11/30/18: I covered an extra storytime this week, for the same age group (2-3 years) and some of the same kids. Because I wasn’t sure who would show up, I chose some of my favorite books that have been successful at storytime before, as well as a craft that has been popular in the past (and that is quick and easy to prepare, especially if you happen to have an extra-large “squeeze punch,” which is a giant hole punch that cuts out circles; ours is made by Fiskars).

• Welcome, introduction, announcements, putting up early literacy tips
• Hello Friends song with ASL
• Name song (“____ is here today”)
• The Giant Jumperee by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
• Song cube: “Zoom zoom zoom, we’re going to the moon”
• Tyrannosaurus Wrecks by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, illustrated by Zacahriah Ohora (I meant to hand out scarves before this book, but forgot until a few pages in, so I paused and handed them out in the middle, so the kids could wave them on the word “wrecks”)
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• There’s A Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins
• Song cube: “I’m a Little Teapot”
• Hooray for Hat by Brian Won
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• Carrot and Pea by Morag Hood (foreshadowing: asked the kids what shape the peas were)
• Song cube: “Itsy-bitsy Spider”
• Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier (“We’ll be doing something with lots of dots later…”) When we looked around the room for dots, one observant kid noticed the round magnets holding up the early literacy tips! One grandpa also had dots on his socks.
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Clean up mats, set up craft (gluing colored paper dots to butcher paper)

12/3/18: Monday the weather was beautiful (sunny, spring-like, felt like 50 degrees!) and we had a HUGE group of about 20 kids plus all their grown-ups. There is some overlap between the two groups – plenty of kids come to the Monday and Friday storytimes – so I only repeated one book, There’s A Bear on My Chair. Again we skipped the name song as there were at least twelve kids at the beginning of storytime, and more showed up throughout.

• Welcome and announcements
• Hello song with ASL
• Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• A Greyhound, A Groundhog by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Chris Appelhans
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot”
• Cub’s Big World by Sarah L. Thomson, illustrated by Joe Cepeda: I wasn’t sure how this one would go over as it is a fair amount of text and not a lot of humor, but it went fairly well.
• “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• Grumpy Pants by Claire Messer – always a favorite
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle”
• There’s A Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins
• Song cube: “ABCs”
• A Parade of Elephants by Kevin Henkes: I cut out five elephants so we could put them up on the whiteboard with magnets on the counting page, and the kids helped tell me which color elephant came next. Then we marched in place, then marched “round” in a “parade.” There is so much to do with this book! I’m working on felt elephants so kids can put them on the flannel board.
• Meant to read three Shel Silverstein poems, but forgot
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Clean up mats, put on music (“The Wheels on the Bus” was specifically requested”) and dance with bubbles!

Toddlers dancing to music with bubbles closely resemble a mosh pit, so it was a small miracle that when one of the littler kids vomited, no one was hit or splattered – the kid found the only clear patch of floor and aimed there. Hurrah! (If you ever want to clear out a storytime room rapidly, this is a surefire way.) The kid had good timing, too, waiting until the very end of the storytime/dance party. Well done, kiddo, and feel better.

So that was an exciting end to the program, but even throughout, it was pretty boisterous. I used as many calming and quieting techniques as I could think of, from singing “Twinkle Twinkle” to doing resting pose from the yoga cube, to anything we could all do together, like stomping our feet during Grumpy Pants; then it’s not exactly quiet, but everyone is making the same kind of noise, so it’s less chaotic. What are your favorite techniques to settle a big group?

Post-Thanksgiving, we had a big group again, with more than ten kids (plus baby siblings) at the beginning of our Step Into Storytime program for 2- and 3-year-olds. Given these numbers, we skipped the name song that we often sing after the hello song if there are fewer than ten kids.

I started off with a long-ish book, Toys Meet Snow by Emily Jenkins, because it’s one of my favorites and because we did have snow recently (and our craft was to do with snowflakes). It went okay, but may be better for a preschool group. The favorites today were (I think) Oh No, George! and Monkey and Me.

• Hello song with ASL
• Toys Meet Snow by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle”
• Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• People Don’t Bite People by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Molly Idle
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot”
• Matilda’s Cat by Emily Gravett
• Yoga cube (three poses)
• Still Stuck by Shinsuke Yoshitake
• Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Snowflake craft: White butcher paper taped to the floor, die-cut snowflakes in light blue and dark blue, glue sticks, blue/purple/white/silver crayons, blue and gray markers. Nine kids stayed for the craft and a few stayed for a long time!

I had thought about reading Cub’s Big World after Toys Meet Snow, but I think I’ll save that for next week’s lead-off book, especially if we have snow between now and then. They All Saw A Cat and A Greyhound, A Groundhog are on deck too. Often the most successful books are the ones with some humor in them (like The Wonky Donkey and Grumpy Pants from last week). Do you have any favorite funny books for this age group? Please share!

