Baby/Toddler Story Time (with Transitions), 3/20/12

I had an appointment that prevented me from doing the second and third story time sessions this morning, but the first one so made up for it by being completely awesome. There are some elements of a great story time that can be controlled - good books, a good mix of songs, a positive, welcoming attitude - but an engaged audience is one of those things that happens when it happens and doesn't when it doesn't. And today was one of those days where everything just came together - and I think this is the first time I felt that magic since I stopped using recorded music. It's working, and people are getting used to it, and everything about today's story time just felt good.

I think my introduction and transitions worked especially well today, so I've included them in red italics below.

 I think it's time to get started. Good morning, everybody! (Pause for response.) Do you have your waving hand with you today? Let's sing our hello song. Here we go!

Opening Song: Hello, how are you? 

Great singing! Thank you so much for singing with me! Here's my first book for today. It's called I Love Bugs. 

Book: I Love Bugs! by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern (2005)
I chose  this book because it wasn't too wordy, and had some nice bold lines in the illustrations. I heard parents saying the names of the different insects (and a spider) to their kids as I turned the pages. The butterfly seemed to be  the favorite.


Now let's do a rhyme about some bugs. It's about some bees who live in a beehive. Can you make a beehive?


Fingerplay: Here is the Beehive 
We haven't done this one in a long, long time - most of these kids probably weren't born yet when I last did it at story time. But I think the fact that I am much more comfortable now than I was last year made this work much better than it did in  the past. I said the rhyme with a lot more expression, and that seemed to really engage all the kids and adults.

Give yourselves a hand! Now, let's read another Spring story. This one is called The Happy Egg.

Book: The Happy Egg by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson (1949)
This book is an easy reader, and its illustrations are very small, so I was iffy about reading it, but everybody loved it! The ending, where the little bird flies, got a huge round of spontaneous applause. So clearly this book needs to go into my "greatest hits" repertoire.

We have a rhyme to go with this book, too! It's about some eggs that hatch into chicks! Here is how it goes...

Rhyme: Five Eggs and Five Eggs
This is a rhyme I  have seen on several websites before, but this version from Preschool Express worked best for me.

Great job! I brought a Springtime friend with me today, too. (Hold up butterfly puppet.) Oh my goodness! Say hello to my butterfly. Let's sing a butterfly song.

Song with Puppet: Flutter, Flutter Butterfly
There is nothing more exciting to a baby than a puppet flying above their heads. They just kind of stare at it with their eyes wide and mouths open. Adorable. I messed up the words a little bit, swapping the third and fourth lines, but only the most die-hard story time attendees who remember this song from last summer noticed.

Let's say, Bye-bye butterfly! Now let's stand up and do another song. We're going to pretend to be daisies. The tune of  the song is I'm a Little Teapot, but it's called I'm a Little Daisy.

Song: I'm a Little Daisy
I have been planning to  do this song for two weeks, but kept chickening out. And sure enough, the first time through I screwed up the words. But we pressed on undaunted, and the second time through was better. We'll do it a few more times this Spring - by then I'll have it down!

We'll do one more song while we're standing. We'll start by clapping our hands. Ready?

Song: Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands

Let's sit back down and make some animal sounds. I'll put an animal up on my board. Oh, look! The pig! What does the pig say?

Flannel Board Song: All the Pigs 
I just sing "all the pigs", not "all the little pigs", because it fits the rhythm of the song much better. I saw lots of little three year olds singing along with me this morning - it's such an easy song for them to learn, and they get really into it.

Now let's do our rhyme called Wiggle Your Fingers and Toes. Here we go!

Rhyme: Wiggle Your Fingers and Toes
Some of the nannies make this great sound when we get to the wiggling part of this rhyme. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's amazing. And so perfect for the rhyme. I love it when the nannies love something enough to personalize it. 

How about the Wheels on the Bus? Do you know that song? Get your wheels ready! Here we go!

Song: The Wheels on the Bus
There is a mom of twins who stops by the desk every week to tell me what her kids have been doing at home. This week, her daughter wants to sing "The doors on the bus" and "The babies on the bus" over and over again. She doesn't have many words yet, but apparently "waa waa waa" is her favorite!

Great singing! Can you put one finger in the air? That's the name of our next song - Put Your Finger in the Air.  

Song: Put Your Finger in the Air 
This one is now growing on everybody. It's still a little bit hard to remember all the verses, but I feel confident the grown-ups will all have it by May. And the kids are so cute with their little fingers in the air!

What a great job you did! Let me see... I think I have one more springtime friend. I do! My frog. What does a frog say? Ribbit, ribbit, that's right! Let's sing a song about this frog.

Song with Puppet: I'm a Little Green Frog

Say bye-bye, frog! And now I have my sunshine for You Are My Sunshine. 

Song: You Are My Sunshine 
(After the first time through the song) Very nice singing! Let's sing it once more. This time, let's hold up our arms like this. 

We have time for one more song before we say goodbye. Let's sing Twinkle Twinkle.

Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

Beautiful singing. That is the end of our story time. We're going to sing our goodbye song, then [name of other staff member] will do the 10:30 and 11:00 story times.  Now let's sing goodbye!

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This 

Thanks for coming to story time this morning. I hope to see you again next time!