I had the best intentions of making today's storytime desert/summertime theme. I succeeded with the books, but not so much with the songs. It's surprisingly hard to find songs with directed movement that are also about hot weather. I found some great children's music about summertime that get stuck in your head, but weren't quite right for storytime. I'll link them at the bottom of this entry.
After our regular Preschool Storytime introduction (above), our first story was Hug Me by Simona Ciraolo. This book's main character, a gentle baby cactus named Felipe, has a non-affectionate family and just wants a friend who will hug him. He goes in search of someone to hug, but encounters some difficulties with his spikes. I won't spoil the ending for you, but he finally finds someone equally lonely to be friends with...
This story was pretty mellow, so I figured we needed some high energy movement songs afterward. First we did "Jumping and Counting," because 3-5-year-olds will always inexplicably love jumping in place indefinitely.
Our second movement song was "It's Time to Stand Up" by Susan Salidor. This song is hilarious, and always cracks up the kids with its fast moving directions and all-around silliness. Best of all, it ends by slowing down and instructing the kids to sit down quietly. There is nothing bad about it as a storytime song.
In keeping with the desert/summertime theme the best I could, our next story was Desert Day, Desert Night by Anthony D. Fredericks. The best part about this book are the stunning illustrations. I think they did a great job keeping my preschoolers engaged after all that moving around.
Finally, before saying goodbye we sang "Five Little Monkeys" complete with some sign language! I'm not able to find a video showing exactly what I do for this song, so here is the version of the song I use, and below are some pictures of the signs. Maybe eventually I'll make a video of myself doing the signs so you can see exactly how I do it!
At the end, you might notice that I use "all done" for "no more monkeys jumping on the bed." I like to teach this sign because it's great for a lot of everyday use. Using just this small amount of signs all together creates a good rhythm that kids find easy to follow. I love doing this signed song with the preschoolers! Stay tuned for my video so you can see how it all comes together in my storytime.
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| monkey(s) |
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| jumping |
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| fall off/fall down |
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| hurt head |
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| mom |
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| call |
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| all done/no more |
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