Storytime Theme: Sunflowers
This was our first week back to storytime after a relatively long break and it was so busy! Summer is always really interesting because so many people take a vacation, a lot of families are around that I don’t see very often during the school year and I seem to get a lot of new kids for my toddler storytimes.
This summer, I’m doing a traditional toddler storytime with music, fingerplays, and puppets as transitions as well as a parachute storytime that involves parachute games in place of traditional transitions. As usual for the first week, it was a little crazy with a lot of kids, but I think everyone had at least a little bit of fun. My parachute storytime ended up in a room with broken AC on a 90-degree day, but the kids had a great time as we focused on sunflowers and learning about spirals in nature.
Opening & Closing
Opening
- Traditional: Put Your Hands Up In the Air & Open Shut Them
- Parachute: Parachute Bop (Shakin’ the Chute)
ASL Sign: Flower (Touch a “squished O-hand” to your cheek on one side of your nose and then the other.)
Closing
- Traditional: Shake Your Sillies Out Puppet Show
- Parachute: Freeze!! (Shakin’ the Chute)
Books
- The Surprise Garden by Zoe Hall
- To Be Like the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson
- Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman
Transitions
- Traditional: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
- Traditional: Rocketship Run (Laurie Berkner Band)
- Parachute: Popcorn with ball pit balls (Battu ~ Putumayo Kids Presents: African Playground)
- Parachute: Beach Ball Popcorn (Rocketship Run ~ Laurie Berkner Band)
Additional Titles
- Big Yellow Sunflower by Frances Barry
- This Is the Sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer
- Sunflower Life Cycle by Chelsea Donaldson
- Seed to Plant by Kristin Baird Rattini
- Sunflower House by Eve Bunting
Celebrate even more flowers with these great picture books about flowers – April Showers, Bring May Flowers!