Baby/Toddler Story Time, 5/29/12

I am back! And my entire story time crowd has dwindled to almost nothing! I suspect this is a product of lengthened Memorial Day vacations, but it was strange to return to such small groups. I'll be curious to see how the rest of the week unfolds.

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Book: Sleep Tight by B.G. Hennessey, illustrated by Anthony Carbanuci (1992)
I found this book entirely by accident first thing this morning and thought - well, it fits the summer theme, and we've started our summer program, so, why not? It turned out to be a good choice. I had some older preschoolers in my first group of  the morning, and they loved pointing out everything they could see sleeping in the pictures.

Song:  Monkeys on the Bed 

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Book: Whoo Goes There? by Jennifer A. Ericsson, illustrated by Bert Kitchen (2009)
This book has a lot of animals and wonderful sound words, so it went over really really well with the older preschoolers at the 10:00 session. Unfortunately, it was terrible for the all-baby 10:30 session. I decided not to repeat it at 11:00, and replaced it instead with...

Book: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (2004)
There is something about that moment where  the poor wet kitty surfaces in the pond that just engages every child in the room. Henkes is a story time secret weapon, for sure!  It was a much better choice for the little ones.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Song: Head and Shoulders 
(I switched the order of  these two songs for the second and third session because I had so many babies and wanted the parents to realize we had some activities that worked for all ages, whereas some of the books might have been more toddler-oriented.)


Song: Moon, Moon, Moon by the Laurie Berkner Band (sung a cappella)
This is hard to sing in three consecutive sessions.  The third group got to hear me cough. But besides that, they really seemed to like it, and the movements are simple enough that even the tiniest of toddlers could give them a try.

Flannel Board Song: Five Astronauts Went Up in Space
This was the very first flannel board I shared for #flannelfriday, back in April of last year. I've had to make a second set of astronauts since then, but the song is as strong as ever. 

Book: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (1947)
This was, of course, a huge hit. I saved it for last knowing it would be the one most likely to win back their attention if I lost them in the middle of the session. One little girl in the front who was probably close to four years old became obsessed with saying goodnight to the mouse and said it on every single page. Adorable.

Song with Puppets: Goodnight by the Laurie Berkner Band (sung a cappella)
Ultimately, my goal is to sing this song and play the ukulele, but I wasn't really prepared for that today. Still, the song itself was a huge hit, and I think it will become part of my summer repertoire. I adapted the  lyrics to suit the puppets I wanted to use - a tiger, a cow, a horse, and a cat. I didn't sing about the kids themselves, but I might with an older audience.

Before the goodbye song, I let people know about summer reading. Not everybody signed up, but almost 30 families did. We'll work on getting more in the coming weeks! I also let them know that as of next week, we'll only offer two story times on Tuesday, and they'll be in our meeting room instead of  the snug (and therefore sweaty) story room.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This