Sign Language Storytime: Animals

My Sign Language Storytime format is:
Intro and hello
Felt story
Movement song or video
Book
Movement song
Goodbye

This storytime is special for a couple of reasons. First, it's the only one that I give a handout with pictures of the signs on it, so that the kids and grownups can refer to it during storytime and then practice at home. Second, I'm experimenting with adding an AV component to storytime by showing videos to follow along with instead of just listening to songs.


Handout:

Intro and hello:
Hello: "Hello Friends"
Before turning on the music, I teach the kids (and grownups) the American Sign Language sign for "friends." Then we boogie, wave, and sing hello to all our friends!

Warming Up Motor Skills: "Open, Shut Them"

On this song we do the movements described in the lyrics: open our hands, close our hands, clap three times, put our hands in our lap, creep our fingers up to our chin, and don't let them in our mouths.

Stretch: "Tall/Small"

This is a short, easy stretch the kids get a kick out of. While we're stretching, I like to encourage them to reach for the ceiling, touch their toes, then make themselves into a tiny ball.

Felt Story
"I Went to the Rescue Shelter"
This story was made by my coworker Sarah of Miss Sarah's Storytime.

I went to the rescue shelter and made a special wish.
The pet that I wanted was a very special...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "wish." When they guess right, put fish on the board)

I went to the rescue shelter while out for a jog.
I wanted a pet with a wagging talk. I found a little...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "jog." When they guess right, put dog on the board)

I went to the rescue shelter, I went there just like that.
Because I heard a little purr. It was a little...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "that." When they guess right, put cat on the board)

I went to the rescue shelter. It had become a habit.
The pet I wanted now was a soft and fluffy...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "habit." When they guess right, put rabbit on the board)

I went to the rescue shelter. I'm sure this sounds absurd,
But the pet that I wanted was a colorful flying...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "absurd." When they guess right, put bird on the board)

I went to the rescue shelter and it was no mistake.
The pet I really wanted now was a green and hissing...
(Have kids guess what animal rhymes with "mistake." When they guess right, put snake on the board)

Video
"ASL Animals Song" by My Smart Hands
During the video, I encouraged everyone to practice along. Using videos in storytime is still something I'm trying out, but it's going well so far.

Book
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carl
It's a classic, and a great book for practicing animal and color signs.

Movement Song
"Five Little Monkeys"

Numbers 1-5

Monkey

Jumping

Fall off

Hurt head

Mom

Call

No more/All done

Goodbye
"Until We Meet Again" from Out of the Box

When we sing this song, I help them recall the sign for friends from the hello song, and teach them a couple others as we sing: meet, time, and say.

Friends

Meet

Goodbye

This is the only storytime that I don't close with bubbles, because directly following is another program called Stay and Play where I set out 4-5 bins of toys for a 30 minute free play. Adding bubbles to that seems to be too much stimulation.

Stuffed Animal Sleepover

A stuffed animal sleepover is not an original idea in Libraryland, but it's always adorable and a hit with the kids. This program was totally my programming partner Sara's baby, but she let me co-staff it with her and help take pictures of the animals doing adorable stuff.

If you're not familiar with the idea of this program, here it is: We can't let kids spend the night in the library, but we CAN let their stuffed animals sleep over. So kids dropped off their babies with us on Friday. They gave them a hug and kiss, and filled out an intake form so we would know what their pal likes to eat, read, and watch on TV.

The next morning, Sara and I wheeled a cart full of surprisingly diverse stuffed animals around the library before opening and photographed them getting into mischief of one kind and another.

After taking the pictures, we compiled them into a photo album. When the kids came to pick up their furry friends, they got to decorate the cover of their album and take it home as a reminder of all the fun their animal (or doll or dinosaur or Pokemon) had at their library sleepover!

