Monthly Archives: March 2024

Somebunny Loves You: A Storytime About Rabbits

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In honor of Easter and Spring, I did a Rabbit Theme for Family Storytime this week.

Here’s what we did:

Books:

Wolfie, the Bunny by Ame Dyckman and Zachariah O’Hora

This one is so much fun to read aloud. When a baby wolf is left on their doorstep, Dot’s parents immediately decide to adopt him. But Dot (a young rabbit) knows that he is dangerous, and warns them repeatedly that “He’s going to eat us all up!” But when Wolfie is threatened by an enormous bear, Dot surprises everyone by defending her new little brother.

Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes

Simple, sweet story about a rabbit who imagines what it would be like to be like other things he sees in the world: green like the grass, tall like a tree, still like a stone. A peaceful, beautiful book that the kids seemed mesmerized by.

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

This is one of my favorite books about feelings. When Taylor’s block tower gets destroyed by a flock of birds, all of the other animals offer advice: talk about it, get angry, destroy someone else’s tower. None of it helps, until the rabbit comes along and merely listens.

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

This hilarious first story about Trixie and her Knuffle Bunny, who gets lost on a trip to the laundromat, is always a hit with both adults and kids. It was immediately checked out by one of the families after storytime.

Songs & Rhymes:

See the Little Bunnies Sleeping

One of our local daycare providers always used this song with her kids, and I can see why. They love the moment when they get to jump up and hop after crouching down and pretending to be asleep. We sang it through three times.

See the little bunnies sleeping
‘Till it’s nearly noon.
Come, let us wake them with a merry tune?
They’re so still.
Are they ill?
NO! Wake up little bunnies!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop and stop!

Here is a Bunny

This is a simple fingerplay rhyme, but a fun one:

Here is a bunny (hold up two fingers like bunny ears)
With ears so funny,
And here is his hole in the ground. (make a circle with the thumb and index finger of your other hand)
When a noise he hears,
He pricks up his ears, (move your bunny ears)
And jumps through the hole in the ground! (put your bunny ear fingers into the hole).

The Wishy Washy Washer Woman

We sang this with the play scarves after reading Knuffle Bunny. I use the version in this video from Imagine More Story Adventures:

Way down in the valley where nobody goes,
There’s a wishy washy washer woman washing her clothes.
She goes “Oooh! Ahhh! Oooh! Ahhh! Oooh! Ahhh!”
And that’s the way she washes her clothes!

Repeat with drying her clothes (blowing on the scarves), folding her clothes, and wearing her clothes.

Love Somebunny, Yes I Do!

For our instrument play-along at the end, I changed the words to Love Somebody, Yes I Do. There are lots of different versions of the song, but the one I do is closest to the one in the video by Musicaliti found below. We sang it through several times.

Love somebunny, yes I do!
Love somebunny, yes I do!
Love somebunny, yes I do!
Love somebunny and it’s you, you, you! (point to different people)
You, you, you!

Stay & Play: Cotton Ball Rabbits

Before storytime, I printed and pre-cut blank rabbit templates on white cardstock (I used this one from clipartix.com), and cut some small triangles out of pink paper. For the Stay & Play, I put out the paper rabbits and pink triangles, along with cotton balls, gluesticks, markers, and googly eyes.

The kids had a great time gluing the cotton balls to the paper. It’s such a fun, tactile activity.

Do you have any favorite books or songs about rabbits? Please share them in the comments below.

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates!

Z is for Zebra: A Storytime About the Letter Z

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We made it to the end of the alphabet today! It’s been a fun experiment, and our storytime families really seemed to enjoy calling out the letter each week, and calling out the words they knew. Today they came up with zebra, zoom, zipper and zoo, before we drew the letter Z in the air together.

Here’s a combination of the books and songs we did for Family Storytime last week, and Outdoor Musical Storytime today.

Books:

Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

Hilarious alphabet book about an attention-seeking moose, who can’t wait for his turn in the spotlight during the alphabet play. When the director, Zebra, chooses a mouse to represent the letter M, Moose goes on a rampage. The kids loved calling out the objects for each letter.

