Baby Story Time - What Was Read - April 3

Despite the lovely weather we had a great crowd for Baby Story Time today! It was also a fun session today because we had lots and lots of bounce rhymes! Read on to see what we did today.

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 18 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading. We meet Thursdays, at 10:15 AM.

Theme: Bunny rabbits!

What Was Read

• Hop! by Phyllis Root ; illustrated by Holly Meade. - JJ BOARD ROO
• Five little rabbits go about their day in this fun, rhyming story.
• Where We Sleep by Nancy Tafuri.:  - JJ BOARD TAF
• A simple story that talks about where baby animals sleep. Fantastic for new vocabulary (like "thicket").
• Busy Bunnies by John Schindel ; [photographs by Steven Holt]. -JJ BOARD SCH
• Photographs highlight what bunnies are up to throughout a day. 

What We Did

• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together."  
• Recited/sang: "I wish I were a bunny."
• Sang: "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."
• Recited the rhyme: "Little Rabbit."
• Recited the rhyme: "Me and my horse."

Early Literacy Tip

• Something I haven't talked a lot about here is Print Awareness. Aside from helping you, the rhyme cards I use every time show baby that there is something on that card that you're reading. Reading is how you can expose baby to print from pointing to parts of the book to point out the words on the page.
   

Baby Story Time - What Was Read - March 20

Finally! It is the first day of Spring! During Baby Story Time, we read stories about Spring and only thought about warm weather, the flowers, rain, and more.

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 18 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading. We meet Thursdays, at 10:15 AM.

Theme: Spring!

What Was Read:

•  Baby Loves Spring! by Karen Katz- JJ BOARD KAT
• In this lift the flap book, a baby dressed in a rain coat and rain boots explores the sights and sounds of spring. What's that?
•  Welcome Spring - illustrated by Nancy Davis ; written by Jill Ackerman. - JJ BOARD ACK
• Another baby dressed in a rain coat and boots explores sights and sounds of spring. Instead of flaps, this book has parts for baby to feel like a squishy flower.
•  Butterfly Colors and Counting by Jerry Pallotta ; illustrated by Shennen Bersani. - JJ BOARD PAL 
• Count up to 10 with ten different butterflies or just talk about the colors of the butterflies.

What We Did

• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together." 
• Recited a rhyme that starts with "I saw a little bird, hop, hop, hop."
• Recited a rhyme about "Two Little Black Birds" named Jack & Jill.
• Recited a rhyme about going "Up-up-up" and "Down-Down-Down."

 Early Literacy Tip

• Ah! Spring! The weather is changing and we'll be outside a lot soon! Spring is a great time to introduce more background knowledge, especially through play! Play in the dirt as you garden. Have baby check out the tools you use (supervise them, of course). The more they learn, the more they know.

Baby Story Time - What Was Read - February 27

Wow! It has been a month since I've been able to host Baby Story Time due to the weather or other plans. Even though something is predicted in the weather for next week, hopefully we can all get back on schedule for Baby Story Time and enjoy stories in the cozy library.

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 18 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading. We meet Thursdays, at 10:15 AM.

Our Theme: Bedtime!

What We Read

• Nighty Night Little Green Monster by Ed Emberley.:  - JJ EMB
• A little monster is getting ready for bed! The reader gets to point out the parts that make a face then say goodnight to each part. A great bedtime story to say "nighty-night."
• Jack-- it's bedtime by Rebecca Elgar  - JJ BOARD ELG
• Jack is getting ready for bed in this lift-the-flap, counting book.
•  Hush, Little Baby, Don't Say a Word.:- JJ BOARD HUS
• The popular nursery rhyme and song gets a story book treatment with lovely pictures of soft items.

What We Did

• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together." 
• Sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
• Sang "Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes."
• Recited "5 Little Monkeys" as a bounce rhyme.

Early Literacy Tip

• Talk, talk, talk to your baby. Pick a night and narrate their bedtime routine. You'll be reinforcing the background knowledge, but you'll also be teaching them that stories follow a sequence of events.

Baby Story Time - What Was Read

What a great welcome back to our Baby Story Time for 2014! We had a great group including old faces and new faces! I hope you'll consider joining us.

Our theme for January 9 was "Sight."

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 18 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading. We meet Thursdays, at 10:15 AM.

What Was Read

• Where is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz- JJ BOARD KAT
• What is baby hiding? A fun lift-the-flap book!
•  See the Rabbit by Janet & Allan Ahlberg.- JJ BOARD AHL
• What does baby see? Point out to baby where the object is!
•  Show Me! / by Tom Tracy ; pictures by Darcia Labrosse. -JJ BOARD TRA
• Mom and Baby talk about baby's body parts! A great one to read and interact with.
• Peek-a-boo! by Robert Grobel Intrater- JJ BOARD INT
• Baby's favorite game gets an update with this story. Featuring full photos, this book talks about emotions!

What We Did

• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together."
• Recited a rhyme about our body parts and senses.
• Sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."
• Recited an action rhyme about a little bird.

