you never know when you're going to need a steam roller on your farm

Last week I had my first toddler storytime of the winter/spring season and was delighted to see so many familiar faces at my storytime.

My favorite moment happened at the very beginning while I was introducing myself.  When I pointed to myself and told everyone my name, one of the toddlers, who was a regular last fall, shouted, "we know you," in a sassy tone that totally meant, "move it along, lady, we have books to read and songs to sing."

Because my storytime about vehicles was my favorite from fall, I decided to start this season with that theme.  We read two books, "I Drive a Snow Plow" by Sarah Bridges and my favorite (and arguably the crowd's favorite book from last fall), "Old Macdonald Had a Truck."

We began with our hello song, which is the "Hello Friends, hello friends, hello friends, it's time to say hello" song.  A caregiver requested this song last fall, and also mentioned she would like to see more American Sign Language at storytime.  This song includes four ASL signs, is short and sweet, and a popular choice at other storytimes so kids are fairly familiar with it.  After we sang our hello song, I mentioned we would be learning a couple ASL words each week.  I also let everyone know I was available for feedback after storytime and more importantly, I would have stamps too.

We sang our ABCs the good ol' fashioned way but will be experimenting with different melodies each week so that we can turn "LMNOP" into five letters instead of one.

Next we pretended to be choo choo trains with this fun rhyme:




Our first quieting down fingerplay was "Open, Shut Them."  For the winter/spring season, this will be the quieting down fingerplay for the first book.



We read, "I Drive a Snow Plow," and while it wasn't a favorite, it did engage a few kids.

  
After the first book, I brought out the bean bags and we had fun with the usual exercises we do with shaker eggs and scarves.  I tried an exercise that involved dropping the bean bags into a hula hoop using different parts of our bodies - hands, elbows, knees, head, but that was a flop.  Not everyone was ready for this and one girl plopped herself in the middle of the hula hoop and refused to budge.  It turned into a bean bag free-for-all, but I was able to salvage it by cutting out the hula hoop part of the activity.  My second storytime had a few babies so I didn't even bring out the hula hoop.  One girl, who was my shadow and a regular from fall storytime, helped me pick out where we were going to put the bean bags next.  

For our next quieting down fingerplay I tried a meditation exercise, and plan on trying out different ones until we find one we like.  My inspiration came from a pack of flashcards I found on Amazon  - Mindful Kids.  It wasn't a favorite so we'll try something different next week.  

It really didn't matter whether anyone calmed down prior to reading "Old Macdonald Had a Truck," because everyone absolutely loves this book.  There's always a caregiver who has it memorized and helps lead everyone else into a rousing, silly song about all the heavy machinery used by the same man who has a ton of farm animals (because you never know when you're going to need a steam roller on your farm).

We totally ran out of time in both storytimes and didn't have time to sing "The Wheels on the Bus," which was a damn shame, but I was the only one who knew about it, so no tears were shed.

We did sing the hokey pokey acapella style, and they were thrilled with that.

We finished by singing the matching goodbye song that goes with the "Hello Friend" song we began storytime with.  

After storytime I stamped everyone's hands and one boy's belly.  I was totally prepared for this though.  I had a giant Magic School Bus stamp that was about the size of three toddler hands and therefore, wouldn't work as a hand stamp.  Last fall a few kids wanted their bellies stamped so I brought this stamp in the hopes that someone would want their belly stamped.  The little boy and his mom thought it was hilarious and giggled about it while mom tried to blow on the stamp to dry.  It was a great way to end storytime.