Rabbits!

This Toddler Storytime was presented at Bellevue Public Library on Wednesday, March 19, 2014.

Books:

Blue Rabbit and Friends by Chris Wormell

Rabbits & Raindrops by Jim Arnosky

 




Songs:

Everybody Say Hello!
(tune: "London Bridge")

Everybody say hello, say hello, say hello,
Everybody say hello, hello Wesley!

(Wesley is my turtle puppet who pops out of my apron pocket whenever we sing this song.  Then he sits quietly on his rock and listens to the stories and sings along with us.  At the end of storytime he says goodbye to the children, gives them high fives, eats pretend food from their hands, blows kisses, and plays hide and seek!)


Good Morning!
(tune: "Frere Jacques")

Good morning! (echo)
How are you? (echo)
I'm so glad to see you! (echo)
Wesley is too! (echo)


I'm a Little Bunny 
(Tune: I'm a Little Teapot)


I'm a little bunny, my name is Joe.
(hold up two fingers)
I hop fast and I hop slow. 
(hop fingers around fast and slow)
Whenever I get sleepy, my ears droop low, 
(bend fingers down)
But after my nap, back up they go! 
(hold fingers straight up)


Playtime Activities:

* Our activities this week included hopping like a rabbit!  As children arrived for storytime they were greeted by rabbit prints on the floor. Some decided to enter the room by hopping in!  

During playtime I re-positioned the paw prints in the storytime room, allowing children to hop to their hearts' content.

* I also put out our photo album from Buzz's visit to the zoo.   Those who wanted could take a closer look at the rabbits Buzz saw in the desert dome.

Buzz really had to search to find the rabbits when we first came to this area of the Desert Dome.  Can you see them??

Here is a close-up I took of one of the rabbits.

* Some children chose to practice their tracing skills by using dry erase markers to trace a bunny's path across a strip of laminated paper.

* I pulled out the felt pieces that I made for use with "Blue Rabbit and Friends".  This gave children an opportunity to retell the story to a parent, and an opportunity for parents to engage their children in talking about the kind of home that would be best-suited for each animal.

Next week's theme: Butterflies! (Yea!  Spring is here!)

Each Toddler Storytime includes activities that support one or more of the five early literacy practices identified as essential in helping your child develop the skills they need before they can learn to read. The five practices – singing, talking, reading, playing and writing –were developed for Every Child Ready to Read®, an initiative of the Association for Library Services for Children (ALSC) and the Public Library Association (PLA).

Every Child Ready to Read^® @ your library^®, PLA and ALSC logos are registered trademarks of the American Library Association and are used with permission.