Water Storytime April 23

Today, we focused on water as the theme of storytime. After our good morning songs, I asked them about animals who live in water - jellyfish, fish, hippos, crocodiles, sharks, whales.... Lots of good suggestions! Then I asked them how water comes down from the sky - clouds, rain, snow. 

Song: 1 little 2 little 3 little raindrops. 4 little 5 little 6 little raindrops. 7 little 8 little 9 little raindrops. 10 raindrops in the sky.

Book: A Cool Drink of Water

Song: I passed out these cute little fish puppets for the kids to dance with during the song. I demonstrated a few different movements they could do and then we listened and danced to 5 Fish Swimming in the Sea by Dr. Jean.

Book: Watch Over Our Water by Lisa Bullard

Song: 5 Little Monkeys and the Alligator

Book: How to Wash a Wooly Mammoth by Michelle Robinson, which generated quite a bit of laughter.

I wasn't sure if we would have time or not - we didn't - for Graeme Base's The Water Hole

After our goodbye songs, I had wet and dry spongeblocks available to play with. What a hit (as I expected they would be) and after they are all dry, I will be adding them to our shelf of toys and puzzles to play with.

Read a New Book Month Storytime

This was my favorite and most difficult storytime to plan because there were SO many amazing books and CDs published in 2012. I ended up adding an extra story and going over our time by about 5 minutes, but they sat very well and enjoyed them.

Next week is our final Storytime of 2012. Wear your pajamas for our PJ Party :) We'll read a story or two, dance to some music, then have some winter snacks. I also plan to have an incredibly exciting game for us to play. Each child will also go home with a special gift, just for coming to storytime this year. I hope to see many kiddos next Wednesday!

And now for today's set list....

Hello, How are You?

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger














Step Gently Out by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder











Next, we pretended to be bugs to the song "Rocking the Uke" on Cathy Finkle and Marcy Marxer's CD of the same name. This is an instrumental and worked very well. These are the insects we pretended to be: butterflies, spiders, ants, grasshoppers, mosquitos, and the we repeated.









A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead












Nature's Lullaby sung by Maria Alley on the CD La Bella Stella. We kept time by clapping hands, stomping feet, then waving arms. We danced how we wanted to for a while before clapping and stomping at the same time.

I'm Bored by Michael Ian Black (LOTS of laughter from this story, which i highly expected)











"The Donkey Brothers" from If You Were a Chocolate Mustache by J. Patrick Lewis. This poem, on page 106, is about two donkeys having a tug of war. The last line is about how donkeys should not share dental floss. As i read this last line, I opened my hand and let a long white string extend from my hand to the floor.






It's a Tiger by David LaRochelle. I printed off tiger masks for each child. As I read the story, children could raise their masks when they saw the tiger and shout with me "It's a tiger!"











This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen. This is my absolute favorite picture book from 2012. By far. This book also got laughs, of course!






Goodbye Songs: It is Time to Say Goodbye and
Wave your arms goodbye.
Wave your eyes goodbye.
Wave your chin goodbye.
Wave your foot goodbye.
Wave your belly goodbye.
Wave your hands and say "goodbye."