A collection of some favorite music songs to sing and dance to from Youtube. 

I play these from my phone over an Anker Soundcore.

1.Shake Break by Pancake Manor

Sorry Reggie, I end this song after Lulu's break!

2. The Sit-Down, Stand-Up Song by Rick Goldin

Before this one, I go around the room and ask what everyone's age is. There's a section in this song that calls for different ages to stand up so I know whether or not to include a certain age in my narration to make sure no kiddos get left out!

3. Feel The Music by Jack Hartmann

This one took a bit of practicing to get it right.

4. Rocketship Run by Laurie Berkner

One of my all time favorites!!

5. Jump, Jump by Joanie Leeds

A short, easy song to throw in anywhere. This is a go-to fave.

6. Popcorn by Barenaked Ladies

After several failed attempts of kiddos just not feeling this one, I figured it out . . . Use your scarves, free dance in the beginning and when the music stops, yell "FREEZE" and then of course, pop! pop! pop! POP!

7. Froggy Went A Courtin' 

For some reason, if I'm including this song, the bubble machine is coming out. I don't know why I connect the two in my mind - they're a bound pair. Can't have one without the other. 

8. Rock-a-by Your Bear by The Wiggles

One day, I will bravely pass out puppets for this song. For now, we'll play pretend.

9. All The Fish Are Swimming In the Water by Caspar BabyPants

After SRP 2022, "Oceans of Possibility" I'm burnt out on this one. But click here for the recording I actually use for this one. 

10. Sleeping Bunnies by Little Baby Bum

Never tried this one in a preschool story time - I've only used it for the itty bitties but it's very sweet and catchy. 

11. When I Woke Up Today by Laurie Berkner

12. If You're Happy and You Know It by Pancake Manor

This one is easy to incorporate in any story time. It's slightly different than original - it has a cute refrain (is that what it would be called?) after each verse. This one is ALWAYS a crowd pleaser so if you're looking to begin using music audio in your story times, I would recommend starting here. 

13. Hot Potato by The Wiggles 

This isn't an action led song so have some dance moves in mind to instruct your group to dance to. . . IMO but this is a cute one.

14. Jumping and Counting by Jim Gill

 An easy one to throw into a story time! Click here for the audio I use.

15. Dance, Freeze, Melt by Mr. Eric & Mr. Michael

A great follow-my-lead song. Use this audio though. 

16. Shake My Sillies Out

I think Raffi originally did this song but I love this version.

17.  Silly Dance Contest by Jim Gill

This one's a little like "Dance, Freeze, Melt" but chipper - the purpose is to be the SILLIEST!  Here's the audio I like to use for this one.

18. Driving In My Car by Ralph's World

It's a love/ hate relationship with this one.

19. Can't Wait To Celebrate by Jim Gill

Can't find a video to insert here so just click the link!

For this one, Jim Gill holds a note for an extended amount of time, during which, we keep doing the action he's instructed us to do. I LOVE follow-my-lead songs like this one.

The primary Good Morning song for our library comes from Greg & Steve's "Good Morning Our Day Is Beginning" song. 

See the words and hear the tune here. For this, we begin clapping together.

 After our Good Morning songs, we dived into our first book.

BOOK: Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld

Skipping 95% of the dialogue in this book was a must for me to make it work with my group.

BOOK: Tyler Makes A Birthday Cake! by Tyler Florence and Craig Frazier

The word count for this book is 825 words.  Just saying. . . . . Be aware. 

BOOK: Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison

The kids help me with sound effects in this book.

LouAnn the Bear is making doughnuts and keeps getting unexpected visitors at her door who ring her door bell, "DING, DONG!"

Whenever the line came up in the story, the group said this phrase for me. 

For this to work, we used a secret hand signal to indicate when to say the phrase (I pretended to ring a doorbell with my free hand).  

SONGS

Pat-A-Cake

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man

Bake me a cake as fast as you can.

Roll it and pat it and mark it with a "B"

Put it in the oven for baby and me!

 Happy Birthday

In Tyler Makes A Birthday Cake, it's Tofu the dog's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to Tofu after the reading.

