I noticed there were a bunch of good stories about polar bears a while ago, enough to make up a storytime just about them.  So I decided to try it out!

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song*

MOVEMENT: Peek-a-Boo*

BOUNCE: Icky Bicky Soda Cracker*

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: sign for “Bear” and “White”


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

BOOK:

Follow the Leader by Miela Ford

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

FLANNELBOARD:
Bears

(to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”)
Grizzly bears are big and brown,
Big and brown, big and brown.
Grizzly bears are big and brown,
And live in the woods.

Polar bears are soft and white,
Soft and white, soft and white.
Polar bears are soft and white,
And live in the cold.

Teddy bears are just my size,
Just my size, just my size.
Teddy bears are just my size,
To cuddle with at night.

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:

Snow Babies by Laura Ellen Anderson

TICKLE: These are Baby’s Fingers*

NURSERY RHYME:
Hickory Dickory Dock

Pattern taken from The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra

Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock.

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: Treasure by Suzanne Bloom

HOW IT WENT:
This was a fun storytime!  I love Follow the Leader by Ford, because the photographs are so wonderful.  The caregivers really seemed to enjoy that one was as well, since I heard a lot of giggles and awws with it.  Snow Babies is a board book, but it is a little larger, so I thought it could work with this audience.

ATTENDANCE: 43 people (adults and children)

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