Sleeping for Babies
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.
Welcome song: “Hello Everybody, Yes Indeed”
Mother Goose rhyme: “Rockabye Baby”
Get ready song: “Open, Shut Them”
First book: Everyone Is Yawning by Anita Bijsterbosch. Nine different animals yawn in this fun book with flaps to reveal their teeth. The audience will soon be yawning as well!
Fingerplay: “Hush, Little Baby”
Stretching song: “All the Pretty Little Horses”
Second book: Chengdu Could Not, Would Not, Fall Asleep. A panda cub cannot sleep in the bamboo trees, so he seeks out his brother to help him fall asleep.
Movement song: “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”
Third book: Sleepyheads by Sandra J. Howatt. A rhyming text describes a variety of animals and one human baby asleep in a parent’s arms.
Song: “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”
Extra book if needed: Bottner, Barbara. Feet, Go to Sleep. Mama helps Fiona fall asleep, by concentrating on one body part at a time.
Board book for parents: Nighty-Night by Leslie Patricelli. The bald baby with one springy hair is back in this popular series, this time getting ready for bed with help from mother and father.
Closing song: “The More We Get Together”