Toddler Tales 3/13/19

Toddler Tales! I've been on a super traditional toddler story time kick lately and this one, for ages 2-4 at our branch library, was tons of fun! It was a 3-week-session with a different theme each week. The first week we did animals, the second week we did food, and the third week we did bugs. Today I'm blogging about week 2 and my all-time favorite storytime theme-- Food!

First we started with the book Little Green Peas by Keith Baker, which is great for this age group because it gets them to name colors and it's also super silly! Peas flying kites? Peas sailing boats? Peas living in royal castles? So silly! 

Then we moved on to the (loosely food related) Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin. I use this book, basically, as often as I can get away with. It was also on Sadie's Top 5, Ages 18-24 Months list. This one is a favorite for SO MANY kids. If you're not yet familiar, this is the story of cool cat Pete who loves his white shoes so much that he sings about them. The book has singing, color recognition, and lots of silliness! Plus, there's a super-cool, positive message at the end. It makes for a big hit with a pretty large age group. Pluuuuuuus it ties really nicely into this great, simple food song called Picked A Strawberry, thanks to Jbrary!:

When I sing Picked A Strawberry with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, I usually have us pick strawberries first and blueberries second. This follows along with the order of the berries in the book. Then I have the kids name other things we can pick. For this particular storytime, we wound up picking apples, peaches, oranges, carrots, and bananas. One kid also suggested chocolate! If only!!

Last, we read Hi, Pizza Man by Virginia Walter. This is a great one because a lot of kids don't know it and a lot of parents/caregivers don't either. It's about waiting for pizza and speculating who will bring it. Will it be a pizza man? A pizza woman? A pizza dog? A pizza cat? A pizza snake? Once again, this book has great repetition and lots of silliness. And, instead of having the kids name colors, this time they get to name animal sounds. A little variety!

Then we sang one last song, P-I-Z-Z-A, another perfect tie in, and also taken from Jbrary:



I had all the letters, P I Z Z A, hung up so I could pull them down for a little visual as we sang. See the photo above.

Then it became craft time! We all marched down the hall to the small, sunny craft room to make paper plate personal pizzas (that's a lot of P-words!).

This was a fun craft that required a lot of prep on my part! Each pizza has crayon sauce (I only put out red and orange crayons), collaged paper toppings (This was the majority of my prep work. I cut piles of yellow cheese, red pepperoni, and green peppers.), and tissue paper crust (I cut brown tissue paper squares, thinking the kids would ball them up before they glued, up but some just glued them on as is-- that's ok too!). Here are a few delicious looking finished products:

What worked least: While the pizza craft worked, I had some anxiety about it going in. I worried that it would be too fast. Like, I was afraid that it would only take the kids 5 minutes to make. But actually, it was totally fine! In fact, a craft that took any longer probably wouldn't have held the interest of the kids in this age range anyway. So, aside from the prep work and somewhat obnoxious clean up, all was well!

What worked best: It's a tie between Pete The Cat and Hi, Pizza Man! While Pete The Cat is kind of a guaranteed success, Hi, Pizza Man! is also a fun title that most people don't know, and that gets the kids involved and participating. Overall, basically, this was a storytime worth blogging about.

Musical Kids (for ages 17-29 months) 5/25/18

Greetings from my second official maternity leave! I am enjoying a summer off, sleeping in and relaxing poolside. Just kidding! Turns out it's super hard to have a newborn and a toddler at the same time! I'm exhausted! Anyway, I started this blog post a couple of days before I went into labor and then--surprise!--my daughter came early and I never got to finish it. Until today!

Friday, May 25 I did my last Musical Kids class before baby and I had my favorite visitor join me: Sadie! As it turns out, it has been over two years since I featured my "middle group" in a Musical Kids blog post! And now that I have a "middle group"-aged kid myself, it seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss them! They are such a fun, sweet group that seem to range so much in their 12-month span of ages. In fact, I've always found this group the hardest one to plan for because of their varied levels of abilities and understanding. Even with my own kid falling in this range, it's still a hard group to accommodate fully-- at least the way I'd ideally like to.

That said (and I hate to sound biased but I totally am), it's currently my favorite group because... well, honestly, my favorite group is just whichever one Sadie is in.

