Baby/Toddler Lap Time, 3/2/12

Opening Song: Hello, how are you? 

Book: Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins (2005)
This book is huge, which is great when facing a crowd of over 100! The story is a bit lengthier than I would like for this age group, but there are very few words on each page. 

Song: Three Little Fish
This was not very good at all. I might not have presented it well, but I suspect my dislike and discomfort came through as well. We won't revisit this one. 

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun
I retired this song after using it many times during the Fall Baby Lap Time series. But I'm not sick of it anymore, so it's back with a vengeance for Spring! 

Book: Blue Sky by Audrey Wood
I love this book already, and I think, with the Tuesday group, which is generally not as boisterous as the Friday group, it will go over well. This group just talked and cried through it. 

Song: Head and Shoulders

Song: Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands
I was desperate for a new action song, so I borrowed this one from King County Library System's Rhymes and Songs website. It's a particularly nice song to have in my repertoire because the actions can be customized to suit different age groups' physical capabilities. I think this group was a little thrown off by the lack of recorded music and the fact that for the first time in recorded history, we didn't sing I'm a Little Teapot, but I hope they'll come around. 

Flannel Board Rhymes: Color Rhymes (Birds) & Five Little Birds

This is probably the first real flannel board I have done with  this group since before Christmas. This particular one didn't go over that well, but I really believe the problem was the mood of this particular story time, not a flaw in the flannel activity itself.

To make the Color Rhymes part more interactive, I looked up the calls of each of the birds,  and asked the group to make those sounds as each bird went onto the board. Not every adult was a willing participant, and some of the nannies who did participate did so mockingly, which shook my confidence. Still, I think the concept is good, and I plan to try it again - maybe on a class visit.

Here are the bird calls we did:

• Robin: Cheerio
• Goldfinch:  Per-chick-o-ree
• Sparrow: Tay-shree (or something like that. I can't find the exact phonetic spelling right now.)
• Bluejay: Jay jay jay
• Pigeon: Coo

Once I had all five birds on the flannel bird, I then used my five little birds rhyme to say goodbye to them as they were removed from the board.

Song: Put Your Finger in the Air
Another new one.  I'm using it in place of One Little Finger.

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Where is Big Toe?

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This