Storytime Theme: Elephants

I had a storytime on Saturday morning, a fairly new adventure for us as we have shied away from Saturday programming for a long time.  But, we’ve been testing the waters this winter/spring and have gotten great responses by offering a storytime on Saturday mornings for families that work.  It was a little bit of a different crowd – lots of babies and lots of older preschool age kids with a huge gap where toddlers should have been.  But, the older kids had a great time and the little ones loved the music and movement. Plus, who doesn’t love reading about these gentle giants in – Storytime Theme: Elephatns!

The kids really like all the books and were especially fascinated by painting elephants in our last story!  They thought that was one of the coolest things and I really liked how I was able to point out to parents that books don’t always need to be read cover-to-cover.  This particular book has a number of text boxes to expand on the story that I intentionally skipped and talked to the parents as to the reason why.  Overall, a great group of kids and parents that were so happy to be at storytime!

Opening & Closing

Opening Song: “Clap and Sing Hello!” (Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
We clap and sing hello,
We clap and sing hello,
With our friends at storytime,
We clap and sing hello!
(Wave and sing hello; stomp and sing hello.)

Closing Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Books

• Peanut by Linas Alsenas
• I Broke My Trunk  by Mo Willems
• I Dream of an Elephant by Ami Rubinger
• Elephants Can Paint Too! by Katya Arnold

Flannel board: 5 Elephants in the Bathtub
One Elephant in the bathtub,
Going for a swim.
Knock, knock (slap knees twice)
Splash, splash (clap hands twice)
Come on in! (motion ‘come’ with hands)
Continue until 5 Elephants…..

Five elephants in the bathtub
Going for a swim
Knock, knock
Splash, splash
They all fell in!

Song: “Rock and Roll Freeze Dance” by Hap Palmer, So Big

Wiggles: Bananas Unite

Additional Titles:

• Have You Seen Elephant? by David Barrow
• Super Jumbo by Fred Koehler
• Little Elliot, Big City by Mike Curato
• Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev

Also, check out That Fruit Is Mine! by Anuska Allepuz, you can find my review during #BlogBookaDay.