Stuffed Animals
/I've done a stuffed animal sleepover for a few years, but never attempted the accompanying storytime. Usually kids trickle in to drop off and pick up and that works for us. I had randomly picked toys as a storytime theme, but couldn't really find any compelling books to fit, and then had the epiphany, "STUFFED ANIMALS!" I invited all the grown-ups and children to bring their own stuffed animals from home for this special storytime.
BOOKS:
We read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems because OF COURSE WE DID and I Don't Like Koala by Sean Ferrell.
Both of these were surprisingly good storytime books. Knuffle Bunny is good because it's Mo Willems and properly set up can help kids learn about context clues and foreshadowing. I Don't Like Koala needed a little more set-up and in text talking than I did properly the first time. We talked about Koala and whether or not the kids liked him and at the end we talked about scary rooms and the dark and being scared in the dark, which helped explain why Koala ended up being good.
ACTION RHYME:
We did "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" which I don't think I knew all of until this storytime.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, reach up high
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, wink one eye
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, slap your knees
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sit down please.
SONG:
Honestly, I found a really terrible stuffed animal song that we listened to on the first day for a bit before I turned it off. On the second day, we just listened "The Robot Dance" by The Pop-Ups. So much better.
CRAFT:
I am super excited to show you this one. We made our own stuffed KNUFFLE BUNNIES!
Stuffing the bunnies was fun (but required a lot of grown-up help to staple). The kids were super happy with the end product.