Fizz Boom Crash: A Toddler Storytime about the Weather
Back story, this storytime was in my circulation two years ago and I called it "Wacky Weather" the day I was suppose to present it, we had a freak March snowstorm so next to no one showed up! So the title of the storytime was pretty apt. So I didn't feel bad about recycling a few ideas. Also I gathered lots of great information for them handbook sent out by the Collaborative Summer Reading Program Handbook which had an outline for weather storytimes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.
Books:
Old Bear By Kevin Henkes
Little Cloud By Eric Carle
Rain by Manya Stojic (Didn't use in this storytime, but an excellent book!)
Songs and Activities
I had a boat load of songs I wanted to use for this storytime. Too many real so I had to narrow it down.
Wind Action Songs- We used scarves to make the wind blow as we sang.
Blow, Blow, Blow the
Wind
Sung to: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
Blow, blow, blow, the wind
Gently through the trees.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow.
How I like a breeze!
Blow, blow, blow, the wind
Gently through the trees.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow.
How I like a breeze!
Blow, blow, blow the clouds,
Blow them through the sky.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow.
Watch the clouds roll by!
Blow them through the sky.
Blow, and blow, and blow, and blow.
Watch the clouds roll by!
Go Wind Blow
Go wind blow, push wind, swoosh.
Shake things, take things, make things fly.
Ring things, swing things, fling things high.
Go wind blow, push wind....whee!
No wind, no! Not me, not me!
Another activity was tossing our scarves up into the air and watching them float back down and put them on our faces and blew them off. My storytime kids are absolutely delighted by these simple scarves whenever I bring them out.
Weather Fingerplay (I think this came from the CSLP Handbook)
One day the sun was shining bright (hold up right hand for the sun)
But some clouds came along and it became black as night
(Hold up left hand for the clouds)
Then the rain began to sprinkle onto the ground
(wiggle fingers for the rain coming down) And soon it was raining all over the town.
But when the clouds had passed on by (move both hands to the right)
A big beautiful rainbow stretched across the sky.
(have your left hand make a rainbow arc over your head)
I
hear Thunder
Tune: Frere
Jacques
I
hear thunder, I hear thunder ( Drum hands on Floor)
Hark, don’t you? Hark, don’t you?
Hark, don’t you? Hark, don’t you?
Pitter-patter
raindrops, Pitter-patter raindrops,
(Tap fingers on arms and legs)
I’m wet through, so are you! (Slide hands over arms and legs as if brushing of water)
(Tap fingers on arms and legs)
I’m wet through, so are you! (Slide hands over arms and legs as if brushing of water)
Encourage
for grownup and kids to do this together. The parents can be the rain drops.
We also a craft- Rain Sticks. This took some research because I didn't necessarily want to go through the whole handing out nails to hammer into a tube with my little guys.I discovered brads work well and wouldn't be as sharp, but having enough for everyone would be something like 30 bucks in brads alone! Sheesh.
I found one idea that involved creating a long spiral out of foil that rested inside the paper towel tube. This craft did require most of the assembly to be on my end. The kids got to do the fun part which was decorating them with stickers and markers.
And its a good thing I didn't waste all that money on brads because I had 30 rain sticks prepped but only about 8 kids showed up. I used to do crafts all the time with brads and paper fasteners as a kid! Who knew they cost so much?
