Family Storytime: Moms

Clipart by Krista Wallden of Clipart by Krista Wallden of Creative Clips. Graphic designed on PicMonkey.

As I was growing up I had several maternal figures in my life that read to me, loved me, and cared for me.  Some of those incredible women are still part of my life and a small few have passed away.  I am grateful to have had countless  instances in which I was shown unconditional love by a maternal figure.

When I was looking through the basket of books for this week, I reflected on all of the different maternal figures that exist in the world and I wanted to provide a storytime in which they were included and celebrated.

Click here to see the outline from today's storytime.

THE PLAN

Pre-Storytime Activity: Words of Kindness

I cut out paper flowers using our Ellison machine.  I wrote a word on each flower that could describe a caregiver, mom, aunt, grandmother, etc.  I deliberately did not write words like "beautiful" or "pretty" on the flowers because I wanted the focus to be on traits that often go unnoticed about women - i.e.: brave, artistic, adventurous, entrepreneur, etc..  If you are curious to see the full list, it is on page 8 of my outline.

I hung the flowers in different parts of the meeting room where storytime is held and encouraged participants to look for a word that describes their caregiver or someone very special to them.  I also had some blank flowers that participants could take home, write on, and share.

Pre-Storytime Music

These are the songs that we listened to before storytime.  If you are interested in checking out these songs, the album cover images have links to Amazon where you can listen to a sample and purchase these great songs!

"My Family"

"Give a Hug"

Welcome Song

We’ll wave hello together,
We’ll wave hello together,
We’ll wave hello together,
Because it’s fun to do.

We’ll give a hug together,
We’ll give a hug together,
We’ll give a hug together,
Because it’s kind to do.

We’ll high five together,
We’ll high five together,
We’ll high five together,
Because it’s fun to do.

Credit: Verona Storytime.

Letter of the Week: Mm

To introduce the Letter of the Week, I ask participants what they think the letter of the week is.  We practice making the sound of that letter and then we practice "drawing" the letter.  Today, I had caregivers trace the letter M on their child's back and had the children draw the letter M on the carpeting.  #DoubleSensoryInput  #Yas  

After we "drew" the Letter of the Week, we went through the collage and talked about the items on the collage.

letter_mm_collage.pdf
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I purchased the clipart for this collage from the amazing Krista Wallden of Creative Clips.

Recorded Music

These are the songs that we danced to in storytime.  If you are interested in checking out these songs, the album cover images have links to Amazon where you can listen to a sample and purchase these great songs!

"Can You Dance?"

"Mr. Eric's Jumping Song"

"If You're Happy and You Know It"

Books

I wanted to share books that depicted female caregivers and children doing every day things together.  

Bee-bim Bop! is a wonderful story about a young girl cooking with her family.

I Will Love You has a lovely message about the unconditional love that caregivers have.

My Mother's Sari is a story about a young girl and all the ways she loves, plays with, and uses her mother's sari.

I wanted to add in a book about aunts.  There are not a ton of aunt books out there in the world.  As an auntie, I wish there were more!  What Aunts Do Best was a quick read that talks about all of the ways aunts spoil their nieces and nephews.

Songs We Sang

Yo Te Amo
​Credit: Jbrary

Yo te amo, yo te amo
All day long I’ll sing this little song to you.
Yo te amo, yo te amo
Darling I love you!

Je t’aime, Je t’aime
All day long I’ll sing this little song to you.
Je t’aime, Je t’aime
Darling I love you!

I love you, I love you
All day long I’ll sing this little song to you.
I love you, I love you
Darling I love you!

Skinnamarink
​Credit: Jbrary

Skinnamarink e-dink, e-dink,
Skinnamarink e-doo,
I love you.
(repeat)
I love you in the morning,
And in the afternoon;
I love you in the evening,
And underneath the moon.
Skinnamarink e-dink, e-dink,
Skinnamarink e-doo,
I love you.

Action Rhymes

I Have a Little Heart
​Credit: Jbrary

I have a little heart, (place hand over heart)
And it goes thump, thump, thump (pat chest three times)
It keeps right on beating,
When I jump, jump, jump (jump three times)
I get a special feeling, when I look at you. (point to child)
It makes me want to give you a hug or two. (hug)

Hurry Scurry Little Mouse
​Credit: Pierce County Library

Hurry scurry little mouse,
Starts down at your toes. (touch toes)
Hurry scurry little mouse,
Past your knees he goes. (touch knees)
Hurry scurry little mouse,
Past where your tummy is. (touch  tummy)
Hurry scurry little mouse,
Gives you a mousy kiss. (blow a  kiss)

Let's Go to the Forest
​Credit: Pierce County Library

Let’s go to the forest.
What will we do there?
Find our grown-ups. (point to caregivers.)
What will we do with them?
Kiss them, kiss them, kiss them! (give kisses)

Tall as a Tree
​Credit: Pierce County Library

Tall as a tree, (stretch arms overhead)
Wide as a house, (stretch arms out to sides)
Thin as a pin, (arms tight against sides)
Small as a mouse. (crouch)

Goodbye Song: "Say Goodbye"

Post-Storytime Music

These are the songs that we listened to after storytime.  If you are interested in checking out these songs, the album cover images have links to Amazon where you can listen to a sample and purchase these great songs!

"I Love You"

"Hey Ho!"