Specs
Age group: toddlers (24 - 36 months)
Group Size: about 8-10 kids and one parent/caregiver per toddler
Time: 10:30am to 11:15am
Parent/Caregiver Handouts
One of my colleagues told me that one of the ways we can encourage parents to participate is to give them printouts of the songs and rhymes we use. This way, they can participate with the child beside them, or on their lap, and the handout close by. Here are the ones we used for this storytime:
Toddler Storytime Rhymes and Songs
Bears Theme Rhymes and Songs
The Plan
Hello Good Morning
Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes
London Bridge is Falling Down
Book: Welcome Home Bear
Finger Play: Two Little Black Bears
Felt Story: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Song: Teddy Bear Teddy Bear
Activity: We're Going on a Bear Hunt
Song: Hug Your Bear
Board Book: One Two Buckle My Shoe and Rock-a-Bye Baby
Craft: Bear Rattle/Puppet
Parachute + Colouring Sheet
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Hello Good Morning
(Tune: La Cucaracha)
Hello good morning, hello good morning
how is everyone today?
CHA CHA CHA
Hello good morning, hello good morning
I am so glad you came to play
CHA CHA CHA
The sun is shining, the birds are singing
What a way to start the day
CHA CHA CHA
If we keep singing, hello good morning
We'll be happy come what may
CHA CHA CHA
Welcome to storytime!
This song comes from Miss Karen and the Hello Music Kids.
Head and shoulders Knees and Toes
Head and shoulders
knees and toes
knees and toes
Head and shoulders
knees and toes
knees and toes
And eyes, and ears, and mouth, and nose
head and shoulders
knees and toes
knees and toes!
I used this version of the song. The linked video is long, but listen to the first minute or so for how to sing it, and how to do the actions.
London Bridge Is Falling Down
London bridge is falling down,
falling down, falling down
London bridge is falling down
My sweet baby
Now come and take a walk around
walk around, walk around
Come and take a walk around
My sweet baby
Time to sit and read a book,
read a book, read a book
Time to sit and read a book
My sweet baby!
Book: Welcome Home, Bear by Il Sung Na
This is a nice book with lovely illustrations that explores different habitats and homes for animals. While the illustrations can be a little busy for some toddlers, the text is simple enough to follow.
Finger Play: Two Little Black Bears
Two little black bears sitting on a hill (hold two balled hands up)
One named Jack and one named Jill (give a little shake to each hand when the bears are named)
Run away Jack, run away Jill (place hands behind your back one at a time)
Come back Jack, come back Jill (bring back both hands one at a time)
Two little black bears digging in the snow (make digging motions)
One named Fast and one named Slow (one hand digs quickly and the other slowly)
Run away Fast, run away Slow
Come back Fast, come back Slow
Two little black bears feeling very proud
One named Quiet and one named Loud (ask kids to repeat the word QUIET quietly, and the other one loudly)
Run away Quiet, run away Loud
Come back Quiet, come back Loud
Felt Story: Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
I gave one or more animals to each child and asked them to place the animal on the board when it was named in the book. Since each animal is a different colour, I also asked each child the colour of their animal as they came up.
Song: Teddy Bear Teddy Bear
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, jump up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, wink one eye
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, spin in place
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, run a race
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, slap your knees
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sit down please.
Activity: We're Going on a Bear Hunt
This activity was inspired by a post on Learning4Kids.
I asked the toddlers and their parents to stand in a line behind me, and then we started the bear hunt with the following song:
We're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt, a bear hunt
We're going on a bear hunt, to see what we will see.
And then, inspired by Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt book:
Uh-oh.
A bridge.
A rickety old bridge!
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
We’ll have to go on it!
Rickety, rickety, wobbly, bobbly.
Using masking tape to make a "rickety old bridge", we walked on the bridge all wobbly-like.
After the bridge, we sang the first part of the song again:
We're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt, a bear hunt
We're going on a bear hunt, to see what we will see.
Then...
Uh-oh.
Mud.
Thick, oozy mud!
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
We’ll have to go on it!
Squelch, squelch, squelch, squelch!
I didn't have any brown cloth, so I used crinkly brown paper to represent "mud".
After the mud, we sang the first part of the song again:
We're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt, a bear hunt
We're going on a bear hunt, to see what we will see.
Then...
Uh-oh.
Grass.
Long wavy grass.
We can’t go over it.
We can’t go under it.
We’ll have to go through it!
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
The toddlers and I crawled under the table with green streamers attached.
And finally! We found some bears (and other stuffed toys)!
Song: Hug Your Bear
(Tune: Row Your Boat)
Hug, hug, hug your bear
Squeeze him very tight
Hold him high and help him fly
Then hug with all your might.
With the stuffed bears they found during our "bear hunt", we sang this cute song and tossed our teddy bears up high. I think they really enjoyed this one! I really enjoyed this one :D
Board Book: One Two Buckle My Shoe and Rock-a-Bye Baby
These two board books are really short, but help in establishing a book reading connection with their parent or caregiver. It also teaches the toddlers to flip pages and hopefully associate the idea that no more letters on the page = flip the page.
Craft: Bear Rattle/Puppet
Materials:
-two discarded CDs glued together
-a large popsicle stick (tongue depressor) glue-gunned in between the two CDs
-pompoms
-large circles cut out to cover the CD surfaces
-smaller circles cut out for the bear's snout
-google eyes
-designer cardstock (we used scraps) cut out into bow tie shapes
One of my goals this year is to, as much as possible, craft using only materials we already have in-house. Today's craft is extra special because it also uses old, discarded CDs from our collection. Instead of the CDs going to a landfill, they have been upcycled into bear rattles/puppets! Yay!
Parachute + Colouring Sheet
We cleaned up after the craft and asked the toddlers to spread out and grab one of the parachute's ends. We sat around in a circle around the parachute, then sang the Cuckoo Clock song. You can check out this youtube video for how to sing the song. For one o'clock, we lifted the parachute up once and yelled "Cuckoo!" once. If it's five o'clock, we would do the same thing repeated five times.
Tick, tock, tick, tock
I’m a little cuckoo clock
Tick, tock, tick, tock
Now I’m striking one o’clock
CUCKOO!
Afterward, I handed out a bear themed colouring sheet (pictures were found on the internet).
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Credits: I took the songs and rhymes from a variety of sources, some from work, and others from different parts of the internet. I will try to give credit where it is due, so if something is yours and I haven't credited you, please let me know and I will link back to you. Thank you!