Zee by Michel Gay

This book appears to be out of print, which is sad, because it was a favorite of my own kids. Zee knows his parents need lots of coffee to wake up in the morning, so he prepares a special tray of coffee and breakfast. Unfortunately, he trips, and spills the tray, leaving only enough coffee to fill two doll’s teacups, which only wakes his parents up a little bit. My Family Storytime kids thought it was very funny.

Zero by Kathryn Otashi

In this sequel to One, the number Zero feels empty inside, and worries that she has no value. She tries to contort herself into different numbers, but nothing works, until she realizes that if she partners with the other numbers, together they can reach 10, 100, 1000, and higher! A wonderful allegory that also works well on the surface. It was perfect for my Family Storytime, which had a wide range of ages, so the younger kids could call out the smaller numbers, and the older ones could try their hand at the big numbers.

Old MacDonald Had a Zoo by Iza Trapani

The kids loved this adapted version of Old MacDonald Had a Farm, which describes Old MacDonald’s encounters with a variety of escaped zoo animals.

Songs:

When Ducks Get Up in the Morning

This is an old-standby of mine. We sang it to go along with Zee. I asked the kids to suggest different animals to sing about, and they came up with mice, alligators, and hippos. I ended with “When kids get up in the morning,” with the kids saying, “I’m hungry!”

[C] When ducks get up in the morning,
[G7] They always say, “Good [C] day!”
[C] When ducks get up in the morning,
[G7] They always say, “Good [C] day!”
[C] They say, “Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] That is what they [C] say.
[C] They say, “Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!”
[G7] That is what they [C] say.

Alphabet Song

We sang The Alphabet Song after reading M is for Moose. We sang it through three times, getting faster each time.

[C] A – B – C – D – [F] E – F – [C] G
[F] H – I – [C] J – K – [G7] LMNO – [C] P
[C] Q – R –[F] S –[C] T – U –[G7] V
[C] W – [F]X –[C] Y and [G7] Z
[C] Now I know my [F]AB[C]C’s,
[F]Next time [C] won’t you [G7]sing with [C] me.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

We did this one both with our bodies (crouching down and then jumping up on the “Blast Off”) and then with the parachute (I tossed pompoms on the parachute just before we got to the blast off part). Here’s a video from JingleJam with the tune:

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom,
We’re going to the Moon.
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom,
We’re going to the Moon.
If you want to take a trip,
Climb aboard my rocket ship.
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom,
We’re going to the Moon.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Blast-off!

Going to the Zoo by Tom Paxton

We did this song as our instrument play-along at the end. Here’s the tune:

[C] Daddy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow.
[G7] Zoo tomorrow, Zoo tomorrow.
[C] Daddy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow,
And [G7] we can stay all [C] day.

CHORUS:
[F] We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!
[C] How about you, you, you?
[G7] You can come too, too, too! (G7)
We’re [C] going to the zoo, [G7] zoo, [C] zoo!

See the elephants with the long trunk swinging,
Great big ears and a long trunk swinging.
Snuffing up peanuts with the long trunk swinging,
And we can stay all day!

CHORUS

See all the monkeys, they’re scritch, scritch, scratchin’.
Jumping all around and scritch, scritch, scratchin’.
Hanging by the long tails scritch, scritch, scratchin’,
And we can stay all day!

CHORUS

Well, we stayed all day, and I’m getting sleepy,
Sitting in the car getting sleep, sleep, sleepy.
Home already and I’m sleep, sleep, sleepy,
‘Cause we have stayed all day!

We’ve been to the zoo, zoo, zoo!
So have you, you, you!
You came too, too, too!
We’ve been to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

But Mommy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow
Zoo tomorrow, Zoo tomorrow.
Mommy’s taking us to the zoo tomorrow,
And we can stay all day!

CHORUS

Stay & Play: Paper Striped Zebras

We’ve had a set of Kids Kraft Edgers (scissors that cut patterned edges) for years, and I’ve always wanted to use them, so for this Stay and Play, I printed out blank zebra templates (like this one from FreeStencilGallery.com), and put out the Kraft Edgers, glue sticks, colored paper, googly eyes, and markers. The kids were fascinated by the different patterns they could create with the scissors, and had a great time cutting and gluing stripes on their zebras.