Anyway, here's my playlist for the week (red = ipod, blue = sing):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. We're Going To Kentucky by Bob McGrath (shakers)
3. Spaghetti Legs by Jim Gill (shakers)
4. This is the Way We Wash Our Arms (scarves) *
5. The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Suzi Shelton (scarves) **
6. If You're Happy and You Know It
7. Rocketship Run by Laurie Berkner (rockets) ***
8. Whole Lotta Lovin' from Fats Domino (drums)
9. Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles (tambourines)
10. The Grand Old Dukes of York (parachute) #
11. Ring Around the Rosie (parachute) ##
12. Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer (parachute + balls) ###
13. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + bubbles)

* This is the Way We Wash Our Arms: To the tune of So Early in the Morning, for this song, we pretend our scarves are washcloths and "wash" different parts of our bodies. So the first verse goes:

This is the way we wash our arms, wash our arms, wash our arms
This is the way we wash our arms so early in the morning

Then we come up with other body parts to sing about, usually doing about 5 in total. Simple and fun, plus great for getting kids in this age group to reinforce the names of body parts.

** The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Suzi Shelton: This is a fun one! I use the scarves and have everyone pretend that they are lions and their scarves are are blankets or pillows. When the song starts, everyone is "sleeping." Then, when Suzi Shelton says, "Wake up lions!" we all dance around and wave our scarves. It's fun and I also just love this version of this song.

*** Rocketship Run by Laurie Berner: I write about Rocketship Run every time I blog about my middle or oldest Musical Kids group because it's an absolute essential with these kids. I can't do the class without it. When I do this song, I hand out rockets-on-sticks (which I made, probably, four years ago at this point) for them to zoom around with, and then also, I hold up signs for all the places that we "travel" to. Here is a picture of my gear:

When I hold up a given sign, the kiddos all run up and touch their rocket to the sign, like they're really "going" to the sun/moon/etc. I'VE NEVER TOLD THEM TO DO THIS, and yet every week, it happens. It's so funny! They totally invented it and it's continued on from week-to-week and from class-to-class. For years! In fact, I saw my own daughter run up and touch the sign with her rocket for the very first time during this class and it made me crack up in the middle of the class. It was SO cute and funny. Additionally, this song always gets the loudest end-of-song cheer from both the children and the adults. A++ for Rocketship Run! Here are a few pictures of the kids last week as they "traveled" to the stars. There's mine right in the mix of it!

# The Grand Old Duke of York: If you're not familiar with it, the lyrics to The Grand Old Duke of York can be found here. The song references "up" and "down" and "top" and "bottom" a couple of times, making it a super easy and intuitive parachute song-- just follow along with the lyrics!

## Ring Around the Rosie: This is a great kids-on-top-of-the-parachute song. We seat them all in the middle, then the adults walk around in a circle, holding the parachute handles as we sing the first verse. For the second verse ("Cows are in the meadow eating butter cups, ashes, ashes, we all jump up!"), the adults shake the parachute quickly around the kids then snap it up around them when we sing the words "jump up!" I usually do the whole thing twice since it's short.

### Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer: Usually for this song we bounce the balls around in the parachute slowly and quickly. It's fun because the song changes tempo and we have to keep up. However on this particular Friday, I let the kids sit on top of it instead and they just kind of played with the balls while the adults shook the parachute around them. This group of kids were just kind of all about sitting on the parachute, so I went with it.

What worked least: Me. Really. This class was the first time ever that I sat down for a large part of Musical Kids. I felt kind of guilty at the time but, looking back now, I was just days away from going into labor so I can give myself a pass.

What worked best: No surprise here-- Rocketship Run is always the highlight of this program. And I LOVED seeing Sadie in the mix with all the other kids. It was so cute!

Even though I am almost 7 weeks into maternity leave, I won't be back at work again until October. So happy summer, everybody! I'll be back in the fall!

Musical Kids (for ages 6-16 months) 2/2/18

Ladies and gentleman, I cannot resist. Both my daughter and my neighbor's daughter visited me for Musical Kids last week and I've got to blog about it! I know I've written about the 6-16 month-olds repeatedly and no other Musical Kids groups for a very long time, but they're such a sweet and fun group, with such sweet and good-natured parents, I just can't resist sharing. Especially when my own sweet Sadie makes an appearance for the day!

