Bikes!

The Plan

Books

Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bike by Chris Raschka
Hello, Bicycle by Ella Boyd
Max on His Tricycle by Guido Van Genechten
New Red Bike by James E. Ransome

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “If You Have a Red Bike” (Tune: Muffin Man)
If you have a red bike, a red bike, a red bike
If you have a red bike, put it on the board
(repeat with other colors)
Credit: Modified from Color Bears felt set

Action Rhyme: “Bicycle”
I have a little bicycle (hold hands together for little)
I ride it to and fro (rolls hands)
And when I see that big green light
I know it’s time to go! (pedal in air fast)
I have a little bicycle (hold hands together for little)
I took it to the shop (rolls hands)
And when I see that big red light
I know it’s time to STOP! (freeze)
Credit: First Steps Ann Arbor

Action Rhyme: “Riding”
(roll hands) Riding on my bike today
Pedal, pedal all the way
Pedal fast and pedal slow
Riding on my bike I go
(fly around room) In an airplane I fly
Up, up, up into the sky
Up, up, up so very high
In an airplane I fly
(rock side to side) Riding in a car I go
Rocking, rocking, to and fro
Side to side and to and fro
Riding in a car I go.
Modified from: Youth Literature

Song: “Wheels on the Bike”
The wheels on the bike go round and round, round and round, round and round
The wheels on the bike go round and round, all through the town
(Pedals on the bike go up and down, streamers on the bike go swish swish swish, bell on the bike goes ding-ding-ding)
Credit: Modified from Childhood

Craft

I got these transportation stickers from Oriental Trading and let the kids go nuts putting them down.

How It Went

This was the beginning of our “fall” session, it started in September. I did this storytime for two groups. For the first group, they were a little restless — I had a lot of new faces in storytime. They weren’t having the whole story of “Max on His Tricycle,” so we went ahead and waved to Max’s friends and tooted for his bike. Since I had to shorten my book, I changed my literacy tip on the fly to: “Parents, you don’t have to read every word on the page. Keep reading with a young child positive! You don’t have to finish the book as written.” (That is likely more well-articulated than it was in storytime on the fly, but there you go!) My second group LOVED “Hello, Bicycle” the most.

Both groups really enjoyed the foam stickers that I bought and they worked hard to create their city traffic scenes.