A great summertime theme for story time is picnics! This theme was fun to plan and super fun to do! The little ones loved it!
Books I read…
Biscuit’s Picnic by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I love to use Biscuit books! The stories are just the right length for toddlers. Biscuit never disappoints with his crazy dog adventures and I think the little ones like to hear me woof.
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audry Wood
One, Two, Three, Picnic! By Susan Schade and Jon Buller
How it went…
We will eat our picnic lunch, picnic lunch, picnic lunch.
We will eat our picnic lunch, and play when we are done.
After reading our first book, I passed out small teddy bears to each child. We danced to Teddy Bears’ Picnic from Anne Murray’s cd There’s a hippo in my tub!. And we did the action rhyme, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Jump up now
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Take a bow
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Find your nose
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your toes
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Arms up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Wave good-bye!
Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.
Four red strawberries, growing near a tree.
Bear came and ate one and then there were three.
Three red strawberries, for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two.
Two red strawberries, sitting in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one.
One red strawberry, left all alone.
Bear came and ate it and then there were none.
We finished story time with our very own picnic! I brought in a picnic basket full of pretend food. Everyone sat on the floor around the basket. I started the activity with the song Picnic Packing (To the tune of “A Tisket-A Tasket”) from Perry Public Library Storytime. (Thanks: http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76)
A-tisket, A-tasket,
Let’s pack a picnic basket.
We’ll fill it up with food to munch.
What is in our picnic lunch?
After a couple rounds, I let them free play with the food. The grownups got served lots of pretend picnic meals! They loved it! I will definitely do this story time again in the future.
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audry Wood
This book is one of my son’s favorites, so I was super excited to find an opportunity to use it in story time. The interactive qualities and great illustrations made it a winner for both the little ones and the grownups.
One, Two, Three, Picnic! By Susan Schade and Jon Buller
This board book was from my personal collection, belonging to my sons when they were young. It is a simple counting book about a group of animals that collect so much food for their picnic that they can no longer pick up their picnic basket.
How it went…
To start things off right, we sang the song Summer Time is Picnic Time (to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb” from Perry Public Library Storytime.(Thanks:http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76).
This was a great little song to get the kids excited about our picnic.
Summertime is picnic time, picnic time, picnic time.
Summertime is picnic time, time to have some fun.We will eat our picnic lunch, picnic lunch, picnic lunch.
We will eat our picnic lunch, and play when we are done.
After reading our first book, I passed out small teddy bears to each child. We danced to Teddy Bears’ Picnic from Anne Murray’s cd There’s a hippo in my tub!. And we did the action rhyme, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Jump up now
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Take a bow
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Find your nose
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Touch your toes
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Arms up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Wave good-bye!
The kids were so excited to hold their own teddy bears! Their eyes lit up when I passed them out. Luckily, the rhyme ends with putting the bears to bed, so it was easy for the little ones to quietly return their teddy bears. Shh.. We didn’t want to wake them!
To complement the book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, I used the Strawberries flannel I found from Storytime Katie. (Thanks:http://storytimekatie.com/2012/08/24/flannel-friday-strawberries/)
I added a bear puppet to the fun and with the assistance of a helper, the bear gobbled up each flannel strawberry.
Five red strawberries, sweet to the core.
Bear came and ate one and then there were four.
Four red strawberries, growing near a tree.
Bear came and ate one and then there were three.
Three red strawberries, for you and you and you.
Bear came and ate one and then there were two.
Two red strawberries, sitting in the sun.
Bear came and ate one and then there was one.
One red strawberry, left all alone.
Bear came and ate it and then there were none.
And what picnic would be complete without a line of marching ants! Using the ant clipart from the Internet, (Thanks: http://www.clker.com/clipart-ant-13.html) I made small ant puppets for each child with cardstock and a popsicle stick (I do this quite often. I let them take them home!). We marched around with our ants to the song The Ants Go Marching on the cd Here is Thumbkin!.
We finished story time with our very own picnic! I brought in a picnic basket full of pretend food. Everyone sat on the floor around the basket. I started the activity with the song Picnic Packing (To the tune of “A Tisket-A Tasket”) from Perry Public Library Storytime. (Thanks: http://www.perrypubliclibrary.org/webfm_send/76)
A-tisket, A-tasket,
Let’s pack a picnic basket.
We’ll fill it up with food to munch.
What is in our picnic lunch?
After a couple rounds, I let them free play with the food. The grownups got served lots of pretend picnic meals! They loved it! I will definitely do this story time again in the future.