letter a — Storytime — Teeny Tiny Library

Hi all, long time, no blogging…..Good news for you! I’m back (at least for a bit) with some new storytime themes and plans for you. First up: Letter A. We’re going back through the alphabet. I think alphabet themes are great because you can read any story that has something to do with your letter. It’s freer than a stricter theme like “Bears” or “Swimming.”

BOOKS:

We read If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t! by Elise Parsley, Armadilly Chili by Helen Ketteman, illustrated by Will Terry, and Airplanes by Byron Barton.

This is one of my virtual storytimes (which are recorded) so I don’t have any feedback on how the books were received. I really enjoyed Armadilly Chili and thought it was a fun twist on the Little Red Hen story.

RHYMES:

I found these fun rhymes on Storytime Katie (bless her heart and her website).

“Alphabet Beat”

First clap your hands. Then stomp your feet.
Everybody do the alphabet beat.
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,
Wave your arms high. Swing your arms low.
The alphabet beat is the way to go.
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b
Move to the left. Move to the right.
The alphabet beat is way out of sight.
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Car, Car, Car – c – c – c
Now give a high five to a nearby friend.
The alphabet beat has come to the end!

So I clapped the first three beats in each line and then stomped out the rest. I had a great time doing this and it would be lots of fun with littles all standing up.

“Way Up High In the Apple Tree”

Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arm up high)
Two red apples smiled at me (hold up 2 fingers)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (make a shaking motion)
Down came the apples, (make a downward motion)
Mmmm–were they good! (smile and rub stomach)

I busted out my red shakers for this one and just held them in my hands like apples during this rhyme.

CRAFT SUGGESTIONS:

Since storytime is virtual, I don’t have a craft ready to go, but I can definitely think of some awesome ones.

We did these A alligators the last time I did an alphabet storytime series. We’ve done apple prints which are super fun and appropriately messy. I have done other alligator crafts that I love - one with printed scales (glue foam pieces that are scale shaped onto a piece of cardboard, have the kids paint it and then print it onto the alligator) and one with a paper chain body that turned out really awesome but was a bit of a pain for the littles to make the small paper chains. (The first image is mine, the second is what my craft looked like but the image is from Instructables.)

DANCE BREAK SONG:

I’ve been including links to dance break videos in the description of my virtual storytimes since we used to do a dance at the end of every storytime. This week’s video was the classic “Aikendrum” by Raffi.

New year, new storytime series! I decided that we should do an alphabet series for storytimes So starting this week, every week (excepting some holidays and special events) we’ll cover a different letter of the alphabet. I actually am really enjoying planning these storytime sessions because they’re a lot less restrictive than the themes. I can choose books about ANYTHING that starts with A. I think they’ll make for a fun 26 weeks!

BOOKS:

We read Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator by Mo Willems and Airplanes by Byron Barton.

I didn’t read all of Amanda & Her Alligator! It was just too long. We got through the price tag section and that was a good stopping point. Airplanes (which is what my copy is called contrary to the picture) was a great read. I’m always surprised how much kids like Byron Barton books because they’re so simple. It doesn’t matter though because he has interesting subjects.

FINGERPLAY:

On Miss Anna Presents, I found a TON of alphabet storytime resources. I took this fingerplay from the A section.

Way up high in the apple tree (stretch up)
Two little apples smiled at me (make two fists)
I shook the tree as hard as I could (shake tree)
Down came the apples (hands fall into lap)
Mmmm, they were good! (rub tummy)

SONG:

For the song portion of this storytime, we listened to Raffi’s version of Aikendrum. Such a silly song. I think the Headstart kids I visit would appreciate this song a little more than the toddlers did.

CRAFT:

For our craft, we made a big letter A into an alligator! We glued little squares of green construction paper to the A outline, then added eyes and teeth. Here’s mine.