Family Storytime: Dancing

This was a smaller group that attended the last storytime of the session, but we had fun with dancing books and dancing along to songs.

They really enjoyed Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andrede and it kept their attention throughout the whole story.

We followed along and danced to the song "Hands are for Clapping" by Jim Gill. At first we practiced all the movements and then we tried to follow along. The group was a little shy, but they tried their best.

After our song, we read Everybunny Dance! by Ellie Sandall and Horse & Buggy Dance, Dance, Dance! by Ethan Long. I could tell the group really enjoyed the first book over these, but they were still great listeners.

For our second activity, we danced using scarves to "Let's Dance Now!" by Jim Gill. This was a freestyle dance and I encouraged the kids to wave their scarves high, low, to the side, etc.

Our final book was Wiggle by Doreen Cronin. The group enjoyed this one and thought it was funny when the dog had a pancake on his head.

For our craft, we each made our own Hollywood Walk of Fame Star using our handprints, star diecuts, and star stickers.

Other Books:

Zombelina Kristyn Crow

Groovy Joe Dance Party Countdown Eric Litwin

I Got the Rhythm Connie Schofield-Morrison

Duck Sock Hop Jane Kohuth

Brontorina James Howe

Wiggle Doreen Cronin

Dancing Feet! Lindsey Craig

Hilda Must Be Dancing Karma Wilson

Toddler Art: Red, White, and Blue

For this month's Toddler Art, we kept the Independence Day theme and had fun with paint and construction paper. 

I read Red, White, and Boom by Lee Wardlaw. It's a quick story about celebrating with a parade and fireworks. 

The little ones began working on their crafts. We had all sorts of motor skill practice making our own red, white, and blue flags using paint. This group also used clothespins and pom poms, but I modified the template for this group to make it more simple and dilly-dot like. 

Their next craft was making a smiley star. I think they had fun with both crafts, but enjoyed the takeaway of this one better and just appreciated using paint in the first craft. I cut up some larger stars, used our die-cut machine for smaller ones to use as the hands and feet, and white strips of paper for the arms and legs of our star. We drew our smiles on and used eye stickers.

I can't wait for next month's theme, at the beach, because I have some good ideas planned and there are so many options. Plus, who wouldn't want to be at the beach?