It was a cold rainy Monday the week of Thanksgiving, so attendance was a little sparse, but we had five kids in our target age range, plus two baby siblings, and we had a great time! I introduced my new creation this week: a yoga cube, made from the illustrations in the endpapers of Yoga Bunny by Brian Russo. I showed the book but didn’t read it, explaining that it’s a little long for two-year-olds. We tried out the yoga cube and it went really well – I brought it out three times during storytime and we did about three poses each time.

I also lucked out and found a big donkey puppet in the closet, so I used that to accompany my lead-off book, The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith. Hee haw!

• Hello song with ASL
• Name song (including the grown-ups, as we only had six total bodies in the room at the beginning)
• The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith, with puppet. Definitely made at least one parent giggle.
• Introduced the yoga cube and did three poses together
• Grumpy Pants by Claire Messer: this one is a hit every time. It is just the right length for a group of 2-3-year-olds, and just the right concept too – sometimes you can be grumpy for no reason and just need a bath to cheer you up. (A nice cold bath, in Penguin’s case.)
• Song cube: “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands”
• Carrot and Pea by Morag Hood: Another perfect book for this group, and a nice friendship story that emphasizes how difference can be good.
• Yoga cube
• I Feel Teal by Lauren Rille: I love this book, and it seemed to go over okay, but it may be that this age group doesn’t quite get linking colors and moods, they are still too literal (“I’m wearing green!”)
• Song cube: ABC song
• 88 Instruments by Chris Barton: I hadn’t planned to include this one, it was one of my backup books, but the kids in I Feel Teal play musical instruments on one page of that story so my storytime kids got excited about that too. I pulled the jingly things out of the closet and we made some noise! The jinglers aren’t especially loud, which is good, because there aren’t good prompts built into the book to tell you when to make noise (you could jingle at every page turn, though).
• Song cube: “Zoom Zoom Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon”
• My Heart Is Like A Zoo by Michael Hall, with flannel board. I pointed to the flannel animals before starting the book and asked the kids to point or raise their hands when one of our flannel friends showed up in the book. It worked – with help from grown-ups.
• Yoga cube
• Roly Poly Pangolin by Anna Dewdney: This is a cute story about an unusual animal overcoming his shyness and making friends, plus it comes with a coloring sheet, so that’s what we did for our activity.
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Clean up mats, pass out coloring sheets, set out bowls of crayons

And that’s it for this week. Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a rather dreary 50-degree morning and storytime was packed! There were at least 15 kids in the 2-3-year range, plus several younger siblings, including babies. We skipped the name song, but along with announcements, I pointed out the five early literacy practices that I always put up on the board – Read, Talk, Sing, Play, Write – and reminded caregivers and parents that doing those five things every day build the skills that will help kids learn to read.

• Hello song with ASL
• Sam and Dave Dig A Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen: This went over okay, but I think it’s a better one-on-one book, or maybe a better read-aloud for the preschool group. The illustrations are a bit subtle from a distance.
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle” – We had a lot of littler ones this time, and grown-ups were great about chiming in and singing.
• Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough: This was a bit better, and I had a prop, thanks to a toddler who dragged in one of our larger stuffed bears.
• “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” – Very good! Every kid knew the song and did the motions as best they could.
• Handed out scarves for Have You Seen Elephant? by David Barrow, which has a hide-and-seek element. Again, this one might have been better for a slightly older group; it’s very good one-on-one, as the elephant is usually pretty obvious and the kids have fun pointing it out in each picture. Collected scarves.
• Song cube: “Zoom Zoom Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon” – at least one kid was super excited about this song. I do it twice, in case it’s unfamiliar to anyone and they miss the countdown/blastoff bit at the end the first time through.
• Thank You Bear by Greg Foley: Simple, sweet, and just right for this group today. Bear finds a box that he wants to give to his friend Mouse, which makes it a great segue into…
• Not A Box by Antoinette Portis: Also just right for this group! Someone checked it out after storytime. (I always put all the books I read to the side so people can check them out afterward.)
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot”
• One Pup’s Up by Marsha Wilson Chall and Henry Cole
• Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood: This one is short and lends itself to being read with plenty of expression; it was pretty well received and a good one to end on.
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Clean up mats, put on music, dance in bubbles!

Next week we’re closed on Monday for Veterans’ Day, and I’m hoping that by the week after that I’ll have my yoga cube ready to go so we can do some yoga poses in storytime. I also want to make sure I have a more diverse batch of books next time; I try to keep a 50/50 gender balance but today’s books were more by male authors.

Today we had a big crowd at storytime! It was a gray fall day, so maybe the weather urged people inside, or perhaps they’re just getting back into the rhythm of the season (storytimes are a little more sporadic in the summer because of all the other programs we do). There were at least 15 kids in the 2-3 age range, plus assorted siblings and several late arrivals. In the beginning, we had more than ten but I did the name song anyway – it’s a great way to learn names and start building individual connections.

