Fun with Nursery Rhymes Drop-In Story Time, 9/20/13
This group is never completely silent, and never totally responsive, so it's often hard to gauge the success of a particular set of activities just by their reaction. Throughout the room, I noticed pockets of engaged kids and distracted ones, quiet nannies and chatty ones, and there were moments where I don't think anyone was really listening to me. Still, though, this set of books and songs is a keeper.
Song with ukulele: Nursery Rhyme Rap
We sang the ABCs as the chorus for this song, and each verse was one of the nursery rhymes for which I had a book version.
Book: Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker
I had a bad experience with this book early on in my tenure at this library (so long ago, that it's not even in this blog, or on Goodreads), but I don't think it was the book's fault. Today's reading was much better received, and even though the text is a bit on the long side, most of the kids were with me until the end.
Song: Go In and Out the Window
I like this song, and I came up with some basic motions that even the smallest kids can do so that everyone could participate. We sang all three verse twice through.
Book: To Market To Market by Anne Miranda
One nanny was very excited to discover this book, and she checked it out at the end of story time. I tried to make it interactive by asking everyone to make animal sounds with me, but that didn't really catch on.
Song with stick puppets: Mary Had a Little Lamb
The preschoolers like to call out the names of colors, so this song - where Mary has various lambs of assorted colors - is always a hit.
Book: Row Row Row Your Boat by Iza Trapani
The adults pay better attention when I sing, so I sang this entire book. They seemed confused by the new verses, even though I warned them they would be different.
Rhyme with Cow Puppet: Hey Diddle Diddle
Book: 1 2 Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines
Song: I’m a Little Teapot
Since this was my second-to-last story time, and this song is an old favorite of this group, I decided to sing it at least one more time. The kids were really into it, so we sang it three times.
Songs with ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep
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.