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter Z? Or any topics you would like to see for a future storytime theme? Please share them in the comments below.

Y is for Yarn: A Storytime About the Letter Y

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Well, my journey through the alphabet was interrupted last week by a bad case of laryngitis, but this week I was finally able to get to the Letter Y.

We started by talking about words that begin with the letter Y, and I wrote each one down on a piece of paper: yellow, yak, yawn, and yarn. I also showed them a yo-yo, which the kids were VERY interested in. Then we drew the letter Y in the air together.

Here’s a combination of the books and songs I used for Family and Outdoor Musical Storytime.

Books:

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Jon Klassen

This is such a quirky story, but so much fun to read aloud. It’s one of my go-to read-alouds for older kids (like second grade), but I decided to try it for my Family Storytime, and they loved it too. When Annabelle finds a box of yarn, she makes sweaters for everyone in town, but miraculously never runs out of yarn, even when she starts covering the trees and buildings in sweaters. A greedy archduke steals the box, but finds it empty and throws it into the sea, where it makes its way back to Annabelle, full of yarn once more. The illustrations are mesmerizing.

Blue vs Yellow by Tom Sullivan

Blue and Yellow are arguing about which is the better color, until they crash into each other and discover together they can make a whole new color. The kids had a great time calling out the names of the blue, yellow (and green!) objects on each page.

You Are a Lion: And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo

I love this simple book of yoga poses. The kids loved doing the poses and pretending to be the different animals: lion, snake, cat, and dog. I wasn’t sure if there would be enough room for the lying down pose at the end, but they made it work.

I Dare You Not to Yawn by Hélène Boudreau; illustrated by Serge Bloch

Very cute, funny book warning kids what to avoid if they don’t want to be sent to bed in the evening: big stretches, cute baby animals, cuddly stuffed animals, and anything else that might make you have to yawn.

Songs

Do You See the Color Blue?

This song always gets the kids excited, as they look around the room pointing to things that match each color. It’s to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Do you [C] see the color yellow,
The [F] color yellow, the [G7] color yellow?
Do you [C] see the color yellow?
[F] Tell me [G7] what you [C] see.

Do you see the color red… etc.

You Sing a Song

We did this song with play scarves for Family Storytime, and the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime. It’s such a versatile song, and works for all kinds of different motions.

[C] You’ll sing a song, and [Am] I’ll sing a song,
And [C] we’ll sing a [Dm] song toge-[G]ther.
[C] You’ll sing a song, and [Am] I’ll sing a song,
In [G] warm or [C] wintry [G] wea-[C]ther.

For Play Scarves

You’ll wave a scarf, and I’ll wave a scarf, and we’ll wave our scarves together…

You’ll peek-a-boo, and I’ll peek-a-boo… (put the scarf over your face, then pull it away)

You’ll throw a scarf, and I’ll throw a scarf…

For Parachutes

You shake the chute, and I’ll shake the chute, and we’ll shake the chute together…

You shake it fast, and I’ll shake it fast…

You lift it high, and I’ll lift it high…

Yellow Submarine by the Beatles

We did this for our instrument play-along at the end. It was one I used to sing with Thom Ball, who was an amazing musician, in some of our early musical storytimes, so it brought back some wonderful memories.

In the [D] town where I was [G] born,
Lived a [Am] man who sailed to [D] sea.
And he [D] told us of his [G] life
In the [Am] land of [D] submarines
So we [D] sailed up to the [G] sun,
Till we [Am] found the sea of [D] green.
And we [D] lived beneath the [G] waves,
In our [Am] yellow [D] submarine.

Chorus:
[G] We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow [G] submarine.
We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, [G] yellow submarine.

And our [D] friends are all a-[G]board.
Many [Am] more of them live next [D] door.
And the [D] band begins to [G] play
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo,
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Chorus:
[G] We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow [G] submarine.
We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, [G] yellow submarine.

As we [D] live a life of [G] ease.
Every-[Am] one of us has all we [D] need.
Sky of [D] blue and sea of [G] green,
In our [Am] yellow [D] submarine.

Chorus:
[G] We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow [G] submarine.
We all live in a [D] yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, [G] yellow submarine.

