Storytime: Hugs, Kisses, and Love

Books

*Love Always Everywhere by Sarah Massini

~A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy

Hug Machine by Scott Campbell

The Perfect Hug by John Walsh

~*Kitty’s Cuddles by Jane Cabrera

Love Monster by Rachel Bright

Books marked with a ~ are ones used for our toddler storytime. Books marked with a * are ones used for our all ages storytime. Today was my first week doing both toddler and all ages storytimes. Since our toddler storytime was on Valentine's Day this week, I wanted to do something thematically appropriate for the holiday without actually mentioning the holiday directly. There is a lot of debate in the storytime world about whether to do holiday storytimes or not. I think it's best to er on the side of caution and not do anyhting directly related to holidays in case some of my patrons don't celebrate them and wouldn't be comfortable attending a storytime themed around one. Hugs, kisses, and love can be enjoyed by everyone though! Our all ages storytime ended up only having two toddlers this week so the books skewed younger than they normally would for that day. Love Always Everywhere, A Kiss Like This, and Kitty's Cuddles all have pretty simple text with few words on the pages. There aren't any plots for younger kids to follow or concepts illustrated by the pictures that might be hard to understand for very little ones. Love Always Everywhere has a diverse cast of children in the illustrations, which I love. It's a very sweet book and perfect for a love themed storytime. If we had had a slightly older crowed for the all ages storytime, I probably would have used Love Monster and Hug Machine, but the sweet simple text in Love Always Everywhere was great for the younger group.

Click read more for rhymes, songs, and crafts!

Songs and Rhymes

Songs and activities marked with * are one we used in the storytime. These are only marked for the all ages storytime because for toddler storytimes we tend to do more repetition from week to week and don't necessarily do thematic songs. I only stick with the themes for the books. I'm planning on making a song cube to use for toddler storytime to help give a bit of variety and randomness to which songs we do, but to still keep that repetition in there!

Song: Skinnamarink

Skinnamarinky dinky dink,

(Put right elbow in  left hand and wiggle  fingers)
Skinnamarinky doo,

(Put left elbow in right hand and wiggle fingers)
I love you.

(Point to eyes, hug yourself, and point to others)

Skinnamarinky dinky dink,

(Repeat actions)
Skinnamarinky doo,
I love you.

I love you in the morning,

(Make a big circle over head  like the sun)
And in the afternoon,

(Hold arms in circle out in front of you)
I love you in the evening,

(Move arms in circle down)
And underneath the moon.

(Release arms and make another big circle over head)

Skinnamarinky dinky dink,
Skinamarinky doo,
I love you.

*Song: “If You Love Someone and You Know It”

(Tune: "If you’re happy and you know it")

If you love someone and you know it, Clap your hands.

If you love someone and you know it, Clap your hands.

If you love someone and you know it,

And you really want to show it.

If you love someone and you know it, Clap your hands.

Verses: Say "I Love you", Blow a kiss, Give a hug

*Transition Rhyme: “I Can Hug”

I can hug, hug, hug
I can hop, hop, hop
I can kiss, kiss, kiss
I can stop, stop, stop
I can nod my head for yes,
And I can shake my head no,
And I can sit down very slow.

Fingerplay: “Make a Heart”

I put my hands together,

(hands together like praying)
This is how I start
I curve my fingers right around,

(curl fingertips; pull palms slightly apart)
And I can make a heart!

Flannelboard

*Flannelboard: “H-E-A-R-T”

(Tune: BINGO)

To show you love your special friends,

Just give them each a heart.

H-E-A-R-T, H-E-A-R-T,

H-E-A-R-T,

Each heart means I love you!

Craft

I found this adorable hug themed craft at The Party Event. Ribbon, construction paper, and scissors are all you need to make this craft! You can also have glue as an option. I think it looks super cute to glue a heart to the palm of the hand. Kids will probably need help tracing their hands and cutting out the shapes, but the result is super cute. For mine, I punch holes in the hearts and had them string them on the ribbon rather than gluing them down.

How it went

I will mostly do write ups about my all ages storytimes since those are the ones I actually use the activities form rather than just the themed books with more repetition for the songs. If something really noteworthy happens during baby and toddler storytime, I'll definitely write about it though! This storytime was a bit odd for the all ages one. We always have a small group, but this day only two kids showed up. They were both around two years old instead of the three to four years that is usually the average for the all ages storytime so that made things a little difficult as far as participation goes. Thankfully, the caregivers who were there were good about helping in the participation aspects!