Books

“There’s an Alligator Under My Bed” by Mercer Mayer
“I’m the Best Artist in the Ocean” by Kevin Sherry
“Apple Farmer Annie” by Monica Wellington

ABC Magnets

I like to start and end the Alphabet program by singing our ABCs. To start I put out all of the letter magnets and have the children tell me what letter is missing, that becomes our letter of the day. After we go through the letter and some words that start with it I invite each child up to take two letters off the board and put it into a bag. At first all the children like to swarm up and will grab as many letters as they possibly can, but after a few weeks they begin to understand that they must wait until they hear their name called. To help them stick with two letters only I count out loud (this program maxes out at 12 children so I know I will have enough letters). The children get very excited when it is their turn, plus this helps them learn how to take turns!

Alligator Rap

Tap, tap, tap (clap hands 3 times)
Do the alligator rap

Swish your tail in time (shake bottom)
To the alligator rhyme

Spread those scaly claws (hold hands up)
On your alligator paws

Stomp your scaly feet (stomp feet)
To the alligator beat

Tap, tap, tap (clap hands 3 times)
Do the alligator RAP (clap loudly)

(Repeat)

This is the Way…

This is the way we stir the paint, stir the paint, stir the paint (stirring motion)
This is the way we stir the paint so early in the morning

(dip our brush, paint the picture, blow it dry, frame the picture)

Source: Storytime Katie

Ten Red Apples

Ten red apples growing on a tree
(hold hands high with fingers extended)
Five for you and five for me
(wave one hand, then the other)
Help me shake the tree just so
(shake tree)
And ten red apples will fall below
(lower hands and wiggle fingers)

Marching Around the Alphabet by Hap Palmer

This song has become a story time favorite! Every week the children line up on the outside of the alphabet rug and start to march with their adult. When the whistle blows the children stop, bend down and point out which letter they are standing on.

Parachute

The children all grab on and we make some waves (fast, slow, big, small) then I ask the parents to hold on to the parachute. The adults lower the parachute and then pop it into the air, the children then go under (lots of happy squeals) and we gently shake the parachute over their heads. We do this 3 or 4 times, there is always one child that doesn’t want to come out but the parents are pretty good about it. Next I have the children hold on again and place foam letters on the parachute. We shake the parachute and watch the letters fly (again lots of happy squeals)!

ABCs

Craft

I always tell the parents to please do not do the craft for their child, feel free to help them use the glue stick but if they want to put an eye where the foot should be well then that’s just artistic license!

How it Went: This was my very first time working with just the twos, I did this particular program 3 times and each time I tweaked it a little bit. This past week has definitely been a learning experience for me and I’m hoping after a few more weeks of working with this age group that I will get into the swing of things. I was warned by my coworkers that the hardest part would be getting the children to listen to the stories but they were actually very well behaved during the books. The biggest issue I had was fingerplays and flannel boards, some of the kids just didn’t want to participate in the fingerplays and the adults with them seemed uninterested as well (librarian pet peeve) and when it came to the flannel board the kids were more interested in pulling the pieces off. By the last program I cut out almost all of the fingerplays, and replaced them with action songs and rhymes, and got rid of the flannel board. If you would like to see some of the songs and rhymes we did to get the wiggles out please see “Storytime Go To Songs.”