Babies, babies, babies! Continuing the storytime routine with lots of repeated favorites this week (but a new book!). I just wrapped up Brooke Newbery‘s Babies in the Library UW-Madison course, giving me some new ideas to help refresh programming for this age (and so many great play ideas…for whenever play can return!). Everything around programming is a question right now, but I’m looking forward to thinking about ways to increase services for babies in the next few years.
Hello babies! A new book and one new-to-me rhyme this week. Looking ahead at Toddler Storytime next month–have you found any great new toddler books lately? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme – Wake Up Toes & We Clap and Sing Hello
Early Literacy Tip: Babies focus on word spoken immediately after their name.
Book Recommendation:I Love You, Baby Burrito by Angela Dominguez
Song: Baby 1, 2, 3 by Peter & Ellen Allard
Action Rhyme: Clap Your Feet
Clap, clap, clap your feet, Clap your feet together. Clap, clap, clap your feet, Clap your feet together.
Clap them high! Clap them low! Clap them fast! Clap them slow!
Bounce: Dump Truck
Dump truck, dump truck bumpin’ down the road. Spillin’ out gravel as you travel with your load. Bumpety, bumpety, bump, bump, bump. Dump truck, dump truck, dump truck, DUMP!
While Flannel Friday posts often share the work of the amazing Sarah Simpson, this is one of my flannels! Excited to share the photos and inspiration below. – Annamarie
Make a Pig has been an instant favorite with preschoolers and kindergarteners at my library for a few years. My inspiration came from Miss Mary Liberry (who was inspired by a post that doesn’t exist anymore, unfortunately).
When using Make a Pig, you start with the body. Depending how long I want the flannel to take, I may ask the kids where the head and eyes should go (and then get quite silly placing them), but more often I place those too since this flannel can take 15-20 minutes if I let it.
This is much more engaging in person, with kids responding to my questions, but it works well virtually too with a lot of pausing. In person, I ask a lot of questions like:
What other body parts does a pig have?
Is a pig’s nose bigger or smaller than this nose?
Where does a pig’s nose belong? Can you use your words to tell me where?
What color is a pig’s tail?
What do a pig’s ears look like?
I made a different set a few years ago, but I decided to make something fresh in the last few weeks, shown above and in action in the video below:
As part of our virtual programming, I run a monthly school age storytime, designed for ages 6-8. This program highlights a different diverse individual from the Little People Big Dreams book series. In March, this program featured Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Each program features 1-2 books on the famous individual (one book being their matching title from the Little People, Big Dreams book series). I also highlight music from a diverse artist and include a link to an at-home packet to continue the fun and learning.
Explore More Little People, Big Dreams Storytime Outlines:
First Book: Jean-Michel Basquiat by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara (Little People Big Dreams)
Movement Break: Down Down Up Up by Kymberly Stewart
Second Book: Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe
Closing Rhyme: See You Later, Alligator
See you later, alligator In a while, crocodile Give a hug, ladybug Blow a kiss, jellyfish See you soon, big baboon Out the door, dinosaur Take care, polar bear Wave goodbye, butterfly!
More babies! I’m close to a full year of virtual storytimes now–not quite there yet, but more on that soon. There are more than 50 virtual storytime outlines on this blog already! We are now officially one year since my last in-person baby storytime. (And playtime! I miss playtime.) I’m proud of the virtual work I’ve done over the last year, but I am starting to get itchy for some kind of change. I don’t necessarily know if I want things to be what they were, entirely, but I want…something? Hmmmm. Not entirely sure, but for now, more baby content.
While Flannel Friday posts often share the work of the amazing Sarah Simpson, this is one of my flannels! Excited to share the photos and inspiration below. – Annamarie
Little Mouse, Little Mouse Playing hide and seek. Are you behind the apartment building? Let’s take a peak!
My library’s Little Mouse, Little Mouse flannel set has looked like this for many years:
The set is cute enough, and it helps practice color recognition, but I was inspired by the amazing Storytime in the Stacks blog to do something more with this set. More specifically, Jessica’s post Flannel Friday: Mouse House Makeover with Inclusivity in Mind makes a lot of excellent points about the need for representation and how culture and inclusivity go beyond race. I’m not going to go into more detail on that here because Jessica does such an excellent job. Go read her piece!
Similar to Jessica, I made a new Little Mouse set sharing a variety of types of homes. My set includes:
Apartment Building
Duplex
Lighthouse
Motel
Barn (to lead to a conversation about living on a farm)
Pigeon Storytime! Featuring the one and only bird from the Mo Willems books. I have my own personal secret: I hate this bird. The books and Pigeon’s general personality annoy me to no end. But…this ended up being one of my favorite storytimes.
The highlight, of course, was Pigeon’s attempted storytime coup:
Catch a glimpse of the whole experience in the video below.
This was another very popular program: over 600 virtual attendees!
Just like past virtual storytimes, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Many of these materials are from Mo Willems’ Pigeon website, full of great resources. Download the activity packet here.
Watch the short preview video below. This isn’t like many of my other preview videos…instead Pigeon keeps popping up all over the library!
And watch the full storytime here:
The general storytime layout–in order of what I presented–is below, with videos where applicable.
