Everyone enthusiastically participated and no one was trampled

Last week's storytimes were both pretty interesting for different reasons.  The first storytime was small and shy.  In the second storytime I had four caregivers and close to twenty kids (this was due to a small daycare showing up).

We sang our hello song and a different version of the ABCs. 

We did our quieting-down rhyme and read One Pup's Up.  Everyone appeared to like this book just fine in the first storytime.  Something hilarious happened, however, in the second storytime.  Before I read a book, I always ask everyone to scoot in close so they can see the pictures.  When I asked everyone to scoot in close during the second storytime, the twelve kids from daycare toddled toward me at lightning speed and latched onto my jeans with surprising ferocity.  I had just begun to squat down to my kneeling position, which is how I like to read during storytime.  I nearly toppled over but regained my balanced.  I normally don't tell toddlers they need to sit on their bottoms unless they're blocking someone's view, but I had no other choice.  Meanwhile, the caregiver singlehandedly plucked all twenty plus hands from my pants in about five seconds flat.  After storytime, while I watched them leave, I noticed that the double stroller that held the two smallest kids had ten hooks on it.  Every kid had a hook to grab onto and that's how they walked from one place to another.  For whatever reason, they had all decided to latch onto me like they did with the stroller.  I learned not to tell anyone to scoot in close for the next two books.  I used my hands to wave them in and then held them up to halt them when they got close enough.  It was a little like parking a noisy truck that could break itself into different pieces while it parked.  

I followed One Pup's Up with How Do Dinosaurs Choose Their Pets.  In the first storytime, while I was reaching around to pick up the book from the table, two shy boys who were at the back of the room were suddenly in front of me, on their bottoms, ready for the book.  They were clearly dinosaur fans and sat, with mouths agape, eyes wide, the whole way through the book.



In the first storytime I brought out the rhythm sticks and everyone had a great time.  My coworker tipped me off that there were only four adults in the second storytime but close to twenty kids, so I quietly hid the rhythm sticks and brought out the shaker eggs.  This was a good decision.  By the time we read two books, everyone was pretty wild in the second storytime.  There was more discussion about proper egg handling than anything else, but they had a good time and no one cried.  

I did the Finger Fiddle exercise to quiet everyone down before the last book, but I changed things up a bit and we made lion claws and took some deep breaths before tapping and counting our fingers.  

The first storytime enjoyed the last book, I Don't Want a Cool Cat, but the second storytime was pretty rowdy while we read it.  Everyone did like the huffy cat the best, so if toddlers voted, huffy, over-stuffy cats would be the most popular type of cat.  



We finished our Pets theme with the song, If You're a Pet and You Know It.  I know I found this song in a book but cannot remember the book.  This link has the exact words though if you're curious.

The hokey pokey was, rather bizarrely, the easiest and most enjoyable part of storytime.  Everyone enthusiastically participated and no one was trampled.  We sang our goodbyes, I stamped everyone's hands, and then I went and took a nap!