Fives on Friday

Alphabet Series: C

I CANNOT wait to tell you what we have COOKED up for the letter C.

Preschool Palooza (3-5 years) & Toddler Tales (18 months-3 years)

Baby Babbles (0-18 months)

Coaster: a Baby Driver Book is a VINTAGE board book by Ian Pillinger published in 1995. I don't know HOW we still have it in our collection, but I'm impressed!

Here are some other options that we had on display that would work as well for a Letter C themed story time:

In addition to books, we also sing songs, do flannel stories, count to 10, and perform a puppet show! Below is this week's content:

Opening Song: Can't Stop This Feeling by Justin Timberlake

Action Song: Open/Shut Them

There are so many different versions, but this one seems to be a crowd favorite. It was almost impossible to find the original song as our MP3 has incorrect data! For Baby Babbles, we sing it acapella.

Preschool Palooza Action Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Kids love this version, but it's best for ages 3-5! I know this from experience, we did it for Toddler Tales for a long time and by the 2nd to last round all the kids would just stand and stare as if in shock at how fast we were going.

Toddler Tales Action Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Super Simple Songs are one of my favorite to share in story time.

Action Song: Our Poor Farmer

This action song is so much fun because it gets the kids intentionally interacting. You can duplicate this song for just about any item. In this instance, we talk about a Farmer who lost his Cows, in December we had a Kitten who lost their mittens, November we had a Turkey that lost its Feathers! You get the point! We had cutout felt cows (you can use construction paper if it will only be done once, or cardstock if you will do it for multiple programs) which were various colors and handed them out to children in the audience. Then we would call different colors at each verse and they would bring them up to us. It's becoming a crowd favorite!

Our Poor Farmer

(Tune: Are you Sleeping?)

Our poor farmer, lost his cows.

Let's all help, everyone.

Do you have a (color) cow?

Come and bring the (color) one.
Oh what fun, oh what fun!

Flannel: 5 Little Clouds

***Photo coming soon***

Action Video: Silly to Calm

As always, this action song was magical. The kids were quiet, attentive, and respectful for the rest of story time. Caregivers have complimented this activity after story time on many occasions, which is why I keep bringing it back. I keep it in a separate playlist called "JUST IN CASE" as an emergency break along with Shake Your Sillies Out by Raffi

Letter Flannel: CONSTRUCT the Letter C - Cow, Clock, Cat, Chocolate, Castle, Cheese

Puppet Show: The Muppets - Rainbow Connection

The crowd went wild for Kermit!

This Week in Story Time...

Alphabet Series: B

What BETTER way to BEGIN than with the Letter B!

Preschool Palooza (3-5 years) & Toddler Tales (18 months-3 years)

Baby Babbles (0-18 months)

Here are some other options that we had on display that would work as well for a Letter B themed story time:

In addition to books, we also sing songs, do flannel stories, count to 10, and perform a puppet show! Below is this week's content:

Opening Song: ABC by Jackson 5

Flannel: Bubble Bubble Pop

**Picture Coming Soon**

Letter Flannel: BUILDING the Letter B: Box, Bear, Butterfly, Banana, Barn, Bird

Puppet Show: Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

We heard gasps when the Little Blue Truck got stuck and also comments that our Little Blue Truck was the same size as the Dump Truck. Oh well!

Action Song: Open/Shut Them

There are so many different versions, but this one seems to be a crowd favorite. For Baby Babbles, we sing it acapella.

Preschool Palooza Action Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Toddler Tales Action Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Super Simple Songs are one of my favorite to share in story time.

Closing Action Song: Turn-A-Round

This Week in Storytime...

Alphabet Series: A

You read it, we start our alphabet series with the letter A. Coincidentally, Kami and I wore Alice in Wonderland shirts! All throughout the story time we pointed out all the A's we used such as "Awesome", "Architect", and "Applause".

Preschool Palooza (3-5 years) & Toddler Tales (18 months-3 years)

Baby Babbles (0-18 months)

Here are some other options that we had on display that would work as well for a Letter A themed story time:

Opening Song: ABC by Jackson 5

Flannel: Apples and Bananas

**Picture Coming Soon**

Letter Flannel: Airplane, Astronaut, Alligator, Aquarium, Artist, & Avocado

**Picture Coming Soon**

Puppet Show: See You Later, Alligator

The kids went nuts for the elephant and alligator!

Action Song: Open/Shut Them

There are so many different versions, but this one seems to be a crowd favorite. For Baby Babbles, we sing it acapella.

Action Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Action Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Super Simple Songs are one of my favorite to share in story time.

Action Video: Ants Go Marching

One of the shortest videos I could find, lol! Most go to 10, which is far too long for our crew of kids.

Action Song:

“Way Up High in the Apple Tree”

I created a

Way up high in the apple tree,
Two RED apples smiled down at me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could
And down came the apples, mmmm, they were good!

Way up high in the apple tree, two RED apples smiling down at me.

(repeat with one green apple, three yellow apples, or any other combination)

2024 Alphabet Tour! A to Z - 2024 Story Time Themes

Last year was my first year running story time. I was a complete novice coming from little to no experience other than what I learned in my MLIS journey and on-the-job in a youth position at my former library. Luckily, my partner in rhyme, Kami, actively looks up those National Days that no one knew existed. So, for the entire year we mostly went with national day/week/month themes.

2023 themes can be found here, and I'd be happy to elaborate on what we did for any of those themes. Feel free to ask in the comments!

Anyhow, for 2024 I wanted something easier. After some quick thinking I thought, "Hey! How about we work out way through the alphabet, that should be easy!". Well, I may have been wrong in that thought.

As you may have guessed, I started with A.

Things that start with A:

Apples
Alligator
Alphabet
ANXIETY! (maybe we'll skip that, but maybe not since January is now World Health Esteem Month according to National Day Calendar.

Those were the first A-words that came to mind. Let's see where I went with that...

https://lairofthelibrarian.blogspot.com/2024/01/this-week-in-storytime.html

This Week in Story Time...

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING: Patience/Taking Turns

You read it, this week was focused on taking turns and learning how to be patient. Children enjoyed the turtle craft after Preschool Palooza.

Preschool Palooza (3-5 years) &
Toddler Tales (18 months-3 years)

The kids loved The Very Impatient Caterpillar. I gave the character a crazy voice and the kids laughed and were captivated when they turned into a beautiful butterfly. We read "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly" said the Sloth for Toddler Tales only.

Baby Babbles (0-18 months)