Specs
Age group: toddlers (24 - 36 months)
Group Size: about 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:
The Plan
Up Down Turn Around
Hands Are Clapping
Book: There Was An Old Lady by Pam Adams
Song: Can You Move With Me?
Song: Flutter Flutter
Felt Story: Bee Hive
Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Song: Ants Go Marching
Book: Little Big Flaps Insects by Charles Reasoner
Craft: Caterpillar Necklace
Parachute
Bubbles and Colouring Sheet
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Welcome Song
(sing to tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down”)
Hi hello and how are you
How are you? How are you?
Hi hello and how are you?
How are you today?
It’s a bright and sunny day
Sunny day, sunny day
It’s a bright and sunny day
For storytime and play!
Stretching Rhyme: Up Down Turn Around
Up, down
Turn around
Touch the sky
Touch the ground
Wiggle fingers
Wiggle toes
Wiggle shoulders
Say hello!
Song: Hands Are Clapping
(sing to tune of “Skip To My Lou”)
Hands are clapping
Clap clap clap
Hands are clapping
Clap clap clap
Hands are clapping
Clap clap clap
Clap your hands my darling!
Continue with …
-feet are stomping
-arms are flapping
End with …
Now let’s sit on the floor
Now let’s sit on the floor
Now let’s sit on the floor
Sit on the floor my darling!
Or continue more actions …
Toast in the toaster
Getting very hot
Tick tock tick tock
Up you pop! Book: There Was An Old Lady by Pam Adams
Instead of singing that the old lady would die, I replaced the lyrics with "I think she'll cry", and made crying motions with my hands.
Song: Can You Move With Me?
(Tune: Do Your Ears Hang Low?)
Can you wiggle like a worm?
Can you squiggle, can you squirm?
Can you flutter, can you fly like a gentle butterfly?
Can you crawl upon the ground?
Like a beetle that is round?
Can you move with me?
Can you flip, can you flop, can you give a little hop?
Can you slither like a snake?
Can you give a little shake?
Can you dance like a bee?
Who is buzzing round a tree?
Can you move with me?
This was an action song, so we were doing actions while singing the song. Before we sang each line, I demonstrated the action so that the toddlers could follow along.
(Tune: Do Your Ears Hang Low?)
Can you wiggle like a worm?
Can you squiggle, can you squirm?
Can you flutter, can you fly like a gentle butterfly?
Can you crawl upon the ground?
Like a beetle that is round?
Can you move with me?
Can you flip, can you flop, can you give a little hop?
Can you slither like a snake?
Can you give a little shake?
Can you dance like a bee?
Who is buzzing round a tree?
Can you move with me?
This was an action song, so we were doing actions while singing the song. Before we sang each line, I demonstrated the action so that the toddlers could follow along.
Song: Flutter Flutter
(Tune: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Flutter, flutter butterfly, floating in the spring sky
Floating by for all to see, floating by so merrily
Flutter flutter butterfly, floating in the spring sky
We used scarves for this song so that the toddlers could imagine they had soft butterfly wings.
Felt Story: Bee Hive
One little bee flew and flew.
He met a friend, and that made two.
Two little bees, busy as could be.
Along came another and that made three.
Three little bees wanted one more.
Found one soon and that made four.
Four little bees going to the hive.
Spied their little brother and that made five.
Five little bees working every hour.
Busy away, bees and find a flower.
I found the following rhyme on Anne's Library Life. The felt story was included in an insect storytime kit that came from our central library branch. The toddlers loved these littles bees so much that they kind of tore into them...as you can see, there are some antennae and eyes missing...
Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain
And washed the spider out
Out came the sun
And dried up all the rain
And the itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the spout again
This one is always a hit because the toddlers recognize the song. We sang this while doing the motions with our hands. If you check youtube, there are a couple of different ways to do the hand motions.
Song: Ants Go Marching
The ants go marching one by one
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The ants go marching one by one
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The ants go marching one by one
We are having so much fun,
and we all go marching down,
to the ground
Boom boom boom!
I handed out music shakers and we danced around in a circle and jumped up while yelling "hurrah!". We then fell to the ground and pounded our hands on the floor for the words "boom, boom, boom!".
Book: Little Big Flaps Insects by Charles Reasoner
A short, simple book that reveals the whole insect's body with a flap. The toddlers liked coming up and helping me open the flaps. They were coming up altogether though, so this would have been a good opportunity to learn how to take turns.
Craft: Caterpillar Necklace
Our awesome teen volunteers helped us by cutting the shapes for this craft. They also helped roll and tape green paper as a substitute for the pasta pieces in the original craft design.
Materials:
-pink and green cardstock
-crayons, markers, stickers for decorating
-string
1. cut 4 equal-sized circles and 1 larger circle using the pink cardstock
2. cut rectangles out of the green cardstock, and then roll and tape the ends together so it looks like a long green bead
3. cut out ear shapes using scraps from the green cardstock, then glue to the back of the largest pink circle
4. decorate the caterpillar's face and body
5. put the string through the largest circle, then alternate doing this with the pink and green pieces of cardstock; tie the ends of the string
Parachute, Bubbles and Colouring Sheet
We had time for the parachute today! Yahoo! I then handed out a bugs theme colouring sheet and stickers, and blew bubbles for the kids.
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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!