Anyway, here's my playlist (red = ipod, blue = sing):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. We're Going To The Market by Kathy Reid-Naiman (shakers)
3. Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here (shakers)*
4. Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group from the Sing soundtrack (tambourines)
5. Popcorn Kernels (scarves) **
6. Elevator Song by MaryLee(scarves) ***
7. Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner(scarves) ***
8. B-I-N-G-O by Lynn Kleiner (circle dance) ****
9. Aiken Drum from the Five Little Monkeys CD (drums)
10. Heartbeat Drumbeat by Joanie Bartles (drums) #
11. Colors Over You (parachute) ##
12. Let's Go Riding in an Elevator (parachute) ###
13. I'm a Little Groundhog (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets) ####
14. Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets)
15. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + letters + bubbles)

* Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here is the made-up-name I gave to the Jbrary song seen below (originally titled Let's All Clap). I just swapped "clap" for "shake" to make it a shakers song and it's been working really well for introductions (done the first week of each session) since January. Until 2018, I have always used Mary Had a Little Lamb for introductions, subbing out Mary for each kid in the class, but after a 4-year-old told me "hates that song," I traded it for Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here and I haven't looked back! (To be honest, I got a little tired of it too.) It's much faster and more efficient than Mary Had a Little Lamb, so it's here to stay!

** Popcorn Kernels: About two years ago I was in a scarf-rut and, to combat it, heavily researched new scarf songs for a few days. Then, of course, I wound up introducing a whole batch of new songs all at once. As time passed, the two that stuck around most prominently for the long haul were called The Scarf is On My Head and Popcorn Kernels. The handout for both of these songs can be downloaded here. The Scarf is On My Head goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and is possibly the reigning favorite scarf song, but Popcorn Kernels, to the tune of Frère Jacques, is a close second favorite! It goes like this:

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels (wave the scarf around above your head)

In the pot, in the pot (crumple the scarf into balls in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them (shake your tightly wrapped scarf around in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them

'Til they pop, 'til they pop (toss the scarf up in the air and watch it fall slowly to the floor)

*** Elevator Song by MaryLee (from the CD Baby-O) and Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner: These are two of my favorite sitting down/lap songs for this age group and, as it turns out, they also make wonderful scarf songs! I like to do some basic lap and hand motions for each-- gentle bouncing and lifting in Elevator Song and most of the stuff Laurie Berkner herself does in the Moon Moon Moon video. I usually hold the scarf for both, waving it around bit, and let the parents and babies sort of interpret all of it in a way that works best for them. Different levels of scarffing/bouncing/watching me do hand motions work differently for each kid, so this works in different ways for everyone. It's nice. Here are two videos for reference:

**** B-I-N-G-O makes an awesome and easy circle dance for the parents and babies to do together. I'm going to try REALLY hard to explain it:

For this song, heard on YouTube here, the parents hold their babies and walk around in a circle. For the verse of the song, everyone just kind of dances their kids as they face out. Then, the song slowly goes through the letters, B, I, N, G, and O. For B, I, N, and G everyone takes a step in--one step per letter. So by the end of G, everyone's in a tight circle with all the babies looking at each other up close. Then, for the letter O, we all scoot quickly back out of the circle to our original spots.

# Heartbeat Drumbeat: I got the idea to do Heartbeat Drumbeat from a library program I took Sadie to at my local library. The (real) song, however, is a little long for kids, and if I am remembering right, the library programmer who used it wound up just cutting the song off when it got too long. I just can't do that. I am too particular. Enter... YOUTUBE 💜💛💚. I've encountered this dilemma a few times over the years (mostly when I do holiday programs, actually) and, when I do, I turn to YouTube. I found the PERFECT version of Heartbeat Drumbeat here. A little finagling and it's made its way into my playlist. It even has audience applause at the end, which is a fun bonus!

## Colors Over You is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and goes like this:

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

Red like an apple

Green like a tree

Yellow like the sun

And blue like the sea

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

### Let's Go Riding in an Elevator can be found in the video below and works just as well (if not better!) with the parachute and the kiddos underneath it:

#### A groundhog's day special song! I'm A Little Groundhog goes to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot and was easy enough for me to memorize! We bounced mini groundhog puppets around in the parachute as we sang:

I'm a little groundhog short and stout

February second I will come out.

If I see my shadow hear me shout: 

"Six weeks more winter without doubt!"

