LibraryAdventure.com: 20 Songs to Develop Literacy Skills in Kids Ages 0 to 5

Today, I'm over at The Library Adventure sharing a set of songs for families to sing together in the morning, at mealtime, on the go, at bathtime, and at night.

Best of Baby Story Time: Puppets

After reviewing my baby story time plans, and attending a number of baby story times as a mom, I’ve pulled together my list of the best materials and activities I have found for this age group. Today, I'm sharing my list of the best way to use puppets in baby story time.

While puppets are by no means a requirement for a successful baby story time, they can be an opportunity to introduce a little variety and to capture the attention of little ones whose minds have begun to wander.

For one thing, puppets are a great way to introduce animal names and sounds.

• Did You Ever See...? is a great song to use when you have a random hodgepodge of animal puppets. I have used this song to sing about just about any animal going this way and that. Caregivers and older siblings are usually great about calling out the names of the animals, and babies happily track the moving creatures with their eyes. 
• All the Cows Say... (sung to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb") introduces the names of the animals and the sounds they make. It works best with one-syllable animals (cow, dog, duck, pig, cat). Words larger than that mess up the natural rhythm of the song. I also omit the word "little" from the original lyrics to help maintain the proper rhythm. I have used actual cloth puppets as well as homemade stick puppets to share this song.

Puppets also lend themselves well to songs and rhymes involving anything that flies.

• I’m a Little Bumblebee (originally written by Mel of Mel's Desk) works well with insect puppets. I usually use a bee, a ladybug, and a butterfly. At the end of each verse, I invite the caregivers to lift their babies up into the air to "fly away" along with each bug. I used to regularly rotate this rhyme in and out of story time and often got requests for it when it didn't happen to be on my list for a particular session.
• Flutter Flutter Butterfly (sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", originally found at Preschool Education) is a great song to use with a butterfly hand puppet, a homemade paper puppet, or even just two hands held together to form a butterfly. Babies are intrigued by the flapping of butterfly wings, and they will watch intently as the butterfly sails over their heads. It's best not to get too close to babies with the butterfly puppet, as they might get scared, but from a safe distance, it is usually well-received.
• Two Little Blackbirds has been adapted many times over, and each adaptation works great with finger puppets and/or stick puppets. It's especially fun if you can provide each caregiver/baby pairing with a set of puppets either to borrow for story time, or to take home and make.

Finally, if you have no other puppet in your possession, I recommend a sunshine puppet.

• You Are My Sunshine is always a hit at story time, but it becomes even more fun when there is a sunshine puppet to show the babies. 
• Mr. Sun is another wonderful song to sing with a puppet. It has become sort of my signature song, and at my last library, it became a tradition that after story time, kids were allowed to come up and high-five Mr. Sun. Even babies liked to take their turn giving the puppet a tentative pat!

A full archive of my baby story times is available here. Next week, watch for the conclusion of this series: my list of the best bounces for baby story time. If you missed them, also take a look at my lists of best books and best action songs and rhymes.

Mommy Librarian's Story Time Secret #2: Hold Back on the Hand Motions

First I was a children’s librarian. Then I became a mom. As I attend story times with my daughter, I have started to make a list of hints that might be helpful to story time performers and/or story time attendees. Today’s hint is for librarians who perform baby story times: Hold back on the hand motions!

I have always made sure to use songs and rhymes in all my story times that can be acted out with hand motions. I was worried that if there were no hand motions, everyone would just sit and look at me blankly. It turns out, though, that most hand motions are totally lost on babies. While older babies can mimic some simple movements, most of them can’t do any of the gestures suggested by story time songs and rhymes. Often we suggest that adults do the hand motions themselves to show their babies, but anybody with a little one in their lap has their hands full already. My child has tried to take a header more than once while I’ve dutifully made an itsy bitsy spider with my fingers.

Here are some basic movements that work well for both baby and caregiver:

• Bouncing
• Pointing to body parts
• Tickling
• Counting off fingers and toes
• Clapping/rolling hands
• Raising arms
• Shaking shakers

Otherwise, it’s totally fine to just chant or sing without any prescribed choreography at all.

Best of Baby Story Time: Action Songs & Rhymes

After reviewing my baby story time plans, and attending a number of baby story times as a mom, I’ve pulled together my list of the best materials and activities I have found for this age group. Today, I'm sharing my list of the best action songs and rhymes for baby story time. Each song/rhyme title is linked to the corresponding lyrics/words, and notes about my sources are provided in italics.

Songs

• Go In and Out the Window
  Traditional song. Mama Lisa's World also provides lyrics in English, Spanish, and French, and the tune for the song here.
  Not all songs with motions work well for babies, since their hand-eye coordination is still very shaky, and adults are often too busy with a lap full of baby to make meaningful gestures. This one, however, works very nicely, because folks are free to adapt the motions as they see fit. Adults can swing the babies "in" and "out", lift them up and down, and roll their hands. Older siblings can join in by moving their arms in corresponding movements.  
• Tony Chestnut
  Originally by Roy Jordan; popularized by The Learning Station. Hear their version here.
  This is one of the very first songs I discovered when I first started doing baby lap time. The punny lyrics usually gets a pretty good chuckle out of caregivers and the actions are just tricky enough the first few times that the adults are typically motivated to pay attention so they can learn it. It can be done with baby in a lap, or with baby lying on a blanket on the floor. 
• Where is Big Toe?
  I found this song at Mel's Desk, and Mel found it in The Complete Resource Book for Infants.
  "Where is Thumbkin?" can be tricky for babies because there's little hope of them being able to hold up their fingers one at a time. In this song, caregivers get to find baby's big toe, elbows, tummy, eyes, and hands. It's great for teaching little ones the names of these body parts and because it's a familiar tune, it's likely to be sung by caregivers both in story time and again later on at home. 
• Eyes Nose Cheeky Cheeky Chin
  I sing this to the tune of "Skip to My Lou", but it also works with "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah"and "Ten Little Indians."
  Babies become fascinated with faces sometime around 4-6 months of age, and when they do, this song becomes an instant hit. It can be fun to point out the different parts of baby's own face, but babies are every bit as excited to see caregivers pointing to their own faces. This is also a good one to suggest for caregivers to use during diaper changes as it distracts baby from the lower half of her body while she focuses on facial features. 
• A Hat Goes on My Head
  I wrote the words for this song, which is sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell." 
  This song introduces the names of the different types of clothing worn in winter. It's easily adapted for the flannel board, and you can also write your own verses for clothes appropriate to other seasons of the year. Caregivers can point to each body part as it is mentioned, or they can do a simple motion to suggest putting on each article of clothing.

 Rhymes

• Cheek Chin
  I originally found this rhyme on King County Library System's Tell Me a Story wiki.
  This rhyme has always been my follow-up to the hello song at baby story time. It identifies the child's cheek, chin, nose, and toes, and ends with a bit of a lift into the air. It's very easy to learn, and everyone seems to love the final moment where all the babies are held aloft. 
• Let's Make a Noise
  From Stories and Fun for the Very Young.
  The original text for this poem includes just a few everyday sounds, but the concept can be adapted for any object or animal that makes noise. Simply hold up an image and say, "Let's make a noise like a..." and then wait for the caregivers to help you make the noise. This is great for teaching not just animal sounds, but the words we use to convey the sounds made by vehicles, household objects, etc.

A full archive of my baby story times is available here. Also check out last week's post, Best of Baby Story Time: Books. Next week, watch for my list of the best ways to use puppets at baby story time.