Storytime: Colors

Books

~Brown Bear, Brown bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr

~Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood

*Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin

Red is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong

~Freight Train by Donald Crews

Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd

Books marked with a ~ were used for my toddler storytime and books marked with a * were used for my all ages storytime. I am finding that often my toddler storytime is pretty mellow and the all ages one tends to be much more high energy. Consequently, we usually read more books during the toddler one. I really wanted to read Red is a Dragon with my all ages group since it's a fun introduction to some things from Chinese culture in addition to being a book of colors, but it isn't a high energy book the way Monsters Love Colors is so I went with that one first. The all ages storytime was slow to start so we only had time to read one book with all the other activities I had planned.

Click read more for extention activities.

Flannelboard: Rainbow Stew

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

This flannelboard was a lot of fun to make and to share. I've seen the flannelboard a few places, but I decided to add my own little addition to it with cream and clouds at the end of the rainbow. Happy little clouds make it look more complete and even more adorable! Sadly, it is the wrong time of year to find a cheap plastic cauldron to mix the rainbow stew in. Had I been thinking I might have been able to find one before St. Patrick's day, but as it is, there were none to be found. I just temporarily covered a big yogurt tub with black felt, but I'll keep an eye out for a cauldron come Halloween, or maybe I'll make a felt one! I used this for my colors storytime and soup storytime.

Songs, Rhymes, Games, and Fingerplays

"Rainbow Stew"

(Tune: Jimmy Crack Corn)

Take an apple, put it in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest red you ever did see!

Take an orange, put it in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest orange you ever did see!

Take a banana, put it in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest yellow you ever did see!

Take a pear, pit in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest green you ever did see!

Take some blueberries, put them in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest blue you ever did see!

Take some grapes, put them in the pot.

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What will it be? The prettiest purple you ever did see!

Take some cream, put it in the put

Stir it, stir it, stir it a lot.

Take it out now. What do you see? Two fluffy white clouds as happy as can be!

What did  we make with our rainbow stew?  A magical rainbow for me and you!

Source: Modified from Storytime ABCs

Flannelboard: Chickens

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

This flannelboard is super cute and fun! I really love ones that have double sided pieces, it's almost like magic when you change them. I used this one for my chicken and bird storytimes. I had the kids help me count the eggs after I put each clutch on the board, so we counted to five twice and then to ten. I also made sure to count the chicks at the end of the rhyme since you don't want to count your chickens before they hatch!

Songs, Rhymes, Games, and Fingerplays

“Ten Fluffy Chickens”

Five eggs and five eggs

(Add a clutch of eggs each time you say “five eggs”)

And that makes ten

Sitting on top

(Add the hen)

Is Mother Hen

Cackle cackle cackle

(Clap hands as you say Cackle!)

What do I see?

Ten fluffy chicks

(Flip over each clutch of eggs.)

Yellow as can be.

Source: Mel's Desk

Flannelboard: Spaceship

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

This flannelboard was super quick to make in comparison to some of my previous boards. I was originally going to use an astronaut themed board for this storytime, but I didn't have time to make five astronauts. I was sad that I might have to skip having a thematically appropriate flannelboard for my space storytime, but then I had the idea to do a "Mouse in the House" variation with moons and a spaceship. I was going to just make circles for the moons, but I always have to go all out so I gave them craters and faces too.

Songs, Rhymes, Games, and Fingerplays

“Where is the Spaceship?”

Spaceship, spaceship, we'll find you soon!
Are you behind the (color) Moon?

Source: I made this one up myself! Mouse in the House variations are always fun.

