How did we get from talking about ears to oceans? Read on and find out what we did in one of my favorite flow storytimes ever! This storytime was for a mixed-age family group.
Welcome & Set Expectations
*Sing: Bread & Butter
Read: Ears by Flowerpot Press
This storytime group started off with mostly young toddlers, so we first read a simple yet fun guess who board book.
Rhyme: Sneeze Game by Kimbo Educational (x2)
Where are your ears? Where are your eyes? We did this cute little rhyme about our own faces. On our second run through, the preschool class that usually attends arrived, and I changed my game plan a bit!
Sing: Jumping and Counting by Jim Gill
Who had long pointy ears in the book we just read? The rabbit! And what do rabbits like to do? Hop and jump around!
Count: 4 Crunchy Carrots in the Garden Grew… (Flannel)
All that jumping made my bunny puppet VERY hungry! Poor guy had no choice but to plunder some fresh produce from the vegetable patch.
Sing: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
All that jumping and eating tuckered my little bunny puppet out! We sang him a lullaby and tucked him in with a scarf.
Vote: Kangaroos or Dolphins
Who else likes to hop? We chatted about other hop-happy animals before voting on our next book. By and large the kiddos wanted to learn more about dolphins!
Read: Dolphins by Kate Riggs
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this nonfiction series is your storytime friend! Seriously, grab yourself some Seedlings books from Creative Education.
Lit Tip: Building Vocabulary by Reading Nonfiction
Grown-ups, learning to read is much easier when your child knows and understands lots of words! Having a big vocabulary bank will help them understand more when they read and have more word choices when they write. Reading nonfiction and talking about new words together NOW is a great way to help your child build the vocabulary they need to be good readers and writers LATER.
Sing: Slippery Fish
Who else lives in the ocean? Slippery Fish! 🙂
Read: Giant Pot Out Ocean
The younger kiddos enjoyed the pop-outs while the bigger kids liked listening to the clues and guessing which ocean creature was waiting to be revealed!
Do you remember which ocean creature washes up on shore and sometimes has pearls inside? Seashells!
Play: Little Shell, Little Shell (Flannel)
This flannel led to some great math talk and math vocabulary building opportunities! We talked about the seashell colors, and after we found the three different pearls, we compared and contrasted them as well.
*Please visit this page to learn more about my regular storytime songs and routines.
Storytime in the Stacks 