (put up pretend umbrella)

Re-focus/transition song

Book 2: Little Cloud by Eric Carle

Bonus song: At the end of story time I usually just do our favorite songs but I adore this song so I included it as a bonus.

If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh what a world it would be
I’d stand outside with my mouth open wide going
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the raindrops
Were lemon drops and gumdrops
Oh what a world it would be

If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes
Oh what a world it would be
I’d stand outside with my mouth open wide going
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the snowflakes
Were candy bars and milkshakes
Oh what a world it would be

If all the sunbeams
Were bubble gum and ice cream
Oh what a world it would be
I’d stand outside with my mouth open wide going
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
If all the sunbeams
Were bubble gum and ice cream
Oh what a world it would be

Favorite songs and goodbye

Categories
Story Times

Numbers & Letters Story Time (Toddler)

A story time full of oldies but goodies!

Hello songs

Book 1: Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker

Theme Song:

5 Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping onthe bed
Continue with 4, 3, 2, 1 monkeys

Re-focus/transition song

Book 2: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Favorite songs and goodbye!