0 Baby Story Time - On the Farm!

Welcome back to Baby Story Time! I did story times all summer, but didn't really have a chance to write about them, so I've got a lot of catching up to do! Let's jump right in with a fun Farm theme!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Mother and Father and Farmer John"
(traditional lap bounce; it's supposed to be "Uncle John," but I changed it to "Farmer John" to match the theme)
Mother and Father and Farmer John went to town, one by one.
     (bounce baby)
Mother fell off,
     (tip baby to one side)
And Father fell off,
     (tip baby to the other side)
But Farmer John went on and on and on and on...
     (bounce slowly and then get faster and faster!)

1st Book: Giant Pop-Out Farm from Chronicle Books

Simple nonfiction with wonderful, truly giant pop-up images! This book was perfect!

ACTION SONG: "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.

And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O.
With a "moo-moo" here, and a "moo-moo" there,
Here a "moo," there a "moo," everywhere a "moo-moo."
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.

I love using puppets with this song. These are the animals I used this week:

I love that beautiful chicken!

BABY PARADE: "Walkin' Old Joe" (from the cd Songs for Wiggleworms by Old Town School of Folk Music)

Old Joe, the horse, moseys, walks, and gallops! It's fun for parents to dance and bounce with their babies to this quick, energetic little song!

NURSERY RHYME: "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe"

(A classic, and one of my favorites! It's so important to pass classic nursery rhymes along to the next generation!)

One, two, buckle my shoe.
Three, four, shut the door.
Five, six, pick up sticks.
Seven, eight, lay them straight.
Nine, ten, a big fat hen!

I found this template in a book. I photocopied it onto card stock, colored it in, and stuck Velcro on the back! Voila!

2nd Book: Where Is My Baby? by Harriet Ziefert

Turn the flaps to find each baby animal. Great for making animal sounds, and Taback's illustrations are so engaging. We are lucky to have a class set of this book, so everyone could read along together.

ACTION RHYME: "Ten Fluffy Chickens" (borrowed from Mel's Desk - thank you!)

Five eggs and five eggs, that makes ten.

     (hold up both hands)
Sitting on top is Mother Hen.
Crack, crack, crack, crack! What do you see?

     (clap hands to "crack" eggs)

Ten fluffy chickens, yellow as can be!

This was 100% stolen from Mel's Desk. Her's are actually much more clever - they are eggs on one side and chicks on the other! I was in a super hurry so I just stuck tape on the backs of mine. I may remake this later in felt, though. It is super cute!

ACTION SONG: "Los Pollitos" (from the cd You Are My Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell)

(This is a traditional Spanish children's song. You could play the cd, or just sing it a capella.)

All the little chicks say, "Pio, pio, pio!"

When they are hungry, when they are cold.
Mama Chicken looks for corn and some wheat.
That will give them dinner, that will give them heat.
Under her wing, her chicks she'll keep,
Until the morning, the little chickies sleep.

We waved little chicks on craft sticks during this song. The tune is very simple, so a lot of the parents picked up on it and sang it with me the second time through.

3rd Book: Baby at the Farm by Karen Katz

We had to skip this one on Wednesday, they were a wild group! The Friday group heard it, though. There's not a lot to it, just another good opportunity to reinforce animal sounds.

CLOSING SONG: "If You're Happy and You Know It" *

GOODBYE SONG: "Babies, Bye-Bye" *

CLOSING RHYME: "Thank You" *



*Check out my Baby Story Time page for the words to all of my weekly songs and rhymes.

We had a great time on the farm! See you next time!

Detail: Baby Story Time - On the Farm!

0 Flannel Friday - Rock-A-Bye Animals

So as I was making flannel board sets to some of Matt Novak's other books (My Froggy Valentine and Too Many Bunnies), I decided to search for any others, since I enjoy his story telling.  I found this one called Rock-a-bye Christmas:

His stories lend themselves to story time because they are repetitive and anticipatory. The trouble is, the books themselves are small and better for one-on-one reading.  Flanneling them makes them accessible to a larger crowd.  All of his books are themed around a holiday, but the holiday references are easily removed (or used) in felt too.

The story goes (and is paraphrased for this blog post):

Farmer Ben was finishing up his Christmas preparations and decided it was time for bed.  Suddenly it was too noisy to sleep!  The chicken was up squawking!  "She must be cold," he wondered.

So he brought her inside and soothed her with a lullaby.  The chicken fell asleep.  But then the pig started yelling!! Oh no!  He must be cold too!

So Farmer Ben brought the pig into the house and soothed him with a lullaby.  The pig fell asleep.  Just as Farmer Ben thought there was to be peace, the sheep started hollering!  Oh dear.

So again Farmer Ben brought the sheep into the house and soothed her with a lovely lullaby.  By the time the sheep fell asleep and Farmer Ben thought he was done, the cow started to bellow.  What a night!

So Farmer Ben pushed and pulled the cow into the house and sang his little lullaby.  The animals were finally asleep!  But Farmer Ben could not sleep.  The chicken snored.  The pig's nose whistled.  The sheep's throat gurgled.  The cow's stomach growled.  What's a farmer to do??

Ah perfect!  The barn wasn't so bad.  I wonder why they were complaining?  Farmer Brown fell fast asleep in the soft hay and didn't hear another sound all night long.