What worked least: I'm a Little Groundhog wasn't the highlight of the program, as the song was quick, nobody knew it, and the babies totally don't care about groundhogs day, but when Musical Kids falls on an actual holiday (even groundhog's day), I feel like I have to acknowledge it in some way. Plus, we had such cute little finger puppets from Folkmanis (no longer available but similar to this beaver) that we never get to use and bouncing them around on the parachute a bit was fun!

What worked best: Everything worked with this group. I love my baby classes! But, as usual, I'd call the highlight of the program the parachute in general. It's just so much fun and so much great stimulation for the babies!

Concepts For Kids

Throwback post! Now that I am totally back on a roll with blogging, I thought it would be a good time to write about a program I did back in November but never blogged about called Concepts For Kids-- admittedly not my most creatively named program, but fun and definitely worth the blog post.

Concepts for Kids is really just a very specific version of an ongoing program I did for a long time (but stopped about a year ago) called Books n Play for Pre-K. Each week, in Books n Play for Pre-K, I would do a different theme--anything from winter to colors to food to dinosaurs. Generally, the time was broken down like this:

~15-20 minutes: Hello song, two/three books, two/three songs
~15-20 minutes: Open play time with craft table and activity table (with music playing)
~5-10 minutes: One more book or song, Goodbye song

I modified my plan a little for Concepts for Kids, but at its heart, this was the same program, except with four very specific weekly themes: Colors, Numbers, Letters, Shapes. You know, concepts!

Here's a week-by-week breakdown of the books, songs, crafts, and toys that I used each week:

Week 1 – Theme: Colors

Books:
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

Song:
Picked a Strawberry (not color-related but fun Pete the Cat tie-in!)*

Craft Table:
1. Color hand prints**
2. Rainbow print outs + dot markers
3. Thanksgiving turkey craft ***

Activity Table:
1. Farm sorting (similar to this)
2. Bee hive game (seen below)
3. Rainbow discs-- CDs with flashlights ****
4. Light table with colored blocks (seen below)

* Picked a Strawberry: This is a cute song that comes from--you guessed it--Jbrary! It's not a color song but it's just SO perfect for pairing with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes that I broke the rules and sang it during the color-themed week anyway! Here it is:

** Colored Hand Prints: These are an ongoing craft favorite of mine, but (in my opinion) too simple to be a stand-alone activity. However every time I have a colored-themed-anything, for preschool aged kids, this one makes an appearance. It's totally simple. The picture below sums it up nicely, I think.

And this picture, seen below, is the one I found online years ago that originally inspired this activity:

*** Thanksgiving turkey craft: This one was a total last minute add-on when one of my other crafts fell through (due to my supply-checking negligence). I made the simple template seen below, and had the kids color it, cut it out, and glue on pre-cut feathers that I made from construction paper. It was nice and I think people enjoyed having something to do for Thanksgiving.

**** Rainbow discs: These were literally just some old CDs with flashlights to shine on them-- nothing fancy at all. I borrowed everything from our library system in a big Science Buddies kit (that came with other things too, including the light table seen above), but any CDs and flashlights would work just fine! Parents and kiddies enjoyed shining the flashlights on the CDs and exploring the rainbows that were made together. It's a cute, quick, age-appropriate little science experiment!

Week 2 – Theme: Numbers

Books:
Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
10 Little Kittens by Megan Borgert-Spaniol

Song:
Five Little Monkeys

Craft Table:
1. Dogs Colorful Day sheets and dot markers *
2. Cotton ball cloud gluing collage **
3. Flower petal finger paint counting sheets ***

Activity Table:
1. Early Math Activity Center (this from Lakeshore Learning)
2. Peg boards (these from Lakeshore Learning)
3. Smart Snacks Number Pops (these from Oriental Trading)
4. Dough boards (seen below)

* Dogs colorful day sheets and dot markers: These were were simple and fun and have been a hit time and time again. They can be downloaded here and seen below:

** Cotton ball cloud gluing collage: Using the picture below (which I made quickly in Publisher), I had the kids glue cotton balls on the clouds and then count them. Also, of course, color the sheets. Basically, I left this totally open ended since the parents were doing it side-by-side with their kids. I figured they could make of it whatever they wanted!

*** Flower petal finger paint counting sheets: I made this craft myself (see below), again using Publisher, but totally stole the idea from this unattainable link on Pinterest.

