Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is  Weather.
 


Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld

While I find Cloudette to be adorable, the kids did not have much of a reaction to her. The illustrations in this book are very happy, happy and I really think the story is one every child should hear about not letting self doubt get in the way of making a positive impact. 



Hello, Sun by Dayle Ann Dodds

Hello, Sun! is a great story for talking about weather. It covers most of the major ones like snow, rain and wind not that my Arizona kids would recognize any of those :) We talked about appropriate attire for the weather situations, as well.



Snow Happy by Patricia Hubbell

We read this one while I handed out FX snow (more on this in a later post). Most of the kids had never seen snow before and couldn't name many of the activities in this book though they did know a pretty decent amount about snowmen!

Toys in Storytime

As I discussed in my Dealing With Large Groups post a few days ago, I like to present the children in our baby time with toys to play with while we read so that they have something to occupy their hands with if they aren't in the mood to focus on a story.

 Most of our toys are from Lakeshore Learning. The balls in the center are fabric while the blocks on the side are plush, vinyl-type material.

We all sit down on the cushions and the kids are invited to sit in laps or wander around on the parachute, building structures or playing catch.

At the end or when they've demonstrated that they've had enough of my voice :), we play with the parachute. We put the balls in the center or let the children run underneath. We teach them words like "fast" and "slow" and just participate in free play until storytime is over.

What toys do you supply in your storytimes?

Wednesday Story Time

Whoops. This one is coming to you a day late - Wednesday just got away from me!

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is  Monsters.



Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems

While a few of my kids seemed concerned when I told them the theme this week, Leonardo convinced them that monsters could be fun. The parents and the kids both got a kick out of Sam's long winded explanation for his tears, too!
 


Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

 
A definite monster classic, the kids at my storytimee had a good time shouting out what color the body part was when I prompted them and, when I switched it up, what body part was what color. This book leaves so many opportunities for interactive story telling - I really love it.

Monster Hug! by David Ezra Stein

Though this book doesn't have a lot of dialogue, it has some fantastic images. We searched the images for certain object and also use the book to talk about numbers and colors. Our group was a bit older than this book was probably written for so asking these questions helped me age up my storytime.

Two Cool Coyotes Glasses Craft

At our storytime this week, we read Two Cool Coyotes by Jillian Lund and I thought it would be adorable if all the kids got to wear cool shades like Frank and Angelina do in the book!

To start, I printed and cut out a template. From there, I traced that template onto a few different colors of cardstock.

Then, I cut out the eyeholes. A handy tip for cutting out those islands is to punch a hole first. From there, place your scissors ina and work your way out.

When I had them all cut out, I attached pipecleaners for the arms of the glasses. This way, they are slightly adjustable for different sized heads.

And that's it! A very simple craft that's a lot of fun to play dress up with :) 

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is Arizona Centennial.



Two Cool Coyotes by Jillian Lund

 Our storytimes have started to become massive due to the kickoff of our Summer Reading Program. I thought this would be a big hit but the width of the book made it hard to keep a hold of (the things you realize as a story teller!) and, either way, the kids just weren't too into it.

Desert Night Desert Day by Anthony Fredricks

The kids were very receptive to this story. They had fun pointing out the quail that makes an appearance on almost every page as well as the other desert flora and fauna. The illustrations in this book are really beautiful and the rhyming is enjoyable for all ages.

Don't Call Me Pig! by Conrad Storad



Another bust. I thought they would like how sassy the main character is but I think it went over their heads. I skipped quite a few of the pages for a quick finish and then substituted in No, David! which I made interactive by letting the kids shout "No David!" and explaining what his bad behavior was on each page.

Any tips for large storytime groups? What do you do when it seems like your program has devolved into utter chaos?

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is Summer.



Let's Have a Tree Party! by David Martin

Let's Have A Tree Party! is such a fun book. The kids love the illustrations and the rhythm of the book is just very entertaining. We spent some time discussing what an opossum was because our possum population is certainly lacking in the Southwest :)  



Summer by Siân Smith



This book was my foray into nonfiction during storytime. We discussed what the seasons were and appropriate activities/dress for each. The kids had fun telling me which of the activities presented in the book they were going to be doing this summer.



Mouse's First Summer by Lauren Thompson



Mouse is adorable and one of my kids this morning took a special liking to this book. For their first summer, Mouse and Minka have a picnic in the park and enjoy foods and summer time traditions like kite flying and fireworks. 



Bugs Galore by Peter Stein

This is another great rhyming book. We sang Itsy Bitsy Spider prior to this book so I had the kids point out spiders and other bugs that tehy recognized. They reacted loudly when the book talks about bugs that end up in your soup!

And, again, for the kids who just could not seem to shake their wiggles this week, I pulled out my no mess paint bags. This is beginning to be an every week occurance :)

Literacy Skills

I'm sure this skill set is familiar to a great number of you, but I thought it might help to have it handy online.

I've created bookmarks with these listed on it to hand out to parents but there are a number of ways to make parents and caregivers aware of them including signage in the story time or children's area of your library and discussing applicable skills during your reading time together.

• Print Motivation
• Letter Knowledge
• Print Awareness
• Narrative Skills
• Vocabulary
• Phonological Awareness

I'll be going further indepth on each of these over the next few days so make sure to follow up for tips and tricks :)

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is Colors.

Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd

Dog's Colorful Day is perfect for a colors story time. I've seen some great felt boards accompany this story but have yet to create my own. The kids really enjoyed showing me which spot was new and counting up to 10. This was a really interactive one for them which I think everyone enjoys.


I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

Yet another Karen Beaumont book makes an appearance at my story time, I can't help myself! I asked the kids to point to the body part that the narrator had just painted as a way to engage them. The parents also really liked the language in this one.