 RHYME

Ten Little Cookies

Ten Little Cookies laying on a plate
Grandma eats 2 and then there are 8.
When Grandpa comes home, 2 cookies he picks
Leaving on the plate only 6.
Brother comes home, slamming the door.
He eats two cookies, then there are 4.
When sister comes home, there are still a few.
She eats a couple, then there are 2.
Baby wake up. His nap is done.
He eats a cookie, then there is 1.
The cat jumps on the table and eats the last 1.
Poor dog! He's too late. He only gets a crumb. 

 Both of these books are fantastic and were big crowd pleasers. The illustrations in Beth Ferry's book were particularly fun. 

BOOK: We're Going On A Treasure Hunt by Kelly DiPucchio
 Before reading, go over pirate terms they will hear in this book such as: ahoy, Yo-Ho-Ho, me hearties and  booty.

SONG: Sail, Sail, Sail Your Ship

Sail, sail, sail your ship

Gently over the sea

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily

A pirate's life for me.

credit: Storytime Katie

SONG: The Waves at the Beach (Tune: The wheels on the bus)

The waves at the beach go up and down

Up and down

Up and down

The waves at the beach go up and down all day long

    OTHER VERSES . . .

Lobsters go snap

Clams open and shut

Pirates go "Give me your gold!" 

Sharks go chomp

Dolphins jump up and down

 MUSIC SONG: Silly Pirate Song by Jack Hartmann

This is a really cute sequencing song. As the song progresses, different people (surfer, mermaid, shark, octopus, etc) interrupt the pirate and it all builds up til the end.

Other ideas for music songs to play and dance to could be "You're Welcome" or "How Far I'll Go"from Moana. Also, "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid.         

AN UPDATE POST!

For a teen program several years ago, we played Book Cover Bingo. 

Here is an updated collection of Bingo sheets with newer published books. These YA books are predominately stand alone books - only 3 or 4 series books are included. 

We pulled books that are well circulated or are being talked about at our library.

There are 30 different sheets total. The same 24 books are used on each sheet.

 Click here for link to my new bingo sheets.

Click here for the orginal link to our Book Cover Bingo program from 2016.

 

 

Action Rhyme: I've Got A Cold

I've got a cold (point to yourself)
My nose can't smell (point to your nose)
My eyes are red (point to eyes)
I don't feel well (hand on head)
So I'll drink my juice (pretend to drink)
And go to bed . . . (fold hands under head)
My nose feels better (points to nose)
And so does my head! (point to head)

Use your best stuffy nose voice until bedtime, then for the last 2 lines, use your normal voice. 

Before our poem, we all practiced using our stuffy nose voices by introducing ourselves. 

Song: Herman the Worman

Sitting on a fence post chewing my bubble gum (smack, smack, smack, smack)
Playing with my yoyo.
Doowap, doowap, doowap (pretend to yoyo)
Doowap, doowap, doowap (pretend to yoyo)
And along came Herman the Worman
and he was this big (indicate size with fingers/hands)
I said, "Yo Herman, what's up?"
He said, "I ate my sister".

Repeat verses with Herman getting larger as he eats through the family (sister, brother, dog, mother, father - some combination like that).

This song was included after mentioning how sometimes food can make us sick whether it be allergies, food poisoning or (in this case) over-eating.

Flannel Story: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Freddy the Frog brought our story time clues to help us figure out our theme.

SurLaLune Storytime was a valuable resource for this theme.

 

These characters are copies of this artwork found in a google search. 

They were copied onto poster board and color was added. 

 While my Story Times usually last about 30 minutes, this one last ONE HOUR & 15 MINUTES!! Total anomaly and I'll tell you all about it after I give you the run-down for this themed Story Time.

 

In addition to a book display, this poster board prompt was put out on a table the week prior to July 4th. 

All the answers were really great! The one that most people commented on was, "I would change gas prices". 

Our Poetry Month Passive Program table in the Youth Services Department focused on acrostic poems and nursery rhymes.

These are vertical poems in which each letter begins a word.

