Baby & Toddler Storytimes

B o o k s Across the Stream . Big Book. The moms did a terrific job reading along with me. 5 Little Ducks by Denise Fleming.  With fingerpuppets. Big Fat Hen   by Keith Baker.  Thanks for clapping along, moms! The kids love a clapping song. In fact, they love to clap period.  by Walt Whippo.  Yes, I dared to sing it. Hurry! Hurry! by Eve Bunting. Barnyard animals rush rush rush to see what the Chicken is making so much fuss about. Quick Duck! by Mary Murphy Egg by Kevin Henkes.  Very quiet book.  Hope I can find some peeps between now and then. P l a y s Props:  Easter basket with plastic eggs.  I jiggled the Easter basket to make a nice shaky kind of sound and repeated this verse a couple times.   Easter egg, Easter egg, yum, yum, yum. Find it -- (pull it out and say the color!) -- peel it (open it up) put it in your tum! S o n g s 5 pretty Easter eggs, that’s what they are. Mother ate the blue one , now there are 4. Now 4 little Easter eggs, that’s what you see. Daddy ate the pink

I know, I know, EVERY storytime is pretty comical. But this one will be nothing but! We're going to get good and silly this Wednesday! And no one's sillier than Sandra Boynton! P l a y s:   I bring my clown wig, my bunny ears, my Groucho Marx glasses with moustache.  "Do you have hair on your head?" and then I put on my wig. "Wow, look at my hair, I'm so beautiful," etc. B o o k s Silly Faces...See Me Go! Office Board Book. Very nicely interactional. I would show them each page, they'd shout out what kind of vehicle it was, and then I'd look around the room for a willing baby. Some were too shy to be boats or bikes, but others liked the applause the room gave them. Betty Goes Bananas by Steve Antony. Didn't realize how perfect this book was for this age group.  They are all a bunch of banana eaters who can't peel their own fruit and have tantrums!  Very cleverly done -- when you turn to that red page and Betty starts wailing, they can se

The babies turned out in full force today, with bows in their hair and purple fluff, and they were singing and clapping and carrying on. Books:  Baby Says "Moo!" by JoAnn Early Macken.  This might be the longest book these babies ever listened to. I had a dog, cat, horse,  and bird puppet to act it out with, and the moms helped with the mooing, etc.  A very fun read. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox. A sweet, rhymy tribute to the cuteness of babies everywhere. Plus, it gave us a chance to count our fingers, and we always like to do that. Where is Baby's Belly Button  by Karen Katz.  Well, yes! Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson. A big favorite Next year: Flip, Flap, Fly! by Phyllis Root (board book.) ROCK-A-BYE ROMP by Linda Ashman.  A near perfect readaloud Special songs: 1 little baby, rocking in a tree 2 little babies, throwing kisses at me. 3 little babies, crawling on the floor 4 little babies, knocking on the door. 5 little babies, playing hide and se

Books:  Digger to the Rescue  by Mandy Archer.  I skipped from "Time for Digger's next job" to the exciting cat rescue. I used the book as a digger to demonstrate up and down and the cat rescue. Roadwork  by Sally Sutton.  I asked the kids to do the actions with me, hammer the pegs, move the earth, load the dirt, etc. I repeated the chorus, like Ping! Bang! Tap! 3 x.  Next time, I'd go even slower to get the job done! I read to the page about "Roll the tar" and then skipped to the end, "Shout hooray!" Bling Blang by Woody Guthrie is one of my all time favorites, with a short text written in down home rhyme and a nice chorus involving hammering and sawing. Note to self: Find a hammer and saw for props. Too bad I can't play the saw. That would be really cool. Trivia:  Guthrie not only gave us "This Land is Your Land" but "Shake Your Sillies Out!" I'm not sure the group loves this as much as I do.  Maybe try Truck Driver n

I was very proud of all my smart babies, growing up right before my very eyes! Sometimes I think I can look around the room during storytime and actually see you figuring things out. Books: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle.  Gives you a real work out when you go through all the animals.  The babies were just the right age for this. Waddle! board book by Seder. Seder picked out just the perfect animals and the perfect animals to go with them for this toddler group, who really are just learning to hop like frogs and stomp like elephants. This is a great toddler book. Unfortunately, we had just done most of the animals in Head to Toe , so maybe a book that explored a different kind of movement would work better. Flip, Flap, Fly!  board book by Root. This book has a charming rhythm to it; the moms joined in on the end rhymes that proclaimed the next animal, so it was really fun. Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins.  Great movements on the part of the birds, flapping, swooping, hopping, etc.