 In case you can't read the list, here are our sleepover/bedtime book picks:

• Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Robert Shea
• Chester Raccoon and the Almost Perfect Sleepover by Audrey Penn
• Where's my Teddy? by Jez Alborough
• Clark the Shark Afraid of the Dark by Bruce Hale
• Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch
• Twenty Yawns by Jame Smiley
• Sleepover with Beatrice and Bear by Monica Carnesi
• Sophie Sleeps Over by Marisabina Russo
• Vampirina Ballerina Hosts a Sleepover by Anne Marie Pace
• Who Feels Scared? by Sue Graves
• Sleepover at Grandma's House by Barbara M. Joosse
• Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber

Baby Lapsit 1-12-18

First Baby Lapsit of the new year, and the first time in a while that we've had this program on a Friday. There were several new faces today, so before we got started I had everyone go around and introduce themselves, their baby, and tell us how old their baby is. I like to do this with smaller groups, especially with younger kids, because a lot of them are first-time parents without a lot of parent friends. Also, a lot of the caregivers who attend my Baby Lapsit classes are stay-at-home moms, so it's a great opportunity to break the ice and be social with other parents.

As always, first we sang hello to all our friends. Then, our first book of the day was Roar: A Big Mouth Book of Sounds from the My Little World series. This book is fun because it has a short rhyming verse on each page, each talking about a different animal. Before the holidays, I asked our Lapsit families to fill out surveys about what they would like to see from the program, and an overwhelming number said they wanted to learn more sign language for their babies. So in the new year, I am going to try and teach three or four signs each time. During this book, we learned the signs for lion, goat, puppy, and kitten, as well as scared. I encouraged the grownups to do the signs with me, and help their baby do them as well.

Lion

Goat

Puppy (dog)

Kitten (cat)

Scared

Next it was time for our lap bounce journey and it began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." I have a few regulars who have come to Baby Lapsit continuously since their babies were only a couple months old, and they know this chant by heart now. 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)

Because I haven't done this program in a while, I hauled out my classic "Noble Duke of York" for our musical lap bouce. Since it is one of the longer songs and I needed to leave plenty of time for community play time, we only did one lap bounce song today. 

Our second book of the day was I Am Kind by Jen Porter. The main character of this book talks a lot about her dog, so I used this opportunity to refresh the sign for "dog," as well as teach the sign for "mom."

This book is part of Porter's "I Am" series (I Am Tidy, I Am Good, I Am Brave), which are simple rhyming verse stories perfect for toddlers. They model good behavior at a level very small children can understand and will want to emulate. 

In keeping with the effort to use more sign language, we did "Hush Little Baby" as one of our movement songs. Here are the signs I use when teaching this song:

And here is the version of the song I use. It's pretty short, so we usually end up doing it 2-3 times so everyone can get the hang of the sign language. 

Next, we did everyone's favorite body part identifying song, "One, Two Hands" by the wonderful Laurie Berkner. 

And finally, we said goodbye to all our friends by playing Peek-a-Boo, singing our goodbye song, having bubbles, and then having a 15-minute community playtime session with toys. It was a great first day back with the babies!

East Valley Children's Theater Presents "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus"

Today, the amazing East Valley Children's Theater (EVCT) visited our library with their original holiday play, "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus." I wasn't sure how many people would show up for a straight-ahead play with no interactive aspect, but was pleasantly surprised with 48 audience members. The actors were all between the ages of ten and thirteen years old and much of the audience were their family members, but I also spotted some new library patrons and some storytime regulars in the mix.

Before the production, one of the kids (possibly the stage manager) came up and explained how EVCT writes their shows. They begin by picking a title as a group. Without any other information, this group picked "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus" for their December show. Then, they collectively did a lot of writing exercises and improvisation activities, under the guidance of an their adult director, until the premise of the show was born. They formed their own characters, wrote their own lines, and completely created the 30 minute show we saw! The group mostly tours retirement homes and libraries, and do all their performances for free. It was a great program to add to our December calendar, and I would definitely have them back again when they are touring their next show!

Baby Lapsit 11-28-17

Today was my last time with the babies for two months! I'm really sad about it and going to miss seeing their adorable, squishy faces every week. Since we have three children's librarians at our branch, we decided to rotate monthly between the three storytime age groups. This way all the storytime families will get to know all three of us, and the kids won't have the shock of a stranger running storytime if one of us needs to call out sick.