 

This story time begins with ponds and creatures that live in/around ponds before segueing into rain. Here's the run-down . . . 

After our Good Morning songs, we had a special guest: Freddy the Frog! He brought clues with him about our storytime theme but before he would share those clues, we had to do a special hippity hoppity dance with him. This segment was 100% stolen borrowed from Wake County Public Library. 

RHYME: Hippity Hoppity Dance

Hip, hop, hippity, hop

Let's hop to the front

And turn around

Hop back once

And touch the ground.

Hop to the left

And then once more

Hop to the right

And sit on the floor. 

Then we read our first book.

BOOK: Ribbit! by Rodrigo Folgueria

MUSIC SONG: The Stand-Up Sit-Down Song by Rick Goldin

SONG: Five Green and Speckled Frogs

( . . . Ok, so we technically sang 3 Green Speckled Frogs . . . )

From here, we talked a little more about where water for lakes, rivers and ponds comes from. 

We talked about groundwater and looked at this picture.

 This was found on the Groundwater Foundation website. 

This is where we changed from ponds to rain in our storytime because rain also helps fill ponds. 

Because it's been storming alot in our area lately, we sang a song about thunder.

SONG: Thunder Pounding (tune: Frere Jacques)

Thunder pounding, thunder pounding. (slap knees loudly)

Crash, boom, bang. Crash, boom, bang (clap, slap knees loudly, palms open out front)

Little falling rain drops, little falling raindrops. (raindrops falling)

Kiss the ground, kiss the ground. (slap knees quietly)

The last 2 verses are sung quieter than the first 2.

BOOK: Where Does Kitty Go In The Rain by Harriet Ziefert

MUSIC SONG: Boots by Laurie Berkner

The kids didn't seem to like this song as much as the first. 

SONG: Skinnamarink

Skinnamarink was our ending song before everyone got a hand stamp. The younger kids really liked it and I will definitely be ending my storytimes with this song in the future. 

My normal go-to good-bye storytime song is The More We Get Together but it's felt a little stale lately. You know how it is. 

Hope this plan gives you some ideas! Happy Storytelling!

 

This story time was initially built around Jon Klassen's This Is Not My Hat. My goal was for it to be a weekend story time that played off the 2022 Summer Reading theme of oceans but it morphed into something different. Here's the run down of my Hat Story Time . . . 

After our good morning songs, we talked about how hats have different purposes and why someone might wear one hat and not another.

On my flannel board, there were 5 different hats that we talked about first: Police Officer, party, Cowboy, Baseball cap and a Scuba Divers helmet (the other hats pictured will come in later!)

Then we read our first book. 

BOOK: This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

ACTION RHYME: Hats On Everyone

This was found on Storytime Katie's blog with credit to Perry Public Library.  

Hats on police officers starchy and blue (salute)

Hats on fire fighters shiny and new (spray water hose)

Hats on rulers, very grand (look regal)

Hats on astronauts when they land (weightless)

Hats on construction workers on a site (hammer)

Hats on kids right their bike ( handlebars)

Hats on cowboys out in the sun (shade eyes)

Hats on almost everyone (hold hands out to side)

Once that was over, we added the remaining hats to our board, identifying each one as it went up.This set us up for our flannel board activity which was a guessing game. 

FLANNEL BOARD: Little Cat, Where Are You?

Chant: Little cat, little cat, where are you? 

            Are you hiding under the _______ hat?

Before we began, I asked each  kid to think of a hat and when the time came, I would point to them and they could respond with which type of hat they thought the cat was hiding under and I would pull it off the board. 

A note about my pieces: The images were printed onto cardstock paper with large strips of felt glued to the back. I pressed them under a large stack of books to dry. They should've dried flat, right? NO! They STILL managed to dry wavy. If they'd have been sturdier, I'd have let the kids pull them off the board but they were too precariously stuck to the board for that. 

Funnily enough, after going around the entire room having kids each pick a hat, the cat was hiding under the very last hat chosen. This tickled everyone in the room, including me which is why I forgot to sing the next song which was supposed to be . . . 

Click HERE for the link of my hats used.

