Monthly Archives: May 2026

G-neral Knowledge: A Storytime About the Letter G

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Early Literacy Tip: Ask your child to search for different characters or items in the illustrations of books, like finding the little mouse on each page of Good Night, Owl. This makes sharing the book a more interactive experience. It will also teach them to look for details in the illustrations, which can help them decipher unfamiliar words when they are learning to read later on.

This week we had fun with ghosts and the word “Go” as we focused on the letter G. As usual, I started by writing the letter G (both upper and lower- case) on my whiteboard and having the kids trace it in the air with me. Then we talked about the two different sounds that G makes. I asked the kids to think of words that start with G (adorably, the first one they suggested was “Grandma”) and then pulled some things starting with the letter G out of a paper bag (a glue stick, a glove, a toy giraffe, and a toy gorilla).

Here’s the rest of what we did:

Books:

There’s a Ghost in this House by Oliver Jeffers

A girl who lives in a big haunted house asks the reader for help finding the ghosts she has never seen. Each page features a translucent overlay that makes ghosts suddenly appear in the scene. This book is a hit with kids of all ages!

Go! Go! Go! Stop! by Charise Mericle Harper

Cute story about Little Green, who can only say the word “Go!” He uses this word to help some construction vehicles get their job done, but things quickly get out of control, until Little Red arrives to tell them when to “Stop!” The kids enjoyed joining in on the “Go’s” and “Stop’s.”

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae & Guy Parker-Rees

An adorable giraffe named Gerald longs to dance but is impossibly clumsy, until a cricket helps him find his own music to dance to. A sweet, rhyming story with charming illustrations.

Good Night, Owl by Greg Pizzoli

Owl is all ready for bed, but keeps getting distracted by a “Squeek!” Trying to find the source of the noise leads him to empty his cupboards, pull up his floor, tear down his roof, and knock down his walls, until he finally spots the little mouse who is causing all of the commotion. The kids loved joining in on the “Squeek’s” and looking for the little mouse hiding on each page.

Songs:

We Are Spooky Ghosts

I wish I knew who wrote this song, which I learned many years ago from an Orff Music Curriculum. The original version was “We Are Scary Skeletons” and I often use it at Halloween, where I ask the kids to suggest different spooky things they would like to be. But my favorite way to sing it is with play scarves, where we all get to put the scarves on our heads and pretend to be ghosts. The video below is one I did during lockdown, when I was leading storytimes over Zoom from my house, and improvising with household items.

We are spooky ghosts
Floating down the street,
Floating down the street,
Floating down the street.
We are spooky ghosts
Floating down the street.
We’ll scare you!
BOO!

Going to the Zoo by Tom Paxton

We sang this song after reading Giraffes Can’t Dance. It’s such a catchy song, and the kids enjoy pretending to be elephants and monkeys.

[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

Go, Go, Go, Stop

I improvised this simple song to sing with the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime. We sang it a little faster each time.

To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP! (shake the parachute in time to the song, and freeze on the word STOP!”
Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, STOP!

So Glad I’m Here

This is a beautiful song (based, I believe, on a traditional African American gospel song). We used it as our instrument play-along at the end. I especially love this version by Elizabeth Mitchell. I added a final verse that says “I’m so glad you’re here.”

[C] I’m so glad I’m here,
So glad I’m here,
So glad I’m here, here to-[G7]day.
So [C] glad I’m here,
I’m [F] so glad I’m here,
So [G7] glad I’m here, here to-[C]day.

I’m gonna sing while I’m here,
Sing while I’m here,
Sing while I’m here, here today.
Sing while I’m here,
I’m gonna sing while I’m here,
Sing while I’m here, here today.

Love brought me here,
Love brought me here,
Love brought me here, here today.
Love brought me here,
Love brought me here,
Love brought me here, here today.

Joy brought me here,
Joy brought me here,
Joy brought me here, here today.
Joy brought me here,
You know joy brought me here,
Joy brought me here, here today.