• “Hello Friends” song with ASL
• Name song (“Hello ____, hello ___, hello ____, we’re glad you came today”)
• Handed out shaker eggs for Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, illustrated by Zachariah Ohora
• Kept the shaker eggs for Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton. Collected shaker eggs after.
• Song cube: ABC song
• Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
• Song cube: “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed by Eileen Christelow (jumping encouraged!)
• Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kevin Cornell
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle”
• Scarves (by audience request) for Still Stuck by Shinsuke Yoshitake. Collected scarves.
• Goodbye song with ASL. Put away colored mats. Dance party with bubbles! (We have an old ipod loaded up with Raffi and Disney versions of classic kid music. And I brought my own bubbles from home because I am devoted to Pustefix bubbles.)

I skipped the flannel board and craft this week, but for next week I am thinking of a craft with paper dots and glue to go with Lots of Dots, and maybe The Very Hungry Caterpillar flannel board again…if I can make a butterfly before next Monday!

There was a smaller group at storytime today, but that allowed me to do the name song (“____ is here today, ____ is here today, let’s all clap our hands, ____ is here today”) after our usual “Hello friends” song. If the group is bigger than ten or so, I don’t do it, but because we only had seven or eight today, we did. I think it’s a good way to start because all the kids feel included, and it helps me learn the names, so I can address kids by name throughout the storytime.

When we use the song cube, or sing a new song, I make sure we do it twice, because young brains are hungry for patterns and repetition.

• Welcome: Glad you’re here, please keep the doors clear, take snacks outside, feel free to come and go as needed.
• “Hello Friends” song with ASL
• Name song
• Book: Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan Shea
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle”
• Hand out scarves
• Book: Flyaway Katie by Polly Dunbar
• Book: Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow
• Collect scarves
• Book: My Heart Is Like A Zoo by Michael Hall (with flannel, but not interactive)
• Song and activity: “Shake Your Sillies Out” with shaker eggs
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot”
• Book: Perfect Square by Michael Hall
• Song cube: “Itsy-Bitsy Spider”
• Book: Make A Wish Bear by Greg Foley
• Song: “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
• Book: Where, Bear? by Sophy Henn
• Goodbye song with ASL
• Activity: coloring with crayons on a big piece of butcher paper (one bowl of crayons at each corner of the paper)

See last week’s Step Into Storytime here.

Today kicks off our fall series of storytime programs, and mine is “Step Into Storytime” for two- and three-year olds (though siblings are allowed to join, and we’re pretty lenient about ages; the come-and-go-as-necessary philosophy enables kids and their grown-ups to leave if they’re having a tough time and come back in when they’re ready, or next time).

T435 PL REP FC

We started off, as usual, with an introduction and a few guidelines (keep doors clear, take snacks outside), then our welcome song: “Hello friends” with sign language. I sang it through once with the motions, then showed each sign (should have done that first!), then we sang it through again, and lots of the kids and adults participated. Next:

• Song cube: “Zoom zoom zoom, we’re going to the moon” (standing, twice)
• Book: Fall Is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
• Activity: Adding leaves to the tree on the flannel board. I think every kid participated and we had 16 leaves!
• Song cube: “I had a little turtle”
• Book: Hooray for Hat by Brian Won (“Show me your grumpy faces!”)
• Song cube: “ABCs”
• Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Activity: Very Hungry Caterpillar flannel board. At the appropriate point in the story, a kid would come up and remove the fruit the caterpillar ate that day (apple, pears, plums, strawberries, oranges). One kid who wanted to participate didn’t get a chance to take fruit off the board so I let her take the caterpillar off. And note to self: I need to make a butterfly!
• Song cube: “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” (standing, twice)
• Book: Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman and Adam Rex (kids loved the big sneeze!)
• Song/activity: I passed out shaker eggs and we stood to sing “Shake Your Sillies Out.” Kids brought the eggs back to the front and put them in the bag at the end of the song.
• Book: The Duckling Gets A Cookie by Mo Willems (I put my flannel Pigeon and Duckling up on the flannel board but we didn’t do anything with them)
• Song: “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to calm a slightly squirrelly crowd. I meant to do the “Goodbye Friends” song with ASL like usual but I forgot!
• Activity: Coloring with crayons. I traced one of the pages from Blue Chameleon and made copies for kids to color however they liked. We have a giant bin of crayons and they color right on the floor – next time I would scoop a few smaller bowls of crayons and spread them out around the room. People were great about putting the crayons back when they were finished!

Overall, this was a great storytime. Hooray for Hat seemed to be a favorite, several kids recognized The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I think the Mo Willems book might have been more successful earlier in the lineup.

We have a whiteboard along one wall, and after “Welcome to Step Into Storytime!” I had written the five activities that support early learning: Talk, Sing, Read, Write, Play. Next time I want to incorporate more early literacy information into the storytime for caregivers, explaining in a sentence here and there why I’m doing what I’m doing (why sing songs twice, for example, and why do fingerplay or sign language) to support that early learning.