We are back to our regular indoor storytimes for the fall season, with a few changes. I’ll spare casual readers all the details if you are only interested in the theme activities – feel free to skip the next paragraph! I am surprised that I’ve never done a general Art theme before. It’s definitely broad – art can be so many practices – but I did focus mostly on visual art. We talked about drawing, painting, and I even came up with an activity for sculpture. In my intro and the early literacy aside, I tried to emphasize to grownups that the process of making art is more important than the end product, especially for little ones.
If you are interested in the changes to storytime at my specific library: since April, when our longtime preschool programmer retired, we have been doing our Stories & Stations programs for ages 0-5 with one full time and one part time programmer. This fall, the two of us have once again split our programs into more specific age groups and are taking different ages. As the part timer, I’m doing three programs per week – a baby program for 0-12 months and two sessions of a toddler program for one- and two-year-olds. My full time colleague is doing four – two for 2s & 3s and two for 4s & 5s. We are both doing one extra per month (hers on a weekend and mine on an evening).We simplified the names of these programs, so it’s very apparent who each program is for. My baby program is called “Pre-Walker Storytime” and the toddler program is “1s & 2s” Storytime. Hers are “2s & 3s Storytime” and “4s & 5s Storytime.” Yes, it’s not cute or creative, but it is practical, and I think it works better for families than trying to figure out what “Teddy Bear Storytime” is (formerly 2-3.5 year olds.) We removed the 3.5 age barrier. A caregiver is required for all of these programs except for the 4s & 5s, which is intended to be kids attending independently (with a caregiver staying in the library) to practice school readiness. We are also planning our own separate themes rather than alternating planning weeks and sharing themes among all the under 5s.
I am noticing that moving from programming for a wider age range (up to 5 since April, and up to 3.5 before that) to an entirely younger audience may take a bit of tweaking on my part! It’s always a learning process and I find that once I get into a groove something changes and I need to readjust. I enjoy the challenge and appreciate the families that are so understanding while I figure it out.
Early Development Tip: Art engages children’s senses in open-ended play and develops cognitive, social, emotional and sensory skills. Art is a cooperative learning experience that provides pleasure, challenge, and a sense of mastery. Grownups, resist the urge to do crafts for your child, let them explore art materials however they like, and especially in these younger years focus on the process of art and not what the end product looks like. -adapted from Yogibrarian
Welcome Song: Hello, Friends*
Warm Up Song: Wake Up, Feet*
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. I rotate between elbows, cheeks, hips, noses, arms, chins, thighs, heads, shoulders, ears, knees, and fingers.
Lifting Rhyme: Toast in the Toaster*
Intro: Today we are talking about art! Art is something that everyone can do! Everyone has imagination and creativity inside you, and art is a way you can explore your thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Sometimes we get caught up in thinking that art needs to look a certain way, but I think that art is important no matter how it looks and the PROCESS of doing art is something that’s good for every person, especially little ones.
An artist needs their fingers to be loose and limber. Let’s warm up our fingers with one of nature’s artists: the spider, with her beautiful, intricate web. Grownups – fingerplays like these also help develop your child’s hand and finger strength and fine motor skills, which help them with writing later on.
Fingerplay: The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
So the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again
Source: traditional
Transition: If You’re Ready for a Story*
I like how simple this one is, and how it connects seeing art in a museum with making your own art, as well as feeling blocked! I’ve also used this title in our Storywalk in the past.
Read: Izzy Paints by Tim Miller
This is such a beautiful book, and the text about how our art is informed by feelings and vice versa is an important reminder to people of all ages. I thought, though, that the artwork was a bit more metaphorical than my littlest ones could appreciate.
Backup Read: Making Art by Diana Ejaita
Visual art is made up of colors and shapes!
This is a simple rhyme based in the Brown Bear, Brown Bear format. I used a set of shape flannels we purchased from Oriental Trading, and added a heart and a star from other flannel sets.
Flannel Rhyme: Colors & Shapes
Orange square, orange square
What do you see?
I see a red circle looking at me!
Red circle, red circle
What do you see?
I see…
Source: adapted from Sunflower Storytime (no longer online)
Take a look at your clothes today. What colors did you wear?
This actually prompted a good amount of adult/child discussion, which is always great! I’d done this in the past to the tune of the Muffin Man, and I’ve also heard it done to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It, but that many verses for all the colors just goes too long for my group. This simple rhyme with one line per color is a good alternative.
Action Rhyme: If Your Clothes Have…
If your clothes have any RED, Put your finger on your head
… any BLUE, Put your finger on your shoe
… any GREEN, Wave your hand to be seen
… any YELLOW, Smile like a happy fellow
… any BROWN, Turn your smile into a frown
… any BLACK, Put your hands behind your back
… any WHITE, Stamp your feet with all your might
Source: The Wielded Pen
An artist can use lots of things to make art. How about sculptors? Can we play the sculpture game?
