Baby & Toddler Storytimes

P l a y s   Bullfrog Puppet from backroom, or Turtle with Vachel Lindsay poem. B o o k s Yummy YUCKY by Leslie Patricelli. This may be the most ingenious of Patricelli's wonderful series about this bald headed baby troublemaker. Certainly the kids enjoyed it -- although a few moms were grossed out by the burger-booger page as well as the egg-earwax page. I don't know why. It's like they don't associate with the babes 24/7. Big Hungry Bear BB Wood.  Great opener. Noisy Breakfast by Ellen Blonder.  Big Book.  Lotsa sounds. Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson.  Sweeet. Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar , a Piggy Toes boardbook by Wang.  Love this book. It's got all the charming rhyme of the jump rope song and all the right characters implicated -- cat, dog, etc., -- so that I can act it out with puppets. How to Feed Your Cheeky Monkey   board book Clarke. OK  S o n g s 1 potato, 2 potato chant Pizza, pickle, pumpernickel Pat a cake Mashed Potatoes...

Enter with umbrella! Bring rainstick! B o o k s Rain by Manya Stojic.  This has everything: animals, sounds, and senses: "hear, see, smell," etc. Bring your lion puppet! Very well received. Duckie's Rainbow  by Frances Barry.  This book might amaze me more than the kids, as the beautiful rainbow unfolds in the end. To get a little more interaction, ask them what color is going to be on the next page and then shout it out when you turn the page. The almost twos will get it. Ducks Like to Swim by Agnes Verboven.  Again, a book that gives you plenty of opportunity to quack like a duck, moo like a cow, and bray like a donkey. Plus, it gives you a lead in to all those great duck songs and books we love so much. I pulled each puppet out and had the kids (and moms) by turns moo and meow etc. and then handed them off to them. S o n g s The Rain  (to Frere Jacques) I hear thunder, (stomp floor) I hear thunder, Hear it CRASH. Hear it CRASH. But I don’t fear the thunder ...

Books Who's My Mom by Jennings. Board Book. Nice enough. Over in the Meadow. I used the clothesline version in Mother's about the sea creatures. I Love Mom with the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Nice enough. Llama Llama Mad at Mama  by Anna Dewdney. I skipped a couple pages, but llama meltdowns do happen. Pouch!  by David Ezra Stein. Worked out fine with the puppets.  I was careful to use a baby voice for the baby kangaroo and show the kids how the baby lived in mama's pouch. Songs Over in the Meadow as a clothesline. If you love me and you know it, clap your hands, etc. Blow a kiss. Give me a hug. Definitely use. Skinnamarinka Over on the beach in the sand and the sun Lived a big mama turtle and her little turtle one Dig said the mama I dig, said the one And they swam all day in the sand and the sun. Over on the beach where the waves lap so blue Lived a mama seagull and her seagulls two Squawk! Said the mama We squawk! Said the two And they squawked all day where the waves la...

G oo d S t o r y h o u r   M a n n e r s Please take part. Please  bounce  and  sing  and  listen  and  zoom  and  moo  and  twinkle  with us. Note:  This was posted last year.  This year's babies are just the best always! Hey, babies! A storytime about manners?  What an idea! Do babies to worry about manners? Yup, they do, or else in just a few months, they'll be at that age when THEY DON'T WANT TO HOLD HANDS IN THE PARKING LOT!!!  Books Excuse Me by Karen Katz. I pulled all the props for this so it was a lot of fun. I used my prop gift box as the present from Grandma, so when the story was over I opened the beautiful box, emphasizing the green, the blue bow, the white cylinder inside, and then the balloons, which I blew up by turns and let go.  This is always an enormous crowd pleaser: blowing up a balloon and letting it go.  Go figure.  The Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems.  I...

Puppet:   I got out all the puppets who live in my garden: ladybug, snail, bee, snake, frog. Then the turtle puppet honored us with his presence and we did the original Vachel Lindsay poem. There was a little turtle, he lived in a box.... Books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear   introduced by an extremely large brown teddy bear. This year I'm going to line up some of my kids' chairs on tables (out of reach, and seat: a white seagull, a gray shark, a green turtle, etc.  This worked fine: just put them on edge of table.    In other years I used lovely big pictures downloaded from  kizclub   I Went to the Bay  by Ruth Miller. This short, rhyming tale perfectly describes Florida wildlife. Did not get 2016:  The Carrot Seed   by Ruth Krauss. The moms and dads all oohed and ahhed in helpful horror as the Mom and Dad and Brother said, "It won't grow!" Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson.  Moms were a big help, so interactional. Songs: Our usua...

Bunny Rabbit Show!   by Sandra Boynton.  Boynton at her best, but I can't quite get the hang out of reading it with puppets. I used the same five rabbits and changed the words from ten to five.  Little White Rabbit  by Kevin Henkes.   The babies liked this one -- lots of motion and critters and a very simple story. The bunnies are not in their beds  by Marisabina Russo.  This sleeper is a fun readaloud because I can make all my noisy misbehaving bunny noises, The babies were fascinated by my ability to make clicking and plopping noises with my mouth, but don't forget to bring a grab bag of very noisy toys for the noisy finale. Duckie's Ducklings , by Frances Barry.  This bright die-cut   is very cute, although my reading was upstaged by Lydia, who chose this moment to plant a big wet one on a very surprised little boy. 2015: Even with no Lydia, this one still kind of lost them. Happy Easter, Mouse by Laura Numeroff.  I like to hide eggs...

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 East...