All aboard for Toddler storytime! In honor of the library’s “STEAM 18” initiative, we put a little “STEAM” in our storytime by reading books, learning about colors, singing songs, counting, and playing percussion instruments all while celebrating steam engines and trains in general.


Books We Shared

Trains

Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres and illustrated by Christian Slade shows how mommy and daddy trains prepare their baby trains for bed. It’s a gentle rhyming bedtime book about nighttime routines. We abridged it a lot for the toddlers and this is necessary sometimes for sharing a book like this with a large group.

Freight Train by Donald Crews is a classic that teaches babies about the names of the cars as well as the colors. Since it was a board book I created felt pieces to share the images more clearly.

While we read Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Emma Garcia, I had the parents help me make the clickety clack of the tracks, doing a kind of drumroll using their hands and feet before each page turn. “Clickety clack on the track going to… (drumroll)… the seaside!”

Flannel Boards We Shared

Letter of the Day: T

We made a big capital “T” in the air, and brought out felt pictures of different objects that begin with T, and guessed what they were.

Freight Train by Donald Crews

Down By The Station

Down by the station early in the morning
See the little puffer trains all in a row
See the engine driver turn the little handle
Puff puff, chuff chuff, off we go! (remove one train, and count)

Nursery Rhyme We Shared

Engine, Engine

“Engine, Engine” from
Songs & games for toddlers
featuring Bob McGrath & Katharine Smithrim

Engine, engine number 9
Coming down Chicago Line
If the train goes off its track
Do you want your money back?
Yes? (sway to the side)
No? (sway to the other side)
Maybe so? (sway back and forth)

A little bit faster…

Action Songs & Bounces We Shared

We share a lot of songs, bounces & rhymes during storytime!
You’ll find lyrics/words to those songs & rhymes we shared without CD accompaniment here.

The Wheels on the Train

The wheels on the train go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the train go round and round,
All through the town.
(step slowly drawing out each “chug”)
The engine on the train goes “Puff, puff, puff;
Puff, puff, puff; Puff, puff, puff.”
The engine on the train goes “Puff, puff, puff”
All through the town.
(raise your hand and shake the bell)
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding;
Ding, dong, ding; ding, dong, ding.”
The bell on the train goes “Ding, dong, ding,”
All through the town.
The whistle on the train goes Whoo Whoo Whoo
Whoo Whoo Whoo, Whoo Whoo Whoo
The whistle on the train goes Whoo Whoo Whoo
All through the town.

Here Comes the Choo-Choo Train

This is a choo-choo train, (bend arms at elbows)
Puffing down the track. (rotate forearms in rhythm)
Now it’s going forward, (push arms forward, continue rotating motion)
Now it’s going back. (pull arms back, continue rotating motion)
Now the bell is ringing, (pull bell cord with closed fist)
Now the whistle blows. (hold fist near mouth and blow)
What a lot of noise it makes, (cover ears with hands)
Everywhere it goes! (stretch out arms)

(Source: https://kcls.org/content/this-is-a-choo-choo-train/)

“Open Shut Them”

Open shut them, open shut them.
Give a little clap, clap, clap.
Open shut them, open shut them.
Place them on your lap, lap, lap.
Creep them, crawl them
Creep them, crawl them
Right up to your chin, chin, chin
Open up your little mouth… Buuuuuuuuuuut…
Do not let them in!

“Two Little Blackbirds” (action song)

Click here for video:  Two Little Blackbirds

Two blackbirds sitting on a hill,
One named Jack and the other named Jill.
Fly away, Jack, fly away, Jill.
Come again, Jack, come again, Jill.

“Goodbye Friends” (song in sign)

Click here for video:  Goodbye Babies (Friends) 

Goodbye friends, goodbye friends
Goodbye friends, it’s time to say goodbye.

Music from CDs We Shared

Children love to sing and dance to music.  Here are some of the songs/bounces on CD that we used in storytime.

“Clap Everybody and Say Hello” from Sally Go Round the Sun by Kathy Reid-Naiman

Clap everybody and say hello, (clap hands)
Clap everybody and say hello,
Clap everybody and say hello,
No matter what the weather.

Stamp everybody and say hello, (stomp feet)
Stamp everybody and say hello,
Stamp everybody and say hello,
No matter what the weather.

Wiggle everybody and say hello, (wiggle baby)
Wiggle everybody and say hello,
Wiggle everybody and say hello,
No matter what the weather.

Jump everybody and say hello, (lift baby up high)
Jump everybody and say hello,
Jump everybody and say hello,
No matter what the weather.

Sing everybody and say hello, (wave hi)
Sing everybody and say hello,
Sing everybody and say hello,
No matter what the weather.

We shook shaker eggs to the song “Little Red Caboose” from Wiggleworms Love You by Old Town School of Folk Music:

Little red caboose chug, chug, chug
Little red caboose chug, chug, chug
Little red caboose behind the train, train, train
Smokestack on its back, back, back, back
Coming down the track, track, track, track
Little red caboose behind the train

Video We Shared

“Foolish Freight Cars” from the Thomas & Friends: Help Out DVD.

Continue the Fun

Here are some more books about trains to check out at your Pasadena Public Library Branch: