It’s my rotation for our infant storytime, so for the next couple weeks you’ll be seeing posts on those topics more often.  Since this was the first storytime of the session, I wanted to start things off by saying “HELLO!”.

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song*

MOVEMENT: Peek-a-Boo*

BOUNCE: Icky Bicky Soda Cracker*

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: sign for “Hello”

taken from Costello, Elaine Ph.D.  Random House Webster’s American Sign Language Dictionary.  1994.

BOOK:

Hello Baby! by Mem Fox, illustrated by Steve Jenkins

MOVEMENT: “Clap, Tap and Bend” from It’s Toddler Time by Carol Hammett and Elaine Bueffel

FLANNELBOARD:
Say Hello to Your Toes

Idea taken from one little librarian, who found it at Storytime Secrets. I used the pattern I had from my flannelboard “Where is Baby’s Bellybutton?”

(to the tune of “London Bridge”)
Let’s say hello to our toes,
Hello toes, hello toes
Let’s say hello to our toes
Hello toes.

Other Verses:
– knees
– tummy
– shoulders
– head
– bellybutton

BOUNCE: “Smooth Road to London Town” from A Smooth Road to London Town: Songs from the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program by Kathy Reid-Naiman.

MOVEMENT: Patty Cake*

BOOK:

Hello, Day! by Anita Lobel

TICKLE: These are Baby’s Fingers*

NURSERY RHYME:
Little Bo Peep

Template and Rhyme from Mother Goose’s Playhouse by Judy Sierra

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And doesn’t know where to find them.
Leave them alone
And they’ll come home
Wagging their tails behind them.

MOVEMENT: “Itsy Bitsy Spider” from Children’s Favorite Songs Volume 3 from Walt Disney

MOVEMENT: “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” from Songs for Wiggleworms by the Old Town School of Folk Music

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over*

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:

Book: Say Hello Like This! by Mary Murphy
Book: Hello World!: Greetings in 42 Languages Around the Globe! by Manya Stojic. (This one is just great big pictures of children from different cultures and how they say hello in their language.  Since it’s long, a selection of it may work better, but I wanted to write it down as a future idea.)

GREAT RESOURCES FOR MORE IDEAS:
one little librarian – toddler time: hello hello
The Wielded Pen – Hello, Goodbye – A Storytime Outline

HOW IT WENT:
This was a fun theme to use for the first storytime in a series!  With Hello Baby! I did end up paper clipping a couple of the pages together because I worried it might have been too long for the first storytime of the session.

I always get a little worried about doing infant storytimes again when it’s been a long time away, but I always forget that I love doing it so much that it makes it easy.

ATTENDANCE: 52 people (adults and children)

* For these songs, please see my page Storytime Movements & Music