The idea was to finger paint the correct number of flower petals one each stem. This craft was a little less obviously open-ended than the cotton ball cloud gluing collage, but the kids and parents made of it what they wanted anyway... which is always ok! Here are some hand-printing twins:

Week 3 – Theme: Letters

Books:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
ABC T-Rex by Bernard Most

Song:
ABCs with parachute and balls *

Craft Table:
1. Letter Stampers + paper (these from Learn365) **
2. Letter foam stickers + foam sheets (similar to these from Oriental Trading) **
3. Letter stencils with pictures that match + paper (these from Oriental Trading) **

Activity Table:
1. Dough boards (like the number ones used above, but letters!)
2. Play dough and letter-shaped cookie cutters
3. Melissa & Doug ABC Letter puzzles (these from Amazon)

* ABCs with parachute and balls: This is pretty self-explanatory, but a little funny. I had a hard time coming up with a song this week at first. I kept thinking, "why aren't there any good songs about the alphabet?" And then I remembered there's a VERY FAMOUS song about the alphabet that kids this age all know and are happy to sing. So, to make things a little extra exiting, we bounced balls around in the parachute as we sang the ABCs together. Everyone liked it!

** This picture shows all 3 crafts for this week at once! So all-encompassing!

Week 4 – Theme: Shapes

Book:
Perfect Square by Michael Hall *

Song: 

A Circle is a Shape **

Craft Table:
1. Gluing collage craft with pre-cut shapes
2. Shape stencils + colored pencils and paper (these from Oriental Trading)
3. Shape worksheet ***

Activity Table:
1. Flower magnets ****
2. Shape sorting bins (similar to these)
3. Blocks

* Perfect Square by Michael Hall: This wound up being the only book that we read for our last week of Concepts For Kids. I wound up with a younger, more restless group this week and decided to call it quits after only one story because there was just no way they were sitting through another. To be honest, I had a hard time choosing my second book for the week anyway and wasn't 100% happy with my choice in the end, so it was just as well!

** A Circle is a Shape: This is to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus and, yet again, comes from our friends at Jbrary. Here it is:

*** Shape worksheet: While, I guess, this was a bit half-hearted, I wanted a simple, age-appropriate activity to partner with college and stencils and this fit the bill. This is the sheet that I used:

**** Flower magnets: The kit we have can be found here (although I have no idea where we originally found it!) and the kids always seem to really like making their own little flower garden. Check out how the flowers in the second picture match the chart in the first picture! 👏👏

What worked least: This program just didn't wind up getting the kind of attendance I'd hoped for. Ranging from 2-6 kids per week, it required lots and lots of planning and set up, for a minimal reward. I'm not sure that there's anything I would change about the program itself, just maybe try it at a different (morning) time in the future.

What worked best: The craft/activity time was certainly the highlight of each week. In fact, I sort of felt like the kids were just politely sitting through my (relatively short!) story time so we could get to the good stuff. I think the open play format really works for toddlers.

Musical Kids (for ages 6-16 months) 11/10/17

Hello! Today I'm in the mood to blog about my favorite recurring program-- Musical Kids! I do Musical Kids so much that I could fill my entire blog with weekly posts about it but, for the sake of some variety, obviously, I don't. In fact, I'd taken a little (8 month!) break from writing about it! But two weeks ago, I had SUCH a wonderful baby class that I just have to blog about them! And no, it's not just because my own sweet Sadie was there to join the fun...although that might be part of it. Maybe.

If you haven't been to my blog before, allow me to briefly explain Musical Kids: This is a reoccurring program done in three 30-minute sessions per week: 6-16 months at 10:00, 17-29 months at 10:45 (this used to be 17-35 months), and 30 months-5 years at 11:30 (this used to be 3-5 years). We did a bit of age group modification recently due to overcrowding in the middle group, which is not a bad problem to have! This all goes on for 3 or 4 weeks in a row, takes a week or two off (or sometimes doesn't!), then starts again for another 3 or 4 weeks in a row. I love Musical Kids and, even more than that, I love the relationships that I've formed with the patrons who attend it! I am so so lucky to get to work with such wonderful families regularly.

So on to my baby class two Fridays ago. I'll be honest, when I was planning the various weeks of activities, I'd saved some of my favorite stuff for this 4th and final session because I knew my husband and daughter were coming and I wanted them to get the best of the best. You'd do the same if were you! 

