Blogging From A to Z: Gardens

During the month of April, I’ll be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge.  My theme for the month is Storytime Plans From A to Z.  Each plan will have eight stories as well as four songs, fingerplays or rhymes to match the theme!  As you can see, I’ll try and attribute where I found all of this fun (and often you can find it in multiple places).  My goal is to make storytime planning a little easier on myself in the future and to make storytime planning for other librarians easy as well!
Book List:

1. Counting in the Garden by Kim Parker
2. There’s a Billy Goat in the Garden by Laurel Dee Gugler
3. Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
4. Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming
5. Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres
6. What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park
7. Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole
8. My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Songs & Rhymes:
“There’s Something In My Garden”
There’s something in my garden,
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound….
Ribbit – Ribbit – Ribbit
A Frog is what I found!
Ribbit-Ribbit-Ribbit
Repeat with other animals, such as a crow (caw-caw-caw), mouse (squeak-squeak-squeak), rabbit (thump-thump-thump), bird (tweet-tweet-tweet) etc.  This is especially fun if you can find stuffed animals and hide them in a box.  Let children guess what animal you have in the box based on the sound, and then ask them to make the animal sound after revealing the stuffed animal.
“Big Round Sun”
Big round sun in the summer sky
Hold arms in circle over head
Waved to a cloud that was passing by
Wave!
The little cloud laughed as it started to rain
Wiggle fingers downward for rain
And out came the big round sun again.
Hold up arms in circle above head again
“Lunch”
(flannelboard based on Lunch by Denise Fleming)
“Round and Round the Garden”
Round and round the garden
Like a teddy bear
One step, two step,
Tickle you under there!