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. Take some time to do these things every day. Turn off the TV, put away the devices, and make time to play!
We 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 find this one lots of fun.
Then we read Pots and Pans by Patricia Hubbell and illustrated by Diane deGroat. This is a classic and really illustrates the fact that you don’t need a lot of expensive toys to entertain a toddler–all you need is imagination and a little ingenuity, and often your toddler will supply those!
We did a flannelboard story based on the old book Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets:
We watched the film “Ruby’s Hippity Hop Dance” from the DVD Summertime With Max & Ruby (available for checkout at the Pasadena Central Library).
And 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 🙂