Storytime: Chickens

Books

Five Little Chicks by Nancy Tafuri

~Count with maisy, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep!  by Lucy Cousins

Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher

~Where, Oh Where, is Rosie’s Chick? by Pat Hutchins

*The Red Hen by Rebecca Emberly and Ed Emberly

~*Here a Chick, Where a Chick? by Suse MacDonald

Books marked with a ~ were used for my toddler storytime and books marked with * were used for my all ages storytime. Chickens are a fun theme. There are so many picture book options about them! Both Count with Maisy, Cheep, Cheep, Cheep and Here a Chick, Where a Chick? have flaps to lift up and look behind. The kids defintiely wanted to help lift the flaps, which doesn't work well with large groups, but regardless, lifting flaps is fun! Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick? went over really well. The kids were all laughing at silly Rosie not seeing the chick right behind her. I think I probably should have used this one in my all ages storytime too. They weren't as engaged with the two titles I chose. I thought Here a Chick, Where a Chick? would be a winner with the animal noises, but they weren't as into it today as they usually are.

Click read more for extension activities.

Ukulele: Beginner's Guide

Back in March, I decided to try and teach myself ukulele. I know many youth services librarians use ukulele during their storytimes and it is one of the easier instruments to pick up and learn. The cost of a ukulele also makes it much more accessible than many other instruments. In June, three months after I started playing uke for the first time, I decided to bring it out for storytimes and it has been wonderful so far. I regularly use the uke for storytime now. I am not any sort of authority on ukuleles but I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences so far in case they would be helpful to anyone else hoping to start with the instrument.

Storytime: Space

Books

*Astro Bunnies by Christine Loomis

*I want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

~Zoo Zoom! by Candace Ryan

~Earth Space Moon Base by Ben Joel Price

Zoom, Rocket, Zoom! by Margaret Mayo

~Chicken in Space  by Adam Lehrhaupt

Books marked with ~ are ones I used for my toddler stoytime and books marked with * are ones I used for the all ages storytime. The toddler group was very small and not very active last week, so we read a lot more books than normal. Zoo Zoom! was fun because it had lots of animals, some unfamiliar, and animals are always great, but the kids were a little confused about what was happening at some points since the limited amount of text doesn't really explain what is going on. I had to do a lot of explaining for Earth Space Moon Base too. In general space related books have a lot of new vocabulary so be prepared to do a lot of explanation about what new words mean! Chicken in Space is not actually about space, but it does have some good space terms and I couldn't resist that cute cover. I really only read this one for the storytime because the kids were so calm and requested a longer book to finish out the day. I want to be an Astronaut was definitely the hit for the all ages storytime. One of the boys couldn't stop talking about it!

For songs and rhymes click read more.

Flannelboard: Peas in a Pod

If I come up with more rhymes and songs to go with this set, the post will be updated to reflect that. If you have ideas for other ways to use the set, please share!

Flannelboard

This was the first flannelboard I made that I didn't give cute little faces to the pieces. I decided it might be a little morbid to have cute faces on the peas that I was having a rabbit eat. If you use a different rhyme, some adorable faces would be a fun addition to the peas in the pods! I used this for my peas storytime and my numbers and counting storytime.

Storytime: Peas

Books

Pickin’ Peas by Margaret Read MacDonald

~Little Green Peas by Keith Baker

Arlo Rolled by Susan Pearson

The Princess and the Pea by Rachel Isadora

*Three Little Peas by Marine Rivoal

*Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Books marked with ~ were used during my toddler storytime and books with * were used during the all ages storytime. Unfortunately, I didn't end up using either Pickin' Peas or The Princess and the Pea both of which feature black girls as the main character. I really wanted to use Pickin' Peas to compliment the pea eating rabbit with my flannelboard, but the group skewed very young today so I wanted to keep the books as simple as possible. With the young group I also ended up abandoning some of my pea themed song ideas and just did the old favorite Seals on the Bus because everyone had a lot of energy today and we really needed to do something familiar to get all that out! I'll save the ideas for another pea or garden themed storytime in the future!

Click read more for song and rhyme ideas related to peas!

Storytime: Dr. Seuss

Books

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

There’s a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss

*Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss

*The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss

Fox in Socks  by Dr. Seuss

Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! by Dr. Seuss

Most Dr. Seuss books are pretty long for storytimes, but I managed to find some good options. The Foot Book and Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? both have great opportunities for interaction. The Foot Book can be a pretty good workout too with how many times you need to lift your feet in the air if you are acting it out!

Click read more for song and rhyme ideas.