Bats - Family Storytime

This is for an all ages, whole family storytime:

• Opening - Look Up, Look Down (sign language song from Pick Me Up!: Fun Songs for Learning Signs)
• Book #1 - Bats At the Library by Brian Lies
• Book #2 - Bat Jamboree by Kathi Appelt, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (alternative book: Stellaluna by Janell Cannon)
• Activity - Can You Growl Like a Tiger? (action rhyme)

(act out the motions described)
Can you growl like a tiger?
Can you hop like a frog?
Can you climb like a monkey?
Can you bark like a dog?
Can you slither like a snake?
Can you fly like a bat?
Can you howl like a wolf?
Can you stre-tt-ccchhh like a cat?
Can you sit like a kid at storytime?

• Flannelboard - Five Little Bats on a Dark Night (counting backward rhyme that I first found on Estherstorytimes website)
• Book #3 - Hello, Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne (alternative book: Batty Riddles by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg, pictures by Nicole Rubel)
• Activity - Sun, Moon, and Stars (fingerplay I found in Mailbox Magazine Preschool Oct/Nov 2007, page 5)
• Closing - Dance around with paper plate moons to the song "Mister Moon" from Where Is Thumbkin? by Kimbo
• Family Math Activity - Make fun designs using foam pattern blocks
  

Creatures of the Night Storytime

Storytime for 1 to 3 year olds:

• Opening - Skinnamarink (from Car Songs: Songs to Sing Anywhere by Dennis Buck at Kimbo), Sticky Sticky Bubblegum
• Book #1 – Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, illustrated by Patrick Benson
• Activity – The Owl (action rhyme)

There's a wide eyed owl
(thumbs and forefingers around eyes)
With a pointed nose,
(forefinger makes a V at end of nose)
Two pointed ears,
(forefingers extended up from head for ears)
And claws for toes.
(fingers and arms bent in front of chest)
When he sits up high in the tree,
(point up to top of tree)
And he looks at you,
(point at a child in the group)
He flaps his wings,
(fold arms into arm pits and flap)
And he says, "Whoo, Whoo."

• Bridge - Open Shut Them (fingerplay)

Open, shut them
(open and close hands)
Open, shut them
Give a little clap (clap)
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Put them in your lap
(put hands in lap)

Creep them, creep them
Under your chin
(creep fingers up chest)
Open your mouth, but don't put them in
(do as words say)

Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open shut them
Open shut them
Put them in your lap

• Flannelboard/Math Activity - Five Little Bats on a Dark Night (counting backward rhyme that I first found on Estherstorytimes website)
• Fingerplay - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (traditional)
• Book #2 -I Walk At Night by Lois Duncan, paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Faucher
• Activity – Soft Kitty (song)

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.
Lazy kitty, pretty kitty, purr, purr, purr.
(pretend there is a cat in your lap that you are petting)

• Closing - Popcorn Calling Me (scarf song found in Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner)
• Craft – Put out black and brown crayons or pens to color bat finger puppets