Now in the book, the animals all wake up and party in the house, but I thought that would be hard to transition to in felt so I will leave the story like I did.  As you can see, it doesn't need to be a Christmas Story but you can use it that way if you would like.  That makes it more versatile!!!

I also decided it wasn't necessary to have all of the pieces reverse like they do in the book, with the other side having them asleep.  I only did that with the farmer.  I can always go back and make the animals asleep if I decide to later.

Big thanks to Hannah at Lovin' the Library for hosting Flannel Friday this month! Click over to her new blog and catch up.  I had a great time lunching with Hannah at the PLA this year.  She has some great ideas.

If you would like to read more on how you can get involved with Flannel Friday, CLICK HERE!
Thanks for visiting!

Detail: Flannel Friday - Rock-A-Bye Animals

0 Flannel Friday - The Three Little Pigs

I recently had to recreate some of my old flannel board sets.  This was one of the first sets I had ever made, so while I was getting a do-over, I thought I would make a few little changes.  Every story teller needs a Three Little Pigs set in their repertoire, if not a couple of them.  It's one of those stories you can tell ANY WAY YOU WANT as well!  Love that!  I think I found a coloring page I used as a template, but I do not remember whom to credit.

These are the characters - you'll notice that my wolf is not scary.  This is on purpose.  I try to make the story a little more comical and a little less frightening, because I have some sensitive little boys who often really get worked up in my story times.  I also have a son that was afraid of everything when he was little, so I really keep an eye on my voices and gestures now.

The first little pig built his house of straw at Number 1 Pigadilly Square.

The second little pig build his house of wood at Number 2 Pigadilly Square.

And the third pig built her house of bricks at Number 3 Pigadilly Square. Any pig works for any house, this is just the way I photographed mine (Girl Power!).

You will notice that all of my houses have enough windows for the pigs.  Pig one runs to his brother's wooden house when the wolf finds them there - and the brothers then run over to their sister's brick house and look out the windows to watch the wolf make a silly, windy spectacle of himself.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Katie Fitzgerald at Story Time Secrets  for hosting this week.  If you would like to learn more about Flannel Friday, Click HERE.  Thanks for stopping by!

Detail: Flannel Friday - The Three Little Pigs

0 Baby Story Time - Noisy Animals!

Greetings from Baby Story Time land! I think my story time posts have been too wordy so let's jump right in!

Wake-up Rhyme: "Trot, Trot to Boston" (adapted from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
1) Trot, trot to Boston. Trot, trot to Lynn.
         (bounce baby)
    Watch out little baby, you might fall in!
         (lower baby between your knees)
2) Trot, trot to Denver. Trot, trot to Dover.
          (bounce baby)
    Watch out little baby, you might fall over!
          (tip baby to one side)
3) Trot, trot to Boston. Trot, trot to town.
          (bounce baby)
    Watch out little baby, you might fall down!
          (slide baby down your legs)

1st Book: Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Denise Fleming is an Ohio author and a great one! The simple text, animal sounds, and bold illustrations made this a fun book to read!

Guessing Game: "Where's Goose?"We continued with the theme of Barnyard Banter, hunting for that silly goose.  Hint: She's behind the frog!
(p.s. Recognize those felt characters from a previous Flannel Friday post?)

Action Rhyme: "This Little Piggy" (check out this little story telling glove I used)
This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy cried "Wee, wee, wee," all the way home!

Action Song: "Tiny Tim" (Thanks, Dr. Jean! We sang this twice!)
Oh I had a little turtle.
     (cup hands)
His name was Tiny Tim.
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
     (mimic swimming)
He drank up all the water.
     (ASL sign for drink)
He ate up all the soap.
     (ASL sign for eat)
And now he's sick in bed
     (lay head on hands - sleeping)
With a bubble in his throat!
     (point to your throat)
POP!
     (clap)

2nd Book: Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

I listened to her cd so I could sing this one.  It's really cute but didn't really hold the babies' attentions.  I wish her books came in a larger size!

Action Song: "Old MacDonald"
I used animal puppets while we sang! There was a cow, a dog, a pig, and a duck! You can find them here.

Baby Parade: "Walkin' Old Joe" (from the cd Songs for Wiggleworms - I LOVE this cd!)
We danced around our story time circle while we listened to this great song about a horse.  First he walks, then he gallops, then he moseys, and then he walks again.  Super cute and a lot of fun!

3rd Book: Where is My Baby? by Harriet Ziefert and Simms Taback

We are lucky enough to own a class set of this book! Every family got to follow along with their own copy, and every child got to turn the flaps! They loved it!

Rhythm Time with Shakers: "Six Little Ducks" (from the cd Sing Along with Bob #1)
We shook our shakers to this song - I forgot to grab the cd I needed so I just sang it.  Whoops!  Good thing I knew the words!

Next, we sang the ABCs, and then shook our shakers to find our various body parts - tummy, toes, etc.

We did our closing songs and rhyme and it was time to play!

How it went:
Another large group today - 16 babies!  After some discussion with my team, I think I am going to add a second session of Baby Story Time every week.  The large group doesn't bother me, but our space is very limited and I feel bad for the parents - it is so crowded!  If anyone divides their Baby Story Times into Walkers and Pre-walkers, I would love to hear about it!

See you next week!

Detail: Baby Story Time - Noisy Animals!