At today’s storytime we started by creating a lovely garden out of shapes–hearts, diamonds, triangles, rectangles, ovals and circles came together to make flowers and a butterfly:

garden

We also played with some beautiful Folkmanis bug puppets and sang a rhyme about butterflies, ladybugs and bees:

Butterfly, butterfly,
Fly up high,
Flash your colors
against the sky.

Bzzz, bzzz,
Fuzzy bee
bringing home nectar
to your hive in a tree.

Ladybug, ladybug
come to land
on my quiet
outstretched hand.

Ladybug, butterfly,
Fuzzy bee,
Time to fly back home to me!

We learned a tickle song about a ladybug:

Ladybug, Ladybug
(“fly” hand around and land on area)
Ladybug, ladybug, fly out of the farm,
And land right on my baby’s arm.
Ladybug, ladybug, fly out of the tree,
And land right on my baby’s knee.
Ladybug, ladybug, fly out of your bed,
And land right on my baby’s head.
Ladybug, ladybug, fly out of the rose,
And land right on my baby’s nose.

We read a beautiful board book called A Seed Needs Sun, written by Kate Riggs and illustrated by Fiammetta Dogi. We spotted lots of animals that you might find in a garden, such as moles, blue jays, and earthworms.

A Seed Needs Sun

We learned a new movement song called Wiggleworm, to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”:

Wiggleworm (to the tune of Teapot)
I’m a little Wiggleworm
Watch me go! (wiggle)
I can wiggle fast, or very, very slow.
I wiggle, wiggle all around, (turn around) then I go
Back underground (touch the floor) to the home I know.

We played a counting game adding spots to a felt ladybug on the flannel board and learning our numbers (actually I forgot to use the numerals! Sorry)

ladybug counting

We read another cute board book with flaps to lift, called Buzz, Buzz Baby by Karen Katz:

Buzz, Buzz Baby

We sang a traditional fingerplay song about peas in a pea pod:

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed
(children hold hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
(put thumb and fingers up one by one)
They grew and grew
(raise hand in the air very slowly)
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP!
(clap hands together)

We sang songs using the Song Cube, and just before wrapping up, we learned about different kinds of bugs in the video “Bugs, Bugs, Bugs,” on the DVD “Spoon… and more stories about friendship,” available to check out from Pasadena Public Library. The video was based on the book Bugs, Bugs, Bugs by Bob Barner.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
Bee puppet

Today’s storytime was so much fun! I look forward to every week!