After almost a two-year hiatus, I'm back to doing story time once again. This time around, I'm performing story times in my basement every other Wednesday, and I've invited four other families to join me. We kicked off the season with a very small group: my five kids, ages 7, 5, 3, 18 months and 18 months, and one other family with a 3-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy. (The age range for the story time has been advertised as 5 and under, but my big kids will always happily participate when the group is small). I decided to start with a favorite September theme, the farm.
Opening Song (with ukulele): Story Time is Starting, Clap Your Hands
Book: Early One Morning by Mem Fox, illustrated by Christine Davenier
This book relies a little too heavily on the illustrations for me, and I did prompt the kids early on to realize that the boy is looking for eggs. Once we established that fact, they were very happy to let me know that of course gates, trucks, cows, sheep, etc. do not lay them. My older girls also thought the little boy was cute.
Song with Puppets: When Cows Get Up in the Morning
We sang this song with the Melissa & Doug puppets of a a horse, a pig, a sheep, and a cow. I intentionally ended with the cow to transition into the next book.
Book: Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin
For this book, I introduced the refrain of "Click clack moo, clickety clack moo, click clack moo" before I started reading and had everyone practice so they'd be ready to join in when it occurred in the story. It worked great!
Song: Milkshake Song
I learned this song from Songs for Wiggleworms. My two oldest daughters demonstrated the movements for us. On the way home, my friend texted that her son fell asleep in the car and it was probably this song that did it. Haha.
Book: Stanley the Farmer by William Bee
This is one of my favorite Stanley books. I made sure to point out our family favorite, Little Woo, on every page.
Song: Bumpin' Up and Down on My Little Red Tractor
I took the words I normally use for Bumpin' Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon, and just changed wagon to tractor in every verse. Piggyback songs are great for new audiences - it makes it so easy for them to join in with the singing.
Book: Barn at Night by Michelle Houts and Jen Betton
We ended with this gentle book about what happens in a barn at night. The 2-year-old boy had a lot to say about the pictures, and everyone loved the horses.
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