It was another large group for Step Into Storytime this morning! Again, the group skewed toward the younger end of the age range (2-3 years, with siblings welcome), and we had a mix of new families and regulars, including a couple older regulars who were very helpful during Not A Box.

• Welcome and announcements: Keep the doorways clear, feel free to come and go (wiggliness, noise, bathroom, snack breaks), calendar of events available at desk and on website, etc.)
• “Hello Friends” song with ASL (Jbrary)
• Stretch: a seated stretch toward the ceiling, to toes, to ceiling, to toes
• Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex, with enormous panda bear and fake sneezes.
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle” (seemed unfamiliar to most) and “If You’re Happy and You Know It” (familiar to everyone!)
• I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry: this giant squid knows how to make the best of things.
• Passed out shaker eggs, tested them to make sure they worked (they did), instructed them to shake them every time they heard the word “glitter” in Just Add Glitter by Angela DiTerlizzi and Samantha Cotterill. (One of my favorite storytime tips is to recognize that little kids are going to make noise – so get them making the same noise at the same time.). Collected eggs.
• Yoga cube: Downward dog is a little crowded when the storytime room is that full, but some kids made it work!
• Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi and Brendan Wenzel
• “The Kookaburra Song”
• Not A Box by Antoinette Portis (we read Not A Stick last week): This is where my older kids came in handy, especially because one of them was already familiar with the book. If it’s not a box, what is it?
• Songs/rhymes: “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and “Where is Thumbkin?” (twice, replacing “sir” with “friend”)
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, with flannel board: I always have volunteers to help put the different fruits on the board.
• “Goodbye Friends” song with ASL (Jbrary)
• Clean up mats, invite questions (and someone did ask about chapter books with pictures for her 3-year-old!), tape down paper and put out crayons for coloring.