Stay & Play: Yarn Resist Art

This project was inspired by a post on thepinterestedparent.com. It was a little labor-intensive to set up, but the kids had a good time with it.

Before storytime, I wrapped yarn around pieces of white cardstock and taped it on the back with removable tape. I tried to make several large X shapes on the front of the paper.

For the Stay & Play, we put out the yarn-wrapped paper and dot markers. I told the kids to dot different colors all over the paper, including the yarn. They had fun seeing the patterns that appeared when they pulled the yarn away. (Some kids even unwrapped the yarn, but left it taped to the back of the paper to create a very colorful kite!).

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter Y? Please share them in the comments below. I’m also almost at the end of the alphabet, so if you have any storytime themes you would like me to cover, I would love the challenge!

X is for X-Ray: A Storytime About the Letter X

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At last, the letter I have been dreading through my whole alphabet storytime: the Letter X! It actually wasn’t too bad, even though I had to focus on words that included the letter X, rather than words that started with it.

We started our storytime by asking the kids if they knew any words that contained the letter X. After a few examples, they actually thought of quite a few. Some of the older kids were suggesting words like exoskeleton and excavator, and even phoenix. I also showed them a xylophone, just to have an example of something that actually starts with the letter X, and we talked about how the smaller bars make higher sounds.

Here’s the rest of what we did (this is a combination of Outdoor Musical and Family Storytime):

Books:

My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister; illustrated by Alex T. Smith

This was my only book featuring a word that started with the letter X, and it was a big hit at Family Storytime. Matthew is convinced that his Mom must have X-ray vision because she always seems to know when he’s getting into trouble, and so he decides to test her. The kids really enjoyed guessing how the Mom knew what Matthew was up to, based on details in the illustrations.

Mix It Up by Hervé Tullet

Several of the kids were familiar with this book, but they all enjoyed following along by tapping the different colors on the page and pretending to mix them together (in my Outdoor Musical Storytime, which gets a bigger crowd) I just had them pretend to tap the pictures by tapping the air. They loved guessing what color each combination would make.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

This is one of those really simple books that works well for lots of ages. A little rabbit is asked why he is sitting in a box. “It’s not a box!” the rabbit insists, and the next page shows him driving a race car. The kids loved guessing what the rabbit is imagining the box is on each page.

Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox; illustrated by Patricia Mullins

A simple story, but full of suspense. When Hattie the hen sees a nose poking out of the bushes, the other animals are not impressed. But then she sees two eyes, two ears, two legs, and a body, until finally a fox leaps out of the bushes. Luckily, the cow scares it away with a loud, “MOO!” (the kids enjoyed joining in on that part).

Songs:

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

I did this one to go along with My Mom Has X-Ray Vision for Family Storytime. We sang it through three times, getting faster and faster.

Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes,
Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes,
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
Head and shoulders, knees and toes,
Knees and toes.

Do You See the Color Blue?

This song always gets the kids excited, as they look around the room pointing to things that match each color. It’s to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Do you [C] see the color blue,
The [F] color blue, the [G7] color blue?
Do you [C] see the color blue
Right [F] here [G7] in this [C] room?

Do you see the color red… etc.

The Jack-in-the-Box

Few things are as gratifying as demonstrating a jack-in-the-box at storytime. I brought one out today, and the kids LOVED it! They begged for me to play it over and over again. Then we sang this song together with the parachute.

The jack-in-the-box jumps up!
The jack-in-the-box goes flop.
The jack-in-the-box goes round and round.
The lid comes down with a plop!

A Hunting We Will Go

Oh, [C] a-hunting we will go!
A-[F]hunting we will go!
We’ll [G7] catch a fox and put it in a box,
And then we’ll let it [C] go!

Stay & Play: Letter X Brush Pen Resist Art

I adapted this activity from themeasuredmom.com, only I had the kids use brush pens instead of watercolors. Before storytime, I made X’s out of removable tape on pieces of cardstock. For the Stay & Play, I gave each child a paper with a taped letter X, and a variety of brush pens. They had fun decorating the paper, and then pulling away the tape to reveal their letter X.

Do you have any favorite books or songs featuring the letter X? Please share them in the comments below.