Family Storytime Theme: Say Hello

I don’t know if it’s Adele’s new song, but I decided to try out a Family Storytime Theme: Say Hello this morning and it was awesome! I really liked all the books (and so did the families) as well as all the fun activities I chose as transitions and fillers. The kids had a great time chasing bubbles, we did all of our songs twice to practice the words and motions and the families did a great job interacting when they needed to. Bananas Unite continues to be a favorite and Jbrary really helped me out with great movement songs, a hello song, and a goodbye song.

Opening & Closing

Opening: “Hello” with sign language
Hello, friends. (x3)
It’s time to say hello.

Closing: “We Clap and Sing Goodbye”
We clap and sing goodbye,
With our friends at storytime,
We clap and sing goodbye!
We stomp and sing goodbye…
We turn and sing goodbye…
We stretch and sing goodbye…
We jump and sing goodbye…

Books

• Say Hello! By Rachel Isadora
• Say Hello by Linda Davick
• Hello Baby! by Mem Fox (flannel board)

Transitions

Puppet Meet & Greet: Meet Woolly (monkey puppet)

Music: “Hoya Hoye” by Putumayo Kids Presents: African Playground (bubble activity)

Wiggles: “Bananas Unite”
Bananas unite!
Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas
Chop bananas, chop chop bananas
Mash bananas, mash mash bananas
Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas
Go Bananas!

Gross Motor Practice: “The Elevator Song”
Oh the city is great and the city is grand
There’s a whole lot of people
on a little piece of land
And we live way up on the 57th floor
and this is what we do when we go out the door.
We take the elevator up and the elevator down,
take the elevator up, take the elevator down
Take the elevator up and the elevator down
and we turn around.

Caregiver Tip

Early Literacy Tip: Songs are a great way to teach children the smaller sounds in words!  Don’t be afraid to sing with your kids!

Additional Titles

• Hello Hello by Brendan Wenzel
• Hello World! by Manya Stojic
• Say Hello Like This! by Mary Murphy
• Hello Door by Alastair Heim
• Hello, Hello! by Miriam Schlein

Check out my extensive list of storytime themes and fun books to share with PreK kids.