Anyway, here's my playlist (red = ipod, blue = sing):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. Alabama, Mississippi by Jim Gill (shakers)
3. We're Going To The Market by Kathy Reid-Naiman (shakers)
4. Faith by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande (tambourines)
5. Popcorn Kernels *
6. Smile for the Camera by Datarock (scarves)
7. Five Little Monkeys (mitt) **
8. Heartbeat Drumbeat by Joanie Bartles (drums) ***
10. Whole Lotta Lovin' by Fats Domino (drums)
11. Peek-A-Boo (parachute) #
12. Popcorn by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights (parachute + balls) ##
13. Alphabet Song by Josh Levine (parachute + balls + letters) ##
11. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + letters + bubbles) ##

* Popcorn Kernels: About two years ago I was in a scarf-rut and, to combat it, heavily researched new scarf songs for a few days. Then, of course, I wound up introducing a whole batch of new songs all at once. As time passed, the two that stuck around most prominently for the long term were called The Scarf is On My Head and Popcorn Kernels. The handout for both of these songs can be downloaded here. The Scarf is On My Head goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and is possibly the reigning favorite scarf song (We did it the week prior to this one in Musical Kids. I can't save ALL the best stuff for the last week). But Popcorn Kernels, to the tune of Frère Jacques, is a close second favorite! It goes like this:

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels (wave the scarf around above your head)
In the pot, in the pot (crumple the scarf into balls in your hands)
Shake them, shake them, shake them (shake your tightly wrapped scarf around in your hands)
Shake them, shake them, shake them
'Til they pop, 'til they pop (toss the scarf up in the air and watch it fall slowly to the floor)

** Five Little Monkeys: Another thing I have blogged about before but want to mention again: The monkey mitt. It's available here. I totally chose to do this song this particular week because it's one of Sadie's favorites. So sue me! Like I said, you'd do the same if were you!

*** Heartbeat Drumbeat: I got the idea to do Heartbeat Drumbeat from a library program I took Sadie to at my local library. The (real) song, however, is a little long for kids, and if I am remembering right, the library programmer who used it wound up just cutting the song off when it got too long. I just can't do that. I am too particular. Enter... YOUTUBE 💜💛💚. I've encountered this dilemma a few times over the years (mostly when I do holiday programs, actually) and, when I do, I turn to YouTube. I found the PERFECT version of Heartbeat Drumbeat here. A little finagling and it's made its way into my playlist. It even has audience applause at the end, which is a fun bonus!

# Peek-A-Boo: This baby song, to the tune of Frère Jacques (again), goes like this:

Where are you hiding?
Where are you hiding?
I can't see you
I can't see you
Are you over here?
Are you over there?
Peek-a-boo!
Peek-a-boo!

It winds up being a fun little game for parents and babies to play together and is particularly good for the babies on the younger side of the 6-16 month age range. There is such a difference in ability between a 6-month-old and a 16-month-old, I like to make sure I get in at least one thing that is especially for the littler ones.

## Popcorn, Alphabet Song, and Blow a Kiss: The end of the babies Musical Kids class is always the most fun part (albeit probably best for those who are 10-months and up). Here's where, really, I just throw a bunch of stuff on the parachute and let the babies go wild. It's so simple, yet it is always the highlight of this class. Our parachute time and parachute songs vary from week to week, but they always end with some time like this. Here's how parachute time usually happens:

a. 1-2 structured parachute songs (in this case it was Peek-A-Boo. Other favorites are The Colors Over You, Come Under My Umbrella,  If You're Happy and You Know It, The Grand Old Duke of York, or Wheels on the Bus).

b. 1-2 unstructured parachute songs where we throw the beach balls in the middle of the parachute and just let the babies go hog wild (in this case they were Popcorn and The Alphabet Song). Some weeks we may toss alphabet letters (as seen here) or something else in the parachute too, but always the beach balls.

c. The goodbye song, which is always Blow A Kiss. I've found it best to use this as additional parachute time and also, because clearly there needs to be MORE STIMULATION, I also blow bubbles at this time.

What worked least: This was such a fun week but I'm not sure if Smile for the Camera was the best scarf song possible. It was my first time using it and may (or may not) be my last. But also, sometimes ya just need a little variety after a lot of the same things from week-to-week.

What worked best: In this class particularly, with this small but really really great group of babies (and parents), the end of the program felt like the best. Everyone (including me!) got in on a fun baby photo op (see the picture at the very top of this post) and I kind of felt like maybe, some real mom friendships were genuinely formed here. Such a great group, seriously! 

