Sensory-Friendly Story Time Theme: Sing-a-long Books

I was finally able to get back out into the community this week and stop by four classrooms of young children with disabilities.  The kids I see are 3 – 5 years old and have a variety of disabilities from autism spectrum to vision, language, intellectual, or some combination of two or more.  These classroom visits are so fun because the teachers really appreciate the outreach and the kids have a great time. 

These kids are not always the quietest children, but it makes me so happy when I can connect to them through something in storytime whether it’s a book, song, our puppet turtle, or using the iPad.  I chose a sing-a-long theme for this group because it catches the children’s ear very quickly and they become very interested in the stories.

Overview

By far, one of my favorite storytime books to share is Down By the Station it incorporates not only trains, but buses, boats, airplanes, and excavators (yes, they used the word excavator in a song!).  Boys, especially, love this story! 

I used the Felt Board app on my iPad and created a screen of some shapes.  I then sang the little shape song that I found online and asked the kids to find different shapes in the picture.  They all had a lot of fun pointing to different shapes and colors.  The Seals on the Bus is a funny version of The Wheels on the Bus with great animals and animal sounds. 

I then shared the story Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes with the kids.  I was going to download the story, but it was around $10 and I couldn’t afford that, so I bought the song on iTunes for much cheaper and shared the pictures of the book with the song.  There is also free download from the HarperCollins Children’s website.  Definitely take a look!  For this song, I also gave the kids simple shoe shaped cut-outs in white, red, blue, and brown and had the children pick out and wave their shoes in the air during the story.  The best part is that Pete the Cat’s song is very repetitive and the kids were singing along in no time! 

The last story is If You’re Happy and You Know It: The Jungle Edition which worked out perfectly for the kids because by this time they were getting antsy and could interact with the story.  I really enjoyed this story time theme and might have to repeat it again – it went so well!

Lesson Plan

Opening: Open, Shut Them
Meet Tortuga (turtle puppet)

Book 1: Down By the Station by Jennifer Riggs Vetter

Transition (Gross Motor): Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes

Transition App (Felt Board):

“I Can See Shapes” (Tune: London Bridge)
I can see a circle shape, circle shape, circle shape
I can see a circle shape, how about you?
(Little square, triangle, rectangle, diamond)

Book 2: The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort

Transition (Song & Fine Motor): Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes – shoe cut-outs

Book 3: If You’re Happy and You Know It: Jungle Edition by James Warhola

Closing:

“We Wave Goodbye Like This” (Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We clap our hands for all our friends. (stretch up high, we pat our knees, we stomp our feet)
We wave goodbye like this.