Toddler Storytime Playing

Toddler storytime is an excellent opportunity for caregivers to understand the importance of books, reading, talking, singing, writing, and playing with their toddlers. This storytime is about the interaction of the toddler, caregiver, music, 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 toddlers with books and early literacy activities 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 toddlers.

Why have a kit with a ‘play’ theme?

Play and learning go hand-in-hand; they are intertwined. Playing is very important—vitally necessary, actually—for toddlers to learn about the world around them. Everyday play helps toddlers develop cognitive skills (like problem-solving in a pretend grocery store and discovering cause and effect), physical abilities (like balancing blocks and running on the playground), new vocabulary (such as the words they need to turn a plain box into a fire engine), social skills (like playing together in a pretend restaurant), and literacy skills (including how to tell a story with a logical beginning, middle and end). Playing also helps keep kids physically healthy, encourages a sense of curiosity and creativity, reduces stress, and helps improve self-esteem.

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

Kay Redfield Jamison, American professor of psychiatry

Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett
My Rainy Day Rocketship by Markette Sheppard
Counting by DK Braille
Clean up time / Momento de arreglar by Elizabeth Verdick
Sharing time / Tiempo para compartir by Elizabeth Verdick
Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastien Braun
This Little Chick by John Lawrence
12 copies: Press Here by Hervé Tullet
Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Fingerplays booklet
Storytimes for Everyone!: Developing Young Children’s Language and Literacy by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Díaz
CD: Best of Laurie Berkner Band

Manipulatives

1 chicken puppet with 4 chick finger puppets in a circle from Lilliputiens;
1 set of 8 Dress-Up Masks (one each: elephant, cow, duck, rabbit, mouse, tiger, chicken, dog) from Lakeshore Learning;
1 Roll & Play game (1 fabric cube with a set of cardboard cards) from Thinkfun
15 The Freckled Frog My Family Characters