Babies - Toddler Storytime

 
Another recent toddler storytime...

A couple of weeks ago I happened across a couple cute books about babies while straightening up the shelves, so decided on that for that week's storytime theme, since several of our attendees either are babies, have baby siblings, or are about to have new babies.

As always, we started with our "Hello" song: 

Hello, my friends, hello.

Hello, my friends, hello.

Hello my friends at storytime,

Hello, my friends, hello.

I introduced myself, then welcomed all of the children by name, and quickly went over expectations (this is toddler storytime, geared for ages 1-3, but all ages are welcome; toddlers are not expected to be able to sit and listen quietly, so it's okay if they are milling around but please keep them in this general area, not behind me, not racing around the room; feel free to step out if they get too restless and rejoin when they calm down or for the activities afterward).

Our warm-up song for the month was "The Wheels on The Bus", followed by two egg-shaker songs (I usually alternate scarves one month and egg shakers the next, because I found it didn't make for smooth transitions trying to do one song with each all the time). First I tell them to make sure their egg shakers work! Then I run thru shaking various ways and stopping on cue prior to doing our songs:

Shake Your Shakers

Shake your shakers way up high, 

way up high, way up high.

Shake your shakers way up high,

Shake your shakers.

(way down low, over here, over there, fast fast fast, slow slow slow)

Primary Colors Egg Shaker Song

(Nancy Stewart)

Once they'd had plenty of movement to get their wiggles out, I lead into reading the book I'd selected with a song that I've used for years, "If You're Ready for a Story". I like it because I can do as many verses as needed, and adapt it to the energy level. 

For our book I chose Karen Katz's Ten Tiny Babies. Karen Katz is one of my go-to authors for toddlers and babies because she keeps the text short and simple, with content little ones can relate to, and they typically can be made fairly interactive. I particularly like this book because of the diversity (babies represent different ethnicities/skin tones, and adults appear to be an interracial couple) and all the actions the kids can do along with the babies in the story, such as running, jumping, and wiggling. And as a bonus it helps us practice counting from 1 to 10.

We concluded with bubbles, while singing "Ten Little Bubbles", counting up and back down.

One little, two little, three little bubbles;

Four little, five little, six little bubbles;

Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles;

Ten little bubbles go POP!

Pop, pop, pop go all the bubbles.

Pop, pop, pop go all the bubbles.

Pop, pop, pop go all the bubbles;

All the little bubbles go POP!

Ten little, nine little, eight little bubbles;

Seven little, six little, five little bubbles;

Four little, three little, two little bubbles;

One little bubble goes POP!

Then I announced that was the end of the storytime portion, and that we did have activities afterward, but we would go ahead and sing our "Good-Bye" song in case we didn't get to say good-bye to all of our friends later.

Storytime is over, wave good-bye.

Storytime is over, wave good-bye.

Storytime is done, and I know that we had fun.

Storytime is over, wave good-bye.

Activities 

This week I didn't really have any activities that related to the book, but of course the kids don't really care. I just pulled out a variety of things:

• Foam blocks
• Sensory tubes
• Sensory balls
• Stacking cups
• Bunny builders
• Sensory bin (sand with animal & castle molds)
• Paper & crayons

How It Went

Though the kids were not necessarily as interested in the subject of babies as I thought they'd be, they did enjoy doing all the actions along with the babies in the book. As always, there was lot of excitement when I pulled out the bubbles! Bubbles are not only fun, but great for tracking and encouraging reaching across the midline. Even babies too young to chase and pop them love watching them. I had a slightly smaller crowd that usual, 12 kids and associated grown-ups, but still a decent crowd.