Baby Storytime: Spring and Rain

Here’s another baby storytime! I borrowed half of it from one of my Mother Goose storytimes.

OPENING SONG: Hello Song*

OPENING FINGERPLAY: Open Them Shut Them*

BOOK: Duckie’s Rainbow by BARRY

FLANNEL SONG: If It’s Raining Outside
Sing to: If You’re Happy and You Know It

If it’s raining outside, wear your boots,
If it’s raining outside, wear your boots,
If it’s raining outside, then your boots will keep you dry
If it’s raining outside, wear your boots.

…wear your coat
…wear your hat
…bring your umbella

FLANNEL SONG: Down Around the Corner
Sing to: Five Little Ducks Went Out to Play

Down around the corner at the neighborhood shop
Were five umbrellas with their points on top
Along came someone with a nickel to pay
And they bought the blue umbrella and they took it away.

FLANNEL SONG: A Hunting We Will Go*
Today we used animals that don’t mind getting wet, like frog/log, fish/dish, snail/scale, and duck/truck.

LITERACY TIP: Singing
One of the things that happens when you sing simple nursery rhymes to your children is that they gain practice listening to simple sentence structures. Hearing the same short sentences over and over helps children recognize the patterns that our sentences form.

BOOK: Rain by ROZANNE WILLIAMS
This is a big book from Creative Teaching Press that I found in our outreach collection. It’s the little nursery rhyme that goes, “Rain on the green grass, rain on the tree…” It has simple cut-paper illustrations and is great for baby storytime.

BOUNCE: One Misty Moisty Morning
Have the grownups bounce their babies on their laps, then gently grab their babies’ chins when you say “strap beneath his chin.”

One misty moisty morning
When cloudy was the weather
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather

Clothed all in leather
With a strap beneath his chin
How do you do and how do you do
And how do you do again?

ACTION SONG: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

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!