Preschool Story Time, 1/11/17

I was supposed to return to story time on January 4th, but my whole household caught a bad cold, and I wound up having to cancel. So my first story time of the year was yesterday. I decided to return to my original approach from when I first started performing story times, which is to avoid themes and simply read good books. It made planning a lot easier, and I think the story time flowed better than the others I have done recently. There were 8 kids in attendance including my own, and here is what we did:

Opening Song: Story Time is Starting

Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle
This book was very well received. With the exception of my three-year-old and her friend, all the other kids were under two years old and this was just right for them. The two big kids happily filled in the names of the animals for me, and my one-year-old stood right up front grinning ear to ear.

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake

Book: Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Ted Rand
I asked the kids to show me the different parts of their bodies as they were named by the text. That worked well for this age group and it seemed to keep the adults' attentions.

Song: Head and Shoulders

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Book: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey and Don Wood
This book has always been hit or miss at story time. This was probably the best it has ever been received.

Rhyme: One Elephant in the Bathtub

Song: Mr. Sun

Book: Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Christian Robinson
This book has a very brief text, but slowing down the pace and being careful not to flip through the pages too quickly helped make it work.

Song: One Little Two Little Three Little Penguins

We sang this song as follows: 

One little two little three little penguins

Four little five little six little penguins

Seven little eight little nine little penguins

Ten little penguins... waddle! 

In subsequent verses, I replaced waddle with other actions: sneeze, turn around, jump, sit right down. 

Rhyme: Five Little Penguins Riding on a Sled

Song: Chickadee