Move and Groove Storytime Spotlight: Bird Boogie

Once a month, my library presents a special music and movement storytime (in place of Preschool Storytime) called Move and Groove. Here’s a recent spring storytime full of fun beats and birds!

Sing: Now It’s Time to Say Hello*

Sing: The Birds Say Hello (puppets)

Tune: The Farmer in the Dell

The duck says hello, the duck says hello.
Quack, quack, quack, quack!
The duck says hello.

(repeat with other birds – e.g. crow/caw; hen/cluck)

Welcome/Intro

After welcoming families and introducing them to our special format for the day, I passed out egg shakers in preparation for our first book.

Sing: Can You Shake Along With Me? (shakers)

Tune: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Can you shake along with me?
Along with me, along with me,
Can you shake along with?
Put your shaker on your… knee!

(repeat with other body parts)

CREDIT: JBRARY

Read: Shake the Tree by Chiara Vignocchi

As we read the book, we shook our eggs left… and right… and watched who fell out of the tree next!

Sing: Rockin’ Robin by The Old Town School of Folk Music (shakers)

“What other animals do you usually see in a tree? Squirrels… maybe monkeys… owls… lots of birds, right? Let’s sing a song about robins rocking in the tree!”

Sing: Goodbye, Shakers*

Read: Hatch! by Roxie Munro

This is one of my favorite nonfiction books to read with mixed age groups. The book is big and easy to see; all ages enjoy guessing what will hatch next; older kids appreciate the interesting facts; and it’s easy to shorten as needed.

After reading about all kinds of baby birds, I passed out scarves. We bunched them up and tucked ourselves into small balls like eggs.

Rhyme: Egg So Quiet… (scarves)

Eggs so quiet…
Eggs so still…
Will they hatch?
…yes they will!

CREDIT: ORIGINAL

We did this rhyme a few times through. The kids enjoyed shouting out what they hatched into each time!

Sing: Flitter Flutter by Johnette Downing (scarves)

We stretched our new wings to flitter and flutter round the room.

Lit Tip: Building Vocabulary with Meaningful Movement

Grown-ups, I love all the spatial vocabulary words paired with meaningful movement in this song. Brain science says when neurons fire together, they wire together! When you use meaningful gestures to explain new words, you help build your child’s vocabulary.

Read: Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins

We kept our scarf wings so that we could stand and act out the different bird poses in our last book!

Sing: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / ¿Estrellita, Donde Estas?

The last page of Hooray for Birds! ends with an owl and bright stars twinkling in the night sky, setting the stage perfectly for this song. It was a great way to calm down after so much excitement and movement!

Sing: Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye*

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*Please visit this page to learn more about my regular storytime songs and routines.