Missing/Search and Find Storytime

 

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I usually choose 5-6 books, and read 3-4 during any given storytime.
These are in order of most used across all sessions:
Where's Tumpty by Polly Dunbar
I Miss You Mouse by Greg Foley
Babyberry Pie by
Where's Catkin by Lord
What's the Matter Bunny Blue by Nicola Smee
Camouflage Clues

Opening Song: 1,2,3 I Love the Library
Where's Tumpty. I love this series of books by Polly Dunbar. I find the illustrations charming and the stories are simple and sweet. The kids enjoyed the repetition of this one, and thought Tumpty's attempts to hide were very funny.

Next we got some wiggles out with "I Can Jump Jump Jump"
When we sat back down, I asked the kids if they wanted to meet my friend who came to storytime, and brought out my baby bear puppet. Baby Bear is a A-DOR-able little puppet in a sleeping bag. we sing his wake up song because he's so shy:
(Frere Jacques)
"Are you sleeping?
Are you sleeping?
Baby Bear
Baby Bear
Will you please wake up now?
Will you please wake up now?
Come and play
Come and play"

Baby Bear helps us with the letter of the day, "M," and pulls a variety of items out of his sleeping bag, to great effect. I bought this set of "Alphabet Soup" cans from S&S Worldwide, and they're great for this sort of thing. Each soup can includes an upper and lowercase letter and at least five well-known items that begin with that letter. The last item that Baby Bear pulled out was his best friend, a stuffed animal mouse (one of the Mouse Count mice, actually), which led us to, "Oh! We have a book about a Bear and a Mouse! Should we read it to Baby Bear?" Of course the kids say yes to that, and we read, "I Miss You Mouse." After that we said good night to Baby Bear and he went away.

Next I asked the kids to show me a turtle (fist with thumb sticking out) and we sang, "I Had a Little Turtle" a few times.

Depending on which session I was in, and my reading of the group dynamic, I chose the next book on the fly.

Flannel Activity: I used a bunch of different animals from a commercial set that I have, and we talked about the differences/similarities between the different pieces. Then we played a few rounds of "What's Missing" where I would remove one and the kids would try to figure out which animal was gone. If they had trouble, then I started giving clues, "It eats bamboo" or "It has long ears."

After that we did the fingerplay, "My Hands"
If there was still a little time left in the session, we sang "Wheels on the Bus."

Closing Song: "Storytime is Over Now"
Hand Stamp

This week we did my favorite activity: Watercolor painting. I LOVE this activity and the kids do too. I just put out blank paper and have someone wet the paint as storytime is ending. I do have some smocks I put out, but it's just watercolor so most people don't use them.