Hello, Goodbye!

This was a new and interesting theme — I really enjoyed using all these great hello/goodbye books. Of course, my storytime (and craft) was completely inspired by my first book…”Say, Hello!” by Rachel Isadora.

When this book came into the library last fall, I made an immediate beeline for it and was determined to plan a storytime around it. I love the book’s concept; I love the illustrations (and also Isadora’s fairy tale retellings); and I love other languages. Followed this one up with a second hello song:

Song: “The Hello Song”
Hello, hello, hello.
It’s time to say “hello.”
Hello, today, to all my friends,
Hello, hello, hello.
Credit: Library Voice

I didn’t really know the tune of this, so I wound up making it up. And I can’t really describe it. I do that a lot when I have no idea how it goes. The kids never notice! And then we did this song as an action rhyme:

Action Rhyme: “How Do You Say Hi?” (Do actions as they are said.)
Hey! Hi! Howdy! Yo!
There are many ways to say hello!
Wave your hand. Nod your head.
Smile big or wink instead.
Blow a kiss. Tip your hat.
Shake your hands. Give a pat.
Of all the ways to say hello,
Here’s the way I like to go…HELLO!
Credit: Transitional Songs

This song worked so well as an action rhyme — the kids had a lot of fun doing all the motions, and I did have them stand up to do it, too. Next up, a funny book for the awesome weather that Chicago had today: “Hello, Sun!” by Dayle Ann Dodds.

This is about a little girl who sees the sun, and goes outside to play only to have the weather spiral away from her, eventually snowing. (Sounds familiar, right, Chicagoans?) Each page spread ends with uh-oh before greeting the new weather, “hello wind!” and the kids really loved it when the uh-oh happened. Afterward, we did this awesome flannelboard that I was inspired to tweak:

Flannelboard: Can We Find? (Tune: The Muffin Man)
(Hide six different items under the houses. Look for each one after singing the refrain. Greet each item with a loud hello after finding.)
Can we find a red cat?
A red cat? A red cat?
Can we find a red cat?
We want to say hello!

We have a flannelboard set — “Color Bears and Other Stories” — that has a ton of different animals and objects in rainbow colors. And inside, it suggested using this song to play a game hiding items behind houses. I changed the ending line to fit out theme.

Next up, “Hello, Is This Grandma?” by Ian Whybrow.

I *adore* this book. It has fold-out pages, and tells a great story about a little boy named Logan who calls a variety of animals while trying to phone his grandma on the phone. It is a little bit scary (when crocodile shows up and wants to cook Logan for lunch), but none of my kids had any problems with it.

We did our session fingerplay — “Itsy Bitsy Spider” followed by “Where is Thumbkin?” (Thumbkin is kind of a hello fingerplay!)

Then I read, “Hello, Day!” by Anita Lobel.

Before I started the book, I asked the kids how they thought animals said hello. And I had one little boy who clucked as his answer. Well, after reading this book all the kids knew how animals said hello! (And I have to say that one of my four-year-olds is an EXCELLENT noise maker. We’re talking pig snorts instead of saying oink — amazing.)

Our last book for the day was another board book that we have purchased multiple in-house copies, “Hello, Animals!” by Smriti Prasadam.

This is a simple black and white book (with shiny color inserts) that the kids easily read along with me because all they had to remember was “hello, [animal on page].” I also really liked that some of my babies were exposed to books that are perfect for them — simple black and white contrast books.

I did sing two goodbye songs this week:

Song: “Shake Hands”
Shake hands with friends cause it’s time to go
Shake hands with friends cause it’s time to go
Shake hands with friends cause it’s time to go
I hope I’ll see you another day.
Credit: Barney…which I did not know until this moment. I learned this in library school.

And then, the goodbye song we sing every week:

Closing Song: “We Wave Goodbye Like This” (Tune: “Farmer in the Dell”)
We wave goodbye like this,
We wave goodbye like this,
We clap our hands for all our friends,
We wave goodbye like this.

Our craft for this afternoon was hello/goodbye hands. My amazing co-workers came up with this one during a brainstorm session. Most of the hellos were in the first book, “Say, Hello!” and the goodbyes were easily Googled. Teens cut out hands, taped popsicle sticks on, and cut out all the words as well. My kids just happily glued.