Little Diggers Teeny Weeny Storytime

Summer has started a bit early at my library branch!  I'm presenting a Little Diggers Teeny Weeny Storytime on Monday mornings throughout June for our youngest patrons, from newborns to 3 year olds.  This is a very hard thing to do, since all the kids are at several different stages of development, so it's important for me to be both incredibly rigid and flexible at the exact same time.  How do I do it, you ask?  Today's your lucky day!

A few entries ago, I discussed my structure for my normal Teeny Weeny storytimes, where the oldest child is approximately 14 months old.  I've tweaked this somewhat to appeal to both babies and toddlers.  The first thing I've changed is I've acquired several different toys for babies and tacked on a 15 minute playtime to the end of every Little Diggers Teeny Weeny session.  We have blocks, stacking cups, color-coded grocery bags with plushy produce, and wheely cars appropriate for babies (ie, they can't swallow them!)  For older toddlers, I will have sponge painting and coloring sheets.  The last week, we'll make fossils using quick dry clay.

The second most obvious tweak is it's themed to coordinate with our Summer Reading Club's theme, Dig Into Reading!  So all my board books are about dinosaurs, worms, construction trucks, gardens, sandcastles, etc.  I particularly recommend the new board book:  Dig In! by April Prince.  It has moveable parts, the text is clear and simple, it's about construction, the mice are cute... it's just dandy.

I've also created a brochure-style compilation of all the fingerplays and nursery rhymes I'll be reciting during the storytimes.  I'm using the following fingerplays:

A creepy crawly caterpillar that I see (wiggle index finger)
Makes a cocoon in the big oak tree (clasp your hands together)
He stays there, and I know why...
Because soon he will be a butterfly! (spread our your fingers with your thumbs connected)

See the wiggly wiggly worm, (wiggle index finger)
See it squiggly squiggly squirm. (wiggle it some more)
Over, under, all around... (move it up, down, in a circle)
Where's the wiggly squiggly worm? (cover index finger with your other hand)
1, 2, 3, POP! (pull out index finger)

Bumble bee, bumble bee, (fly index finger around)
Come from the barn,
Come to get baby
Right under the arm! (tickle baby)

Five little flowers standing in the sun (hold up hand, fingers up)
See their heads nodding, bowing one by one (bend fingers)
Down down down comes the gentle rain,
And the five little flowers life their heads up again (straighten fingers again)

Of course, the perennial Round and Round the Garden is used!
Round and round the garden (hold out babies palm, move your index finger in a circle)
Like a teddy bear.
One step, two step, tickle under there! (touch the palm, touch the elbow, tickle under arm)

After this, it's business as usual.  First five minutes is children playing with the books, reading them with their parents, followed by me reading a story to them.  Because some of the kids will be toddlers, I'm reading short picture books, rather than board books.  I will be reading The Watermelon  Seed by Greg Pizzoli, Underground by Denise Fleming and Giggly, Wiggly Worms by Neecy Twinem.

Then, we'll do our egg shaker dance to Old MacDonald Had a Farm.  We do fingerplays, then peekaboo with scarves and more dancing, then nursery rhymes.  Then, the BIG BLUE BALL!  Afterwards, we sing our goodbye song, If You're Happy and You Know It, then on to playtime!


Fun stuff!   Check out all the books at your local library and Dig Into Reading!