Baby/Toddler Story Time, 5/3

There was no theme this week, and I did the exact same thing for both sessions.

Opening song: Hello, How Are You?
(This week's actions were clapping hands, waving arms, and tapping knees.)

Book: Bark, George by Jules Feiffer (1999)
This book is always an audience favorite. I especially love it when I have folks in the audience who have never heard it before, because it gets really good laughs. George keeps trying to bark, but different animal sounds come out. His mother takes him to the vet, who pulls out all of the animals from the depths of George, only to have him swallow something else unexpected on the way home. 

Song: I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
(Using flannelboard cut outs from kizclub.com.)

Book: My Mom by Anthony Browne (2005)
I had to at least acknowledge Mother's Day, so I read this book, about a mom who is "really, REALLY nice" as well as a juggler, dancer, possible astronaut, and excellent cook. I love the way Anthony Browne's illustrations alternate between reality and imagination. I love that Mom's lips aren't there at all until she puts on lipstick, and the page where Mom is portrayed as a butterfly is beautiful and perfect. One of the better Mother's Day titles out there, in my opinion, and one that can be read all year round. Also, it wins for having an amazing cover.

Song: Love Grows (a cappella sing-along)
I learned this song from my mom, who sings it with her pee wee campers in the summer. I'll have to track down the tune!

Love grows

One by one

Two by two 

And four by four 

(hold up the corresponding numbers of fingers)

Love grows 

around like a circle

and comes back knocking

at your front door. 
(draw a circle in the air, then pretend to knock)

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Flannel Board Rhyme: Five Little Birds (borrowed and slightly adapted from preschoolrainbow.org)

Book: Mommy, Where Are You? by Leonid Gore (2009)
This lift the flap book shows Ozzy the mouse hunting high and low for his mother. After coming upon many, many animals that are not his mother, there is finally a happy reunion, after which they share a cheese breakfast. Nothing new here, really - it's basically a shorter version of Are You My Mother? but it's still a nice book for this age group. The adults didn't have the attention span for a third book in either session, unfortunately. I might have to start cutting it down to two and really stretching those.

Song: Monkeys on the Bed

Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Song: There's a Little Wheel a-Turnin' in my Heart

Goodbye Song: Skinnamarink

Baby Lap Time, 4/29

I really love this story time. I love how attentive these kids are, and I have the most wonderful group of moms, who will sing along, do the fingerplays, and always say thank you when the session ends. I also had some grandmas and grandpas today, which is always fun. 


I had no theme this week, which is what I prefer, but I did pair some of the books with a rhyme or song just to keep the session flowing smoothly.

Opening Song: Clap Along With Me

Book: Potato Joe by Keith Baker (2008, Harcourt)
I love this silly book. Last time I read this - at our temporary library before this one opened - I didn't have a great response, but this group loved it, and they all laughed at my favorite part, which is the appearance of Watermelon Moe! If you don't know this one yet, you must discover it, and share it! Keith Baker is the best.

Song: One, Two I Love You (Numbers Are Our Friends)
I never thought I'd get tired of this song, but I'm starting to. It's time to find a new counting song.

Song: Where is Thumbkin?

Book: Birds by Kevin Henkes, illustrated by Laura Dronzek (2009, Greenwillow Books)
Another favorite. I love  the illustrations, I love the text, I love  the concept. This book is perfect. I thought it might be too long for this group, but honestly, the parents were thrilled, and the kids picked up on that enthusiasm. One little one was especially moved to point and shriek when she saw the page with the big and small birds. You can't go wrong with Kevin Henkes!

Flannel Board Rhyme: Five Little Birds (borrowed and slightly adapted from preschoolrainbow.org)


I created a set of birds, a door, a tree, and a sun for my flannel board to accompany this rhyme. I also changed the word "birdies" to "birds." It's just a personal preference, but I'd rather use the proper words than baby talk in a story time.  

Five little birds, flying around our door, 

The blue one flew away and then there were four.

Four little birds sitting in a tree,
The yellow one flew away and then there were three.

The little birds didn't know what to do,
So the red one flew away, and then there were two.

Two little birds sitting in the sun,
The Brown one flew away, and there was one. 

One little bird all alone,
She flew away and then there were none.

