Mel’s Desk

Babies love playing peekaboo with the people they love and the faces they know!

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

BOOK: Peekaboo Morning by ISADORA

LITERACY TIP: Phonological Awareness
You may get a little bored saying “Peekaboo!” over and over again, but your baby LOVES it when you do. Babies need to hear words repeatedly to learn the sounds that make them up. Being able to hear all the separate sounds in every word will be a big help when they start to learn to read!

GUESSING GAME: PEEKABOO HOUSE
This little manipulative set is in our Peekaboo Baby Storytime Kit! Our Programming Department has developed and gathered books, resources, puppets, flannels on different themes, and staff can request the kits to help them build their storytimes. This house set comes with a suggestion to sing the following song to the tune of “London Bridge.” But you could also talk through a set of questions instead of sing. You could say, “What is in my house? My house has something with four legs, and a flat top. We put our dishes on it for dinner. What is it? The table!” This set is from Lakeshore, but I can not find it on their website to give you a link!

What is in my purple house, purple house, purple house?
What is in my purple house? Let’s look and see.

A yellow table with brown legs, with brown legs, with brown legs,
A yellow table with brown legs, in my house.

There’s the bathtub painted blue…
Oh look, here’s a big red chair…
Now I see a purple bed…

Now you’ve seen what’s in my house, in my house, in my house,
Now you’ve seen what’s in my house, in my house.

FLANNEL SONG: A Hunting We Will Go*
Today I tried to find objects you’d find in a house. Bear/chair, bug/rug, fish/dish & mouse/house …

BOOK: Where’s Spot? by ERIC HILL

SONG: Where Is Thumbkin?
I just do thumbs, pointer fingers, and pinkies!

BOOK: Baby Says Peekaboo! by DAVE KING/DK

FLANNEL RHYME: One Little Baby
I used five of my baby faces for this rhyme!

One little baby rocking in a tree
Two little babies splashing in the sea
Three little babies crawling on the floor
Four little babies knocking on the door
Five little babies playing hide and seek
Keep your eyes closed…
Till I say “peek!”

BOUNCE: Great A Little A
Bounce baby on your knees!

Great A, little a, bouncing B
Cat’s in the cupboard, and can’t see me!

PLAY: Mirrors
The Storytime Kit also comes with 15 hand mirrors! So I handed them out and let the babies explore while I asked questions. If they wanted to do their own thing, that was just fine! If they wanted to listen and follow along to me, that was fine, too. I asked simple questions like, “Do you see your nose? Can you touch your nose? Where are your eyes? Can you close your eyes?” The babies can hold on to the mirrors for the last two activities, and play with them after storytime, too.

LITERACY TIP: Skill Tip tip tip

ACTION RHYME: This is Big Big Big*

CLOSING SONG: Sneeze Game*

*Check out the My Baby Storytime page for the words and/or citations for these weekly activities!

Another day of learning about same & different, to help build Letter Knowledge!

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

BOOK: Little White Fish Gets Bigger by GUIDO VAN GENECHTEN

This is a super cute board book I was lucky enough to come across on the Barnes & Noble bargain table…I don’t know that they are still available, which is a shame, because this series is PERFECT for baby storytime! Bold pictures, repetitive text, simple story.

FLANNEL SONG: A Hunting We Will Go*
I tried to use animals that were in Little White Fish: fish/dish, whale/pail, crab/cab.

SONG: Three Little Fishies
I love this song, it always makes me happy to sing the doot-doots. While I was researching versions and hand-motions, I came across Miss Marilee’s Music, a site with some great videos of kids singing songs as well as some super music-and-movement ideas! Here’s Miss Marilee’s video and this is the version I wound up singing today:

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool
Lived 3 little fishies and their momma fishy too
“Swim,” said the momma fish, “Swim if you can!”
And they swam and they swam right over the dam.

Doot doot dittum dattum wattum choo
Doot doot dittum dattum wattum choo
Doot doot dittum dattum wattum choo
And they swam and they swam right over the dam.

