so tomorrow

Inspired by the Build a Castle activity that has been shared by several fellow bloggers, I adapted the idea for our new robot storytime tub.

I bought some felt shapes from the Target dollar spot (3 packs of 24 for $3 each) and the idea is for the kids to build 1 (or more, depending on your branch's audience size) robot cooperatively.

The picture below is just a sample robot I designed while testing this idea. You could also use a die with robot parts labeled on it to decide in what to order to add them (head, arms, legs, feet, trunk, and maybe a free choice would give you 6 options).

Nesting Robots
Robot, Robot I hear a sound Cup your ear Who is it?  Beep!  Prop source: Amazon
I've done similar nesting rhymes for chickens, cats, and dogs. This one is for a robot-themed storytime tub we will be debuting at winter storytimes across my library system in January.

I wrote this rhyme for our Fairy Tales themed storytime tub. The concept is very similar to previous rhymes I've posted involving pets and pirates, among others. To me, these are great ways of using puppets in storytime that don't involve actual puppetry. So if you have some puppets collecting dust, go ahead and try using them like this! 
It's a good way to introduce the vocabulary word "quest" in storytime. You can talk about how "quest" is a synonym for words children may be more familiar with like "journey" and "adventure" or "trip."

Going on a Quest
Going on a quest! Gonna be a long trip! I want to take some friends. I wonder who to bring! (look into bag and pull out a puppet) A ______princess/dragon//knight/king)___!

Prep: Stuff all the puppets into the fairy tale bag before telling the rhyme

Puppet source:
Melissa and Doug Palace Pals hand puppets

Other fairy tale themed ideas I have are Two Little Unicorns and Dragon Egg.

Two Little Aliens
(To the tune of "Two Little Blackbirds")


Two little Aliens crashed on a hill,
One named Jack and the other named Jill.Fly away, Jack (wheeeee!)Fly away, Jill (wheeeee!)Come back, Jack

Other verses: Flying in the sky…One named Low and one named High... Stuck in a black hole.. One named Fast and one named Slow
Prop Source: Amazon Words written by So Tomorrow Blog

2 Little Unicorns
(To the tune of "Two Little Blackbirds")
Two little unicorns on a rainbow, One named Fast (move the unicorn quickly behind the rainbow) and one named Slow (move the unicorn slowly behind the unicorn) Come back, Fast! (Return unicorn to the top of the unicorn) Come back, Slow! (Return unicorn to the top of the unicorn)
Other verses: Flying in the sky...Low/High
Sitting on a cloud. . .Quiet/Loud
Prop Source: Amazon Words: SoTomorrowblog

Down Around the Meerkat Den By Anne Clark

Down around the corner in the meerkat den, Were three little meerkets and then Along came an insect who could be a good lunch and the first chased after it, munch munch!
Repeat until no meerkats remain.

Prop Source: Zippy Paws Zoo Friends--Meerkat

Little Makers is a program our previous children's department head started at our main branch. This was a program I covered during the time period after she resigned and our new children's department head took over. (I used to be the children's department head and now am the county-wide children's coordinator). Since it is June and we are using the space theme for our summer reading program, it is a space-themed storytime for ages 2-5 with some extra activities added. 
I have been making a conscious effort to incorporate all of the the 5 Early Literacy Practices more fully into my programs for this age group, so I laid my program plan out to make sure I covered them all.  Read: Peeper and Zeep by Adam Gudeon Journey to the Moon by Andy Mansfield (highly recommend this popup book for your professional storytime collections) Many Moons by Remi Courgeon

Sing: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom Yellow Sun, Yellow Sun, What do You See?

Write:  Constellation Art Craft (see photo) Write your name in …

Inspired by Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I used some magnet board pieces we had at my library and did a space-themed "spin" on it.

Goes like this:

Yellow Sun, Yellow Sun, What Do You See?  Yellow Sun, yellow Sun, What do you see? I see Mercury looking at me, etc. through the planets in order. 

As you can see in the photo if you zoom in, I am not a space expert, so I numbered the planets on top and wrote their names on the bottom.

Prop Source: Oriental Trading

Inspired by Jessica's post, I wanted to make a new flannelboard to freshen up our transportation storytime tub. I used our Ellison machine to cut out the cars and road.  Black Road, Black Road, What Do You See? 
Black road, black road, what do you see?
I see a red car looking at me! Red car, red car, what do you see?
I see a blue car looking at me! (repeat with other colors) Colorful cars, colorful cars, what do you see?
Children and their families, that’s what we see!