But later on that very day...

five little birds came back to play.

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (a cappella sing-along)

Song: Twinkle, Twinkle (a cappella sing-along)

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

 

Book: Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (2007, Little Simon)
A simple lift-the-flap book about zoo animals. The narrator asks the zoo for a pet, but they keep sending animals that are too heavy (the elephant), too fierce (the lion), or too scary (the snake.) Finally, though, they send a puppy, and he is just right!

Song: The Keeper at the Zoo (adapted from here)
I have a bunch of zoo animal puppets that don't get much attention. It's hard to do animal sounds when you have animals like the giraffe in the mix, and there aren't nearly as many zoo songs or books as there are for farm animals.  So I have decided to take this song and run with it for a little while.

The keeper at the zoo

The keeper at the zoo

Heigh-ho the derry-oh

The keeper at the zoo

The keeper feeds the [lion]

The keeper feeds the [lion]

Heigh-ho the derry-oh

The keeper feeds the [lion]

(Substitute other zoo animals for each subsequent verse)

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
I love this version - it's a brass arrangement, and nice and slow for little ones!

Song: Tony Chestnut (a cappella)
I really like this one. My audience stills looks at me like I'm a little bit nuts, but I can also tell that some are starting to become fans.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Flannel Friday: Five Astronauts Went Up in Space

I have only been a children's librarian for about 6 months (it will be 6 months on May 8th), so I don't have much of an archive of flannel board activities just yet. I'm also shamefully inept with scissors and not very crafty, so the thought of making a bunch of flannel board sets is very daunting. Therefore, I often cheat. The astronauts in the photo above are paper (which is way easier to cut than felt), and they are being held to the flannel board with velcro. This is how I have made all of my flannel board creations so far, and I definitely recommend it, if you are felt-phobic and/or work in a library system where money for felt is scarce. (I do worry that these will get ripped, and I will have to replace them frequently, but this hasn't happened to me yet.)

I created these colorful guys to go with a song I adapted. The original is either Five Little Ducks or One Elephant Went Out to Play, but I changed it to Five Astronauts Went Up In Space. I performed it for the first time at Baby/Toddler Story Time this past Tuesday.

The words I wrote are as follows:

One astronaut went up in space

Upon the moon to play one day

He had such enormous fun

That he called for another astronaut to come!

(Repeat, counting up to five.)

Five astronauts went up in space

Upon the moon to play one day

They had such enormous fun

That they called for everyone to come!

(End the rhyme by saying goodbye to each astronaut by color.)

I used this coloring sheet as my astronaut template, and then colored each one with crayons. The colors don't really matter, since there's no reference to them in the song, but I chose the five brightest crayons I had on hand. For the moon, I resized this photo from Google Images.

Be sure to visit Mel's Desk for more Flannel Friday posts!

3 Dinosaur Mysteries for Beginning Readers

• Detective Dinosaur Undercover
  by James Skofield, picture by R.W. Alley
  In the style of Amelia Bedelia, Detective Dinosaur misinterprets the meaning of working undercover and wears every cover in his house - coats, blankets, even cushions - to work. Later, he becomes afraid of his own feet and believes it is raining when water lands on his head on an otherwise sunny day. The "mysteries" in this book are easily solved by logic, but will still get a chuckle out of their readers!
• Bones and the Dinosaur Mystery
  by David A. Adler, illustrated by Barbara Johansen Newman
  Jeffrey Bones, a six-year-old detective, goes to the museum with his grandfather and Grandpa's friend, Sally. At the souvenir shop, they each buy something, which is placed in a green bag. After snacking on ice cream, Jeffrey realizes that his bag, containing a blue plastic T-rex dinosaur is missing! Using his detective skills, and his walkie-talkies, he tries to track down the missing toy. 
• Young Cam Jansen and the Dinosaur Game
  by David A. Adler, illustrated by Susanna Natti
  Cam and her best friend Eric Shelton attend a birthday party. Upon arriving, they're asked to guess how many dinosaurs are in a jar. Later, when the winner is announced, Cam becomes suspicious that another boy at the party managed to guess the exact right number of dinosaurs. Using her photographic memory, she figures out just how he was able to cheat the system.