Stop! Said the momma fish, “Or you will get lost!”
But the 3 little fishies didn’t wanna get bossed!
The 3 little fishies went off on a spree
And they swam and they swam right out to the sea.

They swam and they swam and it was a lark
Then all of a sudden, they saw a BIG shark!
Back to the pool in the meadow they swam
And they swam and they swam back over the dam!

BOOK: Maisy Big, Maisy Small by LUCY COUSINS

LITERACY TIP: Letter Knowledge
Books are great ways to introduce new concepts to little ones, but babies REALLY learn by doing! Acting out opposites helps them understand their meanings. Understanding differences is the first step to being able to recognize and understand the differences in how the letters look!

ACTIVITY: Roll, Roll, Sugar Babies
Thanks to Reading Chick for teaching me this one!

Roll roll sugar babies
Roll roll sugar babies
Roll babies hands over each other like Wheels on the Bus
Push
Gently push baby’s arms…lean forward or back if they are sitting on your lap, or pull on their arms if they are lying on their backs. Remember to make sure the motion is “pushing” from their point of view!
Pull
Gently pull baby’s arms
Clap clap clap
Clap!

You can also do other opposites together, like “Up” and “Down” and “Right” and “Left”.

BOUNCE: Royal Duke of York

Oh, the royal Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
Bounce baby in lap
He marched them up the mountaintop
Lift baby up!
And marched them down again
Set baby in your lap again
Oh, when you’re up, you’re up
Lift baby up!
And when you’re down, you’re down
Set baby in your lap again
And when you’re only halfway up
You’re neither up nor down!
Bounce baby in lap

ACTION RHYME: This is Big Big Big*

CLOSING SONG: Sneeze Game*

*Check out the My Baby Storytime page for the words and/or citations for these weekly activities!

For a couple of years now, I have been going over to our county jail every other month or so, to talk to the parents there about the importance of reading to their kids. Our library district has a branch in the correctional facility & serves the inmates with books, information requests, and a law library collection, which includes digital and print reference materials. The supervisor of the jail library is dedicated to providing the inmates with as much of a “public library” experience as she can. She tries to schedule some of the same programs there as we offer at our public library branches—storytellers and writers’ workshops are always popular. When I started scheduling “Every Child Ready to Read” workshops for parents at our branches, she invited me to consider bringing that program to the jail as well.

I was definitely nervous at first; it’s a completely different environment than I was used to, and it can be intimidating. But I am so grateful now that I have this opportunity. I go over in the evening after dinner, and usually present to 2 different groups, one after another. Each area has a multi-purpose room that is used for things like classes or Bible study. The inmates are signed out of their day rooms and come to the multi-purpose room for the talk. One of the jail library staffers is always scheduled to be there with me and they are the ones who provide the signup sheets to the deputies and handle any other logistics. Some visits I speak with the women, some visits I speak with the men–more often overall I speak to the men; there are just more of them.

So what do I say? When I first started, I brought my regular “Every Child Ready to Read” presentation. This talk is all about building the 6 early literacy skills in babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. But I found, after the first few times, that the parents who chose to attend had kids of all ages–sometimes all the way up through high school and college! I felt bad about them committing their time to me and not walking away with something relevant to their kids’ situations. I went back to the drawing board and talked it over with colleagues and came up with a new talk, one that would apply to all ages of kids and teens.

My talk is called “Build a Reading House!” I tell the parents up front that kids who are read to become better readers; kids who are better readers do better in school; kids who do better in school have more choices in life. I tell them I will give them 3 ways they can make a difference in their kids’ lives.

*Fill your house with things to read and things to write with: children who grow up surrounded by books, magazines, paper, and pens are more likely to become better readers. We talk about all the different materials kids can read–not just books but magazines, video game guides, catalogs, comic books. I remind them that they can use their library to fill their house with books for free! I tell them that readers are writers and writers are readers, so having paper and notebooks for their kids to use is very powerful.

