TFT: Participation in Baby Storytimes

Question: How many children attend storytime? What is the ideal number for letting children come to the flannel board? --Miss Tara of Storytime with Miss Tara and Friends

Miss Tara posed these questions in relation to my baby storytimes. I'm sharing a few pictures of past storytimes, but I don't have any photos of BABY storytimes. It is just too hard to snap pictures as I'm leading. I use the curriculum Mother Goose on the Loose by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen.

I first heard of MGOL at a presentation at ILF about six years ago when I was first learning to be a children's librarian. It was the first professional meeting I attended! Wow, what a way to begin. MGOL is more than storytime. It combines music, movement and art with traditional storytime elements like picture books, flannel boards and knee bounces.

Babies and toddlers under 2 along with caregivers (1 lap, 1 child) are the intended participants. However, I've had older siblings attend (with a lovey for their lap) who also enjoyed the program. As I don't require registration for MGOL, I have anywhere from five to 20 babies and toddlers (plus 5-20 adults).

Sorry for fuzzy picture, fluorescent lighting...

At the beginning of each MGOL meeting, I lay out the rules. "I don't expect your little ones to sit perfectly still or be perfectly quiet. They can roam around the room and babble. They are paying more attention than you think. The only rule I have is, if your little one comes to the flannel board and tries to pull things off or get materials out of my cubby or box, please pick them up and put them back on your lap."

Voila! The expectations are presented and the parents take care of behavior. Phew. Humpty Dumpty is the last rhyme I present before the closing song. I say, "Now it's your turn to come to the board. You get to pull Humpty off the board, then we'll clap for you. Everyone gets ONE turn." Again, parents are in charge of enforcing the one turn.

Even when I have 20 babies and toddlers, not EVERYONE is going to want a turn. Some children are shy, especially if it's their first visit to the library. Sometimes, it takes 5-6 visits to participate, which is fine. I never make a child take a turn. I know they will do it when they are ready.

If you have even bigger numbers for your youngest audience, I would use the candlestick participation activity. Each baby still gets one turn, but the line will move faster. You place a candlestick in the middle of the room and ask each child to jump over it. Say the rhyme:

Jack be nimble

Jack be quick

Jack jump over the candlestick.

This post is part of my Thanks for Your Thoughts series. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment. You may get featured on Thursday!

TFT: What can you do with Wiffle Balls?

This is the second Thanks for your Thoughts Thursday post. I've received several questions about how  we used wiffle balls on our Tot Trays. If you've seen some of our photos from the 365 Days Outdoors Challenge, you may have noticed we have almost NO grassy area in our yard. Bobo received a great bat and wiffle ball set from Paps for Easter and we haven't been able to use it, yet. Then, I realized they weren't just balls, they were actually meteors!

The great thing about wiffle balls are all the small holes all over. They are perfect for pushing craft and chenille sticks through to make a spiky meteor.

Glowing water beads barely fit. They feel funny when you shake the wiffle ball with the glowing center.

They are fun to roll to each other in the dark.

When the lights are on, you can have a traditional game of basket toss.

Oops! That wasn't a basket? Oh, it's a space helmet. You want me to throw the meteors at you? "It won't hurt mama. I've got on my helmet." Well, if you insist...

I think wiffle balls fall into the category of toys that use 90% imagination! Would we have discovered this if I had taken them to the garage to await an outing where grass is abundant? I'm not sure. Is this what Paps had in mind when giving this gift? Probably not, but I can't wait to tell him. I sense a game of meteor baseball coming on!

Thanks for your Thoughts Thursdays: Dog's Colorful Day

Adventures in Reading has been exploring the theme of dogs for the past week. I suggested they check out Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd, and they did! Kim came up with some wonderful activities to go along with the book, and asked to see the one I had suggested. Since I didn't already have a post about it, I'm making one, which has led to the first "Thanks for your Thoughts" Thursday post. I'll try to make a

post inspired or in response to a comment or email each Thursday, so keep them coming!

I made 15 Dogs, one for each child. I have lots of blue contact paper, so I back everything in blue and use the clear on the front. The pattern came from Children's Programming Monthly Volume 1 Number 12.

I handed out Dog and Fruit Loops in a sandwich bag to each child, promising they could eat after the story. You can use any colorful candy or cereal. Depending on what you find, you'll have a different number of dots. Skittles have five colors, while Fruit Loops (the off-brand kind) have six. The book goes all the way to 10. However, I was fine with having less dots, because I teach children under 3. Counting to five or six is a big accomplishment! Not eating until the end of the story is another big accomplishment. While I read the book, the children placed their dots on the dogs.

At the end of the story, Dog needs to get clean. We used mini-loofahs to wipe the cereal off. The loofahs were my favorite part! I used white tulle and a pipe cleaner to make them. The babies in my first class loved the texture.

You can also use this idea to re-tell the story. If you are teaching a preschooler, you can use washable markers to color dog and wipe him off with a paper towel. Candy is always a favorite in my house, though! Now, I'm going to eat those Skittles, they are too tempting... 

Check out more children's book activities on Come Together Kids.