Storytime Share

Introductory Aside: Rhyming is one way that children learn to hear that words are made up of smaller parts. By doing rhymes with them you are supporting phonological awareness. This skill helps them when they later try to sound out words. And it’s fun, too!
Read Who’s There on Halloween? by Pamela Beall

Song: Do a rhyming song to the tune of Are You Sleeping?
We are rhyming; we are rhyming.
Rhyme with me; rhyme with me.
Nose rhymes with toes; nose rhymes with toes. (substitute other words from story)
Rhyme with me; rhyme with me.
Closing Aside: Take advantage of lots of opportunities to play rhyming games with your children.
Submitted by participants in Saskatchewan Library Association Conference 2008

Storytime Plan for Peas, Peas, Peas
peaspeaspeas1.doc
Submitted by participants of Saskatchewan Library Association Conference 2008

Aside: Singing songs and saying rhymes are good ways for children to become aware of the different sounds that make up words. We call this phonological awareness. It also helps them get a feelf or the rhythm of language, how words are divided into syllables.
Submitted by Cindy Christin, Bozeman (MT) Public Library

Mortimer’s song is repeated:
Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang
Gonna make my noise all day.
Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang
Gonna make my noise all day.
You pass out musical instruments and have them play to the rhythm of the song.
Aside: As the children are saying the words of the sounds, they are developing phonological awareness. Having them play to the rhythm of the words also helps with this skill.
Submitted by Barbara Slough, Glasgow Library, Rockbridge Regional Library (VA)

Aside: Songs are a great way to incorporate the early literacy skill, phonological awareness. Hearing and learning animal sounds helps your children hear the smaller sounds in words and singing emphasizes different syllables. This helps your children later to sound out words.
Submitted by Wendy B. Rancier, Roanoke County (VA) Public Library

Introduction Aside:  Researchers have found that one of the six early literacy skills is phonological awareness. This is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words, like rhyming, playing with syllables or parts of words, and hearing beginning sounds of words. The beginning of this skills starts with children hearing and saying the sounds of animals.
During storytime sing “Old MacDonald” with the children, including several animals–cow, pig, sheep, chicken, duck, etc.
Aside:  Making the sounds of animals contributes to phonological awareness and hearing sounds in words. Researchers have found these skills help with reading later on.
Closing Aside:  Take advantage of opportunities to play with rhyming words and saying the sounds of animals.
Submitted by Kimberly Burnette-Dean, Roanoke County (VA) Public Library

For any song with repeated sounds. Example: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Start out with one sound, say /b/ (buh). Each time you hear a /b/ raise your hands over your head.
Sing the song and raise your hands over your head each time you hear the sounds /b/.
Then add another sound, say /m/ (mmmm). Each time you hear /m/, tap your knees.
Sing the song again doing the motions for both sounds.
Aside: Putting motions to sounds helps your children hear the sounds. This helps develop phonological awareness, the ability to hear the smaller sounds in words.
Words to song:
My bonnie lies over the ocean; my bonnie lies over the sea.
My bonnie lies over the ocean; so bring back my bonnie to me.
Bring back, oh bring back, oh bring back my bonnie to me, to me.
Bring back, bring back, oh bring back my bonnie to me.

To the tune of Row Your Boat:
Rhyme, rhyme, rhyme along, rhyme along with me
Small and all are rhyming words [or whatever two words you are rhyming]
Now rhyme along with me.
Aside:  Emphasizing words that rhyme helps children hear the rhyme. Being able to hear the smaller sounds in words helps develop their phonological awareness, a skill that will help them be able to sound out words when they later learn to read. 
[You can do this with two words in a rhyming book, or with rhyming words from a nursery rhyme.]
Idea from Pamela Martin-Diaz, Allen County, IN) Public Library

After reading a book that rhymes, I read the book and then come back to a page that have two rhyming words. We talk about the words that rhyme and then sing a song [to the tune of “Skip to My Lou”]
Small, all [or whichever two words you have noted] these words rhyme
Small, all, these words rhyme,
Small, all, these words rhyme,
Rhyme along with me.
[You can also do this with a nursery rhyme, pointing out two rhyming words.]
Aside:  Helping your children to recognize and say rhyming words helps them hear the smaller sounds in words, which develops phonological awarness.
You can sing this song using words that rhyme in a book or words that rhyme in a nursery rhyme.
Idea from Pamela Martin-Diaz, Allen County (IN) Public Library

During several consecutive storytimes you would choose a song to sing every time. For example, I chose Row Your Boat.
In each storytime we sing the song correctly:
Row, row, row your boat; gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; life is but a dream.
Then we sing the song again in a silly way, changing the first sound of each word:
Bow, bow, bow, bour boat, bently, bown be bream
Berrily, berrily, berrily, berrily; bife bis but ba bream.
Then we sing it again correctly.
Aside: Singing nonsense songs like this help children hear the smaller sounds in words, in a fun way! Try it with different songs. Being able to change the first sound in a word is part of phonological awareness.
The next time we sing Row Your Boat changing the first sound of each word to a different sound. For example:
Low, low, low lour loat; lently lown le leam
Lerrily, lerrily, lerrily, lerrily; life lis lut la leam.
Submitted by Saroj Ghoting