*Read to your kids, read with your kids, read *near* your kids: parents who read are great models for their children. (I make a real point of telling the dads that their kids don’t see nearly as many men reading as they do women. I tell them that children whose daddies read to them do better in school than kids whose daddies don’t.) When we take time to make reading part of our day, kids learn that we think reading is important. This can motivate them to read more. (And I go back to the first part and say, reading more is important because the more kids read, the better they get at it, the better they get at reading, the better they do in school…) Read to your little ones. Read the same book as your big kids–read what they have to read for school. Remind your kids that you read every day to cook a meal, follow directions, understand road signs, and learn new things.

*Talk to your kids about books, stories, and ideas: When we talk with our children about a book, we help them to better understand what they read. This helps them make connections between their books and their life, and builds their thinking skills. When they understand what they’re reading, they are more motivated to keep reading. (I say AGAIN: Keeping reading is good because the more kids read…) Talk to your babies, even when they are too little to say anything back. Sing songs and say nursery rhymes. Ask children questions that don’t have one-word answers, to help them practice their thinking and their words. Ask big kids open-ended questions about the books they are reading for school. I remind them that talking to their kids about books doesn’t have to wait until they are out–they can start during their next visitation, before they even go home.

That’s it! I have made several handouts that emphasize these points and give them tips and tricks to help them remember. I have a bunch of props–the more visual this talk is, the better. So I have the STOP sign from my daughters’ dress-up box, a DVD case, a restaurant menu, a sheet of newspaper comics. I bring an Eyewitness book to show how cool non-fiction can be and a Barbie book to show there are books about everything their kids love. I bring an issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids. I bring a chapter book and remind them that there’s information about the book on the front flap, that they can read to get an idea of what their kid’s book is about, so they can ask questions about it. I bring pictures my girls drew in preschool that their teachers wrote comments on. Anything I can think of that might illustrate a point, I try to bring with.

My groups are usually a mix of those who are paying attention and really interested, and those who are just happy to get out of the day room for an hour. This is okay. I usually have several parents who are eager to share stories and ask questions, and that is awesome. Tonight a guy raised his hand at the end and said he had two kids, who were 1 and 2 years old. “What’s the best method to use with them?” he asked. I said, “The best method for reading? Just sit down with them and open a book and look at it and read it together. That’s what you can do. It DOES makes a difference.”

It’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday this week! He’s 106! He is a great way to kick off our “Phonological Awareness” month here at storytime, because listening to rhymes and songs builds the skills kids will need to sound words out when they read.

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

FINGERPLAY: One Little Cat
This is from the Seuss page on Hummingbird Educational Resources!

One little cat on a sunny day
Put on his hat and went out to play
Two little cats when the sky turned dark
Put on their hats and went to the park
Three little cats when the sky turned blue
Put on their hats and went to the zoo
Four little cats by the kitchen door
Put on their hats and went to the store
Five little cats on a sunny day
Put on their hats and they all ran away.

Here’s the finger puppet hats I made to go with. The second photo shows how they went together.

BOOK: Green Eggs and Ham by DR SEUSS
I just read the beginning and the end of this book to these little guys. I go as far as “Would you eat them with a fox?” and then skip to where they are all in the ocean and Sam says, “You do not like them–so you say…” Whenever I skip parts of books I make sure to let the parents know it’s okay to do that when they are reading to babies.

SONG: Ham and Eggs
I learned this from Wee Sing In the Car by Pam Neall and Susan Nip.

Ham and eggs, ham and eggs
I like mine fried good and brown
I like mine fried upside down
Ham and eggs, ham and eggs
Flip ‘em flop ‘em flip ‘em flop ‘em
Ham and eggs!

FLANNEL SONG: A Hunting We Will Go*
Seussian rhyme pairs today: cat/hat, mouse/house, fox/box, fish/dish.

FLANNELBOARD: One Fish Two Fish
A colleague made this flannel from photocopies of Dr Seuss’ One Fish Two Fish. I put them up one at a time, talking about them (“Hey, this is a new fish! It’s a baby fish!”), then when they are all up on the board, we go back and do it again–the parents always join in and recite it with me.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish
Black fish, blue fish, old fish, new fish
This one has a little star
This one has a little car
Say! What a lot of fish there are!