It's a good idea with great reasoning behind it, and I'm sure I'll have a great time with the preschoolers in December and the toddlers in January. Even so, I'm gonna miss my babies!

After saying good morning, the first book we read was My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. This is one of those board books that doesn't have an actual plot. Instead, each page shows an animal and the narrator describes what characteristic of their heart matches that animal (for example, "brave like a lion"). At the end, your heart is "tired as a zookeeper who had a busy day," and all the animals are gathered together in the zookeeper's dark bedroom. It's super cute, and a fun way to practice the names of animals.

 

Our lap bounce portion began, as always, with "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)

AND NOW I HAVE BREAKING BABY LAPSIT NEWS! I USED A NEW SONG TODAY! After we bounced up and down in our little red wagon...

...we bounced our babies to this bluegrass tune, "Bounce Your Baby" by Caspar Babypants.

As always when you introduce a new song to a group of regular storytimers, there was some uncertainty on their part and mine. I didn't realize until the song was halfway over that there really are no movements built into this song. We ended up simply lap bouncing the whole time, with the option to turn the baby to face us and interact with them while bouncing. I would use this song again, but not very often as there's not really enough other movement for it to be interesting on a recurring basis.

Our second story was The Mommy Book by Todd Parr. I've raved about the wonder that is Todd Parr before, but I really can never sing his praises to a wide enough audience. Todd Parr is an absolute champion for diversity, tolerance, and acceptance. The best part is, these complex topics are explained in a way that young kids actually understand and respond to. Plus, the art is really colorful and pleasing to the eye. I love, love, love Todd Parr, and if I could get him as a storytime guest I'd probably die of happiness. 

Today, since it was my last time with this group of babies until they're all in college, I did two movement songs with them. We did my favorite version of "Wheels on the Bus," and then what has become a regular Baby Lapsit standard, "One, Two Hands."

Click here to listen to my version of "Wheels on the Bus"

Then we did our usual goodbye song, "Skidamarink," blew some bubbles, and played with toys. In the next couple months, I might try to poke my head into their community playtime even though it's not my Baby Lapsit rotation anymore!

Baby Lapsit 11-21-17: Autumn

I tend to repeat songs from week to week in storytime, especially when I do the same age group for weeks or months in a row. It does help brain development and lets them expect patterns and schedules, but it can get repetitive for a regular reader of my blog. That being said, I feel like there is use in repetition as well; these posts are based off my lesson plans, and might be helpful to you if you are a homeschooling or stay-at-home parent, if you run a daycare or preschool class, or if you are new to library storytime and need some ideas.

So without further ado, here is our semi-fall theme Baby Lapsit for today.

First, as always, we said hello, warmed up our motor skills, and did some stretching. 

The first story we read was Fall is Here! by Frankie Jones. This book doesn't really have a plot, but it's full of cute vignettes of a puppy experiencing the joys of autumn.

Our lap bounce portion began, as always, with "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 unofficial theme of our lap bounce music today was food. First we did "Pop Goes the Weasel" (mulberries), where grownups are encouraged to lift their baby up high at the ending POP. 

Next we pretended to be popcorn with Raffi, which I always like to play twice through because it's so short. Plus, the sizzle-sizzle-sizzle anticipation before the big dramatic POP always gets babies laughing. 

Finally, we finished up with "Milkshake," one of my all-time favorite storytime crowd pleasers. Here is the version of the song I use, followed by an a capella version by Jbrary.

Sticking with the fall theme, our second board book of the day was This Little Turkey by Aly Fronis. A variation on "This Little Piggy," I like this one for its jaunty rhythms and jauntier art.

Our last gesture/movement song was, once again, "One, Two Hands" by Laurie Berkner. Body part identification is one of the most important early learning skills, and I love this song to start kids learning the names of their facial features, hands, legs, and feet. 

After that, we said goodbye until next time!