Family Storytime: Letters

For this storytime we focused on our letters! All things alphabet.

Here’s what we did:

I always start with the same warm ups:

1. Song – Top of the Morning
   

2. This is a good song to warm up with because we stretch all the parts we will be using in storytime. Eyes, arms, legs, mouth, nose.

3. Rhyme – Say Hello

4. I love this rhyme. Everyone claps along and at the end we say hello how ever I tell them to. Loud, soft, quick, slow.

5. Movement Exercise – Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
   

6. We do this three times, faster and FASTER each time.

7. Song – Hokey Pokey
   

8. Once we were warmed up we did a little hokey pokey to shake things up.

From here we get into our theme.

1. ASL – A, B, C, D
   

2. I like to teach my my kids a few American Sign Language signs at the start of every storytime. This helps foster communication and with a large deaf community in our town it’s a great tool to have.

3. Sing Together – Alphabet Song
   

4. We’re focusing on letters so of course we had to sing the alphabet. We all sang and I signed the alphabet as we went.

5. Story – LMNO Peas by Keith Baker 

1. This is a cute story about peas with different jobs that go with the alphabet.

2. Movement Rhyme – Alphabet Beat

3. This one worked out really well. I adapted it from Storytime Kate. Instead of going through the whole rhyme we used the motions to practice our letters and word associations. So we’d clap our hands and say: Apple, Apple, Apple and then we would stomp our feet and go: a, a, a.

First clap your hands. Then stomp your feet. Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a, Apple, Apple, Apple – a – a – a,

Wave your arms high. Swing your arms low. Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b Blue, Blue, Blue – b – b – b

Move to the left. Move to the right. Car, Car, Car – c – c – c Car, Car, Car – c – c – c

Shout it out loud Whisper down low. Dog, Dog, Dog – d – d – d Dog, Dog, Dog – d – d – d

1. Rhyme – BINGO
   

2. A class rhyme. We clapped out one letter after each verse until we were just clapping.

3. Story w/ Magnets – Alpha-Gator

1. I got this one from Library Village. It’s really cute. I printed out a cartoon alligator and told the story using magnetic letters.

2. Song -Shake my Sillies Out
   

3. By this time we were ready to get our wiggles out so I played this classic and we shook out all the sillies.

4. Movement – Alphabet Flashcards
   

5. I can’t for the life of me find where I got these from but they are alphabet flashcards with different movements on them that go with the letters. F for fan your self. J for jump. I let the kids pick which cards we did.

6. Song w/ Shakers – Can’t Stop the Feeling! Trolls Soundtrack 

1. I passed out shakers and we danced our fanny’s off to this song. Not a normal storytime song BUT we loved it and so did the adults.

Finally, I always end with the same three things:

1. Movement Exercise – If You’re Happy and You Know It
   

2. I tell the kids that I want to know how happy they are.

3. Rhyme – Say Goodbye

4. This is the same rhyme we started with, so the new guys are familiar with it by the end of storytime.

5. Song – Goodbye, So Long, Farewell my Friends by Music Together
   

6. I always put this one on as I go to open the door. Its a nice, slow, peaceful song to wind down on.

How’d it go: This was a hugeeee storytime. At least a 120 people. That being said, it went really, really well. Lots of participation and it turned out to be a really good theme.

That’s all for now!

-M-

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