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
Pigs Theme Rhymes and Songs
The Plan
Hello Good Morning
Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes
London Bridge is Falling Down
Book: Ten Pigs: An Epic Bath Adventure by Derek Anderson
Finger Play: Two Mother Pigs
Song: Down on Grandpa's Farm
Activity: Count the Mud Spots on the Pig/Directions Game
Puppet Show: The 3 Little Pigs
Board Book: This Little Piggy by Heather Collins
Craft: Pig Mask
Parachute and 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: Ten Pigs: An Epic Bath Adventure by Derek Anderson
I love this book! Numbers, repetition, and a surprise ending that made even the parents and caregivers chuckle!
Finger Play: Two Mother Pigs
Two mother pigs lived in a pen (show thumbs)
Each had four babies, and that made ten (show fingers & thumbs)
These four babies liked to wiggle (left thumb in palm, wiggle left hand fingers)
These four babies liked to tickle (switch hands, repeat)
All eight babies loved to play
And they rolled and rolled in the mud all day (roll hands)
At night, with their mother, they curled up in a heap (clasp hands)
And squealed and squealed till they fell fast asleep.
Song: Down on Grandpa's Farm
(check out this tune in youtube)
We’re on our way, we’re on our way
On our way to Grandpa’s farm.
We’re on our way, we’re on our way
On our way to Grandpa’s farm.
Down on Grandpa’s farm
there is a big, brown cow.
Down on Grandpa’s farm
there is a big, brown cow.
The cow, she makes a sound like this….Mooo.
The cow, she makes a sound like this….Mooo.
Red Hen...Cluck-cluck
White Sheep...Baaaaa
Black Dog...Woof
Brown Horse...Neigh
I asked each toddler, by turn, to choose an animal from the bucket for this song. It became a REALLY long song (long to sing, and probably long for the parents -- the toddlers loved it though!). I should have kept it at a smaller number of animals, but I also wanted each toddler to have a chance at choosing their own animal.
Activity: Count the Mud Spots on the Pig/Directions Game
I gave a piece of mud to each of the toddlers, then called out a random number and asked the toddlers to come up and help add the correct number of mud pieces to the pig's body. We did this twice, and then compared which pig is muddier/dirtier: the one with less mud pieces, or more mud pieces?
Directions Game: We "cleaned" the pig and then I asked each toddler to place their mud piece either on top, under/below, or on the right or left side of the pig.
Puppet Show: The 3 Little Pigs
I gave a puppet or prop to each of the toddlers, and as I recited the story of the 3 Little Pigs, I asked them to hold up their puppets or props when they were called in the story. When I did this with an older group of kids, I asked them to recite their own lines.
Board Book: This Little Piggy by Heather Collins
We have a collection of board books, all with the same title. This is a great opportunity for toddlers to learn how to follow the story, flip pages, listen to instructions and answer questions.
Craft: Pig Mask
Materials:
-recycled cardboard cut into circles and painted pink
-large popsicle sticks
-cotton, to place under the foam nose
-pink foam, cut into circles for the nose
-coloured construction paper cut into pig ear shapes
-googly eyes
-pink pipe cleaners
-glue
Before the storytime session, I used a glue gun to glue the popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners to the back of the pink cardboard circles. This way, the toddlers and their parents/caregivers would only need to glue the eyes, cotton/nose, and ears during the actual storytime session. After, I asked the toddlers to curl the pipe cleaners around their finger to make a curly pig tail.
Parachute and 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 pigs 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!
