Shakers!

Next week for the virtual baby/toddler storytime I'm doing for the library we will have several shaker rhymes. If you don't have a shaker at home you can easily make one. Simply take an empty water or soda bottle and fill with a small amount of an object from your house. Rice, beans, beads, buttons, pennies etc. Anything will work. You can then either just put the top back on (I use super glue if going this route to secure the lid), or make a handle our of paper and tape (Masking or duct). (Roll the paper up and insert about an inch into the bottle. )You might have to cut paper if the handle sticks out too far. Then wrap the tape around the form a sturdy handle for the kids to grab onto.

One of my favorite shaker rhymes has been modified from a rhyme I frequently use. The shaker rhyme Up! closely follows the rhyme Dance your fingers that I posted a couple of weeks ago. I'm big on adapting fingerplays and rhymes to fit theme and use. The following rhyme specifically mentions egg shakers, but you could substitute the word all anywhere the word egg is used.

We had technical difficulties with the Facebook Live program on Wednesday. I ended up taping it and I believe it will be up on YouTube soon as well as airing on Facebook tomorrow morning. Or at least that is what I'm being told.

Up!

Egg shakers up
And egg shakers down
Egg shakers dancing all around the town.
Dance them on your shoulders
And dance them on your head.
Dance them on your knees
And tuck them into bed.

Wash, wash, wash!

Wash!
This is the way we wash our face,
Wash our face, wash our face.
This is the way we wash our face,
Until we're squeaky clean.
Scrub our cheeks...
Wash our tummy...

You could really use this with any body part you wanted your child to clean.

Goodbye!

I'm going to have to slow down to just a rhyme of the day instead of 2 or 3 or I will run out of favorites before we are fully open to the public.

I've used the same goodbye rhyme for every session in pretty much every story time I've done for the last 15 years or so. I've tried other rhymes occasionally but always come back to, Wave Goodbye!

Wave Goodbye
(Follow actions as listed)
Wave high, wave low,
I think it time we gotta go!
Wave your elbows, wave your toes,
Wave your tongue and wave your nose.
Wave your ears and wave your eyes,
Wave your hands and say goodbye!

I've got fingers!

Tickly under there
(Touch body part and do actions as listed)
Ten little fingers
And ten little toes
Two bright shiny eyes
And one little nose
One happy smiley mouth
And one little pink tongue
Two waving arms
Two kicking legs
And one very tickly tum!

Head and Fingers
Head and fingers,
(Touch head, twinkle fingers)
Tummy and toes, tummy and toes.
(Touch tummy then toes)
Head and fingers,
Tummy and toes, tummy and toes.
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose.
(Touch parts of the face as listed.)
Head and fingers,
Tummy and toes, tummy and toes.

Bubbles, bubbles!

So many bubbles
Bubbles, bubbles in the air.
(Wiggle fingers in the air.)
Swirling, twirling everywhere.
(Move hands around in circles.)
Some are big.
(Make a large circle.)
Some are small.
(Make a small circle.)
See if you can pop them all.

There are bubbles in the air
(Tune: If You're Happy And You Know It)
There are bubbles in the air, in the air.
(Wiggle fingers in the air.)
There are bubbles in my hair, in my hair.
(Touch hair.)
There are bubbles in the air,
There are bubbles in my hair,
There are bubble everywhere, everywhere!

Up, Up Up!

Tommy Thumbs Up
(Using thumbs follow actions)
Tommy thumbs up and Tommy thumbs down,
Tommy thumbs dancing all around the town.
Dance them on your shoulders,
Dance them on your head.
Dance them on your knees,
And tuck them into bed.

Arms
Arms go up,
Arms go down,
Arms go reaching way out wide.
Arms can rock you side to side.
Hands are to hold
And pat and clap.
Hands are to hide
Behind your back.
(Follow actions listed with arms and hands.)

Both of these rhymes are favorites to use during Wonderful Ones story times when I'm transitioning the kids from the music/dancing back to listening to a story.

Five!

Or green I guess.

Five little frogs
Five green and speckled frogs
Sitting on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs
Yum Yum (rub tummy)
One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are four speckled frogs
Glub, glub
...and so on in descending order

(You can use your hands/fingers to count down.)

Five plump peas
Five plump peas in a pea pod pressed.
(Make fist)
One grew (hold up one finger)
Two grew (hold up two fingers)
And so did the rest (slowly hold up the rest of the fingers)
They grew and they grew and they never stopped
(hold hands together and slowly take them apart until they are about shoulder width apart)
They grew so big that the pea pod popped!
(Clap hands together loudly)