Bedtime Time

This fall I have started several new programs "Bedtime Stories" and "Bilingual Story Time Los Cuentos".  Tonight I was worried that no one was going to show up with the cold weather but to my surprise and delight 19 kids and parents showed up! Yay! This is our routine

Opening Song

Everybody say one, story time has just began

Everybody say two, shake your shoulders show your shoes

Everybody say three, listen very carefully

Everybody say four, and put your bottoms on the floor

Wiggles

A wiggle, wiggle here

A wiggle, wiggle there.

Wiggle your hands up in the air

Wiggle our shoulders and wiggle your hips,

Wiggle your knees and move your lips,

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

And wiggle and bend

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,

And this is the end!

Our first book was When the World is Ready for Bed by Gillian Shields

I am trying to different rhymes and action rhymes for this group, this month we used

Going to Bed

This little child is going to bed (point to self)

Down on the pillow he lays his head (rest head on hands)

He wraps himself in a blanket tight (hug yourself)

And this is the way he sleeps all night (snore)

Credit: Best Kids Book Site

Our next book was Going to Bed by Mem Fox

I created flannel pieces using an ARC copy and the text from the book- I cut it a bit short to make sure we would stay engaged.  Kids love having a chance to bring a flannel piece to the board. 

Our next rhyme was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Our last book was Good Night Pillow Fight by Sally Cook

I have also been using our Tumble books subscription, this month we watched “Down by the bay” and “Duck Rabbit”

We end the night with soft lullabies and our start machine projecting on our ceiling .  I wave goodbye to the kids singing our closing song

Goodnight to you. Goodnight to me.
Now close your eyes and go to sleep.
Goodnight.
Sleep tight.
Sweet dreams tonight.
Goodnight.

Flaps, Flaps & more Flaps

Originally I was going for "animal sounds" theme but it turned out that all the books I had selected had flaps and jokingly we said it was a "Flap Day".  Baby Bloomers & Crawlers enjoyed

 

We shared our regular opening & closing songs and several rounds of "Patty Cake" and "Five Little Monkeys".  The Crawlers group also got to chant "Eensy Weensy Spider" while petting my tiny pet spider. 

We danced to "Shake Your Sillies", "Peek-a-boo Baby", and "Walking, Walking".  We used our fun scarves as we shake around or played peek-a-boo.

Next week is our last week for the fall session, it is hard to believe that 11 weeks have gone by already.  I have had so much fun with these two groups, can't wait for Winter sessions to arrive after the New Year!

You Can Do It! Totally Tots

Our Totally Tots groups were much smaller this week, but still had lots of energy, specially today's group.  I often wonder if it is the timing and the kids need lunch and nap, I am tinker with the timing for the winter/spring sessions.  My theme today was "You Can Do It" stretching it a bit as some of them are still quite young.  We read

Opening Song

Everybody say one, story time has just began

Everybody say two, shake your shoulders show your shoes

Everybody say three, listen very carefully

Everybody say four, and put your bottoms on the floor

Wiggles

A wiggle, wiggle here

A wiggle, wiggle there.

Wiggle your hands up in the air

Wiggle our shoulders and wiggle your hips,

Wiggle your knees and move your lips,

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

And wiggle and bend

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,

And this is the end!

Book You Can Do It, Sam by Amy Hest

Nursery rhyme/ Action Rhyme

Five Little Monkeys/ Patty Cake

Song If You Are Happy and You Know It from The Complete Book of Songs, Poems, Fingerplays & Chants

Book Nobody Asked Me! By Steve Henry

Rhyme/Fingerplay

Here We Go!/ This is Big

Song Walking, Walking from Songs for Wiggleworms

Book I’m 3! Look What I can Do by Maria Carluccio

Bubbles

Closing Song We Wave Goodbye Like This

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this,

to all our friends.

We clap our hands like this,

We clap our hands like this,

with all our friends.

Story time has ended.

Hats for Crawlers

I'm  trying to simplify my posts but still get my entire story time books, rhymes, songs, etc. included.  Earlier this season I decided to modify my Baby Bloomers materials to my Crawlers class after realizing the Totally Tots books and rhymes were to much for this younger group.  So far, it is working as I expected and the classes have been really smooth.  This week I had a kind of mistmatch theme with Hats, in part because I had two books I had been wanting to read for a while.  This is what we did:

Opening Song

Everybody say one, story time has just began

Everybody say two, shake your shoulders show your shoes

Everybody say three, listen very carefully

Everybody say four, and put your bottoms on the floor

Wiggles

A wiggle, wiggle here

A wiggle, wiggle there.

Wiggle your hands up in the air

Wiggle our shoulders and wiggle your hips,

Wiggle your knees and move your lips,

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

And wiggle and bend

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,

And this is the end!

Book  Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr.

Nursery rhyme/ Action Rhyme

Five Little Monkeys/ Patty Cake

I used our little monkeys and puppet glove and each kid got to hold one of the monkeys as they were falling off bed.

Song If You Are Happy and You Know It from The Complete Book of Songs, Poems, Fingerplays & Chants

Book A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet M. Stoeke

Rhyme/Fingerplay

Here We Go!/ This is Big

Song Walking, Walking from Songs for Wiggleworms

Book Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin

Bubbles

Closing Song We Wave Goodbye Like This

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this,

to all our friends.

We clap our hands like this,

We clap our hands like this,

with all our friends.

Story time has ended.

Hats, Hats, and more Hats

Winter is fast approaching and our babies have been wearing the cutest hats ever- lots of crafty relatives on this group.  Today we started with Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

 

The babies were wide eyed looking at the different animals, the bright colors, and big pictures.  They loved it. We followed with a round of Wiggles, Wiggles and the song Baby Grows from Toddlers on Parade.  Our next book was

 
A Hat for Minerva Louse by Janet M. Stoeke.  I think the idea will appeal more to the crawlers tomorrow. The pictures are a bit small for the babies, but we had a laugh when Minerva was trying to find a scarf using the water hose.  

We tried a new rhyme Animal Moves

This is the way the bunny hops: hop, hop, hop

This is the way the horse trots: trit trot, trit, trot

This is the way the froggy jumps: jump, jump, jump

This is the way the birdie flies: fly away, fly away!

Credit: Baby Storytime Magic

 
And used our maracas to dance to the Baby Hockey Pockey from Baby Face. Our last book was 
 

Under My Hood I Have a Hat by Karla Kuskin. I think I should have started with this book even though it was the shortest.  The pictures are bright and the text is minimal. We ended with 

Teddy Bear

Give teddy a hug (hug baby)

Give teddy a squeeze (squeeze baby gently)

Give teddy a tickle on his knees! (tickle baby’s knees)

Give teddy a kiss (kiss baby)

Give teddy a drum (drum fingers on baby’s tummy)

Give teddy a tickle on his tum (tickle baby’s tummy)

Credit: Baby Storytime Magic

We waved goodbye as we pop bubbles and played around for a bit.