Early Literacy Tip: Playing with rhyming words is a great way to help children learn the phonetic sounds that make up words, which will help them learn to read later on. It’s also a lot of fun!

Since it’s Winter, I thought it would be fun to do a storytime about activities families can do indoors when it’s too cold or wet to go outside.

I started by asking the kids what they like to do when it’s raining. They suggested: reading, playing with magnets, building a fort, and playing with siblings.

Here’s the rest of what we did (a mix of both Outdoor Musical Storytime and Family Storytime):

Books:

Grace and Box by Kim Howard; illustrated by Megan Lötter

Sweet, colorful story about a girl’s adventures with a refrigerator box, which she can turn into a rocket ship, a house, a tent, and lots of other imaginative things.

Llama Llama Mess Mess Mess by Anna Dewdney & Reed Duncan; illustrated by J.T. Morrow

We recently had J.T. Morrow host a Learn to Draw Llama Llama program at our library. He lives here in town, so I was excited to share this book at storytime. Sadly, Anna Dewdney died in 2016, but J.T. explained that some of the books published after her death were based on manuscripts she had started. In this book, Mama Llama asks Llama Llama to help her clean, and asks him to imagine what would happen if she were to throw all the laundry on the floor, wear the blankets on her head, and skate around the house on roller skates. They end up cleaning the house together, and Llama Llama discovers it’s much easier to play with Mama when the floor is clear. For Family Storytime, I did it after our regular scarf songs, and had the kids throw the playscarves around in the part of the book about throwing clothes in the air, etc. This book was also a big hit at my preschool outreach visits this week.

Rainy Day by Patricia Lakin; illustrated by Scott Nash

Four alligators have an adventure on a rainy day when there seems to be nothing to do. Heading out into the fog, they wind up at a mini-golf course, find a very large dog, play baseball, and end up at the library where they each find a book about different parts of the day. Although not all of the activities mentioned were indoors, I still thought this was a fun book that reminds families that the library is a great place to go on a rainy day.

Blake the Snake Bakes a Cake by Amy Young; illustrated by Alison Young

Cute, funny, rhyming story about a snake named Blake who tries to bake a cake. Only something always seems to go wrong: the cake burns, or gets knocked over, or falls in a lake. Finally, he makes it to the birthday party, where the cake is a big success. Before I read the story, I told the families that it would feature lots of rhyming words, and that playing with rhymes would help them become strong readers when they got older.

Songs & Activities:

Freeze Dance: I recently bought some ribbon wands for Outdoor Musical Storytime, and this seemed like a great opportunity to try them out. I told the kids that a fun thing to do when you’re stuck indoors is to do a freeze dance. We handed out the ribbon wands, and I played The Little Bird Dance from Shenanigans on Tidal on my phone through the Bose speaker (it’s basically an instrumental version of The Chicken Dance, but I like how it gets faster and faster). I modelled waving the wands around and dancing, and then paused the song every few seconds. The kids loved it!

Old MacDonald: For Outdoor Musical Storytime, we sang this with the parachute. We all shook the parachute up and down in time to the beat, and each time we sang, I threw a different animal stuffed animal onto the chute: a pig, a dog, and a snake. One little girl immediately tried to “rescue” the pig, which was hilarious!

Rain is Falling Down

We did this one with play scarves, throwing them up in the air and catching them. I use the tune from JBrary in the video below:

Rain is falling down. SPLASH!
Rain is falling down. SPLASH!
Pitter patter, Pitter patter,
Rain is falling down. SPLASH!

Snow is falling down. SHHH!
Snow is falling down. SHHH!
Swirling, twirling, swirling, twirling,
Snow is falling down. SHHH!

A Hunting We Will Go: We sang this to go along with our discussion of rhyming after reading Blake the Snake Bakes a Cake. Each time we sang it, I asked the kids to suggest something different we could catch, and then we’d try to come up with a rhyme to go with it: we’ll catch a bear and put him in underwear; we’ll catch a snake and put him in a lake; and, my favorite, we’ll catch a fireman and then we’ll try again.

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!

There’s Nothing to Do

I wrote this song a while ago, and it seemed like a good fit for this theme. I think sometimes I forget that some of my favorite moments with my own kids are when we’re just hanging out in the living room together.

[C] There’s nothing to [G7] do,
There’s [F] nothing to [G7] do.
Can’t [C] swim in the [G7] pool.
Can’t [F] go to the [G7] zoo.
But my [F] favorite [C] thing in the [E7] whole world to [Am] do.
Is [F] just doing [G7] nothing with [C] you.

We could [C] talk for an [G7] hour.
We could [F] talk for a [G7] day.
And I [C] wouldn’t [G7] remember one thing that we’d [G7] say,
But I’d [F] remember I [C] laughed ’til my [E7] stomach was [Am] sore,
And I’d [F] feel more [C] alive than [E7] ever [Am] before,
‘Cause my [F] favorite [C] thing in the [E7] whole world to [Am] do.
Is just doing [G7] nothing with you.

The [G7] years fly so fast,
It’s like [C] no time at all.
And [G7] I have done more than I’ll [G7]ever recall.
But the [F] very best [C] moments that [E7] I ever [Am] knew
Were [F] just doing [G7] nothing with [C] you.

[C] There’s nothing to [G7] do,
There’s [F] nothing to [G7] do.
Can’t [C] swim in the [G7] pool.
Can’t [F] go to the [G7] zoo.
But my [F] favorite [C] thing in the [E7] whole world to [Am] do.
Is [F] just doing [G7] nothing with [C] you.

Stay & Play: Paper Puzzles

The end of Llama Llama Mess Mess Mess features Llama Llama doing a puzzle with his Mama, so I thought this would be a fun and easy Stay & Play for families to do together.

I put out white cardstock, markers, and kids scissors, and told the kids they could write or draw something, and then cut the paper into a few pieces to make a puzzle for a friend or family member to put together. Or they could ask their grownups to make a puzzle for them to solve. Although I didn’t get any pictures of this, my favorite example was a child who drew a unicorn, and their grandmother wrote the word UNICORN above the picture before they cut it into a puzzle. For Family Storytime, I helped some of the smaller kids write their names to cut into a puzzle.

Do you have any favorite picture books about indoor activities? Please share them in the comments below.