Springtime Storytimes

Planning a seasonal storytime can be a little overwhelming because there are SO many books, songs,  and rhymes about seasons. I've tried to divide up the book suggestions by putting them in sub-categories. The book lists are at the bottom of this post. First here are some action rhymes, songs and crafts all about springtime. 

Spring Action Rhymes and Songs and Crafts
     Most of these rhymes I've used for years, some are traditional, some are adaptations. I didn't make note of where I got them, so I'm sorry I can't give credit. If you know the origin of any of these, leave a comment. 

Craft: Tissue Paper flowers. Cut circles in tissue paper. Pile up a dozen or so layers. Fold in half and punch a hole at the center, bottom edge. I use a small bore 1/8" hole punch. Thread a chenille stick through the hole and twist the stick to secure it. . Unfold and lightly crumple the layers. They look like ranunculus, very pretty! 

Action Song: The Gardener  tune: The Farmer in the Dell
     actions: match actions to words
The gardener plants the seeds
The gardener plants the seeds
Hi ho the cherry-o
The gardener plants the seeds

v. 2    The sun shines down so warm...
v. 3    The rain falls gently down...
v. 4    The plants begin to grow...
v.5     The flowers smile and sway...

Action Song: Roots, Stem, and Leaves and Flowers   tune: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes
I may have written this, I don't remember. I've used it for years and it's lots of fun to do. 

Roots, stem, and leaves, and flowers
leaves and flowers.
Roots, stem, and leaves, and flowers
leaves and flowers.
Butterflies, bees, and sunshine and rain showers,
Roots, stem, and leaves, and flowers
leaves and flowers!

Talk through the song and actions once or twice till kids know what to do. Sing once slowly.  Repeat several times getting progressively faster. Sing last time at normal pace.

Actions
Roots  -   touch toes
Stem   -   stand up straight and clap arms to sides
and leaves  -   bend elbows and hold hands out at sides
and flowers  -  frame face with fingers and flutter fingers like petals

Butterflies   -  make butterflies with your hands - cross at wrist, palms facing you, link thumbs and
                                flutter fingers like wings
Bees            -   make an OK sign with thumb and forefinger, and waggle hand
and sunshine   -   circle arms overhead
and rain showers -  fingers flutter down

Craft: Zip Bag Butterfly  Have kids fill zip top bags with scraps of tissue paper. Zip closed. Fold the zip top down. Twist a chenille stick around the middle and curl the tips. Cute & fast! I've also done this with fold over sandwich bags.

Action Poem : Spring

Showers   -   flutter fingers down
Flowers   -   hands grow up
Trees       -    yoga tree pose, sway
Bees       -     make wings with arms & buzz
Sun      -      circle arms over head
Fun    -   jump up and down
Muck   -  pretend to be stuck 
YUCK!

Craft: Honey Bee  Use up your construction paper scraps. You can do this in different ways. Have kids glue skinny scraps onto a rectangle scrap. (I believe artists can use any colors.) Then cut out the bee body shape (oval or jelly bean shape, or give them a pattern or template). Or have them cut the bee shape first, glue on stripes then trim along the edge. Add an eye and face. Stick on some antennae (paper or chenille sticks), add a stinger. The main thing that is distinctive and cool is the bubble wrap wing - you could put one on each side. We always have boxes full of bubble wrap saved from packages, it's a great craft material.

Fingerplay Song:  Spring is Here!  tune Are You Sleeping  (Frere Jacques)
I think I found this in one of Jean Warren's Piggyback Songs books
 
I see flowers                        - "grow" hand up through other fist
I see birds' nests                  -  cup hands
Butterflies                            -  link thumbs with palms facing you, flap hands
Rainy skies                           -wiggle fingers down through air
Everything is growing             -wiggle fingers up through air
The wind is gently blowing     -sway hands back and forth
oo-ooo-oo
Spring is here! 


