Baby Lapsit 5-24-17: Fish and the Ocean

Today I started out with my standard introduction, which you can view here (along with the goodbye at the end).

Since the theme of the day was fish and the ocean, the first book I read was Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count by Lois Ehlert.

I like this book for babies because it teaches counting and colors. Lois Ehlert is always great for unique and colorful art in picture books.

For the lap bounce portion of Baby Lapsit, I always start with the same non-musical chant called "Bumpy Road." Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:

Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)

The two lap bounce songs with music today were "Octopus (Slippery Fish) and "The Goldfish" by Laurie Berkner. Neither of these are ideal lap bounce songs, but I wanted to keep with the ocean theme and these were the songs I used for Preschool Storytime this week also. A learning experience that putting on a quality storytime should trump sticking to the theme every time. Even if the songs were over the babies' heads, the grownups seemed to enjoy them.

After the lap bounce portion, I read Smile, Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen. I like to read board books in Baby Lapsit, because they tend to have fewer words on a page and the babies usually pay attention for the whole time because it only takes about five minutes to get through a board book.

Then it was time for a couple more songs with gestures before we said goodbye. Sticking with the ocean theme, we sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Finally, we sang "Peek-a-Boo," and then concluded with "Skidamarink" and bubbles for all!

Here are the books I had out on display during the ocean theme storytimes:

• Fish School—Poydar
• Faucet Fish—Robinson/Anderson
• Rain Fish—Ehlert
• Fish—Walsh
• The Specific Ocean—Maclear
• Whale Shines—Robinson
• Ugly Fish—LaReau
• Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale—Pfister
• The Pout-Pout Fish—Diesen 
• The Legend of Sea Glass—Noble 
• Ocean Whisper—Rockhill
• Over the Ocean—Gomi