Storytime is finally back! It has been so long and I was really starting to miss all of my little friends. It’s the start of a new session (and new year) so I had a lot of newbies to storytime this week, which was great. I really hope they keep coming and having fun with all of us each week.
Since it was our first week back, I wanted to do something super fun and I came up with dancing (who doesn’t love to dance??) This gave us a lot of opportunities to get moving. Since it’s winter and everyone has been stuck inside for so long, I thought this might be the perfect cure for some cabin fever. I must say, this was one of those storytime where everything fit together perfectly. The kids were all very attentive and into the storytime (always a blessing), the books were great and the craft was fun. A nice way to start out the session!
We began with Brontorina by James Howe first.
Little known fact about me: I took ballet for 10 years, ages 5-15. Because of this, I think I am always drawn to ballet stories. Regardless of why I initially picked up this book, it is super great! I read first because it is a bit long and had more going on than the other books. But, it was a hit with the kids. One boy liked it so much he checked it out right after storytime!
Next we read Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig.
Funny thing, this was on my pile of storytime contenders and I never got around to talking about it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book. It’s really the type of book that begs to be read aloud to a group of excited and happy children. I like that it has a guessing element to it, that is always a crowd pleaser. I also cannot state enough how much I love the illustrations in this book. On a personal note, it’s been added to the short list of books I will be giving my nephew for his 3rd birthday this year. Yes, I like it that much.
Finally, we closed with Hop Jumpy by Ellen Stoll Walsh.
I love Ellen Stoll Walsh’s books. I think they could all be read in storytime. I really liked this one because of the beautiful illustrations of frogs. Sadly, my library doesn’t own it and it is out of print. I was so happy I could share it with my little friends, but it was a bummer to not be able to get it for our collection.
Obviously, this is a great theme for lots of movement. We did The Hokey Pokey and I made sure to do other fingerplays that got them up and about. There is really no limit of songs and movement that can be used for this theme. It’s awesome because anything can basically fit in it.
Our craft worked out wonderfully. We made dancing sticks. Ok, so a dancing stick isn’t really a real thing, but it is an awesome thing that is very fun to play with.I gave the kids tongue depressors (or craft stick depending on what you would like to call it)and crate paper and they glued (or taped) the paper on the sticks. Super easy and super fun.
I have to apologize, I took pictures and then accidentally deleted them. So, no picture of the craft. Luckily it is really easy to imagine. While you are at it, imagine a group of four three-year-olds dancing and waving their sticks as they dance together. That is what happened at the end of this storytime and it was fantastic.
Awesome Story Time 