It was a full house this morning, with 16+ kids and their grown-ups, and a slightly wider age spread than usual – plenty of younger kids, but also some at the top of our 2-3 age range. It’s always helpful to have some older kids there, as they usually pay close attention to the pictures and are not shy about participating, which moves things along; during Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? I had a chorus of two boys shouting “no!” after each thing that didn’t grow. Fun!

• Welcome and announcements
• “Hello Friends” song with ASL, from Jbrary
• Huff and Puff by Claudia Rueda, with scarves for huffing and puffing
• Yoga flow: Stretching tall with hands in the air, forward fold to touch toes, stretch tall again
• Winter Is Here by Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek: Luckily(?) we had a spurt of windy snow earlier this morning.
• Song cube: “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”
• Solutions for Cold Feet by Carey Sookocheff: I’ve been wanting to read this Canadian author/illustrator’s book at storytime for several weeks, and it finally seemed like the right time.
• Here I switched up my original plan to read Goose by Laura Wall and read Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex, because a book with a huge sneeze in it is always, always a winner. Next week, Goose!
• Yoga flow: more mountain pose and touching toes, as well as chair pose and tree pose
• I’m My Own Dog by David Ezra Stein: This is one of those flip-the-script books and it’s got that humor going for it, but I’m not sure kids this age (or anyone, anymore) are familiar with dog behavior stereotypes that seem 1950s-ish (fetching slippers, etc.) Still, it’s a book about a dog, and it’s a just-right length for storytime.
• Song cube: “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “I Had A Little Turtle”
• Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan Shea: This seems like the perfect storytime book – stark, bright illustrations, fold-out flaps, rhyme – but the last time I read it there seemed to be no reaction whatsoever. This time it went great!
• “Shake Your Sillies Out” with music and shaker eggs
• “Goodbye Friends” song with ASL, from Jbrary
• Stack mats, more music, bring out giant blocks, fin.