Well it’s about that time and both of us here at Jbrary would like to wish you all the best the season has to offer! Whether you’re singing Christmas carols or getting outside to enjoy the cooler weather here are a couple videos which we think make the season bright.
This is sung to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas but will get the wiggles out waaay better! Try stomping, stretching and dancing for best results.
This post will feature 20 books that worked really well in my last run of Toddler Storytime. In case you missed it, here are the other posts focusing on this age group:
For toddlers, I usually only do two books and a felt story. Maybe three books if they are all really short. But for the most part, it’s just too hard to keep their attention for a third book, and we do more “get the wiggles out” activities instead. And I never hesitate to skip pages or summarize the ending if a book just isn’t working.
I always start with the longest book and move to the shorter one last. Pop-Out books have been a huge hit with my storytime crowd, so most weeks I include one of those. Without further ado, here are my favourites!
1. Peek-A-Moo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti; illustrated by Stephanie Peterson
A lift-the-flap type book that encourages kids to guess the sounds animals make. I love the repetition of “Guess Who?” Cimarusti has a whole series of these books and I’ve had success with all of them.
A great book for teaching parents how to ask questions while they read and for teaching toddlers how to make predictions. Two clues are given on the left page, leading to a pop-out pet on the right page. You can also get the ocean version, food version, or bug version. I love ending with this book as it grabs their attention.
This 2013 book got me at first read. Most of the toddlers can’t guess what will hatch from the eggs, but it’s a great opportunity to show caregivers how to ask questions and point out things in the illustrations.
I was inspired by a recent post by Librarian Jenna titled What’s in the Sky? which features all kinds of fun songs and stories about, well, things that come from the sky! For anyone who follows us on Twitter, you may notice we like to talk about the weather A LOT. So, it was a natural choice for my next blog post to reach into the vaults of Youtube and pull together some of our favourite songs about meteorological wonders! These songs and rhymes are perfect because they are universal in their appeal, can be adapted to fit different themes or just to get kids up and moving.
I enjoy babytime. And I can handle preschool storytime. But toddler storytime – toddler storytime is my absolute favourite! Maybe it’s because I hang out with a 2-year-old on a regular basis, but I love the controlled chaos that often characterizes this group.
I’ve just wrapped up my first session of a 12-week toddler storytime (ages 18 months-3 years), and I thought it would be helpful to share what worked with these ages. I’ll be doing a series of blog posts over the next month on the following topics:
My most successful toddler storytimes include the following ingredients:
Flexibility + Repetition + Movement + Caregiver Participation = A Good Time For All
Books are important too, but I’ve found that these other elements are more influential in determining how a storytime will pan out. In order to get caregivers to participate, I always give out a bookmark with the song lyrics printed. Especially if it’s a big group, having the parents and caregivers on board can make a world of difference.
I plan for a range of activities and end up using the ones that work well the kids on that day at that time. With that said, I plan for a 30-minute program (my library doesn’t do crafts as part of storytime) with the following components in mind:
1-2 books (depending on how active they are)
1 flannel story
1 song or rhyme with puppets
5-6 songs or rhymes
5-6 “get the wiggles out” activities (anything from lifting songs to egg shakers to dancing)
I will go into more detail about each of these components in my following blog posts. Suffice it to say, when I first started doing Toddler Storytimes, I would try to plan out the order of all these different components. While some of the planning was good (i.e. which book to read first), most of it fell apart during storytime because the kids needed something different. So halfway through my session, I created a planning sheet that allows me to organize my thoughts, but also allows for a great deal of flexibility. I’ve included it here in case anyone would like to print and use it too. It’s pretty simple in it’s design, but that’s why I like it!
So now I have a basic idea of the types of activities I’d like to share for each session, and I let the group of kids determine what I use and what I don’t. I may not always use a felt story and puppets, but the toddlers who come to my library absolutely love them so I make an effort to include them as often as possible.
After each storytime I’ll make little notes in each box regarding what worked and what didn’t. Then the planning sheet goes in my “Storytime Madness” binder, making it easy to flip through when I’ve forgotten which books I’ve read or what songs worked really well.
These past three months were my first time doing a complete a full run of toddler storytime with the same community, so I anticipate the way I plan to change in the future. But for now, this is what is working for me!
How do you plan your Toddler Storytime? Please share your successes in the comments!
