Today’s storytime was all about Playing and the letter P!
Playing is one of the five easy early literacy activities you can do with your child every day to help develop their vocabulary and prepare them to learn to read in school when they’re older. The five early literacy activities are: Talking, Singing, Playing, Reading and Writing. It doesn’t take much to play with your baby. The books we read today demonstrate that. If you’d like some suggestions for new ways to play with your baby, here is an article on BabyCentre.co.uk that has some fun ideas.
We read Bounce, Bounce, Bounce: A Lap Game Book for Babies by Kathy Henderson. This illustrates the different “uses” babies find for household objects, often not the use they are intended for. 🙂
We also read Whoa, Baby, Whoa! by Grace Nichols and illustrated by Eleanor Taylor. If you’re anything like me and find yourself often telling your children “No,” you’ll definitely relate!
We recited the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle” with a library flannelboard, and we learned a new tickle song:
You be the ice cream,
(Shiver your fingers around child.)
And I’ll be the freezer.
(Put your arms around her.)
You be the lemon,
(Touch her on the chin, lick your finger and make “sour” face.)
And I’ll be the squeezer.
(A nice hug.)
You be the hot dog,
(Pretend to take a bite somewhere.)
And I’ll be the bun.
(Another hug!)
You be the baby (or child’s name),
And we’ll both have fun!
(End with a tickle.)
Lastly, we played with bubbles! I purchased this set of Gymboree Bubble Oodles on Amazon and tried them out with all the storytime groups today.
They worked really well and lasted a long time. But one thing I learned was that you can’t blow too hard, or no bubbles will come out. Slow and steady breaths are best. And the soap is very thick and if it gets on your clothing, you’ll have spots for the rest of the day! (I’m sure it washes right out though.)
It’s worth it to see the kids looking so excited and happy 🙂