Garden Story Time

Welcome Song: Hands Go Up and Hands Go Down
(to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Hands go up and hands go down
I can turn around and round
I can hop upon two shoes
I can listen so can you
I can sit, I’ll show you how
Story time is starting now

Song: This Old Man
This old man,
He played one, (hold up one finger)
He played knick knack on my thumb.
With a knick knack (slap knees)
paddy wack (clap hands)
give a dog a bone, (hand jive)
This old man came rolling home. (roll hands)
Two … on my shoe // Three … on my knee // Four .. on the floor // Five … on the hive

Book: Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn; illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

Little Lola plants a garden with seashells and silver bells. I had a lot of younger kids today at story time (I think some of the moms who usually attend toddler story time were either testing out the pre-K story time or couldn’t attend yesterday so they came today.) So this was a good, quick story for the little ones.

Flannel: Five Little Flowers

I had misplaced my agenda (found later in the story time) so I was going off memory as to the order of things. I didn’t have this flannel memorized so instead of the rhyme I stuck the flowers up and we named each color and counted them. We also have flannel bugs in the bag so I put up each bug and discussed (from my own very general knowledge) how they help the garden grow.

Action Rhyme: Dig a Little Hole
Dig a little hole (dig)
Plant a little seed (drop seed)
Pour a little water (pour)
Pull a little weed (pull and throw away)
Chase a little bug (skitter bug across hand)
Heigh-ho, there it goes! (shade eyes)
Give a little sunshine (circle arms overhead)
Grow a little rose (cup hands, smell rose)
Source: SurLaLune Storytime

Luckily I had already written this and The Farmer and the Seeds song on the whiteboard so misplacing the agenda wasn’t completely tragic!

Song: Song cube (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)

Song: Baby Shark
Baby shark do do do do do do (shark mouth with two fingers)
Baby shark do do do do do do
Baby shark do do do do do do
Baby shark

Other verses:
Mama Shark (shark mouth with hands connected at the wrists)
Daddy Shark (shark mouth with whole arms)
Grandma Shark (shark mouth like mama shark but with fists)
Shark attack (snap arms overhead)
Swim away (swimming motion with arms)
Safe at last (jazz hands)
Source: Adapted from Kindergarten Nation

Song: The Farmer and the Seeds (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)
The farmer plants the seeds, (pretend to plant seed)
The farmer plants the seeds,
Hi, Ho, the dairy-o, (slap knees)
The farmer plants the seeds.

Other verses:
The sun comes out to shine (circle arms overhead)
The rain begins to fall (flutter hands down)
The seeds begin to grow (flutter hands up)
Adapted from SurLaLune Storytime

Book: Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming & G. Brian Karas

A farmer devises more and more elaborate plans to protect his garden after rabbits keep breaking through his defenses. Longer than Lola. I should have read it first but as it turns out, it worked out for the best. All of the little, little ones were already wandering around so the older kids were the ones still sitting with me and we enjoyed it.

Egg Shakers: Shake It by Sally’s Music Circle

This is when I was finally able to find my agenda and found out I was right on track!

Song: Song cube (The Itsy, Bitsy Spider)

Book: My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Song: Mr. Sun
Oh Mr. Sun. Sun. Mr. golden sun, (arms over head)
Please shine down on me. (move hands back and forth and down)
Oh Mr. Sun. Sun. Mr. golden sun, (arms over head)
Hiding behind a tree. (hide face behind hands)
These little children are asking you. (point to the children)
To please come out so they can play with you. (gesture ‘come here’ with hands)
Oh Mr. Sun. Sun. Mr. golden sun. (arms over head)
Please shine down on me. (move hands back and forth and down)

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This (to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)
We wave goodbye like this.
We wave goodbye like this.
We clap our hands for all our friends.
We wave goodbye like this.