Pigeon Storytime Outline
Intro Song: Shake Your Sillies Out by Rainbow Songs
Pigeon Book: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
Music: Wheels on the Bus by Jay Laga’aia
Action Song: If You’re a Pigeon and You Know It
If you’re a pigeon and you know it, flap your wings! If you’re a pigeon and you know it, flap your wings! If you’re a pigeon and you know it, And you really want to show it! If you’re a pigeon and you know it, flap your wings!
Shake your tail (shake, shake) Eat your cookies (nom, nom) Drive the bus (zoom, zoom)
Pigeon Takeover After If You’re a Pigeon and You Know It, I realized–oops!–I forgot our second book! I needed to step out to get it, and while I did just that, I put on some music and needed everyone watching to keep an eye on storytime. Sure enough, Pigeon attempted a takeover!
I didn’t actually leave the room–instead I had a table on wheels to the side of the screen. When I stepped off screen, I opened and closed the door to the room before wheeling the table on screen. I tested the height ahead of time to make sure Pigeon was visible but the table wasn’t.
I had the signs piled and ready on a table off screen. The sticks were attached from the top because it is much easier to drop something from above onto the screen then for me to try to lay below the camera and get up again. If I did this again, I might try to have this situated somehow so the signs were resting on the table, and I removed one at a time. My hand was shaking quite a bit during this portion (so the signs were too).
I ran through the timing of the song and the signs beforehand and made sure I had just enough signs to last the length of the song. I came back at the end of the song with another opening and closing of the door and a loud “PIGEON!” before returning on camera to “rescue” storytime.
Pigeon Book: The Duckling Gets A Cookie?!
Magnet: Pigeon Playing Hide and Seek
Pigeon, Pigeon playing hide and seek Are you behind the yummy cookie? Let’s take a peek!
Closing Song: I Know a PIGEON (Chicken) by Laurie Berkner We very loudly shouted PIGEON in place of Chicken throughout the song.
Extra, Extra! I filmed a few extra Pigeon videos that were on YouTube but didn’t make it into storytime:
Two Little Pigeons:
Two little pigeons sittin’ on a hill One named Jack and one named Jill. Run away Jack, run away Jill. Come back Jack, come back Jill.
Two little pigeons sittin’ on a cloud. One named soft and one named loud. Run away soft, run away loud. Come back soft, come back loud.
Two little pigeons sittin’ on down below. One named fast and one named slow. Run away fast, run away slow. Come back fast, come back slow.
Five Little Pigeons Sitting in a Tree:
Five little pigeons sitting in a tree One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three four!
And finally, I attempted to write a rhyme to the tune of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, but I didn’t get it quite right. Feel free to edit and make it your own!
The happy little pigeon Snuck onto the bus route. Along came the driver Who chased the pigeon out. Along came the kids who Jumped onto the bus. And the happy little pigeon Rode along with us.
Hello? Babies? I’m back! It has been a few months since I’ve planned a Baby Storytime program (at our library, that means ages 0-23 months). I’m happy to get back into the groove. Much of this week is repeated content that I am very familiar with, as I have Pigeon Storytime on Saturday (well, today by the time this is posted!), so I wanted to make this storytime as easy as possible.
Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme – Wake Up Toes & We Clap and Sing Hello
Early Literacy Tip: When playing, have fun making noises like animal sounds or truck sounds. Hearing different noises and experiencing different pitches and volumes helps baby’s language development.
Book Recommendation:The Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O’Connell
Song: Wheels on the Bus by Jay Laga’aia
Action Rhyme: Baby Hokey Pokey
You put your arms up, You put your arms down, You put your arms up, And you wave them all around You wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, And you tickle, tickle, tickle That’s how the baby pokey goes (clap along) Yeah! (arms in the air)
Continue with: legs, whole baby
Bounce: Tiny Little Babies
Tiny little babies love bouncin’ bouncin’, Tiny little babies love bouncin’ so. Tiny little babies love bouncin’ bouncin’ Tiny little babies love bouncin’ yeah.
Bounce to the left, Bounce to the right, Now hug that baby nice and tight.
And a big shoutout to Mr. Keith’s blog, Felt-tastic Flannelbaord Funtime, for providing inspiration for my feltboard ideas. None of my flannels are direct reproductions of anyone’s work, but I am inspired most often by his style.
More toddlers! I like the variety of toddler activities so much, though it will be fun to be back to babies next week. Lot’s of polar bear content this week (not intentionally, but here we are). My library reopened to the public this week for browsing, though I’m writing this before that happens…so hoping all goes well.
Early Literacy Tip: Read books with excitement and enthusiasm—this can be much easier with books that encourage silly actions or behaviors. Try being extra silly! Nothing is over-the-top for your child.
Book Recommendation:The Doghouse by Jan Thomas
Song: Jump with Me by Bobs & Lolo
Fingerplay: Here Is the Beehive
Here is the beehive, But where are the bees? Hidden away where nobody sees. Watch and you’ll see them come out of the hive… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…They’re alive! Buzzzzzzzzz
Oh the city is great and the city is grand There are lots of tall buildings on a little piece of land And we live way up on the 57th floor and this is what we do when we go out the door.
We take the elevator up and the elevator down, take the elevator up, take the elevator down Take the elevator up and the elevator down and we turn around.
Flannel: Polar Bear’s Underwear (Song/Rhyme)
Oh where, oh where did my red underwear go? Oh where, oh where can they be? I looked up high, and I looked down low? Did someone hide them from me?
— Find more Flannel & Magnet Activities in this post. —
