Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Baby & Me Time

I call my baby storytimes Baby & Me Times to make sure parents know that I may be at the front, but they're the real stars of the show. Here's my latest program outline:

Welcome patter: Welcome to baby storytime! Today we’re going to sing songs, do some tickles, bounces and fingerplays, read some nursery rhymes, and share books together. The activities we do today are ways that you can stimulate brain development especially, language development in your baby.

Your baby might not want to participate right now and that’s okay. If your baby doesn’t seem to be paying attention, their brain is still being stimulated by what they see and hear around them.

If your baby isn’t happy here please take them out until they calm down and come back when you think he or she is ready. Okay, let’s begin.

Welcome Song: Good Morning to You (Sing twice to the tune of Happy Birthday)
Good Morning to You! 
Good Morning to You! 
Good Morning Dear Babies (Or name)! 
Good Morning to You!

Patter: Do you recognize that tune? People who work with children call those piggyback songs. You can make up any words and sing them to a familiar tune. In this case we turned Happy Birthday into a morning song. These kinds of songs are good for helping young children deal with transitions. Sometimes they’re going to have to stop doing something they want to. Singing songs makes that part a little easier.

Itsy Bitsy Spider Fingerplay (Sing twice)
Baby may not be able to do the fingerplay, but you parents sure can! Either gently guide your child through the movements or turn him/her to face you while you do the movements for them to see. 
The itsy bitsy spider 
crawled up the water spout.
Down came the rain and
washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and 
dried up all the rain. 
And the itsy bitsy spider
crawled up the spout, again!

Body Identification Book: Counting Kisses by Karen Katz- encourage parents to kiss and point out baby’s parts along with the books.

Babies Fingers Tickle (Do twice)
These are baby’s fingers.
These are baby’s toes.
This is baby’s belly button,
Round and round it goes!
These are baby’s ears.
This is baby’s nose.
This is baby’s belly button,
Round and round it goes!

This Little Piggy (Fingerplay or Tickle; Sing twice)- Parents can gently wiggle fingers or toes, or count limbs and tickle or wiggle at the end.
This little piggy went to the market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy ran Wee! Wee! Wee! 
All the way home.   

Peekaboo Book: Peekaboo Morning by Rachel Isadora- Pass out color scarves and have parents play peekaboo with their hands or the scarves while reading the book. Then give them a minute to play after the book. You can also do peekaboo with a mirror.

Parent Patter: Playing peekaboo teaches your baby about object permanence: That although you can't see something it still exists. Peekaboo also prepares babies for those times when you will have to be away from them: You might go away, but you’ll always come back to them.

Read to Your Baby Time- Provide a selection of board books and encourage parents to to share a book with their baby. Play a 4-5 minute song in the background collect everybody's attention when the song stops.

Tiny Little Baby Bounce (Sing twice)
Tiny little baby loves bouncing, bouncing!
Tiny little baby loves bouncing so.
Tiny little baby loves bouncing, bouncing!
Tiny little baby loves bouncing so.
Bounce to the left!
Bounce to the right!
Now hug that baby nice and tight!
    
Animals Sounds Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr- With toddlers I just read the book, but with babies, I sing the words to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then the parents and I make the corresponding animal sounds.

Parent Patter: Making animal sounds helps children identify animals, associate sounds with things, and learning the sounds from you helps them learn to talk. Let them see your mouth as you talk to them and say these animal sounds.

Animal Sound Song: Animals In the Morning (I use animal puppets and they sing to the babies. Four puppets should be enough)
When the duck gets up in the morning
You'll always hear him say
Quack! Quack!
He'll always say Quack!
  
Classic Nursery Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock (Sing/say twice)- Encourage parents to either bounce to the rhythm of the rhyme, or they can move up and down following the words.
Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down.
Hickory dickory dock.

