Burbank Adult School

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Once a year, I visit the Burbank Adult School to speak with parents about some good books for toddlers as well as other resources we have available at our library. Here are some of the titles that I recommended during my visit yesterday:

Characteristics of Good Books for Toddlers
*Stories they can relate to: animals, body, clothes, home, holidays, familiar situations
Example: Peekaboo Bedtime by Rachel Isadora
*Stories with rhyme and rhythm
Example: Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont
*Predictable stories with phrase or repeated happenings
Example: Napping House by Audrey Wood

Formats
*Picture Books
Examples: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas; Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day (wordless)
*Folktales, Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhymes
Example: My Very First Mother Goose by Iona Opie and Rosemary Wells
*Board Books—thick sturdy cover and pages; small size for little hands; bright colorful pictures; simple shapes; clear pictures; pictures of human faces; few words; nursery rhymes
Example: Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
*Toddler Collection—Concept books (ABCs, 123s, Shapes, Colors, etc.)
Example: ABC: a Child’s First Alpabet Book by Alison Jay

Parent Collection—Books written for parents as well as books written for children dealing with various “growing up” topics (potty training, new sibling, discipline, education, etc.)
Examples: What to Expect the Toddler Years by Arlene Eisenburg; What to Expect When Mommy’s Having a Baby by Heidi Murkoff

Book Sets (with cd)
Example: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems

Let it Snow! in the Winter

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HO HO HO– I hope that everyone is having a great holiday season! I’ve started doing some monthly pajama family storytimes over at Buena Vista. This month, I did some winter stories. It was a delight to see families cuddled up in their pjs enjoying the stories and singing Christmas songs. Tomorrow, Buena Vista is holding a special holiday storytime at 10 am… I will be making a special appearance there (along with SANTA CLAUS!).

PROGRAM
Entrance Music: Hap Palmer: Holiday Magic
Opening Song: If you Want to Hear a Story
Book: Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London
Song: If You’re Wearing Red Today
Book: Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett
Book (Sung): Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, version illustrated by Richard Cowdrey
Book: Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner
Song: Raffi’s Christmas Album (Jingle Bells)
Storytelling: The Mitten
Closing Song: We Wave Goodbye

AFTER PROGRAM VIDEO
Disney’s Sing Along Songs: Very Merry Christmas Songs (approx. 30 minutes)

Food and Turkey Day!

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Yum Yum! I am getting hungry just thinking about today’s storytime about FOOD. I can’t wait to eat all sorts of delicious food on Thanksgiving Day!

The sad news is that today was our last storytime in 2009. We’re taking a break for the holidays this year. I’ll be back doing my thing over at Buena Vista starting Wednesday, January 20th (registration starts Wednesday, January 6th) and at Central Friday, January 22nd (drop-in, no registration is necessary). Until then, we will have many other fun activities for kids to do during December, so please check our website and our flyers at the library to find out what’s happening. There are holiday movies, a special Christmas storytime, a PJ Storytime and more! Happy Holidays!

Stories Shared:
The Turkey Ball by David Steinberg (board book)
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems
Who Ate All the Cookie Dough? by Karen Beaumont
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw (Used Artfelt flannels)
The Enormous Turnip (Traditional) (Patterns found here)

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Tales Rhymes sheet. Extra copies available at the Library.):
If You’re Happy and You Know It
Ten Little Fingers
Five Little Sausages
Apples
My Turkey

Bonus Song:
“Hello Mr. Turkey” (to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It):
Hello, Mr. Turkey
Hello Mr. Turkey, how are you?
Hello Mr. Turkey, how are you?
With a gobble, gobble, gobble
and a wobble, wobble, wobble
Hello Mr. Turkey how are you?

Music:
Laurie Berkner: Victor Vito
Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes (Silly Dance Contest)
Dr. Jean & Friends (Tooty Ta)

A Beary Good Storytime

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A big teddy bear hug to all of my storytime friends! Be sure to come again next week for our last storytime of the year. We are taking a long holiday break this year, but we will resume again in mid-January.

Stories Shared:
Teddy Bears, Teddy Bears by William B. Winburn
Thank You Bear by Greg Foley
Can You Growl Like a Bear? By John Butler
Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin (Patterns can be found here.)

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Tales Rhymes sheet. Extra copies available at the Library.):
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Fun with Hands
Tommy Thumb
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
My Turkey

Flannel:
Little Mouse, Little Mouse, Are you in the [insert color] house?
(Underneath different colored flannel houses, I place different flannel animals. Using a cat puppet, we go in search of the mouse flannel…)

Music:
Bill Shontz: Teddy Bear’s Greatest Hits
Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes (Silly Dance Contest)

If You're Wearing Clothes Today…

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If you’re wearing clothes today, stand up and shout Hooray! HOORAY! Today, we had a fun storytime about clothes.

FYI: We’re nearing the end of our fall storytime session. Just two more weeks to go…and then we will break for the holidays (until January). Also: we will be closed next Wednesday for Veteran’s Day, so no storytime at BV next week. Regulars are invited to attend my Friday session over at Central next week (10 or 11) or go to Donna’s storytime on Thursday at BV (10 or 11).

