Babies!

This week, I did a baby themed storytime. I mean, who doesn’t love babies? And there are some great books all about babies. I started off with “Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes” by Mem Fox.

Not only is this book very sweet, repetitive (that’s a good thing!), and theme-appropriate, it’s also a great way to show diversity in picture books. All of the babies are different skin colors, and there’s even a sick baby. (The kids were very intent on telling me that the baby’s getting medicine in the picture…well, this is the season for medicine with all the colds we’ve had in storytime the past few weeks!)

After our quiet start, I went straight into a noisy book with “The Baby Goes Beep” by Rebecca O’Connell.

I don’t know what it is about listening to me make noises, but the kids were enamored and fascinated by all the different sounds that the baby makes in this book. I only had kids join in with me during the “beep” and “splash” parts though — not exactly sure why those sounds were better, but oh well.

Next up, our flannelboard: Baby Animals Matching. I got this fabulous template from Mel’s Desk, and began working on a felt version. Time got away from me though (and I didn’t count on doing three storytimes this week!), so I wound up just using laminated pieces with a felt backing. I started by putting all the mommy/daddy pieces on the board, and pulled out a baby piece. I then moved it around the board, and the kids told me “up” or “down” until all the babies were matched up. A big hit!

A quick fingerplay — “Pat-a-Cake”
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it, and pat it, and mark it with a “B”
And put it in the oven for baby and me
Credit: Childhood

And then, I moved on to the next book in the pile, “All of Baby Nose to Toes” by Victoria Adler.

Another quieter book with a great refrain of “Who loves baby’s nose?” and an answer of “Me! I do!” The kids loved chiming in on this one. I had the kids continue sitting for the action rhyme. (Normally, I do have them stand up and stretch, but the kids were so calm and well-behaved today that I didn’t want them to move and break their good behavior.)

Action Rhyme: “One Little Baby”
One little baby rocking in a tree (hold up on finger/rock arms)
Two little babies splashing in the sea (two fingers/pretend to splash)
Three little babies crawling on the floor (three fingers/crawl fingers on knee)
Four little babies banging on the door (four fingers/pretend to knock)
Five little babies playing hide and seek (five fingers/cover your eyes)
Keep your eyes closed now…until I say…PEEK! (uncover eyes)
Credit: Perry Public Library

I went with a low-key entrance to our high-energy ending, and started with “Sleepy, Oh So Sleepy” by Denise Fleming.

This book was definitely the biggest part of my inspiration for this theme — I really wanted to build a storytime around this book with its soft pictures, and sweet animals. I am pleased to say that it definitely had a calming effect on all the kids, and so I launched straight into a song: “Rock-A-Bye Baby” and then into our last fingerplay:

Fingerplay: “Baby’s Nap”
This is a baby ready for a nap. (hold up index finger)
Lay him down in his mother’s lap. (place finger on open palm of other hand)
Cover him up so he won’t peep. (wrap fingers around finger)
Rock him till he’s fast asleep. (rock hands back and forth)
Credit: Thomas Memorial Library

And, then, I brought out the loudest book ever created — “Shake It Up, Baby!” by Karen Katz.

This is another one of the board book sets that we have in our in-house storytime collection. I love getting to pass out books to each child so that they can read along with me. The other amazing part of this book is that there are rattle beads in the spine — and cues in the text to shake the book. The kids had a TON of fun shaking these books, and I was very proud when they returned the books to the bookshelf without any tears, too!

(My storytime kids are so good at cleaning up — they always put away their own floor cushions, and pass the glue and crayons back in. I am seriously like a proud mama as they help me clean up.)

Anyway, our craft for today was a simple paper baby bib.

Both templates were just simple Google Image searches, and filtering by line drawings. Teens, once again, cut everything and I did the hole punching/tying.