Songs and Lyrics, Oh My!

By now, you should all know I love to sing, even if it’s not always so great. The majority of every one of my storytimes is singing. I can’t help it, it just has to happen that way for storytime to work. I feel good, grown ups feel good, the kids definitely feel good so it’s a total win situation.

Anyway, I’ve had some requests for tunes and lyrics to various songs used in storytime. May I humbly direct you to my Rhymes page? There I have written out the words to more than 60 rhymes and songs and have recorded myself singing several of them.  I’m working really hard to get them all recorded but for now I’ve picked the ones with the trickiest tunes.

The newest members of the recorded song family are:

Hi, Hello, and How Are You?

The Elevator Song (Jbrary has also done this one)

Wake Up! Quiet and Loud song. This probably has a real name, but I call it the wake up song. VERY popular in storytime.

Hello and Goodbye Bubbles 

Wake Up Toes

Bouncing, Bouncing

Let me know if you need the tunes to anything else and I’ll get on it, asap. In the meantime, check out Jbrary and KCLS Tell Me a Story for visuals to go with the sound (I’m too lazy to get out of my pjs to do a video, sorry).

And just because. Yes, yes, I do.

 

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Storytime for Twos: Eric Carle

Today’s 2 year old storytime ended up with an Eric Carle theme unintentionally, but hey, the guy’s great so there ya go. And this is the cutest meme and kinda related so.

Today’s outline:

Introduction, including a reminder about our district’s program marketing survey and to check out books for grown ups and let your children see you reading and enjoying it. The more you enjoy reading, the more your child will.

Hello Bubbles

Hi, Hello and How Are You with ukulele (I’m getting better, finally!)

This is Big, Big, Big

Breathe: take a deep breath and blow it out slow. Works really well for getting them ready to listen. Plus, I personally love it as a coping mechanism for stress and transition.

Book: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

We repeated the phrase “she was very busy” in chorus on each page. It was really effective in keeping them engaged through this longer book.

Let’s Go Riding on an Elevator Love this video from Washington County of this rhyme.

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

This is Big, Big, Big

Breathe

Book: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

Shakers:

Warm up with shake high, low, fast, slow, fast, stop, fast, stop

We’re Tapping by Kathy Reid-Naiman

This is Big, Big, Big

Book: If You’re  Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera (4 verses)

Description of Activity: tell them about playdough and remind them to check out books and participate in our Library Week activity. Share what they love about the library or how the library has changed their lives in a thought bubble. We’ll photograph it and post it on Facebook. Had no takers during storytime but a co-worker was able to catch some after. So yay!

Goodbye Bubbles

Activity: playdough with cookie cutters and stampers. Lavender colored this time. ’tis Spring!

 

 

 

 

Storytime: Take a bath and paint with balloons!

Those of us who do storytimes for ones and twos decided to collaborate on the after storytime activity. Since storytimes are back to back with different presenters each time, this has helped immensely with set up each day. This week we all painted with balloons. This was one of my co-worker’s (soon to be former, WAAAAHHH!!) brilliant ideas and now I can’t wait to try variations. Like, not inflating the balloons and filling them with rice, buttons, marbles, cotton balls, whatever! Can we use other things besides paint? So many ideas!

Anyway, here’s Storytime for Twos!

Hello Bubbles

Hi, Hello and How Are You? with the ukulele

This is Big

Book: Animal Baths by Bob Barner

Ram Sam Sam

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Book: Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont (awesome one to sing and the kids responded SO well to the entire thing, as did the parents)

Coconut Soap by Frank Leto with scarves (even though this is long, they stuck with me the whole time and LOVED scrubbing with their coconut soap scarves)

Itsy Bitsy Spider with scarves

This is Big

Closing Book: The Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera

Goodbye Bubbles

Activity: balloon painting

Storytime for Twos

Adding storytimes this year seems to be working as the group size has been much more manageable! Fingers crossed it keeps up!

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to storytime for two year olds. Before we get started, I have just a few housekeeping items. Please put away snacks during storytime and save any grown up conversations until after storytime. The table behind me and the tables by the window are no fly zones. If your little one is grabbing things off the tables or otherwise distracted by them, please re-direct them to the storytime rug.  And lastly, please sing and dance and play along with me. The more you get involved, the more your child will!

Hello Bubbles

Hi Hello and How Are You?

This is Big (Thanks to Mel for this one)

This is big, big, big

This is small, small, small

This is short, short, short

This is tall, tall, tall

This is yes, yes, yes

This is no, no, no

This is fast, fast, fast

This is slow, slow, slow

Parent Message: We have read this book in storytime before and that’s because repetition is very important. The more you do something with your child, the better they learn it. This is also why we do songs over and over again.

Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails by Nancy Tafuri

3 Little Ducks Flannel Board: KCLS Tell Me a Story has a video for it here

Rather than 5 or 6 little ducks going out one day I cut the number to 3. Otherwise it’s just too long for toddlers. We’re really lucky to have these individual flannel bags that have a clear pocket on one side for holding flannel pieces and felt on the other side so families can play along. The kids love getting their own flannel set to play with.  I have no idea where these bags came from or how to find them again. They probably wouldn’t be too hard to make actually… *adds to long list of things to try*

Elevator Song

Ram Sam Sam

This is Big

Little White Duck by Walt Whippo

Toast in the Toaster

The Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera

This is Big

Goodbye Bubbles

Activity: Dobbers and die cut shapes. This is a great fine motor activity for toddlers as they have to grip the dobbers just right. Plus it’s noisy fun to pound them on the tables.