Baby Storytime – Dinosaurs

Check out what my typical storytime looks like here. All the words to my songs and rhymes can be found here

Opening Song
Welcome Song

Opening Rhyme/Movement
Hands are Clapping

Early Literacy Tip
Say the hard words in books! Today in storytime we're going to be saying actual names for dinosaurs. It might seem silly to say these to 13 month olds, but you are building their vocabulary every time you talk to them. If you start saying the hard words now, you won't be in the habit of skipping them as your child gets older.

Shape Game
Today, I hid a dinosaur! You can find out about this game here.

Rhyme/Movement
Roly-Poly

Book
Dinosaurs by Simmy Taback
This fold-out story is a guessing game. Obviously the babies didn't guess the dinosaurs, but it was fun to see the parents try to remember the names. I even had an older sister in one session who knew all the answers! It was a great time to touch back on the early literacy tip.

Rhyme/Movement
Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Rhyme/Movement
Giddy-up, Giddy-up

Book
Dinosaur Roar by Paul Stickland
We followed all the dinosaurs in this book to a dinosaur picnic! This book has a great rhythm to it. 

Rhyme/Movement
This is Big

Rhyme/Movement
Where is Thumbkin

Choral Reading
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Egg Shakers
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep 

Rhyme/Movement
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Playtime!
Playtime was full of little ones pretending to be dinosaurs. It was wonderful!

Storytime Toys for Babies & Infants

So you are in charge of an infant/baby storytime? Yay! It will hopefully become the favorite part of your day. Whether you have been doing these storytimes for 20 years or you just started last week, I want to encourage you to add playtime at the end of your storytime.

Babies learn by playing! When you include playtime during a storytime, it is a great opportunity to show parents some quality toys they can make or purchase. This is also a good time to simply remind parents to play with their child each day. Being a new mom/dad can be overwhelming and it's important for them to know why playing is so vital to little ones.

The most important thing to remember is to use what you have. Old puppets just laying around? Give them a quick wash and throw them in the circle. A ton of boxes that you've been saving and have no idea why? Make some shape sorters and drums with them!

If you are lucky enough to have some budget money set aside for storytime materials, here are some of my top baby toys I would suggest. I've linked where I purchased them in the captions. Disclaimer- I am receiving no money/reward/incentive to market these toys. I simply want to make your toy buying experience an easy one!

These blocks are great because they aren't
 just your traditional square shape.
Each block is a different letter and has
 a corresponding unique animal. 

Really soft fabric covered blocks-
perfect for infants. 

The first thing I knew I wanted to purchase was blocks. I decided to go with two sets. One for my babies (10-23 months) and one for my infants (0-10 months).

These are very sturdy and get thrown a ton.
They haven't begun to show any wear yet!

Next, on someones recommendation (I think the Show Me Librarian) I purchased these fun tubes that make a ton of noise. This is great for helping them work on fine motor skills and also beginning to understand gravity! Also, I know the feathers look like a total cop-out. I thought my kids wouldn't look twice at it since it didn't make noise. Nope. They are all equally loved and played with.

Rolling Shape Sorter

This shape sorter is by far the crowd favorite in storytime. Babies are constantly fighting over it and there are usually tears. I now put out two every storytime, but there are still groups fighting to use it. However, it is a great way to model sharing and patience to little ones. I am usually the moderator and hand out a shape to each child to figure out. It works for us, plus I'm showing the parents that just because the baby is angry/upset doesn't mean you need to be. They are fighting over the item because they don't know what sharing is. Someone has to show them how first– hopefully the parent.

These puppets are just ones that I've found in our storage
area. I have no idea where they were purchased. 

I also include an assortment of puppets for both my infants and toddlers. I include bigger sturdier ones for my babies, but I typically stick to small hand puppets for the infants. Some kids are terrified of puppets and that's ok! It's good for them to experience it in a safe setting where you can always take it away if it is too intense.

Stacking Cups on left.
Soft Rainbow Stacker on right. 

Stacking Rings on left.
Stacking Cups on right.

I include stacking rings and cups in both infant and baby storytime. My infant toys are on the left and baby toys are on the right. I did take away the wooden stand from the stacking ring. It made me way too nervous with my babies who were just learning how to walk. They are now more teething rings than anything, but the babies still love to grab them. Also, the stacking cups for my babies are a huge hit. They love to pretend to drink out of them and sometimes we pretend to all have tea. The parents usually like to pretend there is a more adult beverage in them though...

Sets from- Lakeshore
Constructive Playthings

I also include a variety of tactile balls in both infant and baby storytime. Just a word of warning– the ones on the left pick up everything from the floor. Including hair, lint, fabric, bubble residue, etc. They are also very hard to clean. I can't find where I purchased them from, so no link on those. You should take a pass on them anyways.

