Books
“Get Up and Go!” by Nancy Carlson
“Goodnight Football” by Michael Dahl
“Clothesline Clues to Sports People Play” by Kathryn Helen and Deborah Hembrook
Baseball Player (Tune: Frere Jacques)
Baseball player, baseball player
Swing the bat, hit the ball
(pretend to swing a bat)
Run around the bases, run around the bases
(run in place)
Homerun, homerun
Source: Preschool Plan It
Stretch
Of course we had to do some stretches. We reached our arms to the side, touched our toes and even did some lunges.
This is the Way…
This is the we bounce the ball, bounce the ball, bounce the ball
This is the way we bounce the ball, when we play basketball
(pretend to bounce a basketball)
This is the way we kick the ball, kick the ball, kick the ball
This is the way we kick the ball, when we play soccer
(pretend to kick a ball)
This is the way we hike the ball, hike the ball, hike the ball
This is the way we hike the ball when we play football
(pretend to hike a football)
Bean Bags
Next I brought out some bean bags. First we tried to balance the bean bags on our head, hand and foot. Then I played some music and children practiced their throwing and catching.
Five Little Footballs
Five little footballs trying hard to score
One makes a touchdown, hear the crowd roar
(count down)
Source: Sunflower Storytime
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks
I don’t care if I ever get back
‘Cause it’s root, root, root for the home team
If they don’t win it’s a shame
For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out
At the old ball game
How it Went: I’ve never done a sports themed storytime and assumed it would be easy to find appropriate picture books for my toddlers, boy oh boy was I wrong. I checked out approximately 30 picture books for this storytime. Even though it took a lot of digging I am happy with the books I picked, the kids and parents seemed to enjoy them. Once I got over that hurdle the rest of the storytime was easy to plan and a lot of fun to do. The biggest hit was “Baseball Player” I had to repeat it several times!