Family Story Time – July 24, 2015

As I mentioned in a previous post, the heavens finally opened this week, and there was much rejoicing.

Who would’ve thought that Vancouverites would be happy about rain?! Obviously we had to include a few rain-celebrating songs this week.

Hello Song: Hello, Friends!

Book 1: Farmyard Beat / Lindsey Craig

Songs:

• I wake up my hands with a shake, shake, shake
• Come under my umbrella
• Open/shut them
• Roly poly

Book 2: Dear Zoo / Rod Campbell

Action songs:

• Bend and stretch
• Zoom, zoom, zoom
• If you’re happy and you know
• Rain is falling down / Jump in the puddles
• The elevator song

Soothing song:  Mmm-ahh went the little green frog

Goodbye song: Goodbye, Friends!

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Baby Story Time – April 24, 2015

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends!

Touching Rhymes/Tickles

• Well hello everyone, can you touch your nose?
• 1 little, 2 little, 3 little fingers
• Slowly slowly very slowly
• Pizza pickle pumpernickel
• Roly poly

Book 1: Dear Zoo / Rod Campbell

Songs/Bounces

• Giddyup giddyup giddyup horsey
• Trot trot to Boston
• You be the lemon
• A hippopotamus got on a city bus

Book Two: I went walking /  Sue Williams

Movement Songs

• London bridge is falling down
• Up up up in the sky like this
• Zoom zoom
• The elevator song

Soothing Songs

• Come under my umbrella

Goodbye song: Goodbye, Friends!

I Went Walking is very similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, so it’s great for babies and toddlers. It can work very well as a call-and-response activity, where the audiences asks the reader, “what did you see?”

I try to include a little bit of sign language in my story times (both my hello and goodbye songs have signs), and Come under my umbrella introduces a few new signs. When it comes to signing, I’m less interested in teaching pre-verbal babies to communicate than I am in introducing and promoting diversity. We often think of diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity, but diversity includes different abilities and means of communication as well. Some of us speak with our mouths, but others of us speak with our hands, or with a computer, but we all have a special voice worth sharing! Hopefully, by introducing children to the diversity of the human race at a young age, we can help them learn to understand and celebrate the differences that make us all so wonderful!

Family Story Time – April 24, 2015

I had planned a very rain-themed story time for today in the spirit of the weather, complete with all sorts of songs and stories about rain. Wouldn’t you know, about thirty minutes before story time started the heavens cleared and the sun shone through – so it was back to the drawing board! Here’s what we did:

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends

Book 1: Dear Zoo / Rod Campbell

Hand Rhymes

• I wake up my hands
• Wiggle your fingers
• Open-shut them
• Roly poly

Book 2: The Seals on the Bus / Lenny Hort

Action Songs

• Bend and stretch
• Zoom zoom
• The hokey pokey
• Toast in the toaster
• The elevator song

Cool-down songs:

• Mm-ahh went the little green frog (with puppet)

Goodbye Song: Goodbye, Friends!

Funnily enough, the hokey pokey was not an audience favourite this time around. The kids enjoyed shaking and turning around, but weren’t all that excited by the song, so I kept it brief – arms, legs, whole self.

What they really, really seem to love is jumping. Jumping, jumping, anything with jumping. So, toast in the toaster was received with much enthusiasm after the lackluster response to the hokey pokey!

Mm-ahh is a perennial favourite because I make sure that all the children practice really sticking their tongues out for an authentic froggy experience, which they just find absolutely hilarious. I also happen to have a freakishly long tongue (think Gene Simmons….), which typically leads to shrieks of laughter. I’m not above an easy sight gag 😉