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Farm Animal Storyhour, Wednesday, November 1 @ 10:30

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  B o o k s Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins.  A Big Book is ALWAYS a hit -- everyone can see the pictures. This is nice too because it's all adverbs -- you can use those motions. Farmyard Beat .   A board book by Lindsey Craig.  This book is a hit for either storytime or American Bandstand -- it's got great rhythm and you can dance to it. The moms all seemed to know the book and recited along with it. Moo by David Larochelle.  When you read a book the MOMS love, the babies listen up too! Larochelle tells the whole tale of an adventurous cow stealing a car with an inevitable disaster, using only the word MOO. You supply the drama.  Clip-Clop  by Nicola Smee. In Room on the Broom style, Mr. Horse gives all the farm animals a ride, (Clip-Clop, Clip-Clop) until Plop! Plop! Ploppity-plop! Stan taught me how to do the clip-clop sound by sort of squinching your jaws together into a vacuum and then applying pressure with your tongue.  A very impressive sound and easy to speed up as
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Halloween Storytime for Babies, Wednesday, October 25 @ 10:30

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Please bring your cute little dudes in their Halloween duds! I so want to see them in their dress ups! This will be my last Halloween with them before I retire November 17! Halloween is a great time to teach babies a lot of new sounds, BOO and WHOOOO , and ROAAR, and all about pumpkins and owls and black cats. B o o k s: Peek-A-Boo by Marie Torres Cimarusti Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.  I used 3 little beanie baby owls and a big owl puppet and shortened the text. Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late" The second one said, "There are witches in the air." The third one said, "But we don't care." The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!" The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?" Then Woooooo went the wind And OUT went the lights. And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. I like to do this as a puppet show with 5 pumpkins, tipping them off the stage at the en
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Baby Storytime about Trains on Wednesday, September 6 @ 10:30

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We're going to be blowing on that long lonesome train whistle at storytime today, so plan on jumping aboard! Props:  Train whistle, Freight Train from Kizclub on clothesline.  We counted the cars but the babies were too young to do the colors. Stories: TRAINS GO  by Steve Light was a great, noisy storytime opener.  The moms could see the sounds the different trains made and joined it to help read this one aloud. Freight Train  by Donald Crews. I printed out all the train cars courtesy of the wonderful folks at  KIZCLUB  -- imagine making all the pictures of some of the greatest kids' classic available for download, what a great idea. I wish I could say that I then took the trouble of stretching up my clothesline and told the story that way, but I'm afraid that'll have to wait till Friday. I learned the hard way that the train is quite a long one and will NOT fit on top of my easel! Down by the Station by Vetter.  A great version; down by airport, down by the bus statio
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Rhyme Time, Wednesday, August 30 @ 10:30

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Babies don't always get our jokes and they don't always get the point of the story but they love the sound of a good rhyme. We'll be doing rhyme time at storyhour today! Storytime 1 B o o k s Miss Mary Mack big book by Mary Ann Hoberman.  Kinda perfect clapping song. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle. I used the  I used  Kiz Club   Brown Bear figures and sang/chanted this the way Bill Martin does. Try out this readaloud style: JUMP! by Scott Fischer.  Still a Gorilla by Kim Norman  S o n g s Barnyard Dance by the immortal Sandra Boynton. Print out and do as chant.  Babies hard at work! Storytime 2 B o o k s Do Cows Meow? board book Salina Yoon.  V. good.  I put a lot of emphasis on All-I-Know-Is-____-Go-______ to turn it into a refrain. I Howl, I Growl board book Marcia Vaughan.  So this was a bit redundant.  I think I should have plugged a Sandra Boynton in here.  Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball  by Vicki Churchill. Not only is this written in cute rhymes, but
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Pet Storytime, Wednesday, August 23 @ 10:30

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B o o k s Pet Shop Lullaby  by Mary Ann Fraser lets you read aloud with lots of animal noises, always a good ploy for this age group. This segues right into the turtle puppet poem. To make this work, try reading the book less and acting it out more. Turn off the lights, put the animals to sleep, do a big hush roomwide, and then have the hamster go crazy and make a lot of noise.  Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell. They loved it. An Octopus Followed Me Home by Dan Yaccarino. Unfortunately, babies don't get irony.  But at least there are a lot animals, and it's short. Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton. Cute. Really a little song. Fifteen Animals  by Sandra Boynton. I corralled 15 stuffed animals in my storytime bag, and while reading the book, pulled out the animal. This could really be done with ANY 15 animals. It's a nice little play -- pull it out and show off the animals for this group. They were really noisy by this time and the lapsitters didn't get involved as much as the tod
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Piggies! Wednesday, August 19 @ 10:30

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P l a y s  Props:  Pig, 5 little pigs metalboard, although I only do 3 for the babies. B o o k s Olivia's Opposites , a board book by Ian Falconer. Opposites are always fun with babies, esp. Olivia's.  The concepts of in and out and up and down amuse me and them endlessly. I had an especially good time doing up and down: I throw Olivia up in the air and she landed down on the ground.  For my finale, I brought her in to see everyone and then throw her out the door. I always try to astonish the babies. Let's Dance, Little Pookie  by Sandra Boynton. I really shimmied to this for the audience. Busy Piggies  by John Schindel.  This board book series has jusssst enough rhyming text, and jusssst the right pictures. I love this series esp. because it emphasizes verbs, which can be acted out and grab the babies' attention.    Happy Pig Day! by Mo Willems. The babies listened very well to this fairly long book. Five Little Piggies , a board book by Teresa Imperato. This cute boar
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Song Book Storytime, Wednesday, August 2 @ 10:30

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B o o k s The Wheels on the Bus Office lift the flap. The words are a bit different than what I usually sing, so brush up on it! Old MacDonald Had a Farm  Office lift the flap. I pulled the animals out as we went. Small crowd so I let the babies hold them. The Lady with the Alligator Purse Board Westcott.  Love this so much. The Itsy Bitsy Spider board book Trapani.  Lots of new lines make this favorite fun. If You're Happy and You Know It  by Raffi.  I must say, Raffi's words are a bit odd.  If you're banana and you know it? If you're beautiful and you know it? I kind of like just  happy -- clap, happy -- stomp, happy -- hurray.  It's never wrong to sing out about how happy you are. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Board Book by Christelow.  We did 5 Little Speckled Frogs instead because Genevieve has just given me such a lovely frogs-on-a-log set. But the monkeys would have done just as well. Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera.  Pick out a couple pa
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