Books I've done


Baby in the Box - Frank Asch
Hoppity Skip Little Chick - Jo Brown (with chick puppet)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See - Bill Martin (with signs)
Mr. Grumpy's Outing - John Burningham
Do Lions Live on Lily Pads - Melanie Walsh
Exercise: shaking your head nooooo
Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon! - Dan Yaccarino
Exercise: waving byeeeeee
Ten Little Mummies - Philip Yates
Good for rhymes and countdown
Teddy Bears, Teddy Bears - William B. Winburn
Exercise: various motions, at the end waving byeeeee
Hush, Little Baby by Marla Frazee
The Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O'Connell
Exercise: make each of the baby's motions
Bread Bread Bread by Ann Morris
The Foot Book - Dr. Seuss
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Iza Trapani
Love Me, Love You - Susan Heyboer O'Keefe
The Noisy Way to Bed - Ian Whybrow
Exercise: shout animal noises Tanka Tanka Skunk - Steve Webb
Exercise: slap hand on thigh for each syllable, drum out each child's name




Books To Do


The Rainy Day - Anna Milbourne (lots of rain-related activities to associate)

Songs


I'm A Little Teapot
Row Row Row Your Boat
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Hickory Dickory Dock
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
If You're Happy and You Know It
Patty Cake
My weekly program is for birth-3. Siblings are welcome. I've been doing it this way for 2 years with incredible success. I'm not sure how well this pasted program example will come through to everyone in pubyacland, but here goes nothing:

Gathering Time Room open, music playing, baskets of books. Name shapes handed out as children enter (make new ones as needed-had to make 5 today!) Children put name shape on board.

1. Beginnings These three activities happen each week:

Name Board Look who's here, count up the snowflakes on our board, etc

Here is My Book poem with sign language The More We Get Together sign language, sing every child's name

2. Rhyme with me Title Picture cards for each poem/song are on the board and we remove as we sing or say them

Itsy Bitsy Spider had several visitors, so wanted to do one they all knew Rain is Falling/ 

   Snow is Falling      and it was snowing hard right then!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Fiddle I Fee sung using flannelboard critters; we read the book last week 3. Read with Me What's inside the story bag? song transition before we read a book together

One Red Rooster by Kathleen Sullivan Carroll; Illustrated by Suzette Barbier All to Build a Snowman by Samuel Tang

4. Group Activity Tommy Thumbs Up rhyme with actions Introduce Scarves and do Dance your Scarves Up Play peekaboo with parent Peekaboo rhyme Play scarf tune on CD and act out

5. Closing (same each week) Acka Backa clapping rhyme Thank You Song sign language

Playtime! Scarves and music, books, puzzles, blocks.

We go 20-25 minutes. Mostly, I just roll with it. The main key for me is transitions. We have things we do each week that get us from one section to another. They can predict what we're doing, which is good for them, even though the items within (the rhymes, stories, and activities) are different each week. A second major key is the picture rhyme cards. I started using these to help me remember what I wanted to do each week, but they have become so much more. They are visual representations of what's planned (give or take, of course) and older siblings can help with predicting what comes next based on the cards. One week I had the first two rhymes that we always do out of order, and one of the kids (aged two or so) asked Grandma about it.

The last important key for us is consistency. This morning you could really tell which little ones hadn't been in Storytime for a few weeks. But having ones around that come every week help set the tone and guide the ones who've never done something like this before. The only resurfacing problems are the caregivers who chat and aren't engaged.

As far as having siblings, it works out. Some parents have said they like having the siblings around to help teach their little ones when a new one is on the way. Hadn't thought of that. I couldn't figure out how to limit the age without excluding families, so I just let everyone in, and it works for us.

Someone asked for numbers on this; we had weekly program 45 weeks last year. I only do two a week (up to 3 this summer); I average 20-40 per session. Hope this helps. Debra Bailey Cudahy WI