Picnic Basket &
Grocery Store Bag

I also have these fun kits that I use with my infants and babies. It is a great way to encourage parents to talk with their little ones. Some parents find it awkward and hard to talk to their babies,  so giving them concrete things to talk about, like "What would we bring on a picnic?" is a great way to help them overcome this fear.

Overall, I've been very happy with the toys I've purchased. I mix up the variety of toys I put out each storytime session. This way my parents and babies who come to 3-4 sessions in a year won't be seeing the same toys each time. I also throw out a ton of books at storytime before I put out any toys.

Seriously, please play with your babies at storytime.

What are some of your favorite storytime toys? Is there any that you would absolutely not recommend?

Early Literacy Center- Sensory Bags!

This month I decided to put some quick and easy sensory bags in the Play-Learn-Read center.

I found the inspiration for this at Mrs. Kelly's Kindergarten blog.

Instead of hair gel I decided to use aloe because it was on clearance at the store. I also added duct tape and double bagged the aloe. These held up for about a week before they needed to be replaced. They take less than 5 minutes to make though, so I definitely think it was worth it.

Adding food coloring and glitter like the original post recommends definitely provides the contrast you need.

I included a fun literacy tip and directions. The kids love it!

Baby Book Bees

When I first came to my library they were already offering a fabulous 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten initiative. The name literally says it all. Basically, you encourage parents to read 1,000 books with their kids before kindergarten. This is a great initiative and the families in our area have responded very enthusiastically, but I felt like something was missing.

Our 1,000 Books program is marketed for children between the ages of 1-5. What about the babies under one? I've found that parents of infants are constantly looking for things to do. There are very few things for infants here, especially things that don't cost money. How could we better serve this population? The answer was Baby Book Bees.

Going off the model of 1,000 Books B4K, I decided to make it an initiative to get parents to read 100 books to their children before they turn one. Almost identical to our new 1,000 Books sheets, I made half-sheets for our parents with 25 shapes to fill in. On the back of each sheet there are four early literacy tips.

When a parent signs up, they are given a lovely yellow folder with information about the initiative, their first shape sheet, and a bib celebrating their enrollment.

Once the parent has read 25 books they come back and visit us. We make a huge fuss at the desk with lots of clapping, and then we give them stickers and a new sheet. They put their sticker on our 1000 Book Garden Wall on a matching bee.

Once they hit 100 books they get their own board book to keep. Plus, they are given a 100 book head-start on 1,000 Books B4K.

This is a wonderful program on so many levels. First, it creates at least 4 library visits by new parents. They are beginning to establish the tradition of coming to the library on a regular basis. It also is giving parents a powerful message of how important reading is to a child at any age. Plus, once the groundwork is laid for the program, it is not staff intensive at all!

To get the word out about this new initiative we decided to partner with the two local hospitals. Both hospitals give out a packet of information to each new mom during their hospital stay. We were able to get a half-sheet of information in these packets. They also agreed to put up posters in various offices that are visited frequently by new moms and in waiting rooms.

We decided we wanted to start with enough material for 200 participants and bought accordingly. We predicted we would get about 100 people enrolled within our first year. We officially launched a month ago and we have 28 people signed up! There was clearly a need for this in our community and we are overwhelmed with the great responses we've had from both parents and community members.

I applied for a Target Early Childhood Reading grant to get the initial funds. We were lucky enough to get chosen. If you have not looked at the grants before, please go visit. The grants are entirely online and the Target tech team is very helpful if you run into any glitches.

Are you offering anything for under ones? If not, you should consider Baby Book Bees!

Flannel Friday-- Make a Turkey!

Inspired by Miss Courtney Meets Bobo, I decided to adapt her Thanksgiving idea into our Early Literacy Center. In our ELC we have a magnetic/flannel board that we switch out every month. In October, we did a flannel decorating a pumpkin. This month, we decided to keep the holiday theme going and decorate a turkey! It is the easiest flannel activity I've ever made.

First, I made 8 feathers using different colors. Then, I simply made a turkey body. I found the clip art on google images and just copied it. None of the feathers are glued on, so they are always in different patterns, on random places of the turkey's body, and sometimes our turkey friend only has one feather on. I mean, if you have a zebra print feather, do you really need anything else?

I always include a quick tip for parents who won't read a full sheet of paper. 

For the parents who like reading more than one sentence, I also included some "Turkey Starters". I am really looking forward to hearing some turkey bedtime stories!

 

I think this will be a great activity to use during my baby storytime too. I am going to make enough feathers for each baby. Then, I will call them up by color. The babies love to touch the flannel board, so we'll see how chaotic it becomes!

Check out the Thanksgiving Edition of Flannel Friday over at 1234 More Storytimes!