The Letter B

Our letter B words are Bear, Bird, Boat & Bee.

Possible Storytime Books:
My Blue Boat by Chris Demarest
Birds by Kevin Henkes (Old Bear is great, but I usually use it for Hibernation ST)
Bossy Bear by David Horvath
The No-No Bird by Andrew Peters
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup
Happy Bees by Arthur Yorkinks


Craft Links:
Cute Bee craft
(Instead of using handprints, I cut wings from coffee filters)
or
Sailboat craft


Songs & Rhymes:

Bumblebee, Bumblebee
(to the tune of: “Jingle Bells”)

Bumblebee, bumblebee,
Landing on my nose,
Bumblebee, bumblebee,
Now he's on my toes.
On my arms, on my legs,
And on my elbows.
Bumblebee, oh bumblebee
He lands, and then he goes.

Dancing Bear
(to the tune of: “BINGO”)
There was a bear who loved to dance

And Teddy was his name-o

Left foot, tap tap tap,

right foot, tap tap tap

Both hands clap clap clap

And Teddy was his name-o

There was a bear who loved to dance

And Teddy was his name-o

Jump jump up and down,

Bend and touch the ground,

Turn turn turn around,

And Teddy was his name-o

Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

Sail, sail, sail your boat,
On the ocean blue.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Boats are great, it's true!

The Letter A

For the letter A, our words are Apple, Alligator, Airplane & Ant.

Possible Storytime Books:
Airplanes by Byron Barton
Snip, Snap: What's That? by Mara Bergman (the kids love this one)
My First Airplane Ride by Patricia Hubbell
Ten Red Apples by Virginia Miller
Alligator Boy by Cynthia Rylant
Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington

Craft Links:
Alligator craft
or
[Let's call it an alligator] Crocodile stick puppet

Songs & Rhymes:

Way up High in the Apple Tree

Way up high in the apple tree

(stretch up)

Two little apples smiled at me

(make two fists)

I shook the tree as hard as I could

(shake tree)

Down came the apples

(hands fall into lap)

Mmmmm, they were good!

(rub tummy)

Airplane

The airplane has great big wings
(stretch arms out to side)
Its propeller spins and sings
(spin hands around fast)
The airplane goes up
(lift arms up)
The airplane goes down
(bend down, lower arms)
The airplane flies high
Over the town
("fly" all around)


Little Ants
(sung to: "This Old Man")

Little ants, marching by
In a line that's mighty long
With a hip, hop, happy-hi,
Won't you sing my song?
Little ants are marching on

Other verses:
Little ants, hopping high...
Little ants, spinning by...
Little ants, sneaking by...
Little ants, waving "Bye"...

 

For Starters...Linkage!

I thought I should start by providing some links to websites that I have found very helpful for planning storytimes:

Funschool's Animal ABC Coloring pages
There is a separate animal coloring page for each letter of the alphabet--I print these for the kids to take home after storytime is over.

Starfall.com's Alphabet Worksheets
I also give out these printing practice worksheets. They include pictures of things beginning with each letter, and give kids the opportunity to trace and then print the letters themselves.

The Best Kids' Book Site!
The self-proclaimed bestkidsbooksite.com is a great resource. It is one of the tools I use on a regular basis, not only for alphabet storytime ideas, but also for any other theme I might be doing. Includes book lists, songs and craft ideas for just about any theme you can think of!

Preschool Express
I use this mostly for finding songs (thank you, Jean Warren!), but the site also includes online stories, craft ideas and other preschool-friendly activities.

Storytime Source Page Blog
Story Share Blog
These are other storytime blogs that I've found helpful in the past--both of these bloggers have done an impressive job!