Storytime: Building Fun

My storytime groups sometimes seem to struggle with the actual books in storytime. I never had this issue with books pre-pandemic. At that time I was serving a wider audience (up to age 5 instead of up to 3.5 now), but even the younger kids seemed to have more attention span. So, when I see a book that I think will be a good fit for my group, I try to build a theme around it. This time, I was looking at books nominated for my state’s Early Literacy Award, the Firefly. A nominee from a few years ago seemed like a fun candidate: Blocks by Irene Dickson. With it, I could create a theme that’s a little unusual – building blocks – but with the ability to expand into things like shapes and construction if blocks was too narrow. Turns out I was able to stay mostly with blocks in rhymes and songs, anyway. I pulled out all our block-like toys for playtime, and it was gratifying to see all the kids having lots of fun with building.

Early Literacy Tip: The benefits of block play are well documented! As kids play, they are working on math skills such as counting, sorting, measuring, and comparing, as well as recognizing shapes (a precursor to recognizing letters). For science skills, grownups can help kids learn about gravity, balance, and cause and effect. If you play with a friend, blocks can help teach sharing, impulse control, communication, compromise, and taking turns.

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends* (BB) (TB) (FT)**

Warm Up Song: Wake Up, Feet* (BB) (TB) (FT)
This is a repeated song that everyone seems to enjoy. I always begin and end with feet and tummies, but find two other body parts to wiggle in the middle. This week was knees and cheeks.

Lifting Rhyme: Toast in the Toaster* (BB)

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big* (BB) (TB) (FT)

Intro/Talk: What are these? Blocks! I love playing with blocks. You can make whatever you like. And once you’ve done building, then you can knock over the blocks and start again! Can we identify some of the basic shapes we have in these blocks? I just pointed out the shape in the Book Babies class, but the other two had kids on the older edge of the spectrum that were able to tell me about squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles.

I don’t do a lot of original material, but this one just came to me!
Rhyme: Tower (BB) (TB) (FT)
We’re making a tower (fists stack atop each other)
In our building-block town
Along comes the baby… (fingers wiggle)
…And it all falls down! (hands fall outward)
Source: original

Transition: If You’re Ready for a Story* (BB) (TB) (FT)

So, even though I built this theme around Blocks, it still felt a little too advanced for the baby class. Patricelli is tried and true for babies, so it seemed to work better for them.
Read: Bigger! Bigger! by Leslie Patricelli (BB)

Read: Blocks by Irene Dickson (TB) (FT)

This was a great song to follow the book Blocks!
Song: The More We Build Together (TB) (FT)
The more we build together, together, together
The more we build together
The happier we’ll be

For my blocks are your blocks
And your blocks are my blocks
The more we build together
The happier we’ll be!

(verse 2)
The more we share together…
Source: adapted from the traditional

Making block flannels was easy, the tricky part was figuring out how to arrange them on my landscape-oriented flannelboard in a way that ten would fit!
Flannel Rhyme: One Block, Two Blocks (BB) (TB) (FT)
(hold up fingers)
One block, two blocks, Three blocks, four
Five blocks, six blocks, Seven blocks, more!
Eight blocks, nine blocks, Now there’s ten
Let’s knock them over And build again!
Source: Storytime in the Stacks

We did the fists stacking motion, but I kept moving mine up until I was reaching all the way up, and wiggled my fingers upstretched for the line “’til you reach the sky”
Song: Stack Your Blocks (BB) (TB) (FT)
(tune of Row Your Boat)
Stack, stack, stack your blocks
Build your tower high
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
‘Til you reach the sky
Source: Indiana Firefly Award 2018 Program Guide

And now that we’ve got a really tall tower…
Song: All My Blocks Are Falling Down (BB) (TB) (FT)
(tune of London Bridge)
All my blocks are falling down (hands start upstretched, then fall down for each line)
Falling down, falling down
All my blocks are falling down
Let’s start over!

Pick them up and start again… (pretend to pick up blocks)
…Now knock them over! (hands wipe outward)
Source: Indiana Firefly Award 2018 Program Guide

Bounce Rhyme: Bounce, Tickle, Hug (BB)
I bounce you here, I bounce you there
I bounce you, bounce you everywhere!
(repeat with “Tickle” and “Hug”)
Source: Mansfield/Richland County (OH) Public Library

Let’s pretend we are a big crane building a tall building.
Stretch: Cranes Reach Up (BB) (TB) (FT)
Cranes reach up
Cranes reach down
Cranes reach out
And all around
Source: Jbrary

Now that we’ve built a big apartment building, what would it be like to live inside?
Lifting Song: The Elevator Song (BB) (TB) (FT)
Oh, the city is great and the city is grand
There are lots of tall buildings on a little piece of land
And we live way up on the fifty-seventh floor
And this is what we do when we go out the door:

We take the elevator up
We take the elevator down
We take the elevator up
We take the elevator down
We take the elevator up
We take the elevator down
And we turn around!
Source: Jbrary

Action Song: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!* (BB) (TB) (FT)

Craft: 2D Building Blocks
Last week’s craft was a little involved, so it was nice to simplify this week. All it involves is basic construction paper shapes, a white sheet of paper, and a glue stick. To maximize a 9×12″ sheet of construction paper, I based my shapes on 3s – squares were 3×3″, triangles were squares cut in half, rectangles and bridges were 3×6″, and the circle cutout was a die-cut (I think 2.5″, but I didn’t measure). This craft was inspired by Storytime Katie!

Play Time
This week I broke out all our block-like toys. Babies got the foam blocks (plus one basket of their usual toys). Older kids got the foam blocks, shape puzzles, and these really neat giant blocks that are not Legos but similar. Our library has had them for a long time but they haven’t been put out for years (even before the pandemic). You do have to watch out that falling towers have a free space – they are big!

Goodbye Song: See You Later Alligator* (BB) (TB) (FT)

Goodbye Rhyme: Tickle the Stars* (BB) (TB) (FT)

Other books I had available for families to browse (and may work for you on this theme)
Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building – Christy Hale
The Rabbit Listened – Cori Doerrfeld
Again, Essie? – Jenny Lacika & Teresa Martínez
Fort Building Time – Megan Wagner Lloyd & Abigail Halpin
Brick by Brick – Heidi Woodward Sheffield
Snakes on the Job – Kathryn Dennis
The Busy Building Book – Sue Tarsky & Alex Ayliffe
B Is for Bulldozer – June Sobel & Melissa Iwai
Can I Play Too? – Samantha Cotterill
Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! – Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen & Zachariah OHora

This storytime was presented in-person on 10/17, 10/18, & 10/19/22.

Storytime Handout:

*Lyrics to these songs can be found on the Repeated Songs & Rhymes page.

**These symbols indicate the program sessions I used the activities for:
(BB) Book Babies, ages 0-2
(TB) Teddy Bears, ages 2-3.5
(FT) Family Time, ages 0-3.5