Books

“Toolbox Twins” by Lola M. Schaefer
“Whose Tools Are These?” by Sharon Katz Cooper
“Tap Tap Bang Bang” by Emma Garcia

Five Little Nails

This was a crowd favorite, they loved yelling bam and thought it was so much fun!

Five little nails, standing straight and steady (hold up 5 fingers)
Here I come with my hammer ready! (make fist with other hand)
Bam, bam, bam! (tap fist to 1 finger)
That nail goes down (lower 1 finger)
Now there’s just four nails left to pound

(count down)

Construction Machines

First we went over the name of different construction vehicles, I’ve done this with two different groups. One group had a father who works in construction so he knew all the vehicles names but  the other group needed some help. Next I passed out the vehicles in different colors and we went over the colors. I told them that the board was our construction site and that when I called their vehicle and said their color their machine was needed and they had to come bring it up. I had a white copy of all the machines to show as an example.

Johnny Works with One Hammer

The actions can be adjusted depending on how the child is sitting, I’ve seen it done in a chair tapping fists to legs and I’ve seen it done on the floor tapping fists to the ground.

Johnny works with one hammer, one hammer, one hammer (tap fist to leg)
Johnny works with one hammer, then he works with two

Johnny works with two hammers…. (tap both fists to legs)

Johnny works with three hammers… (tap both fists to legs and stomp one foot)

Johnny works with four hammers… (tap both fists to legs and stomp both feet)

Johnny works with five hammers… (tap both fists to legs, stomp both feet and nod head)

And then he goes to sleep (snore)

Craft

We each made our very own toolboxes! First I had the children write their name on the outside (with the threes I wrote their name in pencil and had them trace it in crayon) and then we decorated the outside with stickers. Next we glued tools to the inside of our toolboxes and the kids colored them! They were so excited that they could actually carry them.

How it Went: This storytime was a lot of fun! I know I have a few construction enthusiasts and planned this storytime with them in mind. They were a big help in telling me what all of the tools are the names of the construction vehicles.