Baby Storytime Singing, Movement, & Music

Baby storytime is an excellent opportunity for parents/caregivers to understand the importance of books, reading, talking, singing, and playing with their babies. This storytime is about the interaction of the baby, caregiver and books, as well as that caregivers are their child’s first and best teacher. The librarian is a guide, showing the caregivers how to involve babies with books and literature and encourage reading as a fun, enjoyable activity. It’s also an opportunity to model and directly explain to caregivers what types of books are best for babies.

Baby storytimes also are a great way to complement early literacy summer reading and 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs. It’s easy to promote summer reading and 1,000 Books programs at your storytimes and it’s a good way for caregivers to come to the library regularly.

Babies, of course, also benefit directly: they become comfortable in the library, hear great books and songs, bond with their caregivers, and are part of the larger community.

Why have a kit with the ‘singing, movement, & music’ theme?

Songs slow down language so children can hear the different sounds that make up words. Singing with babies helps them build pathways and memory, and strengthens their attention and language. Repetition in songs helps babies learn word sounds and meanings. Singing is also a fun way to learn new and interesting words.

Having a baby storytime focused on singing and music is a great opportunity to tell caregivers about how important it is to sing as much as possible to their babies, starting right at birth. It’s also an excellent time to model singing to babies to caregivers and expose them to great and cognitively appropriate books, songs, and activities. For instance, you can model clapping or tapping along with the words of a song, which helps babies hear smaller parts of words; it also helps them develop a sense of the rhythm of language. Another example: storytimes are a great opportunity to model how caregivers can move their young babies, or encourage their older babies to move on their own, in order to enhance learning and fun as well as help increase strength and fine and gross motor control.

1 copy: We Belong to the Drum/ mistikwaskihk kitipêyimikonaw by Snadre Lamouche
1 copy: I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison
1 copy: Itsy Bitsy Spider by Richard Egielski
1 copy: Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton
1 copy: Shapes by DK Braille
1 copy: Black & White by Tana Hoban
2 copies: Words of the World: Ocean Animals
12 copies: Shake It Up, Baby! by Karen Katz
1 copy: Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Fingerplays booklet
1 copy: Early Literacy Storytimes at Your Library, by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Díaz
CD: Catch the Moon by Lisa Loeb and Elizabeth Mitchell