Early Literacy Tip

• A baby's senses are how they interpret the world. Our theme today will be focusing in on one of those senses: sight! When reading to a child, they see the pages of the book and, through you, that print has meaning. With Print Awareness you can use the book as a starting point to talk. Talk about the image, especially with those one word a page books. Take the image and bring in the object to expand a baby's world.

Baby Story Time - May 9 - What Was Read

BRRRR. WHIRR. CLUNK! SQUIRM! Underground and moving dirt was our theme during Baby Story Time on Thursday, May 9.

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 23 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading.

What We Read

•  Underground by Denise Fleming.
• Brightly colored and illustrated work that follows a robin and a family planting a tree.
• Trucks by Debbie Powell
• Whir! Brr! What are those construction vehicles doing?
• Dig it, dump it, push it! by Holly Karapetkova
• Construction vehicles at work!

What We Did

• Sang "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and pointed to the body part
• Recited the bouncing rhyme "Bouncing up and down in my little red wagon..." while bouncing baby faster and faster
• Recited a peek-a-boo rhyme: "Where is Baby?"
• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together"

Early Literacy Tip

• Print Awareness – This includes how to handle a book and read a book. For a Baby, a book is something to test out like a toy. Reading to a child from the beginning is very important. You don’t have to finish the book right away. If Baby gets uncomfortable, just put the book down and pick up again later. Also, help the child explore the book. They may turn pages (board books are perfect for Babies).
• Example: This summer we’ll have a summer reading club. Babies are allowed to participate in this as well! You can count what you read to baby toward the goal. Keep track of the books you finish reading, even if it takes two sittings. Every little bit helps.

Baby Story Time - May 2 - What Was Read

Touch! Smell! See! Hear! Taste! Senses were our theme in Baby Story Time on May 2.

Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 23 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading.

What We Read

• Show Me! by Tom Tracy ; pictures by Darcia Labrosse.
• What can baby do? Mommy points out body parts on baby. We pointed out the parts as well during the story.
• Animal Sounds! by Tad Carpenter
• Can you say what an animal says? Clever flaps lift up to reveal even more of the animals.
• I See by Helen Oxenbury.
• What does the baby see? Words highlight what is shown on the page.
• I Touch by Helen Oxenbury. 
• What does the baby touch? Words highlight what is shown on the page.

What We Did

• Sang "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and pointed to the body part
• Recited the bouncing rhyme "Trot, Trot, to Boston"
• Recited rhyme where we pointed to the body parts and senses that match them.
• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together"

Early Literacy Tip

• Vocabulary – Words! Words! Words! We are constantly surrounded by words from advertisements to people talking. To a baby, words are very important and they hear a lot. There are steps babies generally follow when learning how to talk and read. It is important to start building a vocabulary early, even before babbling starts. Think of your baby as a sponge and introduce new words and try to be more descriptive to help add to a baby’s vocabulary.
• Example - Talk! Talk! Talk! Talk to your baby. Narrate the day or talk about what is going on or think out loud as you make a meal and they watch. Use “I feel,” “I hear,” as jumping off points to introduce new words and reinforce old ones. Talk in specifics in an attempt to identify things. Baby doesn’t always know that “it” means the chair or phone.

Touch-a-Truck | Bus for Us Recap!

On a windy, yet sunny day, I traveled out from the library to visit Lower Gwynedd Township to share our wonderful PA One Book, Every Young Child selection: The Bus For Us. There were four vehicles to check out at the township building and then you could travel the "Book Trial" to the end for a free copy of the book and to learn about our new Home Energy Audit Kits we have for check out. Later in the day, our Trucks did go down to one, but it was still a fun event!

Learn more about the PA One Book and what it is all about here.

Baby Story Times - April 25 - What Was Read

Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! We were busy, busy animals in this session with animal stories and songs. Let's check out what was read on April 25!


Baby Story Time at Blue Bell is a story time session geared specifically toward babies (ages 6 months to 23 months). We'll read stories, sing songs, chant rhymes, and play with baby! Baby Story Time is also an event for parents and caregivers to learn about early literacy skills to help prepare baby for reading as well as to help foster a love of reading.


What We Read

•  Whose toes are those? / words by Sally Symes ; pictures by Nick Sharratt.
• A fun lift the flap book that asks whose toes are those? 
• Busy chickens / John Schindel and Steven Holt. 
• Those chickens are up to something. What are they doing to keep busy?
• Up dog / by Hazel Hutchins ; art by Fanny.: 
• A little dog digs up a bone and then chews it on the couch! Uh-OH! 

What We Did

• Sang "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes" and pointed to the body part
• Sang "Old MacDonald"
• Recited the bouncing rhyme "This is the way the baby/farmer/jockey rides..." while bouncing baby faster and faster
• Sang my favorite opening and closing songs: "If You'd Like to Hear a Story" and "The More We Read Together"

Early Literacy Tip

• Phonological Awareness – It is very important that children hear the various syllables that form the basis of words. Talking, reading, and singing are all ways to introduce words with different syllables to Baby. Having this skill in place helps a child later when s/he starts to read and practices sounding out words. 
• Singing brings phonological awareness to life for a child. Songs break down syllables and break down words for Baby to hear. It also provides an opportunity to make sounds that match syllables Baby will encounter.