Storytime: Frogs

Age: 18-36 months (coloring page instead of craft), 3-5 years (with craft)

This school year in storytime I decided to use the alphabet to give me inspiration for themes. So this week, F is for Frog!


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) Mystery Box
This week I put in a little rubbery frog. It looked pretty real... I was tempted to make it jump out at the kids but decided that wouldn't be very nice. ;-)


3) Froggy Gets Dressed - Jonathan London

I honestly had never heard of Froggy until one day when I brought my then-18-month-old daughter to storytime (long before I had any idea I would someday get this job!). I love the simple stories that keep the kids' attention, and they all love shouting FRRROOGGYY!!! after me.


4) 5 Little Speckled Frogs
Apparently the librarian before me had done this at some point, because I discovered a prop for it! It's a paper towel tube (so it really is a hollow log!).

Five little speckled frogs (hold up 5 fingers)
Sitting on a hollow log (point at the log)
Eating the most delicious bugs -- yum yum! (rub belly) 
One jumped into the pool (flip one frog down, kids jump)
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are four little speckled frogs! (ribbit, ribbit!)


5) Frog jump
I got this idea from childfun.com , though it's just a simple way of burning off some energy. :) Let the children pretend to be frogs. Have them squat down with their arms straight out in front of them. Then have them jump forward, raising their arms high into the air before returning to a squatting position. Ask them to jump fast, to take big frog jumps, to take a certain number of jumps, to jump slowly and take little frog jumps. I did it with them to model it, and got quite the workout myself!


6) Red-Eyed Tree Frog - Joy Cowley

I'm trying to include more non-fiction books in my storytimes, especially when it comes to animals. Obviously the reading level varies so much throughout the children's non-fiction section, but occasionally I can find a nice simple book. The kids loved this one because it had real pictures of the frog (as well as a snake!)


7) Jump! - Scott Fischer

Each time I read the word "jump" I had the kids jump too.


8) The Goldfish Song - Laurie Berkner
We did this song pretty frequently over summer, but I've typically had so many other good songs and rhymes that fit each week that this was the first time this session we brought it back. I told the kids that "frog" starts with the letter F, but so does the word "fish"!


9) The Wide Mouthed Frog (pop-up book) - Keith Faulkner

I have a small collection of pop-up and other small-pieces books behind my desk that are for "library use only" -- this classic story is one of them. The kids LOVED it.


10) Song & Rhyme Cube
We had a little extra time in my 3-5 year old class, so we rolled the cube for a couple more activities. The Itsy Bitsy Spider and I'm a Little Teapot came up.


11) F is for Frog coloring page (18-36 mo.) or F is for Frog craft (3-5 yr.)
This one completely came from Crystal & Company (via Pinterest). Though since I was out of black paint, I had the kids glue down a little black pom pom for the fly. And I used those little round hole protector stickers for eyes.

Other frog ideas:
Big Wide Mouthed Frog - Ana Martin Larranaga (same story as the pop up book I used)
Stick - Steve Breen
One Frog Sang - Shirley Parenteau

This was another theme that has tons of great ideas out there -- just search Google or Pinterest for "frog storytime" and you can find lots of good stuff!