Rabbits for Babies
Welcome song: “Hello Everybody, Yes Indeed”
Mother Goose rhyme: “Hop Like a Bunny”
Get ready song: “Open, Shut Them”
First book: 10 Hungry Rabbits by Anita Lobel. Using counting and colors, a rabbit family chooses vegetables from the garden to make soup.
Fingerplay: “Little Bunny Foo Foo”
Fingerplay: “Five Green and Speckled Frogs”
Stretching song: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
Second book: Hop by Jorey Hurley. With a very brief text and realistic artwork, explore the day of a rabbit family.
Movement song: “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
Fingerplay: “Wheels on the Bus”
Third book: Mine! by Susie Lee Jin. Using just a few repeated words, two bunnies argue over possession of a carrot.
Song: “Five Little Bunnies”
Extra book if needed: Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. In this classic tactile book for babies, readers can touch the various cloth inserts that represent fur and other areas of the bunny.
Board book for parents: The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. Many parents will already know this classic story of unconditional love.
Closing song: “The More We Get Together”
Storytimes for babies and toddlers offer an opportunity to model great read-aloud techniques for parents, and gives them the confidence to read to their children every day. A baby-toddler storytime can be followed by an extra 20 to 30 minutes of playtime, which encourages parents to talk to each other and for the young children to learn to play with others. It also demonstrates the importance of play to parents.