Family Storytime: Rain

It just so happened that this week's storytime theme was rain and this always makes things easier when preparing for my individual programs that are independent from storytime because I can research books and crafts and pair them to what works with what program/age group best.

We started off storytime by following along to our opening bean bag song and then we read Puddle Jumpers by Anne Margaret Lewis. This book shows how fun rain can be and all the different ways we can jump in puddles.

For our first activity, I told the story of the Mushroom in the Rain using the flannelboard. I had enough pieces for each child to put up an animal on the board and we talked about how the mushroom was growing and getting bigger and bigger. This is always a fun story for the kids.

Our next picture book was Raindrops Fall All Around by Charles Ghigna. Ghigna's books always are paired with simple, but beautiful illustrations and we learn a lot about the basics of rain in this book.

I thought it was time for a movement activity, so we followed along to the song "Walter the Waltzing Worm" with each of our cutout worms. This works much like a bean bag song except we are putting Walter on our head, shoulder etc. instead of a bean bag. 

Our last story of the day was Watersong by Tim McCanna. This is a fun story to read  out loud because it's making all the noises rain can make, is short, and has a calming effect. 

We colored umbrella-shaped coffee liners with markers and used a spray water bottle to bleed the colors together. Everyone seemed to have loved this craft, but of course some of the kids got a little too much "rain" on their umbrellas. 

April showers bring May flowers...