Baby Lapsit 6-22-17 Transportation

This Baby Lapsit session began, as they all do, with my three "hello" and introduction songs, that can be found (along with the "goodbye" ending) here.

Transportation was the first themed Baby Lapsit that actually landed! I'm so excited to report that the babies seemed to be having as much fun reading and singing about cars, boats, wagons, and horse rides as I was!

Our first story was Beep! Beep! by Sam Hearn. This book can easily be brought down to baby level by talking about the colors of the vehicles and practicing counting them as they line up at the beginning of the race. 

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)

We did three (count em, THREE!) lap bounce songs today because I couldn't bear to exclude any of these picks. We began with "Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck," moved on to this adorable version of "Little Red Wagon," and finished with a lesser known and more mellow closer, "This is the Way the Ladies Ride."

Our second story was Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman. For the babies, it's an excellent intro to following directions and pairing gestures with words when you put movement to the repeating phrases in the book: "dump it in, smash it down, drive around the trashy town!"

Our final song before saying goodbye was "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." I saw some of the parents practicing gestures with their baby during this song, and others treating it like another lap bounce. Either one is great, as long as the grownups and babies are interacting and the babies are getting the most out of the music!

I covered all forms of transportation except, regrettably, air travel. I wish I had had an airplane song!

After "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," we finished up with the usual goodbye, bubbles, and playtime. Here is a list of books I displayed on the subject of transportation:

• Race Car Count—Dotlich 
• Are We There Yet?—Laden 
• Gus’ Garage—Timmers 
• Hello Airplane—Cotter 
• Toot Toot Zoom!—Root 
• Freight Train—Crews

Preschool Storytime 6-22-17: Transportation

Today's storytime was all about things that go! So after saying hello to all our friends, I asked a few questions to the group of kids about the type of travel they've experienced. We talked about riding in the car, flying in an airplane, sailing on a boat, and then tried to name as many vehicles as we could. This was a fun exercise to introduce the theme of transportation and start the kids feeling engaged in the storytime.

Our first story was Beep! Beep! by Sam Hearn. This story went over a lot better with the preschoolers than it did with the babies. The preschoolers were excited about identifying and counting all the cars as they lined up, and actually laughed at the joke at the end.

Next, we did two movement songs in a row: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck." I usually use "Firetruck" as a baby lap bounce, but discovered today that it's possibly more fun on your feet! 

Our next story was Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman, and it was an interactive hit! Before we started reading I taught the kids the words and actions for the book's refrain: "dump it in, smash it down, drive around the trashy town!" By the end they were screaming it. It was amazing.

Today, we did two movement songs before going straight into goodbye, without a third book. I love sharing three stories with the preschoolers, but sometimes they're just too wiggly to sit still for it. However, "Little Red Wagon" and "Wheels on the Bus" were both big hits, and after bubbles, I sent them home to their parents sufficiently hyped up! #evillibrarian 

My version of "Wheels on the Bus"