Stories Shared:
Who’s Under That Hat? by Sarah Weeks and David A. Carter (lift-the-flap)
New Socks by Bob Shea
Whose Shoe? by Margaret Miller
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Storytime Rhymes Sheet.):
Silly Hat Song
Animals on the Bus
Ten Little Fingers
If You’re Wearing Red Today
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Music:
Carole Peterson: Sticky Bubble Gum and Other Tasty Tunes (I am a Fine Musician)

Happy Halloween!

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It’s almost trick-or-treating time!

Stories Shared:
In a Dark, Dark Wood pop-up version by David Carter
Pumpkin Heads! By Wendell Minor
Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach
Brooms are for Flying by Michael Rex
Sweets and Treats by Toni Trent Parker

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Storytime Rhymes Sheet.):
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Once there was a Pumpkin
Fun with Hands
If You’re Happy and You Know It
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Bonus Rhyme:
Pumpkin, pumpkin, round and fat
Turned into a jack-o-lantern just like that!
(Two-sided flannel pieces can be purchased here.)

Music:
Wee Sing: For Halloween
Me and My Bean Bag (Take that Bean Bag)

Go Away, Monsters!

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Rawr! This storytime about Monsters did not scare ME! We had a lot of fun over at BV today. I am leaving town on Friday to go to Savannah for the weekend, so Miss Cathleen will be filling in for me over at Central. See you all next week!

Stories Shared:
Little Monsters by Jan Pienkowski (pop-up)
Five Ugly Monsters by Tedd Arnold
Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley (Puppet available here.)

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Tales Rhymes sheet. Extra copies available at the Library.):
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Silly Hat Song
Apples
Five Little Sausages
Tommy Thumb
If You’re Wearing Red Today

Nursery Rhyme of the Week:
Little Miss Muffet
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey.
There came a big spider,
He sat down beside her.
And frightened Miss Muffet away!

Music:
Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes (Silly Dance Contest)

Bats in the Moonlight

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Halloween is coming up soon! Today, we read stories about the Moon (and bats, too!), and we did extra rhymes and songs.

Stories Shared:
Moon Glowing by Elizabeth Partridge
Moonlight: the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant
Peekaboo Bedtime by Rachel Isadora

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Storytime Rhymes Sheet.):
Autumn Leaves
Once there was a Pumpkin
Fun with Hands
Tommy Thumb
Twinle Twinkle Little Star
Ten Little Fingers
If You’re Happy and You Know It

Nursery Rhyme of the Week:
Hey Diddle Diddle
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat sat on the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such a fun
And the dish ran away with spoon.

Bonus Rhyme:
Two Little Bats
Two little bats hanging in a cave
One named Dan, one named Dave
Fly away Dan
Fly away Dave
Come back Dan, come back Dave!

Bonus Flannel Song:
Aiken Drum
There was a man lived in the moon,
lived in the moon, lived in the moon,
There was a man lived in the moon,
and his name was Aiken Drum.
And he played upon a ladle,
a ladle, a ladle,
He played upon a ladle,
and his name was Aiken Drum.
And his eyes were made of gum drops…
And his nose was a banana…
And his mouth was a watermelon…
And is hair was made of green beans…
(Templates can be found in the book 52 Programs for Preschoolers: The Librarian’s Year-Round Planner by Diane Briggs.)

Music:
Raffi: More Singable Songs (Shake My Sillies Out)

Cats and Dogs!

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Today’s storytime was all about two favorite furry pets: cats and dogs!

Books Shared:
Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
Where’s Spot? By Eric Hill (Patterns can be found here.)
What Will Fat Cat Sit On? By Jan Thomas
The Three Little Kittens by Lorianne Siomades

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Storytime Rhymes Sheet.):
If You’re Happy and You Know It
Animals on the Bus
Fun with Hands
Apples
Once there was a Pumpkin

Bonus Song:
Do Your Ears Hang Low? (Lyrics and Melody can be found here. Miss Jennifer made the song extra silly by wearing pantyhose on her head and pretending the “legs” were her ears! We only sang the first verse.)

Music:
Greg and Steve’s Kids in Motion (Animal Action)

Fall…into Storytime!

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Welcome back to storytime, everybody! Today, we had a fun fall-themed storytime over at Buena Vista. I will be doing a “rerun” of my program on Friday over at Central (10 and 11 am). So good to see my friends’ smiling faces again! P.S. I added a new page onto this blog: Favorite Toddler Books!

Stories Shared:
The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri
Mouse Mess by Linnea Riley
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Rhymes (Can be found on Toddler Storytime Rhymes Sheet.):
Ten Little Fingers
Autumn Leaves
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Apples
Five Little Sausages

Nursery Rhyme:
Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down!
Hickory Dickory Dock.

Flannel:
Little Mouse, Little Mouse, Are you in the [insert color] house?
(Underneath different colored flannel houses, I place different flannel animals. Using a “mama” mouse puppet, we go in search of the “baby” mouse flannel…)

Flannel:
(Chanted to Five Little Monkeys Teasing Mr. Crocodile)
Five little apples hanging in a tree,
Teasing Mr. Slinky Worm “you can’t eat me”,
Along comes Mr. Slinky Worm quiet as can be…
and…CRUNCH!
(Chant with 4,3,2,1)
(Used tree flannel, 5 apple flannels and a worm finger puppet)

Music:
Carole Peterson: Sticky Bubble Gum and Other Tasty Tunes (The Wiggle Song)