I’m so glad you’re here,
So glad you’re here,
So glad you’re here, here today.
So glad you’re here,
You know, I’m so glad you’re here.
So glad you’re here, here today.

Stay & Play: Glue Ghosts

For the Stay & Play, I offered the kids two different ways to make ghosts.

For the first option, I put out black paper, ModPodge, some cardboard squares I cut out of cereal boxes, and googly eyes. I helped the kids pour a small amount of ModPodge on their paper, and gave them each a cardboard square to spread it into a ghost shape. I also provided scissors and white paper, in case they wanted to cut out a mouth. Most of them added lots of googly eyes. Unlike other kinds of white glue, the ModPodge dries into a thick, smooth layer, which makes it look like a transparent ghost.

For the second option, I put out black paper, glue sticks, googly eyes, white paper, and googly eyes, so the kids could cut out ghost shapes and glue them on the black paper.

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

F is for Fun: A Storytime About the Letter F

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Early Literacy Tip: Share the sounds that letters make, especially strong consonants like F or P, and make a game of noticing words you hear throughout the day that start with that sound.

This past week, we continued our journey through the alphabet by focusing on the letter F in storytime.

As usual, I started by writing the letter F on my whiteboard and asking the kids to write an upper and lower case letter F in the air with me. I emphasized the sound that the letter F makes, and asked them if they knew any words that started with that sound (In Family Storytime, I accidentally asked, “Do you know any F words?” and then quickly said, “No, not that one!” Luckily, none of the kids caught it, but the grown-ups laughed). The kids suggested frog, fish, and fun, which I wrote on the board. I also asked them to pull different items out of a paper bag: a paper fan, a fork, and a flower.

Here’s the rest of what we did:

Books

Follow Me, Flo by Jarvis

Cute story, featuring an adorable duckling named Flo, whose father invents a song to help her remember their path. When she gets lost and runs into a hungry fox, the song helps her find her way back to her Dad.

The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner; illustrated by Jonathan Lambert

I love this simple pop-up book based on an old joke (we have a non-circulating copy on our staff Story Shelf). A curious wide-mouthed frog asks different animals what they like to eat, until he learns that the alligator likes to eat tasty wide-mouthed frogs. The big pop-out alligator always gets a big response from the kids!

Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

One of my favorite storytime books, featuring an adorable kitten who thinks the moon is a big bowl of milk in the sky that she can’t quite reach. The large black and white drawings, and simple, relatable story make it perfect for almost any age.

Can You Make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas

One of several interactive picture books by Jan Thomas. This one asks the reader to stand up, then sit down, then stand up again, and then pretend there is a little bug on their nose, which gets stuck in their shirt. The kids loved following the instructions on each page. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, my coworker Isabella held up a big frog puppet for the part with the giant frog.

Sam’s First Word by Bea Birdsong; illustrated by Holly Hatam

Funny story about a little girl named Sam, whose family and neighbor are all hoping their name will be her first word. They are so busy coaching her to say, “Mama,” or “Papa,” or “Nana” that they don’t notice that her actual first word is “Poop!” I’ve been reading this book at local preschools lately, and it’s been fun to ask the kids what their first word was (a lot of them don’t remember, but their guesses are often very funny).

Songs & Rhymes

Do As I’m Doing

We sang this after reading Follow Me, Flo. You can do different motions each time for the kids to copy, or ask the kids to suggest their own.

[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, follow [G7] me.
[C] Do as I’m doing, follow, [G7] follow [C] me.
[C] Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me.
[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.
Follow, [G7] follow, [F] follow [C] me,
[F] Follow, [C] follow, [G7] follow [C] me.

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

We sang this after reading The Wide Mouthed Frog. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, I held up a frog puppet, and pretended to have it slurp a bug off of the kids heads each time we got to the “Yum Yum!” line.

Five green and speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log.
Eating the most delicious bugs! Yum Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool,
Now there are four green speckled frogs!

