We had eleven friends join us for story time this morning! We read two books about clothes and did finger plays and rhymes. Then we made our own “stocking hats”.
The first book we read was “Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons” by Eric Litwin.
The kids adore Pete so any time I can incorporate a Pete story into our story time, I will.
Then I found delightful finger plays and rhymes from one of my favorite library blogs, “Storytime Katie”. https://storytimekatie.com/about/ is where you can go to find all kinds of things related to books and library story time for littles.
Action Rhyme: “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”
One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, shut the door
Five, six, pick up sticks
Seven, eight, lay them straight
Nine, ten, begin again // that’s the end!
Most of the parents knew this rhyme too so they joined in. It was great fun! We also practiced holding up our fingers to match the rhyme.
Then we read “New Shoes” by Chris Raschka. I love this book because the perspective is from the child’s perspective as he/she looks down and his/her feet. The kids really enjoyed it and we talked about the different colors of shoes that we saw.
We did one more rhyme from Storytime Katie called, “Old Shoes, New Shoes”.
Action Rhyme: “Old Shoes, New Shoes”
Old shoes, new shoes,
(Child) is wearing (description) shoes
One, two, three four,
Now I stomp them on the floor!
The kids loved stomping their feet and hearing their name said when it was their turn. My daughter came (for the first time!!!) and had taken off her boots so when it was her turn, we said, “Hazel is wearing no shoes” and she giggled in a way that only three year olds can. Most kids stuck with colors but we could have done cowboy (for boots), fashionable or fancy, leather or dirty. Big crowd pleaser!
We finished up with a craft, like we usually do. Today, we made paper plate hats. Super easy, super cheap and the kids loved it. I just had my teen volunteer cut paper plates in half. Then the kids colored the plates, added goggly eyes and smiles. Next they glued on the bottom strip of paper (from scrap recycling bin!) and pom poms for the hat.