SONG: Dr Seuss Is On the Loose
ALso from the Seuss page on Hummingbird Educational Resources!. I sing it to B-I-N-G-O instead of Old Macdonald and changed the last line.

Dr Seuss is on the loose
And this is how we know it
Cats, hats, eggs and ham
Cats, hats, eggs and ham
Cats, hats, eggs and ham
And this is how we know it!

LITERACY TIP: Phonological Awareness
Reading Dr Seuss books is a great way to introduce lots of rhyming words to your child! Rhyming words are great for kids because they help them learn how to hear if beginning sounds and ending sounds of words are the same or different. They will need to be able to hear the smaller sounds of words when they start sounding words out as they read!

BOOK: Dr Seuss’ ABC by DR SEUSS
I read the A, B, and C pages today.

ACTION RHYME: This is Big Big Big*

CLOSING SONG: Sneeze Game*

*Check out the My Baby Storytime page for the words and/or citations for these weekly activities!

You know what I’m talking about! Scarecrows, jellybeans, pandas, roses…How many sets of five do you think you have counted in your storytime career? “Five little owls by the old barn door/One flew away, and then there were four.”

These are great standbys, and they fit every storytime, but sometimes I just kind of hit the wall. I can’t always get excited about “Four little thingummies playing happily” or “One little whosis having so much fun.” So I’m trying to branch out a little.

But the “Five Little” rhymes are so good at filling up little nooks and crannies of a storytime plan! What am I doing to help fill the gaps?

One thing I’m doing is ditching the rhyming piece. Don’t get me wrong, I still have plenty of rhymes in my storytimes, because they are lots of fun and great for building preschoolers’ phonological awareness skills.

But I’m not worried about making every single thing I do on the flannel board be a rhyme. Talking with kids about pictures and ideas, and asking them open-ended questions, and giving them time to answer, are also excellent ways to build children’s language skills. This type of dialog also lets you model to the caregivers how they can talk with their kids, too.

Here’s an example: I went into Microsoft Word clip art and found 5 photo images of familiar tools.

Instead of using them to recite “5 Little Tools,” I just put them all on the board. Sometimes I’ll say, “Wow, look, our workbench is a little messy! We better clean up our tools. Let’s start by cleaning up the tool that you use to hit nails. Which tool is that?” I give the kids time to answer, or tell me about the time THEY used a hammer, or to tell us that Uncle Andy has a hammer…you know how it goes! Then I say, “Right! You use a hammer to hit nails! This is the hammer.”

Or instead of establishing a clean-up scenario, I might just say, “Our last book was about building a house. Here’s some tools you might use to build a house! Which tool is the screwdriver? Do you know?”

Another way to start is to pick up a tool and say, “This tool is a saw. What do you know about saws? Right! Saws are very sharp and cut wood.”

Either way, there’s no rhyme to memorize, and the kids get a chance to really engage with you about something related to your storytime theme. Easy-peasy. Other things you could “clean up” might be toys, or clothes, or tableware. What else?

Another type of non-rhyme flannelboard I’ve put together is the astronaut and his spacesuit!

I might say, “If you were in outer space, you’d have to wear some special clothes! What do you think you’d have to wear?” Then one by one, we’d talk about the helmet, boots, and gloves, and finally I would put out the astronaut, all suited up. (I’ve done this with the babies, even, by emphasizing body parts: “This is a helmet! You wear a helmet on your head. Where is your head?”)

What other sets of clothes and equipment could you do? I have a cowboy set! What about a king or queen, with a robe, crown, and scepter? This is great for vocabulary building!

A final non-rhyme flannel board I’ve used is the Guessing Game. I have a few of these now!

In one type, I laminate clip art images, or color copies from a book’s illustrations, or make lift the flap houses. I put them all on the board, with a small image tucked behind one of the pieces. For the houses, I put a picture under one of the door flaps.

Then I say, “Blue Bird, are you in the red tree? Which tree has red leaves?” Or, “Puppy Dog, are you in the green house?” We just keep looking until we find them!

