Toddlers: Colors

For more information on how I plan and prepare my toddler storytimes, check out this introduction post. And for a complete list of the repeating extension activities, visit this post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one session.

The Plan

Books

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.***
Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
Meeow and the Blue Table by Sebastien Braun
Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia***

Early Literacy Tip
You don’t actually need to read books aloud to your children in order for them to benefit. Simply looking at and talking about the illustrations in books help children develop appreciation for the visual arts.

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Ralph’s World***

Featured Track: #8 All My Colors

Flannelboard: Lots of Cars***

Props: Green Says Go***

Repeating Extension Activities

• Elevator Song***
• Everyone Can March*
• This Is Big, Big, Big***
• Thumbkin**
• Wiggle Your Finger & Stomp Your Feet*

How It Went

Tuesday morning
What an excellent storytime! (I am so happy it went perfectly today because I had a neighboring librarian observing. Toddler time can be so unpredictable.) Parents and caregivers were really into both books today Toot Toot Beep Beep and Brown Bear, Brown Bear since they provided so many opportunities for participation. As always, the “Elevator Song” is always a crowd pleaser. On the way out, a parent told me that I’m a “rock star” in their house.

Thursday morning (9:30)
I’m noticing for whatever reason that this session, I can basically stick to the same plan for each group. It’s some kind of MAGIC that’s going on, but it makes my life so much easier in terms of book selection and knowing what comes next. I had a full crowd this morning and some more reluctant movers, so “Thumbkin” and “Elevator Song” were great. This group really liked leaving their parents to sit in front of me to hear the books today!

Thursday morning (10:30)
This was a super quiet group of kiddos. We only had twelve toddlers (out of a possible twenty) which makes the whole dynamic of the group shift. I had one toddler who just wanted to zoom around the whole time, but had a great involved caregiver who was engaging and staying with their toddler’s energy. Their favorite moment was definitely reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear all together.