Wiggle Worms

Large groups of adorable, well-behaved, and energetic toddlers two days in a row.... what a "good day" indeed!  When summer vacations come to an end and storytime crowds resume, I truly appreciate all that caregivers do to make storytime great!

Animal Song with Puppets:  "All the Fish"

Letter of the Day:  Ff for my fun friend fox.  There is a fox in the book we read today.

Book:  A Good Day by Kevin Henkes. 

Have I told you how much I love this book yet!?  My toddler reads it over and over and there is nothing sweeter than hearing him empathetically declare, "Oh noo," when something goes wrong for each of the animals and then clap when each situation is resolved.

My toddler reading A Good Day at home

 

 See those yellow feathers (tucked behind the book below)?  Yup, Michelle and I tucked them behind our ears before declaring, "Mama, it was a good day!" just like the little girl does at the end of the book.

Movement:  "My Squirrel"

I found a super fun bluegrassy song that goes:

 

I have a favorite squirrel and he loves to jump

I have a favorite squirrel and he loves to jump

I have a favorite squirrel and he loves to jump

Jump, squirrel!  Jump, squirrel!  Jump from tree to tree

Jump, squirrel!  Jump, squirrel!  Jump from tree to tree

 

...loves to eat

 

...likes to rest

 

...etc...

 

The kids were so cute bouncing around with our favorite squirrel puppets!

 

 

Flannel:  Let's Make these Birds Happy!!

 

 I didn't know if I loved my take on "Little Bird, Little Bird" when I did it yesterday, but I really liked it today!  I made these over sized, batting-stuffed birds a while ago when I saw Melissa's "Little Bird, Little Bird"

 

Since we were already in the spirit of cheering on our animal friends, I sang:

 

"Blue bird, blue bird on my shoulder

I need a cheer!"

 

I changed the color bird, where it landed on my body, and an uplifting gesture like applause (clap), blowing kisses, and high-fiving!

 

I think this flannel worked because I did it only a few minutes after reading A Good Day.

Family Storytime

Family Storytime is at 6pm at Perry on Thursdays. 
Families with young children (ages 2 to 7) are invited to an interactive storytime each week.

Below are pictures of some activities from last week

Our hello song: Olive the fox likes to dance with everyone

 

Olive shaking hands

Olive high-fiving

 

Olive getting a back scratch

 

My friend Ella

 

Doing a craft

 

Dinosaurs! Pre-K and Family Storytime

Yup, still digging into reading.... but it's slowly winding down.  This week we dug up some dinosaurs in Pre-K and Family Storytime.

Books:

Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones by Byron Barton. A cast of characters looks for, finds, and assembles some dinosaur bones.

Dinosaur Zoom! by Penny Dale. Dinosaurs of all colors drive all types of vehicles to get to a surprise location. *Extension activities below*

How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen. Dinosaurs, like young children, may slam their tails and pout at bedtime, but they give hugs and kisses too!

Dancing with the Dinosaurs by Jane Clark.  This was a close runner up!

Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Shields

Music:

"We Are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner
I pulled out my dinosaur puppets (T-Rex, Pterodactyl, Triceratops) and we marched with them.

My family storytime group flapping their Pterodactyl wings

 

Family Storytime group marching with Triceratops horns

 

* "Dinosaurs in Cars" by Nancy Stewart.  This was a great follow-up to Dinsosaur Zoom!

 

Letter of the Day:  Tt  Which two dinos start with the letter T?

 

*Flannel:  Which dino is missing? 

 

A dad and his child were playing the game again after storytime.

 

Craft:  "Prehistoric lizards" in eggs

 

Family Storytime Pictures

 

Craft

 

 

 

 

Wiggle Worms - Elephants

Reminder:  There is NO Wiggle Worms next Monday which will make Tuesday even busier than usual.  Please register for Tuesday to ensure your child's spot: July 2013 schedule of events

Animal Song with Puppets:  "Pig on her Head"

 

Letter of the Day: Ee for elephant

 

Book: I Dream of An Elephant by Ami Rubinger. We dream up elephants of all different colors in this rhyming book. 

 

I changed the words on two pages though. Instead of the brown elephant being so big and lazy that he had to sit down, he was simply tired.  The pink elephant was a great dancer, not a clumsy one, in my version. 

The kids were awesome listeners both days!  To help hold their attention, I made flannel elephants to place up on the board as I read about them in the book.

Some close-ups

 

 

Music / Movement:  After reading about colorful elephants, we all used scarves to become elephants ourselves to dance to "Elephant's Have Wrinkles".

Rhyme (SCLibrary):  Here Comes the Elephant

 

Here comes the elephant

He moves so slow

He swings his trunk to and fro

He is so big he can hardly jump

He sits down with a great big THUMP

 

 

Flannel:  We ended with the same flannel as last wee, "See You Later, Alligator"

 

 

Three interactive books I ADORE reading with my toddler:

My favorite part of my whole day is when I pick my two-year-old up from daycare and he juke moves around all classroom obstacles to leap into my arms with gleeful cheers of, "Mommy!  Mommy!"

Grayden reading A Good Day to his doggie

The second favorite part of my day is when this same feisty, silly, free-spirited toddler settles into bed and reads with me.  I am loving picture books in a whole new way and can't fill our library bag up enough as far as I'm (and he's) concerned, but there are three books that I ADORE reading with him these days:

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes. Squirrel drops her acorn, bird loses his favorite feather, fox can't find his mama, and dog gets tangled.  Simple, large, colorful illustrations accompany gentle, comprehensible text.

Why I love this book:There is nothing sweeter than watching your toddler empathetically declare, "Oh noo," after hearing about these scenarios and then clap happily when each is resolved. 

 

A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy.  Elephant kisses are long, fish kisses are bubbly, and bee kisses are buzzy.  The split-page format leads to lots of surprises!

