Happy Birthday to Me - Preschool Storytime

For the first time ever, my birthday fell on a storytime day and I decided that would make a fun theme for storytime and a fun way to celecbrate.

I began with our "Hello" song, introduced myself, greeted everyone, and went over expectations. Then we warmed up with a movement song, "Jump Down, Turn Around" by Greg and Steve:

We're gonna jump down, turn around, get your body moving.

Jump down, turn around, everybody dance.

Jump down, turn around, get your body moving.

Jump down turn around, everybody dance.

We've got dancing hands, we've got dancing hands.

And dancing feet, oh, we've got dancing feet.

And dancing hips, come on and move those hips.

And a dancing head, oh, we've got a dancing head.

(repeat chorus)

We've got dancing knees, oh, we've got dancing knees.

And dancing elbows, come on and move those elbows.

And dancing shoulders, hey, come on and move those shoulders.

Move those legs, yeah, we've got dancing legs.

(repeat chorus)

Dancing eyes, come on now, move those eyes.

And a dancing nose, hey, come on and move that nose.

Dancing fingers, can you move those fingers?

And dancing toes, come on and move those toes.

(repeat chorus)

After that we did our lead-in song, "If You're Ready for a Story", which starts from larger movements, moves to smaller movements, and ends with them sitting down and saying "shh".

For our first story I chose one that I've used in storytime a few times before, Don't Wake Up the Tiger by Britta Teckentrup. 

This is a really great interactive storytime book that features animals, balloons, bright illustrations, and a suprise ending. The animals are trying to sneak past a sleeping tiger blocking their path, and require help from the audience. All the animals pass safely until the very last one, the stork, accidentally pops a balloon and wakes the tiger. Fearing the worst, the audience discovers that the animals wanted the tiger to stay asleep because they were putting together a surprise birthday party for her! We counted the candles on the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Tiger.

After that I segued into a rhyme about blowing up (and popping) balloons, accompanied by my flannel board and felt balloons. This rhyme let kids identify colors and blow up pretend balloons.

Blowing Balloons

I had a   (color)  balloon,

And I blew (blow), and blew (blow), and blew (blow)!

My mother said I'd better stop, but (blow),

(CLAP) Oops, too late, it popped!

For our second book I chose Cupcake by Cherise Mericle Harper, partly because of the sparkly cover, partly because everyone loves cupcakes and we were going to have mini-cupcakes after storytime, and partly because it was funny with a twist ending. I introduced it by mentioning cupcakes as an alternative birthday cake that you might take to school to share with your friends.

The story begins with mixing flour, sugar, eggs, and baking powder, baking the batter in the oven, and thus Cupcake and his siblings were born. The other cupcakes had special flavors and decoration, while Cupcake was a plain vanilla cupcake. Cupcake was left feeling said because he was not as fancy as the other cupcakes, so Candle suggests several weird and ridiculous toppers. Just when you think they have finally realized the obvious solution, the story ends with Candle making yet another silly suggestion.

I followed that with a flannel board and counting rhyme about blowing out candles on a birthday cake:

Birthday Candles

Five candles on a birthday cake, next year there'll be one more!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves four.

Four candles on a birthday cake, pretty as can be!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves three.

Three candles on a birthday cake, hope my wish comes true!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves two.

Two candles on a birthday cake, birthdays are so fun!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves one.

One candle on a birthday cake, the party's almost done!

Blow the last candle out, and now there are none!

I squeezed in a third and final book, Where is Baby's Birthday Cake? by Karen Katz. 

This was a short and simple lift-a-flap board book, which worked for my small group. Kids always love guessing what will be behind the flap, and I liked how it showed lots of different elements of the birthday party - hats, balloons, presents, friends, ice cream, and finally the cake. It tied the whole birthday party theme together very nicely.

I followed that with the classic nursery rhyme:

Pat-a-Cake

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.
Bake us a cake as fast as you can!

Roll it, and pat it, mark it with a "B",

and put it in the oven, for Baby and me!

Then we ended with our "Goodbye" song, and moved on to a birthday crown craft and mini-cupcakes! I also had a display of other birthday-themed books, including some that reflected other cultural birthday treats.

Paper Plate Birthday Crown

1. Color back of plate as desired.
2. Fold plate in half, and cut through the center, leaving rim intact, then along the folds to make eight triangles. [You can also cut first, then color]
3. Fold each triangle back so they stand up straight.
   [Other embellishments like stick-on gems or sequins would be fun, too.]

Literacy Tip - Blowing exercises the small muscles in your/your child's lips, tongue, and cheeks, which are used for speech and eating. Some fun ways to practice are blowing out candles, blowing bubbles, and blowing through a straw to push small pieces of paper, feathers, or pom-poms across a table.
 

I also led them through the mindfulness excercise of taking deep breaths and slowly blowing out one "candle" (fingers) at a time.

How It Went

This turned out to be a super fun theme, even if it was a little self-indulgent. Birthdays are hard for me these days, and it nice to be able to enjoy it for once. The last time I had an actual birthday party was when I was 16!

The kids really had fun with the interactive elements of Don't Wake the Tiger, blowing up balloons, blowing out candles, and singing "Happy Birthday". One child was pretty shy and unsure about the whole thing, but when I brought out the cupcakes, he suddenly was all smiles! He licked the icing off, then shoved the whole cupcake in his mouth. [I did include a written heads-up about the cupcakes so caregivers could duck out before I brought them out if they had allergies or other dietary concerns/preferences .]