My Many Colored Day by Dr. Seuss

This is an extremely colorful book that would also be excellent for an emotions/feelings themed story time. I turned this into a sort of activity book, as well. I had them flap their wings like birds, buzz like bees and show me which color was their favorite. This really helped make the story individualized, too.

Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

I really thought this would appeal to all ages but it seems like the older kids were the ones who really got it. This book has fantastically vibrant colors on the pages that I thought would attract the babies but this morning they were in a mood that lent itself better to activities and songs than books and that's okay! The older kids had a great time telling me what color the objects actually were and shouting out the color on the pages as we went along.

For the kids who just could not seem to shake their wiggles this week, I pulled out my no mess paint bags. 

iPad at Story Time

I've had quite a few people ask me about how I use my iPad during story times. It started out as a fun way to bring my iPad to work and actually use it for something besides online shopping and playing games (what it gets used for in my off hours).

Two of my favorite iPad apps for Story Time are both by Software Smoothie - iBaby Buttons and Felt Board.



Felt Board by Software Smoothie

Felt Board  ($1.99) is a really neat app that mimics the traditional felt board that story time attendees have come to know and love. The app provides you with numerous cut outs of animals, people, clothing items and backgrounds to assemble whatever your imagine can create! One of the cons of this app is that you can only have one felt board at a time, making it hard to pre-plan anything. Check Youtube for some neat videos of users demonstrating this one.

iBaby Buttons by Software Smoothie

iBaby Buttons ($1.99) is a little less structured. This app is a lot of fun if you're comfortable allowing the children to touch the iPad themselves. Sort of a free form activity, the app puts colorful orbs whereever the screen is touched. Touch the spot again and an image appears with a corresponding sound - for example, a baby with laughter. One more tap causes the bubble to pop. I find that this is a good one to fall back on if the babies just aren't into the ideas of stories

Fun Felt by Qurios

A third app that I really enjoy is Fun Felt ($.99). This is similar to Felt Board but doesn't come with any premade backgrounds or outfits. I enjoy it because, in that sense, it acts more like a traditional felt board. I've used it with great success when I want to do my letter of the day activity. I hide the letter behind different shapes or the same shape in different colors and have the children identify which it is hiding behind.




I'll continue to search for useful story time apps and let everyone know as I stumble up on them. Let me know if you find any you love, too!


***This is not a paid endorsement.

All Mighty Song Cube!

This is three sides of my story time cube. It isn't gorgeous but I don't think it's bad for a box I taped together myself, Microsoft Clipart and some packing tape.

I got the idea from Mel's Desk (a fantastic resource!) and decided that I had to have my own.

For those of you unfamiliar with a song cube, it's basically a fun way to choose what songs to sing during story time. A song's title and a symbol to represent it are on each side. Mine has:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star //star

I'm a Little Teapot //teapot

If You're Happy and You Know It //hands clapping

Row, Row, Row Your Boat //sailboat

The Wheels on the Bus //bus

Itsy Bitsy Spider //spiderweb

This will help children with print recognition when they see the words each week and can associate them with the symbol. Once you've used it enough, the kids will start to shout out the name of the song that it lands on. It's also an easy way to up participation by allowing someone different to roll the cube each week!

Wednesday Story Time

At my library, I do two story times on Wednesdays - a baby time and a toddler time. Each week, I try to select a few finger plays and three books that match whatever theme we're focusing on. This week's theme is All About Me.

We started with our letter of the day, M. The kids accurately told me that "Momma", "Mug" and "Monkey" started with M.
After a frantic rush to find new books because I decided I didn't like the previous titles just hours before story time was to start, I selected the following.



You're Finally Here! by Mélanie Watt

After doing our warm ups, I wanted to start with this book because it's high energy and fun. It also allows for a decent amount of audience participation which I try to encourage! The kids seemed to like this one all right but didn't really get as excited as I was :)



Me and You by Janet A. Holmes and Judith Rossell

This is a sweet, but not saccharine, book about all the things one can do and how it's always more fun when friends are involved. Since this was another bunny book (accidental!), I let the kids demonstrate their hopping and they really enjoyed that. I think the parents liked this one because it has a cute message.


I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont

Karen Beaumont's stories are some of my favorites and this is no exception. The little girl is so full of energy and self confidence, it seemed like the perfect way to end our story times. Everyone liked this one for the great illustrations. it got a lot of interaction from the kids with them shouting out things like, "I can do that!".

Our fingerplays this week were a rousing rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and Ten Little Fingers. We also used the Song Cube which I'll be writing a post about later this week. (UPDATE: Read the Song Cube blog post here. )

Story time Warm Ups and Closings

Repetition is very important when children are first learning. Hearing the same sounds repeatedly helps them commit them to memory. It also adds enjoyment because, eventually, the child will be able to anticipate endings or use their imagination to change the story. All of this adds to the level of participation in story time and with at home reading.

For our story times, I like to open and close with the same songs. This allows the experienced children and families sing with me and lets newcomers know what to expect upon their return! Creating this sense of community is largely important when trying to make children feel welcome and encouraging participation.

The opening activity is just a way for us to get the wiggles out. I altered a game that I knew previously and created Bunnies which allows the kids to exert some energy before sitting down for active listening and finger plays. It goes like this:

You place your hands on either side of your head. I say "Bunnies up high!" And the kids raise their arms. Followed by "Bunnies down low!" and "Bunnies to the side!" which are self explanatory. The final instruction is "Bunnies are go!" which is the signal to sit down quietly so that we may begin.

Our opening song is "Clap and Sing Hello!" sung to the tune of Farmer in the Dell which is the same tune that our closing song, "We Wave Goodbye Like This" is sung to.

What songs do you like to use? Do you use repetition or change it up frequently?