Four green and speckled frogs…etc.

Down By the Banks of the Hanky Panky

This is a lapsit rhyme I used to use for baby storytime, where you bounce the baby from knee to knee. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, I put a frog puppet on the parachute, and we lifted the parachute up and down in time with the rhyme to make it “jump” around.

Down by the banks of the hanky panky,
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky,
With a hip, a hop,
A hippity-hop,
Jump off the lilypad and kerplop!

Five Days Old by Laurie Berkner

We sang this as our instrument play-along at the end, after reading Sam’s First Word. It’s such a fun and happy song, and the kids always enjoy jumping up and down.

[C] I’m sitting here, I’m [F] one day old, and [C] I’m sitting here I’m [F] two [G7] days [C] old.
[C] I’m sitting here, I’m [F] three days old, and [C] I’m sitting here I’m [F] four [G7] days [C] old.
[F] One [C] day, I’ll [F] be a [C] year, then [F] I’ll be [C] two, then [G7] three, then four.
[C] As for now I’m [F] sitting here, I’m [C] five days old and [F] no [G7] days [C] more!

I’m jumping up, I’m one day old…

I’m clapping my hands, I’m one day old…

I’m kicking my legs, I’m one day old…

Getting really tired, I’m one day old…

I’m jumping up, I’m one day old…

Stay & Play: Flower Painting

This is my all-time favorite process srt activity, especially for Outdoor Musical Storytime. I just put out white paper and a variety of flowers (this time I used nasturtiums, flowers from a broccoli plant, and lavender). The kids love squishing the petals into the paper and “painting” with their finger.

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

E-Z Does It! A Storytime About the Letter E

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Early Literacy Tip: Encourage kids to make up their own verses to favorite songs that you sing together (for example, ask them to come up with different types of animals for Old MacDonald to have on his farm). Singing together is one of the best and easiest ways to help kids develop phonemic awareness, the knowledge of the different sounds that make up words. Having them choose the words to the song makes it an even more fun and memorable experience.

As I mentioned before, this is the second time I’ve done a series of storytimes based on the letters of the alphabet, and I’m enjoying it even more this time. Our library system has made it a goal for our storytimes to help caregivers learn ways to reinforce early literacy skills throughout the day. I’ve struggled a bit with how to incorporate this, since admittedly I tend to focus more on the kids than the caregivers, but building my storytimes around individual letters has made it easier to model ways of focusing kids’ attention on words and letter sounds.

This week we focused on the Letter E. As usual, I started by writing a capital and lowercase E on my whiteboard, and then asked the kids to draw them in the air with me. I then talked about the different sounds the letter makes (I even mentioned that sometimes E is silent, although I didn’t go into a lot of detail), and asking the kids if they knew any words that started with E. They came up with elephant, eel, and eagle. I also pulled some other objects out of a paper bag one at a time: an egg shaker, an envelope, and an eraser.

Here’s the rest of what we did:

Books:

Everybody Says Meow by Constance Lombardo

This book works well for a wide range of ages. A cat announces that now’s the time when everybody says, “Meow.” Except that one dog insists on saying, “Woof!” instead. When the cat decides to accommodate the dog, a frog suddenly shows up. Eventually the cat decides that everybody can just say whatever they want to, but then a lion’s roar scares everyone away. The kids always laugh at the unexpected animal sounds.

Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles; illustrated by Rod Clement

A classic, rhyming story about an emu who tries being other animals, because he thinks each one is “the best at the zoo.” He tries being a lion, a snake, and a seal, until finally he overhears a man saying the emu is by far the best. When he returns to his original enclosure though, he finds a new emu named Edwina, who thinks that he is the best thing she’s seen at the zoo. The large illustrations of each animal make this a great book for storytime.

Did You Eat the Parakeet? by Mark Iacolina

When her pet parakeet escapes from its cage, a girl accuses her cat of eating it. But she doesn’t realize that the parakeet is standing on her head the whole time. A funny, rhyming book with lots of visual irony.