Stories in the Garden

My blog hasn't been getting much attention this summer because, instead of exciting-looking, blog-worthy parties and crafts at work, I've been hosting weekly simple programs for lots of different age groups: Musical Kids, Stop In Stories, and--new for this summer and the subject of today's post--Stories in the Garden!

My library is on a busy main street without any outdoor space whatsoever so it's really a special treat to have any kind of program out of the building. When I found out that my coworker arranged for us to be able to borrow the garden from the church across the street, I was SO excited to be part of it! (To be fair, it was March and I was still wearing boots, so it's possible that that played a small roll.) I wanted to make sure we fit lots of different age groups into the outdoor fun, so I did one session for ages 6-16 months, and one for ages 17 months-5 years. 

The big challenge with this program was that, since there were no outlets, I didn't have access to any recorded music--something I tend to rely heavily on in most of my programs for this age group. This meant that I had to come up with some new material: New songs, new parachute games, and--the most dramatic of all--a new hello and goodbye song! (Anyone who's ever stepped foot in one of my programs knows that I have been a loyal fan of Big Jeff's A New Way to Say Hello and Laurie Berkner's Blow a Kiss for what feels like forever).

The program, other than having totally weird-for-me hello and goodbye songs, went really well. On rainy days it was held inside and even then it was still fun, albeit slightly less well-attended. 

Here's me, barefoot (a nice perk), and ready to sing Five Little Ducks:

Since, above all else, this was a storytime, I'm going to list all the books that were read over the course of this program.

B = Baby class (6 - 16 months)

T = Toddler class (17-months - 5-years)

Are You My Mommy? by Mary Murphy (B)

Babies on the Bus by Karen Katz (B, T)

Baby Faces by Margaret Miller (B)

Baby Parade by Rebecca O'Connell (B, T)

Baby Pets by Margaret Miller (B)

Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton (B, T)

Breathe by Scott Magoon (B, T)

Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems (B, T) *

Elephant and Piggie: Elephants Cannot Dance by Mo Willems (T) *

First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger(B, T)

From Head to Toe by Eric Carle (T)

Hello Lamb by Jane Cabrera (B)

Hi Pizza Man! by Virgina Walter (T)

Jump by Scott M. Fischer (B, T)

Peek-a-Boo Zoo! by Jane Cabrera (B, T)

Pete the Cat: I Love My While Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin (T)

Pouch! by David Ezra Stein (B, T)

Say Hello Like This by Mary Murphy (B, T)

Toot Toot, Beep Beep by Emma Garcia (B, T)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (B, T)**

* Mo Willems' books are PERFECT for two-librarian storytimes! Andrea (of Disney Princess Tea and Mall Storytime) and I have totally mastered these! Reading Elephant and Piggie: Elephants Cannot Dance with Andrea feels like straight up acting, which is kind of fun, and Cat the Cat, Who Is That? has a sort of "call and response" feel, which flows a lot more naturally with two readers. Lately I try to work a Mo Willems book in every time I know there will be another librarian able to read with me.

** I've written briefly about our wonderful Very Hungry Caterpillar kit in the past before, but it's truly a wonderful storytime prop! The kids love holding up all the signs and "feeding" the different things to the caterpillar puppet throughout the story. They also like sticking their heads through the giant holes, as seen below.

Doing a storytime outside was SO much fun with both age groups, and coming up with a new hello and goodbye song turned out to be easy enough. Thanks to Jbrary (as usual), here is the song we used:

We Clap and Say Hello/Goodbye (to the tune of The Farmer In the Dell):

We clap and say hello
We clap and say hello
With our friends at storytime, we clap and say hello
We stomp and say hello
We stomp and say hello
With our friends at storytime, we stomp and say hello
We nod...
We jump...
We wave...

(I altered the actions a bit on a whim if it felt right for the group.)

Here's a picture of my baby group (and three moms) melting in the sweltering sun one week:

What worked least: Relying on the weather is something I'm not used to doing for a program. There was really only one week (the last week) where the weather was REALLY good, not to hot, not too wet. And actually, one week, it was so insanely stormy out that, even though I held the program it inside, nobody came to the baby class.

What worked best: The parachute, always! And what's more fun that the parachute OUTSIDE?! Hint: Not much.