Storytime - Read Across America: A Celebration of Dr. Seuss and Libraries

Toddler

Books: Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.

Songs / Rhymes: “Good Morning”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Open, Shut Them”, “The Cat in the Hat”, “Five Little Cats” on the felt board, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Craft: One Fish, Two Fish pictures. Materials: die cut white construction paper fish bowl, die cut construction paper fish (yellow, green, blue, red), crayons, glue, and tape. The toddlers glued and taped their fish to the fish bowls.

Preschool

Books: I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric Kimmel and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss.

Songs / Rhymes: “Welcome to the Library”, “Hello, How Are You?”, “Hi There, So Glad You Came”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, “Open, Shut Them”, “At the Library”, “I Wiggle My Fingers”, and “The More We Get Together”.

Craft: One Fish, Two Fish pictures. See above.

Special Activity: I spelled book on the magnet board and the preschoolers helped me come up with rhyme with it.

Songs

Cat in the Hat

Sung to: The Addams Family

The cat in the hat

The cat in the hat

The cat in the hat

The cat in the hat!

--Sing a New Song

Five Little Cats with Hats

One little cat on a sunny day
Put on his hat and went out to play
Two little cats when the sky turned dark
Put on their hats and went to the park
Three little cats when the sky turned blue
Put on their hats and went to the zoo
Four little cats by the kitchen door
Put on their hats and went to the store
Five little cats on a sunny day
Put on their hats and they all ran away.

--Hummingbird Educational Resources

At the Library

Sung to: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

At the library the Garland library

We read a lot of books.

At the library the Garland library

We read a lot of books.

Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaad

Read a book when?

TODAY!

Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaad

Read a book when?

TODAY!

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot!

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot!

--Miss Lucy

Storytime - At the Library

For the first week of summer storytimes we talked about going to the library. We had an average crowd for the toddler group, but our preschool group was hopping!

Books

Maisy Goes to the Library by Lucy Cousins

Toddler

Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw

Toddler

I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel 

Preschool

*Note: This book is cute and silly, but outdated. I skipped the part about the chicken visiting the library and laying eggs in the card catalog.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Preschool

*Note: I used a felt board of this book at the same time.

Special Songs/Rhymes

If You’re a Reader and You Know It
Sung to: "If You’re Happy and You Know it"
If you’re a reader and you know it

Clap your hands x2

If you’re a reader and you know it

And you really want to show it

If you’re a reader and you know it

Clap your hands.

Use: Shout hooray, read a book

--from Storytime Katie

At the Library

Sung to: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

At the library the Garland library

We read a lot of books.

At the library the Garland library

We read a lot of books.

Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaad

Read a book when?

TODAY!

Reeeeeeeeeeaaaaad

Read a book when?

TODAY!

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot!

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot, we read a lot,

We read a lot!

--Miss Lucy at the Audubon Library

These Books Are Your Books

Sung to: “This Land is Your Land”

These books are your books,

these books are my books.

From Huckleberry,

to the dictionary.

So don’t abuse them

Or you might lose them.

These books are here

for you and me.

--Miss Lucy at the Audubon Library

Felt Boards
Toddler

Five Little Books

Five little books at the library,

Five little books as great as can be.

Along comes (name) with her library card

To take one home and read.

Continue to zero.

Preschool

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Before reading the book, I placed the coconut tree on the felt board and gave each child a lower case letter. There were more children than I expected, so some had to share. Had there been less children, I would have given them an uppercase letter instead, and asked them to find the same letter in lowercase. As I read the book, I called out the letter, and the child with that letter brought it to the board. It was complete chaos, but the children had a lot of fun showing how well they knew their letters.

Craft
Make-Your-Own-Bookmarks

I used our bookmark die cut for the Ellison machine and had a volunteer cut out yarn for the top. I gave the children stickers and crayons to decorate their bookmarks with, and they came up with some interesting creations. It was an easy craft that didn't take much time, considering the Chicka Chicka activity took up the majority of storytime.