Action Poem: A Robin
When a robin cocks his head       -make wings with arms 
Sideways in a flower bed            -tilt head to side
He can hear the tiny sound         -tap ear, cup ear
of a worm beneath the ground    - wiggle finger

 
Craft: Rockin' Robin  I like to play the song Rockin' Robin at our spring storytimes. I use either the Jackson 5 version or the Toddlers Sing Rock and Roll version. The kids love to get up and dance. It's just a little too long at 2 and half minutes. And here is a rockin' robin craft.   from Happy Hooligans. There are a lot of versions of Rockin' Robin, but this one is the cutest I think. The original instructions start with painted paper plates, but at library storytimes we don't have time to wait for paint to dry so we just use circles cut out of construction paper. It works just as well. Tap the corner of your bird and it will rock. If you want a more realistic robin see the same Happy Hooligans website for the robin colored craft.

________________________
Okay enough rhymes and songs and crafts for now. I will do Spring showers in another post.
Here are a few of my favorite springtime books.



Spring Flowers
The Happy Day / Ruth Krauss
Buster and the Dandelions / Hisako Madokoro
Dancing the Breeze / George Shannon
Planting a Rainbow / Lois Ehlert
Alison's Zinnia / Arnold Lobel
Flower Garden / Eve Bunting

Spring Robins
My Spring Robin / Anne Rockwell
Little Robin Redbreast / Shari Halpern
Round Robin / Jack Kent
Robin's Home / Jeanne Atkins
    2 nonfiction picks to show kids:
A Nest Full of Eggs / Priscilla Belz Jenkins
The Robins in Your Backyard / Nancy Carol Willis

Spring is Coming
Possum and the Peeper / Anne Hunter
It's Spring! / Samantha Berger

Flannel Friday: Green Eggs and Ham

Here is my Flannel Friday post. See more great felt board ideas this week at Story Time Secrets.


We celebrated Dr. Seuss last week and included Green Eggs and Ham, of course.
For a stretch between stories, I adapted the traditional rhyme, "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" and created a felt board to go along with it. We stood up and acted it out using the felt board as a visual aid.

Way Up High in the Green Egg Tree

Way up high in the green egg tree,             ~ point way up high
Two green eggs smiling at me!                   ~ make 2 fists up high 
I shook that tree so hard and fast,             ~ with both hands shake imaginary tree trunk
And Noooooooooo!!!!                            ~ look up horrified
Down came the green eggs                       ~ lower fists quickly toward your face
Splat! Splat!                                             ~  Splat hands over face

I cut out a Dr. Seuss-like tree from light blue stiffened felt for the trunk and red stiffened felt for the tree top.  Then I made eggs and added google eyes and smiles drawn with a sharpie. The eggs are double sided as you can see in the next picture.The tree trunk is about 12 inches long, the eggs are the size of real hen's eggs. I didn't use patterns.

During the last 2 lines of the rhyme, I take the eggs off the tree and hold them way up high over my face and bring them down in slow motion while I cry out, "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!" Then I flip them over on top of my eyes so the yolks show. They look like big eyeballs. The kids loved it!

This is a super simple felt board design. I love the stiffened felt which we bought from the School Specialty Art Education catalog.

Wockets in my Pockets - Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  

When I was about 4 years old my mother brought home The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss, and I was completely hooked. When she brought home The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, I was ecstatic. This was the late 50s, and the books were not only brand new, but they were a brand new kind of children's literature. Learning to read has not been the same since.

Book: There's a Wocket in my Pocket

This is not a narrative story - it's a list of wacky rhymes describing unusual household creatures. You could stretch this book by asking kids to make up their own wacky rhymes.

Action Song: Five Wockets in my Pocket
I adapted this song from Music with Mar, Five Fingers in my Pocket, which you can download or purchase on CD   

I've got five wockets in my pocket      ~   hold up five fingers
Five wockets hidden away                    ~   put hand in pocket or behind back
Five wockets in my pocket, Look!        ~  hold up four fingers (back of hand facing children)
Oh, no! One went away.                    ~  count fingers, then start song over

I've got four wockets in my pocket, etc.        (Be sure to act this out with facial expressions,
                                                                      look disappointed when a wocket is missing, make
Repeat till you have NO wockets:                   your voice sound sad. The kids think this is hilarious.)

