Dig Into Reading (Gardening): Toddler Lap Time, 6/20/13

 Dig Into Reading (Gardening): Toddler Lap Time, 6/20/13

Book: What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park
I liked this for toddlers, but it would have been better with a group of threes who might have been able to guess at the colors. Still, the kids liked this, and several of them kept pointing and saying "Bunny!"

Flannel Board Rhyme: My Garden
This went over really well, and the kids were excited to help me name the colors and help me count to five. We did this rhyme twice.

Book: Up Down and Around by Katherine Ayres
This is a great book for learning simple directions. It has just the right amount of text for toddlers, and though I didn't have the kids do hand motions, it would have been lots of fun to have them put their arms up and down and turn their hands. Maybe I'll try that  tomorrow.

Rhyme: Corn Grows Tall 
This was probably the best I've ever seen this rhyme go over. I think it helps that we do a lot of songs with pointing up and down because almost all the  regulars were able to do that easily.

Book: Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown
Things kind of unraveled a little bit at this point. There was one girl who I believe was about a year too old for this story time, and she just ran amok from this point on, and her mother seemed powerless to redirect her. I tried, but ultimately decided my priority was to keep the other 15 kids' attention instead of catering to one bored wanderer.

Song: Way Up in the Sky

Activities with foam flowers:

• Rhyme: Flowers Up, Flowers Down
• Song: There's a Flower on My Head

Song with Puppet: Flutter Flutter Butterfly

Song: Hands Up High

Song: ABCs

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.