Storytime: Mud

This was my last storytime of Summer Reading 2013!

Age: 2-5 years
Time: 30 minutes plus snack

1) These Are My Glasses - Laurie Berkner
My current opening song that we sing acappella every week. I start by asking them to show me their glasses and their book so that they remember the signs. We sing it through twice, then I'll ask them to quietly put their "books" in their lap.

These are my glasses (make the letter o with each hand)
And this is my book (hands together)
I put on my glasses (put "glasses" over eyes)
And open up the book (open book hands)
Now I read read read (hold book up in front of face like reading)
And I look look look (put glasses over eyes and look around room)
I put down my glasses and… (lower glasses)
WHOOP! Close up the book. (clap as if closing a book quickly)


2) Stuck in the Mud – Clarke

The kids enjoyed identifying the different animals that got stuck in the mud trying to help the chick.


3) Song – We are the Dinosaurs  - Laurie Berkner
My kids LOVE this song. They ask for it every week.


4) I Know A Wee Piggy – Kim Norman

This is currently one of my absolute favorite books. I discovered it when my daughter received it in the mail as part of the Imagination Library. It chronicles a pig who gets covered in all sorts of colors as he runs through the fair. It's told in the style of "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", with a sentence getting added each time. The rhyming that pauses before turning the page encourages kids to shout out the next color. I'm planning a color storytime soon and am seriously tempted to use this book again...


5) 5 Little Pigs Flannel Board 
I found this little rhyme at Sunflower Storytime (originally from Roving Fiddlehead). I already had five pink pigs cut out of felt, and so it was really easy to add brown marker "mud" on one side of them!

Five lit­tle pigs rolled in the mud (roll hands)
Squishy, squashy, felt so good. (make squishing motion with hands)
The farmer took one piggy out. (take one off board)
“Oink, Oink, oink,” the pig did shout! (cup hands around mouth, then put pig back clean side up)

(Con­tinue with four, three, two, until…) 

No lit­tle pigs rolled in the mud.
They all looked so clean and good.
The farmer turned his back and then,
Those pigs rolled in the mud again! (turn all pigs to dirty side again)


6) Song – Walter the Waltzing Worm - Hap Palmer
We have a handful of 5-6 inch long brown yarn pieces that the kids use as their "Walters" to dance with.


7) Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes – Eric Litwin

And of course, everyone's favorite story about getting dirty... the infamous Pete the Cat. Some of the kids had done this story as a school play (musical?) so they wanted to sing it. But I wasn't prepared and didn't know it at all. Oops. They loved it anyway.


Mud dessert 
Instead of a craft this week, I made a little snack for the kids (and there was enough for parents too, yay!). It was just chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip and crushed Oreos, with a gummy worm on top.

Other ideas:
Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud – Plourde
Mudpie for Mother – Beck
And Then It’s Spring – Fogliano
I’m Dirty – McMullan
Muddy pig painting
Outline of a truck, kids color with crayons, brown paint overtop for mud