Stand Up Bounces: Zoom Zoom Zoom! (Sing/say twice)
Zoom zoom zoom!
We're going to the moon.
Zoom zoom zoom!
We're going to the moon.
If you'd like to take a trip
Climb aboard my rocking ship.
Zoom zoom zoom, I'm going to the moon 
In 5...4...3...2...1!
Blast off! 
    
Fishies in the Water (Say twice)
Fishies in the water
Fishies in the sea.
We all jump up with a 1...2...3...!
Closing patter: Thank you for coming to baby storytime. Please stay and play for the next 20 minutes and meet other parents and babies and socialize.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Let's Vote for Caldecott Books! Preschool Storytime

Opening song: Hello Song (Keep in mind that I sing it much slower than the lady in this video)
Hello!
Hello!
Hello, how are you?
I'm fine!
I'm fine!
I hope that you're fine, too. (I repeat this three times, then have the kids say a big hello while waving at all the other kids they see.)
This is a song by Ella Jenkins on her Multicultural Children's Songs CD. 
Opening discussion: What is the Caldecott Medal?
Literacy: This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen  
The kids and I are puzzled as to how this book won. We disagree!
Literacy: One Cool Friend by Tony Buzzeo 
I don't even know about this one. The kids were bored with it a couple of pages through. Not a bad book, but not Caldecott material. 

Second Story Stretch: Put Your Finger In the Air (This is pretty good, but I usually stop at Put your finger on your shoe. This song can be real long if you let it!) 
Literacy: Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds 
In our humble opinions, Creepy Carrots was the real winner.
 This video is a really interesting behind-the-scenes with the illustrator. 

Closing Song: I tried a different song, at this storytime that just bombed terribly! What was I thinking?!!!
Library March (To the tune of Father Abraham)
The library
Has many books
Many books has the library
I like to read
And so do you
So let's just have some fun
Right arm!
Let's go!
Each round you add on another movement until you sit down at the end:
Left arm
Right foot
Left foot
Heads up
Turn around 
Sit down!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

SuperBowl XLVII Commercial features a library! Oreo's Whisper Fight


My cousins were so loud and enthusiastic during the game that when I saw this commercial, I wanted to yell out "Yeah baby! Libraries in da house!" But I know that a record would skip somewhere in the house, and my family would turn to me and take my cup away. So I just enjoyed it with a smile.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Whoosh! Parachute Play

From Flickr by Big Kohuna
No! I don't push kids off the bookshelves with their own personal mini-chute. That is not what parachute play is and that is also very uncool.
Parachute play is taking a flat chute and doing movement activities with it like moving the chute itself, having the kids "hide" underneath, running under and out of the chute. You know, fun stuff.
For my baby-toddler storytime, I like to switch between parachute play and the Hokey Pokey as a closing movement.


My Parachute Play Routine

Ring Around the Rosie
Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posies
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!

When you're down with the parachute, you have options. You can sing Fishies in the Water or the next verse of Ring Around the Rosie. 

The cows are in the meadow
Eating buttercups.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all stand up!

Fishies in the Water
Fishies in the water.
Fishies in the sea.
We all jump up 
With a 1, 2, 3!

Grand Ol' Duke of York 
I have the kids go underneath the chute for this one and then the parents and I have fun moving it up, down and around.

The grand ol' Duke of York
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up to the top of the hill 
And he marched them down again.
And when they're up, they're up.
And when they're down, they're down.
And when they're only halfway up,
They're neither up nor down!

Popcorn 
I used large pom-poms as the popcorn, but if you have ball pit balls, or about 30 pieces of a lightweight, non-dangerous, rounded object that could work, too.

You throw the corn into the pot (pour the balls in)
Then shake it! Shake it! Shake it alot! (gently shake the chute)
And when they start to heat up (start to shake harder)
From the bottom to the top... (shake the chute down, then up)
Then its time to pop! Pop! Pop! (shake vigorously, so the balls can fly all over the place)

Here's a video of some adults talking about different parachute play songs and rhymes. I thought it was pretty good.