How do I choose?

Story time is a completely different animal for everyone who does it. Some people like to stay within a theme and read books about one topic, and center their songs and crafts around the theme. Other people are more random in their book selection - choosing new books that come in that week, or choosing their favorites as they come across their desks.

I do a random story time every once in a while (in fact, I have a random story time post coming up soon!), but, as you may know, I usually center my story times around a certain theme, and all the books, songs and crafts usually follow.

I do a lot of animal themes, because animal books are easily found and available. I could probably do a cat theme for months and never repeat a book. I also do themes based on things that every kid has or does, for instance my Hair story time (which was FABULOUS, and the kids loved it!), and maybe Bath stories, or more Bath stories (and even more Bath stories) and even one about Manners. I also had a Tooth story time (post coming soon)!!

I do get some outside help finding books, however, and I need to give props to a couple of FABULOUS websites and blogs.

Storytime Source Page
Awesome Storytime
storytime katie
SurLaLune Storytime

I also get a lot of craft and song ideas online, too!! Here are some of my favorite sites!!

DLTK-Kids
All Kids Network
Kaboose
Kids Soup
Preschool Education
Perpetual Preschool

Anyway, I hope this helps to get you started!! I've been so fortunate to have found some good resources - there are some amazing children's librarians out there who are really up on their kid lit!!! If you know of any other good sites - feel free to share them in the comments section!!

Random Favorites

It was a weird week in story time! I had a performer call out sick just two hours before a very special Fairy Tales program, and then I had a group from a ballet school in town come to perform a program for my regular preschool story time - but I didn't even know they were coming!!! They only stayed for the first story time, though, and I didn't want to use my already planned story time (because it was super exciting, and wanted to use it for BOTH groups). So, I scrambled again and picked out a couple of my favorite story time books.

Opening Song: Shake My Sillies Out - Raffi

Book: Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems


Rhyme: Hey Diddle, Diddle

Book: Dinosaur vs. The Library by Bob Shea (LOVE this series!!!)



Dance: The Freeze - Greg and Steve (from Greg and Steve We All Live Together Vol.2)

Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Craft: Since I still had lots of supplies, I decided to make the crowns again!! I LOVE paper plates!!!


It's another edition of FMRNS!!! The feature this week was The Crow, a drama from 1994 starring Brandon Lee and Rochelle Davis. I remember thinking this movie looked really weird when it came out, and didn't really have a desire to see it. But, I trust my friend A wholeheartedly when it comes to what is on The List, so we watched it. I was NOT disappointed!!

Impromptu Fairy Tales

We had a performer all set to come in and do an amazing interactive Fairy Tale program for us, and everyone was SUPER EXCITED...until... My fabulous performer called me a short two hours before the program and informed me that she was sick and couldn't make it. Now, I could have thrown in the towel and told the disappointed kiddos that there would be no Fairy Tales, but I just couldn't do that!!! So, I scrambled a little and whipped something together!

Opening Song: Shake My Sillies Out - Raffi

Book: Ten Big Toes and a Prince's Nose by Nancy Gow


Song: Old McDonald

Book: Jack and the Beanstalk by Rosemary Wells

Dance: The Freeze by Greg and Steve (from Greg and Steve: We All Live Together Vol. 2)

Book: Who Wants a Dragon by James Mayhew


Craft: A variation of the Birthday Crown!!

Brush your Teeth!!

When I saw that Karma Wilson had put out a new Bear book, I jumped on the chance to use it at story time. So, my preschoolers had a little lesson about teeth!!

Opening Song - Shake My Sillies Out by Raffi

Book: Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson

Song: Brush, brush, brush your teeth (To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat) (taken from Preschool Education Music and Songs: Dental Health)
Brush, brush, brush your teeth!
Brush them every day!
Then you'll have a pretty smile
And healthy teeth all day!

Book: Tabitha's Terrifically Tough Tooth by Charlotte Middleton

Song: The Dentist Says (to the tune of Wheels on the Bus)
The dentist says please brush your teeth, brush your teeth, brush your teeth,
The dentist says please brush your teeth, every day!

(extra verses: Floss your teeth, eat healthy food)

Book: Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut


Craft: Tooth Men Puppets



And of course, we had FMRNS!! The feature for this week was Two for the Road, a love story from 1967 starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. It, of course, was a fabulous movie - full of love and drama and all that good stuff!!

Thanks for Monday

Today was all about Thanksgiving in Toddler Time!! We had a couple great Thanksgiving books, and one not so Thanksgiving book!!

Opening Song: If You're Happy and You Know It from Favorite Children's Songs CD.

Book: Five Silly Turkeys by Salina Yoon

Rhyme: Hey Diddle, Diddle

Book: Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim


Practice: Count to 5

Book: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle


Interactive Playtime

All the colors

I found some great books about colors, so I wanted to see how well the toddlers knew their colors!! They did really well, of course!!

Opening Song: If You're Happy and You Know It from Favorite Children's Songs CD.



Book: Driving in my Tractor by Jan Dobbins


Game: Colored circles on popsicle sticks and have kids guess the colors.

Book: Meeow and the Little Chairs by Sebastien Braun


Song: Twinkle, Twinkle

Book: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
Interactive Playtime

Mondays Kittens

I think I accidentally forgot to plan story time, oops!!! Luckily, there are always a couple themes that have plenty of books to choose from if you are a last minute planner as I seem to sometimes be! But, it turned out great - LOVE those toddlers!!

Opening Song: If You're Happy and You Know It from Favorite Children's Songs CD.

Book: I Love Cats by Barney Saltzberg

Rhyme: Hey Diddle, Diddle

Book: Kitten for a Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Book: Cat the Cat Who Is That? by Mo Willems


Interactive Playtime