I've got no wockets in my pocket
No wockets hidden away
No wockets in my my pocket, Look
Oh! Five wockets here to stay!                 ~  pull hand out with five fingers showing


Book: Green Eggs and Ham

This was my son's favorite book when he was about 2 years old. He asked for it so often and I read it so many times, he memorized the text, and would sit and look through the pages and recite it. When I read this book in storytime many of the kids recited the lines along with me.

Action Rhyme:  The Green Egg Tree

I took the traditional rhyme, Way up High in the Apple Tree, and adapted it for this storytime. I also created a felt board to go along with it. 

Way up high in the green egg tree,             ~ point way up high
Two green eggs smiling at me!                   ~ make 2 fists up high 
I shook that tree so hard and fast,             ~ with both hands shake imaginary tree trunk
And Noooooooooo!!!!                            ~ look up horrified
Down came the green eggs                       ~ lower fists quickly toward your face
Splat! Splat!                                             ~  Splat hands over face

Here is my version of a Dr. Seuss tree, cut out from stiffened felt. The eggs have google eyes and smiles drawn on with a sharpie. The eggs are also double-sided.

During the last two lines of the rhyme, I took the eggs off the tree and held them way up high over my face and brought them down in slow motion while I cried, "No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!" Then I flipped them over on top of my eyes so the yolks showed. They look like big eyeballs. The kids loved it and laughed and laughed. And we had to do it again.




Book: The Cat in the Hat

Echo Song: Cat in the Hat
For this song I used the tune and style of the Crazy Moose Song (although I can never remember tunes correctly - the kids didn't seem to care). I dashed off new lyrics, and then realized after I printed the song sheets that I had mixed up both Cat in the Hat books (the cat cleans up the mess with Mom's dress in the second book.) Oh well, everybody makes mistakes.

Leader sings the line and kids echo. Each line is sung twice.

There was a great big cat               ~ make whiskers with fingers
He liked to wear a great big hat     ~ raise hand high over your head
There was a great big cat
He liked to wear a great big hat
Sing wayo wayo wayo                 ~ swish hands and arms back & forth over head
Sing wayo wayo wayo                ~  swish hands and arms back & forth in front of knees

The cat came in one rainy day     ~ hands wiggle down for rain
He had a lot of tricks to play       ~ rub hands together and smile
The cat came in one rainy day
He had a lot of tricks to play
Sing wayo wayo wayo
Sing wayo wayo wayo

But the goldfish said NO NO!    ~make fish with hands, shake finger sternly
Tell that Cat in the Hat to go!    ~Jerk thumb over shoulder
But the goldfish said NO NO!
Tell that Cat in the Hat to go!
Sing wayo wayo wayo
Sing wayo wayo wayo

Then that cat made such a mess   ~ wave arms haphazardly OR put hands on hips and frown
But he cleaned it with Mom's dress  ~ make feminine hourglass shape with hands
Then that cat made such a mess
But he cleaned it with Mom's dress
Sing wayo wayo wayo
Sing wayo wayo wayo

Now the cat has gone away           ~  wave bye bye
But he'll come back again someday   ~  smile knowingly
Now the cat has gone away
But he'll come back again someday
Sing wayo wayo wayo
Sing wayo wayo wayo

Crafts
I was inspired to make wockets after reading Miss Alison is Blogging. I used a slightly different pattern for our wockets from 30 Minute Crafts and also included the yottle in a bottle craft from the same cool website. The kids colored their Wockets and Yottles and then I laminated the creatures and adults cut them out. My little Scotch desktop laminator is my new favorite toy.  On the back of the Wocket picture are instructions to take your Wockets in your pockets wherever you go, then take picture of the Wockets and send the digital pictures to the library. We will post the pictures on our website, FB page, and this storytime blog.