The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett

All of the birds have laid eggs, except for Duck, who finds a large, mysterious one that everyone says is odd. Each bird’s egg hatches into their expected babies, but when Duck’s finally hatches, it turns out to contain an alligator, which scares all of the other birds away. The kids love the last page, which shows the alligator calling Duck “Mama.”

Songs:

Old MacDonald

We sang this song after reading Everybody Says Meow (it helps that the song has lots of E’s in it!). Each time we sang it, I asked the kids which animals they thought Old MacDonald should have and what sounds they would make.

[C] Old MacDonald [F] had a [C] farm,
E-I- [G7] E-I- [C] O!
And on that farm he [F] had a [C] cow,
E-I- [G7] E-I- [C] O!
With an moo-moo here, and an moo-moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo,
Everywhere a moo-moo.
[C] Old MacDonald [F] had a [C] farm,
E-I- [G7] E-I- [C] O!

Repeat with different animals…

The Elevator

This is an old standby of mine, which I especially love to use with babies and toddlers. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, we sang it with the parachute, lifting it up and down with the words of the song. It’s to the tune of Bumpin’ Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon (I have included a rough audio clip below so you can hear how it goes).

Riding up and down in an elevator (lift baby up and down, or have older kids stand up and crouch down)
Riding up and down in an elevator
Riding up and down in an elevator
First floor
Second floor (lift baby up, or have kids stand)
Third floor (lift baby higher, or have kids stretch up high)
DOWN! (lower baby, or have kids crouch back down)

Apples and Bananas

We sang this after reading Did You Eat the Parakeet? It’s a wonderful song for teaching vowel sounds, and for modeling different ways to play with words and sounds in general.

I like to [C] eat, eat eat, apples and ba-[G]nanas.
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and ba-[C]nanas.
I like to [C] eat, eat eat, apples and ba-[G]nanas.
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and ba-[C]nanas.

I like to eat, eat, eat ayples and baynaynays…

I like to eat, eat, eat eeples and beeneenees…

I like to eat, eat, eat īpples, and bīnīnīs… (the ī symbol is for the long “i” sound, which sounds like “eye”)

I like to eat, eat, eat oh-pples and boh-noh-nohs…

 I like to eat, eat, eat ūpples and būnūnūs… (the ū symbol is for the long “u” sound, which sounds like “ooh)

I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner

A great song to do with egg shakers! I used it as my instrument play-along at the end of storytime.

[C7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
Oh [F7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she [C7] laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
[G7] Oh my goodness! (Oh, my goodness)
It’s a [C7] shaky egg! (It’s a shaky egg!)

Now shake them [C7] fast!
Shake them [F7] fast!
Shake them [C7] fast!
[G7] Shake your eggs!
[C7] Shake them [G7] fast!

[C7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
Oh [F7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she [C7] laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
[G7] Oh my goodness! (Oh, my goodness)
It’s a [C7] shaky egg! (It’s a shaky egg!)

Now shake them [C7] slow!
You know how it [F7] goes.
Shake them [C7] slow,
[G7] Because you know how it goes.
[C7] Shake them [G7] fast! Oh, shake those eggs!

[C7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
Oh [F7] I know a chicken, (I know a chicken)
And she [C7] laid an egg. (And she laid an egg)
[G7] Oh my goodness! (Oh, my goodness)
It’s a [C7] shaky egg! (It’s a shaky egg!)

Now shake them [C7] in a circle.
Shake them [F7] round and round.
Don’t let them touch the [C7] ground.
[G7] Now shake them up and down.
[C7] You’ve got to shake them up and [G7] down.

Stay & Play: Fun With Googly Eyes

For the Stay & Play, I just put out white paper, markers, and a variety of Googly Eyes, which are always a big hit!

Do you have any favorite books, songs, or activities based on the letter E? Please share them in the comments below.