This past week, I continued my rainbow color series of storytimes by focusing on the color blue. I started by asking the kids to suggest things that were blue. They enjoyed looking around and pointing at different things around them, including the sky, backpacks, blueberries, and blankets.

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

Books:

Becoming Blue by Ellen Tarlow and Julien Chung

Blue wants to be more like Red, who seems to be so much more exciting and impressive. But he doesn’t seem to be able to be anything other than Blue. Finally Red tells him stop copying her and be blue, and he discovers the joys of being himself. The kids really liked the bright, colorful illustrations.

Roo Knows Blue by Renée Treml

Cute rhyming book about a kangaroo who says he knows blue, but does he really? The kids enjoyed calling out the names of the correct colors.

Blue vs Yellow by Tom Sullivan

Blue and Yellow both think they are the best colors, until they discover that together they can make something entirely different. The kids had fun calling out the names of the blue, yellow, and green things in the pictures.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

I was thinking about this book recently, because it was one of my mother-in-law’s childhood favorites, and I wrote a song based on it for her for Mother’s Day. It’s a longer book than I usually read for storytime, but I decided to give it a try with my Family Storytime group, and they loved it. Such a sweet, classic story about a little girl and her mother, and a baby bear and his mother, who all get a big surprise while eating berries on Blueberry Hill.

Songs:

Peanut Butter & Jelly

I sang this one at Family Storytime to go along with Blueberries for Sal. I do a slightly different version of the one in the Super Simple Songs video below. I have the kids mime picking the peanuts and grapes (or whatever other fruit they suggest), mash them, spread them, and eat the sandwich. I usually pretend to have peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth at the end, and then we all mime pouring and drinking a glass of milk.

First you take the peanuts, and you pick ’em,
You pick ’em, you pick ’em, pick ’em, pick ’em.
Then you smash them, you smash them,
You smash ’em, smash ’em, smash ’em.
Then you spread ’em, you spread ’em.
You spread ’em, spread ’em, spread ’em.
Singing, “Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!
Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!”

Then you take the grapes and you pick ’em,
You pick ’em, you pick ’em, pick ’em, pick ’em.
Then you smash them, you smash them,
You smash ’em, smash ’em, smash ’em.
Then you spread ’em, you spread ’em.
You spread ’em, spread ’em, spread ’em.
Singing, “Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!
Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!”

Then you take the sandwich and you bite it,
You bite it, you bite it, bite it, bite it.
Then you chew it, you chew it, you chew it,
Chew it, Chew it.
Then you swallow it, you swallow it,
You swallow it, swallow it, swallow it.
Singing, “Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!
Peanut, Peanut Butter…and Jelly!”

Shoo Fly

I did this song to go along with Roo Knows Blue. In Family Storytime, I passed out play scarves for the kids to wave on the chorus. I do this version of the song from Greg and Steve, and ask the kids to suggest different animals they would like to be.

Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me! (Wave hands or scarf as if shooing a fly)
Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me!
Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me,
I’ll tell you what I want to be.
I hop, I hop,
I hop like a kangaroo.
I hop, I hop,
I hop like a kangaroo.

Oh, Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me.
Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me!
Shoo, Fly, don’t bother me,
I’ll tell you what I want to be.

I wiggle, I wiggle, I wiggle like a wiggling worm…

The Waves on the Ocean

We did this one with the parachute for Outdoor Musical Storytime, and put a stuffed animal on top to go up and down with the waves. It’s to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus:

The waves on the ocean go up and down,
Up and down, Up and down.
The waves on the ocean go up and down,
All day long!

Baby Beluga by Raffi

This one was a bit of a stretch, but I used it for our instrument play-along because of the “deep blue sea” line. The kids always love it.

Stay & Play: Glow Glue Painting

We happened to have a lot of blue glow-in-the-dark glue, along with other colors, left over from a STEAM program last summer, so I decided to use it for a very simple process art activity. For the Stay & Play, I put out paper plates with small quantities of different colors of glue, along with cotton swabs (Q-tips), and black construction paper. The kids had fun drawing with the glue on the paper, and were excited to take it home to see their paintings glow in the dark. My Family Storytime kids, who tend to be a bit order, had a great time mixing different colors of glue on the plates to make different colors.

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