Bedtime Storytime, Wednesday, November 15 @ 10:30

Books:

• The Napping House by Audrey Wood.  Big Book in back room. I read this with a xylophone. Using the percussion chime's mallet, I strike a note for each of the creatures in book, going up the scale till I get to the flea. It really enriches the telling.
• Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton.  Really a performance number.
• Maisy's Bedtime by Lucy Cousins. Props: Panda bear. I've heard people complain that Maisy books are a bit dull, but I think she is very zen. I had a lot of fun with this, brushing my teeth, putting my imaginary PJs on, really turning off the lights, and I even went out the door to "go potty."
• Sweet Dreams by Kimiko Kajikawa . Babies were a bit wiggly for it this time, so it might be good to have a back-up.
• Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea. His stuff is a great addition to baby storytime. So funny! So noisy! Great pix!  I did a lot of roaring, and at the end of the book when Dinosaur went down for the count, I collapsed slowly onto the floor, curled up, and went to sleep.  V. good attention getter with babies.
• Tumble Bumble by Felicia Bond. So jiggy and cute. 
• How to Tuck in your Sleepy Lion   board book Clarke

Songs:  

• Five Bears in a Bed. I love this production number. I love the moms all going "whoopsie" as I push the bear off the cushion, over the edge of the table and on to the floor. 
• This is the Way We Wash Our Face
• I Had a Little Turtle
• Five little monkeys

Food Story time, Wednesday, November 8 @ 10:30

Plays

 Bullfrog Puppet from backroom, or Turtle with Vachel Lindsay poem.

Books

• 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.
• The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The 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 

Songs

• 1 potato, 2 potato chant
• Pizza, pickle, pumpernickel
• Pat a cake
• Mashed Potatoes hot, Mashed Potatoes cold (sound familiar?)
• Bread & Butter, Jelly & Jam
• Three Little Gingie Men lying on a tray
1 jumped up and ran away
Shouting, "Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can...
You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!"
(I had three big cut out gingerbread men and raced them around the room)



Since when are you guys supposed to grow up? Aidan's going to daycare now all day for three days a week.  Sniff.



At least Elsie still comes in and sees me.






And I love seeing Wisdom and Kiley on Friday!

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

 

Books

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.

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 prepositions -- you can use those motions. This year I added as I read, "But where is the fox?" after each bit of text about the chicken. 

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.

Old MacDonald Had a Farm. I pulled the critters out of the bag as I turned the pages of the pop-up book in Office.

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 the horse goes faster. Really pulled the kids in.

Songs

Motor Boat, with a TRACTOR  
Wheels on the Bus, with a lot of farm animals boarding.
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.  This book has such great rhythm. I love to dance to it.
I Went to Visit a Farm One Day 

Plays

I Went to Visit a Farm One Day.  Bring the storytime bag full of farm animals. OR

Halloween Storytime for Babies, Wednesday, October 25 @ 10:30

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.

Books:

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 end. 

Plays 

Makes a great play.  Props: jack o'lantern, candle, cookie jar, spider, broom, witch's hat, and a black cat. Search for Boo all over the room. Where is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz is also good.
Make a face on a pumpkin with black triangles for eyes and nose and a mouth.  Start with: SCARY FACE, then SAD FACE, SURPRISED FACE, and then GLAD FACE!

Songs

 JBRARY do Pumpkin, pumpkin song

• Mrs. Witchie had a magic bag, eei eei oh,and in that bag she had a --- and start pulling Hallowe'en creatures out of your bag, owl, raven, rat, black cat, and then finish with a jack o'lantern because they don't say anything!
• The (Creatures) on the Bus
• Incy Wincy Spider, 
• This is Little (comparing pumpkins)

Baby Storytime about Trains on Wednesday, September 6 @ 10:30

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 station, etc.

The Little Engine that Could, board book by Watty Piper. (ISBN 0448401010) I asked the moms to help me read the book, and when we got to the "I think I can" chorus, they joined in so beautifully. There's a simple one, TWO, three, four, one, TWO, three, four step that goes along with the "I think I can" and "I thought I could" very nicely.

Songs:

Wheels on the Bus, of course!

Motor Boat, of course!
J Lib sing The Little Red Train Going Down the Track

Rhyme Time, Wednesday, August 30 @ 10:30

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

Books

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 

Songs

Barnyard Dance by the immortal Sandra Boynton. Print out and do as chant. 

Babies hard at work!

Storytime 2

Books

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 it has tons of motions in it -- "Sometimes I like to just walk round and round, I pigeon step, pigeon step, till I fall down." (Pigeon toes, in which the toes point inwards, is common and occurs at any time from infancy to about age eight. -- Free Dictionary)

Songs

With the exception of the inevitable Motor Boat, we really did all rhyming songs. It was nice, I used some I don't ordinarily.

Pat-a Cake
Itsy Bitsy Spider -- the long version with the baby bug
Tommy Thumbs Up and Tommy Thumbs down
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
Pizza Pickle Pumpernickel
Teddy Bear (of course)

Pet Storytime, Wednesday, August 23 @ 10:30

Books

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 toddlers. How to switch this out?  I could add the appropriate animal action. "I've got a cat named Bob -- she purrs" and purr her over to a child, "and a dog named Bob" and he barks and runs, and two fish named Bob and Bob," and they swim


Plays
 Turtle puppet & poem. The original Vachel Lindsay:

There was a little turtle who lived in a box.
He swam in the puddles, he climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at the mosquitoes, he snapped at the fleas,
He snapped at the minnows, he snapped at me!

He caught the mosquitoes, he caught the fleas,
He caught those minnows, but he didn't catch me!

I always love snapping at all the little baby mosquito and minnows in the room.

Songs

Any animal songs!