Shoes are super.  They protect your feet, can come in fun patterns, and sometimes even light up!  Our toddler storytime this week celebrated this sole superhero.

SONG: Welcome Song

MOVEMENT: “Wake Up Toes” from Morning Magic by Joanie Bartels

MOVEMENT: Open Shut Them*

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE: sign for “Shoe”

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

BOOK:

My New Shoes by Leilani Sparrow, illustrated by Dan Taylor

MOVEMENT: “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” from It’s Toddler Time by Carol Hammett and Elaine Bueffel

COUNT & RHYME SONG:

10 Shoes

Counting time, it’s counting time
So let’s all sing a simple rhyme

Ten little shoes here we go
Let’s all count them as I put them in rows.
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

Ten little shoes, again we go
Now let’s count them nice and slow
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

Ten little shoes, in neat rows
Let’s count them as away they go
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

FLANNELBOARD:
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes

Based on the story by Eric Litwin, with art by James Dean
To make my Pete, I used the cover image as my template.  The white shoes are removeable though, so Pete has cat feet.

Pete the Cat has a new pair of white shoes that he loves, but as he sets about his day, he encounters many different things that change the color of his shoes.
First, a large pile of strawberries turns his shoes red!  (I placed the red colored shoes on top of the white ones.)

Next he walks through a pile of blueberries! (I know they look white in this picture, but the felt is really a light blue color.  (The blue shoes go on top of the red ones.)
Oh no! Now he walks through a puddle of mud, turning his shoes brown! (brown shoes go on top of the blue shoes.)

Then he walks through a bucket of water, which gets rid of all the brown, blue and red on his shoes.  They are white again.  But now they are wet! (take off all the other color shoes, so only the white ones remain.)
Here’s all the pieces in one photo.

During my first storytime, all the shoes piled on top of each other worked really well, and none of them fell off.  I did misplace one of the red shoes though.  During my second storytime, things were not quite as smooth and the shoes toppled a bit.  Thankfully a helpful parent picked them up.  When you tell this story as a flannelboard, do you replace one pair of shoes with another?  Or pile on top?

MOVEMENT: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” from Songs for Wiggleworms by the Old Town School of Folk Music

MOVEMENT: The Itsy Bitsy Spider

BOOK:

Whose Shoe? by Margaret Miller

MOVEMENT: “Two Little Blackbirds” from Fingerplays and Footplays by Rosemary Hallum and Henry “Buzz” Glass

VIDEO:

“Blue Suede Shoes” and “I’m Walking” from Baby Songs: Rock & Roll

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:
       

Book: New Shoes, Red Shoes by Susan Rollings
Book: Shoes Shoes Shoes by Ann Morris
Book: Shoe Baby by Joyce Dunbar and Polly Dunbar
Book: Baby Shoes by Dashka Slater, pictures by Niroe Nakata
Book: One Two That’s My Shoe! by Alison Murray
Book: Shoes by Elizabeth Winthrop, illustrated by William Joyce
DVD: “Edward’s New Shoes” from Baby’s First-Word Stories: Get Dressed
DVD: “Ruby’s New Shoes” from Max and Ruby: A Visit with Grandma
Flannelboard: All Kinds of Shoes
Flannelboard: Counting Feet

GREAT RESOURCES FOR MORE IDEAS:
Sunflower Storytime – Shoes!
Storytime Katie – Socks and Shoes
Literacious – Toddler Storytime Theme: Socks & Shoes
Jen in the Library – Feet – Toddler Storytime

THOUGHTS ON THIS STORYTIME:
There are lots of good stories about shoes for toddlers.  As I mentioned in the flannelboard section, I did have some technical difficulties since this was my first time telling Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes as a flannelboard story.  But it was fun that some of the kids and their older siblings knew the story and were super excited about it.

ATTENDANCE:  10 am:  41 people      11 am: 47 people

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