Why I love this book:  Simple answer: As soon as I pull it out of the library bag, my toddler plants a kiss right on my cheek.  We then share all sorts of giggly animal kisses as we read.  He just started trumpeting his arm around like an elephant's before planting his "kiss".

 

What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas.  A group of animals expresses their desire to not be sat on by Fat Cat.

 

Why I love this book:  It's hilarious to see a toddler answer, "Nooo", with an incredulous little smirk when you ask, "Will Fat Cat sit on the pig (chicken, cow, dog, etc.)?" 

 

 

 

Pre-K Worms

We are still "digging into reading" this summer so we did a worm theme today in storytime.  After a month off, the group came back quite a bit smaller than it usually is but the kids were great!!

Don't forget:  If you are unable to make it to a morning storytime, I do family storytime on Thursdays at 6pm too!

Memory Box:  A lemon from Ned's New Home

Books: 

Ned's New Home by Kevin Tseng.  A worm tries out a variety of new homes when his current apple home begins to rot. 

Worms for Lunch by Leonid Gore.  Various creatures share what they like to eat for lunch.  Don't worry - the worms get away safely!

Worms by Sian Smith.  This book uses simple rhymes and engaging images to teach young readers about worms.

 

Music:  "Walter the Waltzing Worm" by Hap Palmer

I taught the kids how to waltz first and they really caught on!  Then I handed out scarves and let them waltz with their own "Walters" and follow the cues to have him move all over their bodies.

Cube Roll:  I got some nifty (non-hand made!) cubes to roll and added my own pictures. Today it landed on the yoga picture so we took elephant breaths.

Letter of the Day: Ww for worm

We identified another "W" word - wagon - and sounded it out:

Flannel: 
Thank you, Storytime ABC's for the idea!  Thank you, Steff, for the rhyme:

I found an apple on the ground

It looked delicious, red and round

I picked it up and took a nibble

Oh my goodness!  There was a worm in the middle!

 

 

Thankfully, a neighboring branch owns a die cut machine and cut lots of paper apples for me so each child could get one.  I punched a hole in each so the kids could do the rhyme with me and put their fingers through like worms.

 

Thank you, Greg, for punching all those apples for me!

 

 

Baby Time

Today was a smaller group, but I got to meet some new babies and see some "old" friends which was really nice!  I chose to do rhymes and songs most of us know so that the babies could ease back into the routine after a month "off".

Check out this cute baby playing with our Teen Volunteer, Lucia, during social time:

Of course Mr. Bear and Roly Poly Beetle sang their signature songs:

Roly Poly
Roly poly roly poly up up up (roll baby's hands)
Roly poly roly poly down down down
Roly poly roly poly out out out
Roly poly roly poly in in in
Roly poly roly poly clap clap clap
Roly poly roly poly lap lap lap

Bouncing / Lapsit Rhymes

Popcorn
Popcorn, popcorn put in in the pot (bounce)
Shake it, shake it (gently wiggle baby)
Pop! Pop! POP! (lift baby up)

Rain is Falling Down
Rain is falling down (wiggle fingers downward)
Rain is falling down
Pitter patter, pitter patter (clap softly)
Rain is falling down
Splaassh! (clap hands together and up for a big splash!)

The Alligator

It's no secret this is one of my favorites (courtesy of Miss Trish at Sunset Branch, Chandler).  You can crawl after mobile babies and catch them or let them crawl after you!

The alligator's jaws go snap, snap, snap
The alligator's tail goes thwack, thwack, thwack
Gotchya! (big hug!)

"The Itsy Bitsy Spider" by Hap Palmer.  My not so itsy bitsy spider helped.

Book:

Lunch by Denise Fleming.  I love this hungry little mouse.  Lucia helped mouse (my puppet) devour all his favorite fruits and veggies (flannel board pieces) as I read.

 

Prop Rhyme:

 

The babies helped me say goodbye in some fun ways with these animals:

 

 

See you later, alligator

Bye bye, butterfly

Give a hug, lady bug

Take care, brown bear

See you soon, racoon

 

 

 

Wiggle Worms

It's been a great couple of days back to weekly programs after focusing on school-age children last month. 

Our toddlers welcomed back their old friends:  Mr. Bear and Roly Poly Beetle:

Animal Song with Puppets:  "Pig on Her Head" (Alternate version)

I shared a new song with the toddler groups and I think they loved it!!  I've had this song in my collection all along, but it took Thrive After Three to demonstrate how fun it is.  I just used my hand puppets and had a teen volunteer bounce around with me and let animals sit momentarily on the heads of some kids who welcomed the visitors.

P.S. Teen Volunteers rock!

The song ends with a full on nose-nuzzle which I think is adorable!

The full crew:

 

Yours truly with a pig on her head

Book: Brown Bear by Bill Martin.  I have never ever read this book in storytime before this week because I feel kind of Brown-Beared out, but I thought it would be nice to share a book most kids know after a month "off" from storytime

Cube Song:  Look at my new official cube!  Yesterday it landed on "Here is the Beehive" and today it landed on "There Was a Little Turtle"

Letter of the Day:  Pp for pig (like the ones on our heads) and popcorn (like the song we popped to!)

Movement / Music:

"Popcorn"  - we made lots of it!
"Fingerplay" - after lots of pointing and tapping, we pointed to someone we love!  Aww

Flannel:  "See You Later, Alligator"

The kids and their caregivers helped me say goodbye in some very fun ways!

See you later, alligator
Give a hug, ladybug
Take care, brown bear
Bye bye, butterfly
See you soon, raccoon

See you all next week! 

Email me any pictures you take in storytime and don't mind sharing.  I'd love to post them!

TaraChmielowski@mcldaz.org