My Baby Storytime

Everyone does storytime a little differently! Here’s how I do my baby storytimes.

At my library, baby storytimes are for babies 0-24 months, though there are often big brothers and sisters hanging out with us. Even though I know there will be toddlers and preschoolers there, I plan my program for the babies. We aim for an average of 15 babies in each storytime, but depending on the day I might see 2 kids or 20.

I open and close with the same elements every week. I give themed storytimes for babies (here’s why) and for the body of the storytime I build little “sets” of three or four activities, starting with a book. Like, Book-Song-Flannel-Fingerplay and then Book-Bounce-Song.

I use “mini-themes” for the little sets: In a Farm Animals storytime, the first “set” might be all about what animals say (Moo Baa La La La, Old MacDonald, Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play) and then the next might be about Pigs (Mrs Wishy Washy, This Little Piggy, To Market To Market).

Lastly, while I don’t give a Mother Goose on the Loose baby storytime, but I do respect the program’s advice to repeat content as much as possible. I do five activities every single week, no matter what the theme.

Here’s what I repeat every week:

OPENING SONG: Hello Song
OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Shut Them
FLANNEL SONG: A-Hunting We Will Go
CLOSING ACTION RHYME: This is Big Big Big
CLOSING SONG: Sneeze Song

(The words and citations for the repeated bits are here.)

My top twenty favorite songs, rhymes, and bounces for baby storytime are listed here.