Today’s storytime was a big success! The weather (gray and threatening rain) helped bring people in, and Lots of Dots with a tie-in craft – gluing colored paper dots to a huge piece of butcher paper with glue sticks – was a huge hit. Hello Hello was a great book to start with, too – I forgot how many excellent opportunities it affords for interaction (“Hello Tongue, Ears, Hands, and Nose”), and it has a built-in quiet pause (“Hello Quiet”). For “Hello Bend” I demonstrated how to wiggle like an octopus, and at “Hello Neighbor” I asked the kids to turn and say hello to a neighbor.

Last week I made some early literacy signs to hang up along with a Step Into Storytime sign; I laminated them so they’ll be reusable. (I made them in Canva; if you’d like copies, I’m happy to share the PDF.) During “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” I mentioned that fingerplay helps develop fine motor skills.

• Welcome and announcements
• Hello song with ASL
• Name song (there were about 10-11 kids to start, some more trickled in later)
• Passed out scarves right away for Hello Hello by Brendan Wenzel – wave the scarves hello! Keep them for the song cube.
• Song cube: “ABCs”
• Hooray for Hat by Brian Won (lots of kids caught on to the pattern of the story and said “Hooray!” at the appropriate times)
• Song cube: “Zoom Zoom Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon”
• A Greyhound, A Groundhog by Emily Gravett and Chris Appelhans (I brought a little stuffed greyhound from home and let the kids come pet it after the story)
• Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi and Brendan Wenzel (I pointed out that it says “words by” and “bugs by,” which I love. “Author” and “illustrator” aren’t as meaningful for little kids; “wrote the words” and “drew the pictures” are easier to understand)
• Song cube: “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “I’m A Little Teapot” (it landed against my chair, so both sides were showing)
• The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett (with a big alligator SNAP! with two arms at the end)
• Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett (this is sing-song-y enough that I did it with all of us standing up and doing the animal imitations – waddling penguins, elephant trunks, etc.)
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot” again
• Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier (some kids found “dots” – buttons – on their clothes when I asked, and one found “dots” in the flower print on her leggings)
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Craft: I taped a long piece of butcher paper to the floor and scattered colored construction paper dots on it for kids to glue with glue sticks. They LOVED it. Definitely something to do again in a couple weeks. When everyone was done I taped the paper up on the wall.