For another type of guessing game, I used clip art to make several sets of one big animal and one small animal in matching pairs. I’ll put the big animals all on the flannel board, then show the kids one of the small animals. “Little bear, can you find your Mommy? Is this the mommy bear? No! This is the big blue whale! Here is the mommy bear! She is brown just like her baby.”

I’ll never stop using the “Five Little Whatsits” rhymes completely, but by not using them as often, I’m keeping them fresher for my storytime kids–and for me. If you’d like to give some of these non-rhyme flannel boards a try, here are some of my image files to get you started. Help yourself!

Blue Bird and the Fall Trees
Five Tools
Animal Pairs

I have traditionally shied away from doing too many “preschool concept” storytimes for the babies, because I haven’t wanted to make parents feel like they are something their 9-month-olds should know already. But baby storytime in my district covers birth through 2 year olds, and you can definitely start talking to 2s about things like colors and shapes. Besides, this month’s skill is Letter Knowledge, and while we definitely don’t want to get the letter flashcards out with the babies, we can tell the grownups that any time they talk about same and different, they are laying the very first foundations for the skills needed to tell letters apart later on.

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

BOOK: Little White Fish by VAN GENECHTEN

FLANNEL SONG: A Hunting We Will Go*
whale/pail; fish/dish; crab/cab; snail/scale

FINGERPLAY: Where Is Thumbkin?

BOOK: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by MARTIN JR

GUESSING GAME: Brown Bear, Are You in the Red House?

SONG: Baa Baa Black Sheep
I use pop stick puppets (made from clip art–here’s a version you can use) with this song, and sing it with different color sheep.

LITERACY TIP: Letter Knowledge
For the first year or two, our babies are just not going to be keyed in to letters yet. That’s okay! You can help them build the skills they’ll need later on. Any time you talk about things that are the same and different, you help get them ready to tell things apart–including letters.

SONG WITH SCARVES: Jenny Jenkins
Traditional. I played this song in the background while I handed out our scarves. We just danced and goofed around while the music was playing.

ACTION RHYME: This is Big Big Big*

CLOSING SONG: Sneeze Game*

*Check out the My Baby Storytime page for the words and/or citations for these weekly activities!

I’m trying a Shapes storytime for the first time with the babies today! I try not to focus too much on “preschool skills” in baby storytime, but our literacy skill of the month is Letter Knowledge. I like to remind the grown-ups that starting to talk about different shapes, colors, sizes, opposites, and other ideas can help build the skills kids will need to tell letters apart later on.

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

BOOK: It Looked Like Spilt Milk by CHARLES SHAW

I chose this title because we have a big book copy of it, but Little Cloud by Eric Carle would work as well.

GUESSING GAME: Where Is Little Cloud?
“Little Cloud, are you behind the green rectangle? Are you behind the blue triangle?”

FINGERPLAY: Big Round Sun
Some days we are smarter than we think…I made all those shapes and then only afterwards realized that I made the circle yellow and that it could be the sun for this rhyme!

Big round sun in the summer sky
Hold arms in circle over head
Waved to a cloud that was passing by
Wave!
The little cloud laughed as it started to rain
Wiggle fingers downward for rain
And out came the big round sun again.
Hold up arms in circle above head again

SONG: Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star

BOOK: Round is a Mooncake by ROSEANNE THONG

I chose just a few pages to read from this book.

LITERACY TIP: Letter Knowledge Learning shapes helps gets kids ready to learn letters! Triangles and circles help them get ready for As and Os. Learning about any differences, or opposites, will help them, too.

ACTIVITY: Roll, Roll, Sugar Babies
Thanks to Reading Chick for teaching me this one!

Roll roll sugar babies
Roll roll sugar babies
Roll babies hands over each other like Wheels on the Bus
Push
Gently push baby’s arms…lean forward or back if they are sitting on your lap, or pull on their arms if they are lying on their backs. Remember to make sure the motion is “pushing” from their point of view!
Pull
Gently pull baby’s arms
Clap clap clap
Clap!

You can also do other opposites together, like “Up” and “Down” and “Right” and “Left”.