SONG: Silly Hat Song

Instead, we skipped straight to our second book.

BOOK: Hooray For Hat! by Brian Won

For this book, I tried something a little different. Our library recently ordered Move, Play, Learn: Interactive Storytimes with Music, Movement and More by Alyssa Jewell. In this book, she promotes ideas to make your entire storytime interactive, not just different elements. So our group pantomimed this book while also repeating the 2 common refrains: "Hooray for Hat!" and "Go Away, I'm Grumpy"

ACTION FUN: OPPOSITES

Because grumpy and happy are opposites we segwayed into talking about opposites. The group listed some really good ones like "hot and cold", "loud and quiet", "big and small", "right and left" and we acted them out or moved our bodies to fit the different ideas. 

SONG: Bread and Butter, Marmalade and Jam

Only because we say "hello" in opposite ways.

MUSIC SONG: If You're Happy And You Know It by Pancake Manor

And that was it! It was a really good storytime, even with the incredibly wide range of ages in attendance (babies to 3rd grade!!). The only thing I wish that had been different is that I wish I'd have remembered to sing the Silly Hat Song! Urgh, oh well. 

Happy Storytelling!

Gilmore Girls season 2 aired from October 9, 2001 to May 21, 2002. The sources for each fact follows each graphic. 

More insights to come!

 

May 2 is International Harry Potter Day. Here are 2 activities that I threw together to celebrate Harry Potter for the week.

Eat Slugs, Malfoy!

For inspiration, I was flipping through Jim Kay's illustrated version of Chamber of Secrets when this idea came to me. I knew I wanted something eye grabbing, right as kids walked into the room and this was it. 

The concept behind this was, if Ron's curse had worked as it should have, Draco would have been vomiting up slugs instead of Ron. 

So for this, kids could color slugs and put them in Draco's mouth. Weird, yes but the kids LOVED it!

Here's a bit more on how my Draco was built . . . 

The second activity was another poster board prompt, my most recent passive program obsession. 

Question: There are hundreds of characters in the Harry Potter series. How many can we list?

There were repeats on the board (I expected there to be) and a few people who were too shy to contribute because they couldn't think of un-named characters (even though I encouraged them to write duplicates) but all in all, this table got a good deal of traffic. 

Undoubtedly, there would have been more participation if I had chosen a different prompt but I wanted to do something different. 

 

BOOK: 

In "Cubs In The Tub" by Candace Fleming,  Helen Martini takes care of tiger cubs that her husband brings home. She cares for them as they grow and when officials come to collect them, Helen goes to the zoo with them. She became the first ever female zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. I really wanted to read this book and because Helen Martini is an obsure person, this was more of a zookeeper storytime.

In addition to this one, we also read "Pierre the Penguin" by Jean Marzollo.

It is a very short, rhyming book about a penguin who loses his feathers and the zookeeper who finds a way to help grow them back.

Songs:

You Can Hear The Lions Roaring At The Zoo (tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)

You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!

You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!

You can hear the lions roaring, you can hear the lions roaring

You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!

(elephants trumpeting, eagles screeching, monkeys eeking) 

and then because we read a book about penguins....

Did You Ever See a Penguin Come To Tea.

This is a really cute song about a penguin coming to tea party and then making fun motions. Click here for a run-down of this song. 

Activity: What animal is the most dangerous? 

Using a small list of the 10 most dangerous creatures, found on Science Focus, we played a quick guessing game of what animals were the most dangerous. 

We also flipped through our Life-Size Zoo books to see how some different animals compared to each other in size. Because it's a small group that comes to this program, we can sit in a circle in the floor and flip through books like this. 

 Activity: Pretend Zookeepers

Here and there, we kept discussing tasks of zookeepers and at the end we pretended to be zookeepers. Using our puppets, I set up 5 cages, copying the idea found here. Each deputized zookeeper was given a clipboard with a form to fill out about whichever animal they wanted.

Then of course, each cage had a informational sign posted next to it. 

Here are my signs. Unfortunately, no pictures of the set-up.

Facts come from Zookeepers by Tony Hyland.