I wanted to talk about at least one other kind of art rather than 2D visual arts, so I made up a little rhyme to do a sculpture game. I am no good at thinking things up on the fly, so I made myself a list of poses/emotions to choose from. I did a few for each group. At some point I reminded them that a sculpture doesn’t move, so even though I said “like you’re dancing,” you have to convey that while not actually dancing! I could see this being a really fun game with preschoolers, but it maybe didn’t quite land as I’d hoped with the littles.
Game Rhyme: Sculpture Game
I am the artist
You are the clay
Can you make your body
Look this way?
Call out emotions, actions, poses, or anything you can think of!
My examples: Excited – like you’re playing a sport – like you’re dancing – like you’re scared – like you saw something cute – as big as you can be – as small as you can be – like an explorer– like you’re tired – like you’re proud
Source: original
Let’s paint a picture! There are a lot of steps from start to finish.
Action Song: How to Paint
(tune of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush)
This is the way we stir the paint,
Stir the paint, stir the paint
This is the way we stir the paint
So early in the morning
Additional verses:
…dip our brush
…paint the paper
…blow it dry
…frame the painting
Source: Librionyian
Time to get out our scarves! Can you pretend your scarf is a paintbrush?
We started by practicing some painting with our scarves.
Scarf Play: Painting Practice
Paint:
Long straight lines on your leg
Circles on your knees
Dots on your tummy
Curls on your head
Zigzags in the air in front of you
A rainbow
Lines on floor
Your 1st initial
The moon
A tumbleweed (big wild scribble!)
Source: Librionyian
Scarf Song: Paint with Me
(tune of Twinkle, Twinkle)
Grab your brush and paint with me
Paint a flower, paint a tree
Paint it fast and paint it slow
Paint up high, then paint down low
Paint zig-zags, circles too
How I love to paint with you!
Source: Loudest Librarian
Let’s dance our rainbow scarves. Can you listen for your colors?
Okay, so most of my kiddos are too little to both know what colors they have and wait to do a motion during their color. But it’s fun anyway. Note that the rhyme sheet is two pages long, though the preview below shows just the first page. Click the thumbnail to download the full PDF.
Scarf Rhyme: Rainbow Dancers
Rainbow dancers: Let’s get ready
Hold your scarves nice and steady
Hear the colors of the rainbow Listen for your time to go
Shake red… Shake orange… Shake yellow… Shake green… Shake blue… Shake purple!
Red scarves: turn around
Orange scarves: up and down
Yellow scarves: reach up high
Green scarves: fly, fly, fly
Blue scarves: tickle your nose
Purple: touch your toes
Everybody dance around,
Swirl your scarves Up and down
Now: Shake purple… Shake blue… Shake green… Shake yellow… Shake orange… Shake red!
Rainbow dancers dance around
Scarves swirl up and Scarves swirl down
Our colorful dance is at an end
Thank you, thank you, All my friends!
Source: Jbrary
Action Song: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!*
Craft: Watercolor or Dot Painting Art
We didn’t have any specific craft to do, I just put out some watercolor palettes and our dot markers with white construction paper and let the kids do whatever they wanted! I didn’t catch any pictures of finished products, but the kids spent a longer time span at the craft tables this week than they usually do.
Play Time
The toddlers have two laundry baskets of baby toys – rattles and cars, sorters and stackers, toy phones and spinners. For the older kids, I have foam blocks, soft food toys, puzzles, and a few other items that are a little more sophisticated than the baby toys. For Family Time, I gauge the overall age of the group and put out what seems right for them. We play for 5-10 minutes at the most, then I ring the bell and ask the kids to help me clean up. I think the clean up bit is good practice for them!
Goodbye Song: See You Later Alligator*
Other books I had available for families to browse (and may work for you on this theme)
Time to Make Art – Jeff Mack
Oh, Olive! – Lian Cho
Blue Chicken – Deborah Freedman
The Dot – Peter H. Reynolds
Squeaking of Art – Monica Wellington
Growing an Artist – John Parra
Meet Me at the Art Museum – David Goldin
Off-Limits – Helen Yoon
The Artivist – Nikkolas Smith
Rima and the Painter – Leila Boukarim & Melissa Iwai
The Book of Mistakes – Corinna Luyken
If You Find a Leaf – Aimée Sicuro
Anonymouse – Vikki VanSickle & Anna Pirolli
This storytime was presented in-person on 8/11 & 8/12/26.
Storytime Handout:
*Lyrics to these songs can be found on the Repeated Songs & Rhymes page.
† Click the image of rhyme/song sheets to download a non-branded PDF
Storytime with Ms. Emily Library 