Last week was National Literacy and Numeracy Week. I figure all of my storytimes are connected to literacy, but I don’t often get to focus on numbers and counting, so I made that the theme for both my evening Family Storytime last week, and today’s Outdoor Musical Storytime.

Here’s what we did:

Books:

How to Count to One (And Don’t Even Think About Bigger Numbers!) by Caspar Salmon; illustrated by Matt Hunt

This book is a little longer than I usually read for my Outdoor Musical Storytime crowd, but they loved it anyway. It’s a funny book that asks the reader to count…to 1. After starting out with one apple and one elephant, the pages get increasingly tricky, showing, for example, three bowls of soup on a page, but asking you to count the one fly. Once the kids caught onto the joke, they loved shouting out, “ONE!”

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin; illustrated by James Dean

One of my favorite Pete the Cat books, which features lots of elements for the kids to repeat, including Pete’s song (“My buttons, my buttons, my four groovy buttons”) and the “POP! Oh No!” as each button pops off and rolls away. Like I Love My White Shoes, it also includes the “Did Pete Cry? Goodness, No!” refrain, which the kids enjoy joining in on. Plus the punchline, when Pete looks down and sees his belly button, always gets a laugh.

One-osaurus, Two-osaurus by Kim Norman; illustrated by Pierre Collet-Derby

Adorable rhyming book about nine colorful dinosaurs who all hide when ten-osaurus rex appears. It seems like they might all be in danger, but wait, they’re actually all just playing hide-and-seek. The rhymed text and the large, clear numbers make it easy for kids to join in on the counting, and there’s a page in the middle where everyone gets to roar. The book ends with the dinosaurs playing Simon-Says, so I introduced the kids to that game for a minute or two after we read it.

Five Hiding Ostriches by Barbara Barbieri McGrath; illustrated by Riley Samels

This book is surprisingly similar to One-osaurus, Two-osaurus, so I read it for my Family Storytime, but not my Outdoor Musical one. This one features five ostriches hiding from a lion, who once again turns out to be playing Hide-and-Seek. The rhyme is reminiscent of Five Little Pumpkins.

Songs & Activities:

We Are the Dinosaurs by Laurie Berkner

We sang this as a follow-up to One-osaurus, Two-osaurus (after a brief game of Simon Says). The kids loved stomping around and roaring. Laurie Berkner’s video is below:

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food on the [Dm] ground.
[F] We stop and eat our [C] food, [F] when we’re in the [C] mood.
[F] Stop and eat our [C] food, and [Dm] then we march [A] around.

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest at the end of the [Dm] day.
[F] We stop and take a [C] rest, [F] over in our [C] nest.
[F] Stop and take a [C] rest, and [Dm] then you’ll hear us [A] say…

[Dm] We are the [C] dinosaurs marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs. [A] Whaddaya think of that?
[Dm] We are the dinosaurs [C] marching, marching.
[Dm] We are the [A] dinosaurs. [Dm] We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.
We make the [C] earth [Dm] flat.

[A] And then we RO-AR-OAR!
[A] Because [Dm] we [C] are the [Dm]dino-[D]saurs!

Counting with Dice

This was just a simple counting activity I threw in between books. Our library has a giant inflatable die that we used for a summer program years ago. I let the kids take turns throwing the die, and we counted the dots together. Then I asked for suggestions of something we could do that number of times (jumping up and down, spinning around, walking like a robot, etc.). It was a big hit at both storytimes.

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

We did this one with the parachute (it’s a shorter version of the Zoom, Zoom, Zoom song):

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! We’re going to the moon! (shake the parachute in rhythm)

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! We’re be there very soon! (shake the parachute in rhythm)

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (shake the parachute for each number)

Blast Off! (raise or throw the parachute as high as you can, then let it fall back down).

The Ladybug’s Picnic by Donald Hadley and William Luckey

I’m dating myself, but I love this old Sesame Street song, which was a lot of fun for our instrument play-along at the end of storytime.

[C] One, two, three
Four, five, six
Seven, eight, nine,
Ten, eleven, twelve
[G7] Ladybugs
Came to the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.

[C] One, two, three,
Four, five, six
Seven, eight, nine,
Ten, eleven, twelve
[G7] And the all played games
At the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.

[F] They had twelve sacks so they ran sack races.
[C] They fell on their backs and they fell on their faces.
[G7] The ladybugs twelve
At the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.
[F] They played jump rope but the rope it broke,
So they [C] just sat around telling knock-knock jokes,
[G7] The ladybugs twelve.
At the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.

[C] One, two, three
Four, five, six
Seven, eight, nine,
Ten, eleven, twelve
[G7] And they chattered away
At the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.

[F] They talked about the high price of furniture and rugs,
[C] And fire insurance for ladybugs.
[G7] The ladybugs twelve
At the ladybugs’ [C] picnic.

Stay & Play: Air Dry Clay Dice

For the Stay & Play, we put out small amounts of white air-dry clay on individual paper plates, along with some markers. I explained to the kids how they could make their own dice by rolling the clay into a ball, and then flattening the sides against the plate. I told them they could put as many dots on each side as they wanted, and then do the dice activity (above) with their family. As usual, I also told them they were free to make whatever they wanted with the clay as well, so we also had some kids making adorable snakes and dinosaurs.

What are your favorite counting books or songs? Please share them in the comments below.