Early Literacy Tip: Ask your child to point out particular letters in the titles of the books you read (example: can you find the word that starts with S?). This is a great way to introduce the idea of how individual letters make up the words that they see every day.

This week, we had a great time celebrating the letter S in storytime. As usual, we started by drawing the letter S in the air together, and talking about the sound it makes. I asked the kids if they could think of any words that started with S. They suggested: sun, snake, sky, and slug. I also pulled out some items from a paper bag: a snake puppet, a straw, and a slide whistle (my favorite!).

Secret Words: I’ve been enjoying having the kids pick a slip of paper with a secret word featuring the letter of the day at the end of storytime. This week, we had the words strawberry, sun, star, shoe and snake.

Here’s the rest of what we did:

Books:

Sleepy Sheepy by Lucy Ruth Cummins; illustrated by Pete Oswald

The kids LOVED this book. I’m not sure if it was the name “Sleepy Sheepy” or the phrase “was not sleepy!” but they giggled almost every time I read that sentence. It’s a very simple story about a sheep who doesn’t want to go to bed, but the language and the illustrations are a lot of fun.

Smelly Peggy by Helen Stephens

I read this book at several preschools recently, and some of the kids were practically on the floor laughing. A little girl named Pie describes her naughty dog named Peggy, who likes to wake Mom up with a lick, and Dad up with dog butt! She also steals Mom’s frilly undies, and rolls in all kinds of poop. But the family loves Peggy anyway. This is an author who knows her audience!

How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers

Sweet, whimsical story about a little boy who wants a star of his very own. He tries every way he can think of to find one, until he finally discovers one at the edge of the sea. This book resonates with me particularly, because my family has always loved to visit the tide pools here along the California coast, and recently we’ve been so relieved to see the sea stars, which are finally coming back after a long struggle with wasting disease. I also love it because it reminds me of Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, which is one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels. The kids at Family Storytimes seemed taken by the idea of having a star of their own.

Aarrgghh! Spider! by Lydia Monks

I try really hard not to hoard books in my house, but I do have a small personal collection of favorite picture books. This is one of them. It’s an older title about an adorable spider who wants to be a family pet, but keeps getting put outside. The kids love joining in on the repeated “Aarrgghh, Spider!” line, and they love the page with the sparkly webs. The ending, where the spider invites all of her friends into the family’s house, always gets lots of laughs.

Kat Writes a Song by Greg Foley

This is another old favorite of mine: the story of a cat who writes a song to make everything better. She thinks her song is magic, because it seems to make the sun come out, and helps turtle find his missing sock, and keeps dog from barking at her. But when it doesn’t fix her friend Bunny’s broken skateboard, she begins to doubt that it’s magical after all. But then, her friend Bird comes to cheer her up with a bunch of friends singing her song. The kids enjoyed singing along with the song, which is simply “Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow, Meow.”

Songs & Rhymes:

Sleeping Bunnies Song

This is a repeat from last week, but it fit so well with Sleepy Sheepy that I couldn’t resist doing it again at Outdoor Musical Storytime. The version I use is closest to the one in this LittleBabyBum video.

See the little bunnies sleeping (crouch down and pretend to sleep)
‘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! (jump up)
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop! (jump up and down)
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop!
Hop little bunnies, hop and stop!

Little Bo Peep

I did this rhyme with the play scarves for Family Storytime. I had the kids stand up, and then we pretended the scarves were tails for the last line. Jbrary does a nice demo of the rhyme in the video below.

Little Bo Peep
Has lost her sheep, (hide scarf)
And doesn’t know where to find them.
Leave them alone,
And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them. (wave scarf in front of you, or behind you like a tail)

Shake My Sillies Out

This old Raffi song was my opening song for years when I first started as a children’s librarian. For Outdoor Musical Storytime, we sang the first verse with the parachute. I put a few small stuffed animals on the parachute, so they would fly up and down as we shook the chute in time with the song.

I’m gonna shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
Shake, shake, shake my sillies out,
And wiggle my waggles away.

There’s a Spider on the Floor

To the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It. This is another Raffi song, although I usually change the lyrics a little. I acted it out with a spider puppet, and told the kids to pretend their hands were spiders.

There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.
Who could ask for any more than a spider on the floor?
There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.

Now the spider’s on my leg, on my leg.
Now the spider’s on my leg, on my leg.
Oh, he’s really, really big, this old spider on my leg.
There’s a spider on my leg, on my leg.

Now the spider’s on my tummy, on my tummy…
Oh, I feel so very funny with this spider on my tummy!…

Now the spider’s on my neck, on my neck…
Oh, I’m gonna’ be a wreck, I’ve got a spider on my neck!…

Now the spider’s on my face, on my face…
Oh, I’m such a big disgrace. I’ve got a spider on my face!…

Now the spider’s on my head, on my head…
Oh, it fills my heart with dread to have this spider on my head!…

Spoken: But it jumps off!

Now the spider’s on the floor, on the floor…

Who could ask for any more than a spider on the floor?…

Sing a Song by Joe Raposo

We sang this as our instrument play-along at the end. It’s an old song from Sesame Street that I have always loved. I really like the version by The Carpenters in the video below.

[G] Sing, sing a [Am7] song [D7],
Sing out [G] loud, sing out [Dm7] strong [G7].
[Cmaj7] Sing of good things, not [G] bad,
[Em7] Sing of [A7] happy, not [Am7] sad [D7].

[G] Sing, sing a [Am7] song,
Make it [G] simple to [Gmaj7] last your whole life [Dm7] long [G7].
Don’t [Cmaj7] worry that it’s not [B7] good enough,
For [Em7] anyone else to [A7] hear.
Just [Am7] sing, [D7] sing a [G] song.

[G] La la do la da, [Gmaj7] la da la do la da,
[Cmaj7] La da da la do la da.
[G] La la do la da, [Gmaj7] la da la do la da,
[Cmaj7] La da da la do la da.

Stay & Play: DIY Stickers

This was really simple, but a lot of fun. Before storytime, I cut some large shipping labels into squares about 2″ x 2.” For the Stay & Play, I just put out the squares, along with markers and some small stamps. The kids really enjoyed making multiple stickers and then wearing them home. If I had time, I would have loved to use the circle cutter that came with our button machine to make round stickers too.

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