A month flies by! Storytime is always one of my favorite parts of the work week. Here are the books and art projects we’ve done for the past few weeks, and of course we look for Little Mouse every time (“Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the [color] house?”), and open and close with “Hello Friends” and “Goodbye Friends.”

September 28 Storytime

• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (with flannel board)
• Carrot & Pea by Morag Hood
• Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
• Craft: Coloring with crayons on butcher paper taped to the floor

October 5

• Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
• Circle Under Berry by Carter Higgins
• Perfect Square by Michael Hall
• Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett
• Where’s Walrus? by Steven Savage
• Craft: Collage with tissue paper and glue sticks on construction paper

October 12

• The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
• Pirate Jack Gets Dressed by Nancy Raines Day (with flannel board)
• There’s a Monster in This Book by Tom Fletcher
• Mr. Scruff by Simon James
• Some of These Are Snails by Carter Higgins
• Craft: Decorating die-cut paper pumpkins with markers and crayons

October 19

• I Will Chomp You by Jory John and Bob Shea
• Bathe the Cat by Alice B. McGinty and David Roberts
• Tickle Monster by Edouard Manceau (with flannel board)
• Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins
• Somewhere in the Bayou by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey
• Craft: Flannel board play with different shapes, colors, and sizes

October 26

• Sam and Dave Dig A Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
• Maybe… by Chris Haughton
• How do you say? = ¿Cómo se dice? by Angela Dominguez
• Imogene’s Antlers by David Small
• I’ll Wait, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
• Craft: Dot markers, crayons, markers on butcher paper on the floor (collaborative)

Storytimes I’d done plenty of before coming to SHPL, but Rhyme Time was a new program for me to lead. It’s kind of like storytime, but without books (although, I think I am going to start adding in one book each time). We do lots of songs, rhymes, fingerplay, and movement, followed by free play. I lead a lot of the songs and rhymes myself, but I also have a computer and speakers to play music. Soon, everyone will be singing and dancing along to Caspar Babypants’ “Butterfly Driving A Truck”!

I start every Rhyme Time with the same three songs:

• “Hello Friends” song
• Hello song (“We clap and sing hello…”)
• The Name Song (“If your name is _____, jump up and down”). This is great because each child gets their moment in the spotlight (if they want it – some just sit on laps and that’s fine!) and it creates a sense of community, helping us all get to know each other.

Then we do a selection of these songs/rhymes with movement and fingerplay. Some of them are on my song cubes (homemade tissue-box creations with a different picture on each side, corresponding to a song, like a teapot for “I’m A Little Teapot” or a spider for “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” Because these are short little songs, we sometimes do them three times: regular/fast/slow or regular/loud/quiet.

• “The Wheels on the Bus”
• “Shake Your Sillies Out” (Raffi)
• “Five Green and Speckled Frogs”
• “Row, row, row your boat”
• “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes“
• “Where Is Thumbkin?”
• “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”
• “I’m A Little Teapot”
• “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider”
• “The ABCs”
• “I Had A Little Turtle”
• “Open Shut Them”
• “The Kookaburra Song”
• “Zoom zoom zoom, we’re going to the moon”
• “We Are the Dinosaurs“
• The Party Freeze Dance Song
• Caspar Babypants songs (“Stompy the Bear,” “Butterfly Driving A Truck,” “Bookworm” etc.)

We end with two goodbye songs:

• Goodbye song (“We clap goodbye like this…”)
• “Goodbye Friends“

If the weather is nice (or, okay, decent) and we’re outside, I bring out sidewalk chalk and balls for the kiddos to play with. If we’re inside, it’s parachute and bubbles. This gives everyone a chance to move around and socialize.