Party-Toddlers

Parties are so much fun with so many different ways to celebrate. I took the opportunity with this storytime to teach the ASL that accompanies “The More We Get Together”. We practiced the ASL first before adding the music in.

Books

Baby Party by Rebecca O’Connell
Groovy Joe: Dance Party Countdown by Eric Litwin
A Birthday For Cow by Jan Thomas

Flannel Boards

Five Candles

Four Big Balloons

Little White Fish Has a Party

Puppets

The Surprise

Rhymes & Fingerplays

Birthday Cake
Ten candles on a birthday cake hold up hands with palms facing out and fingers extended
All lit up for me wiggle fingers
I’ll make a wish and blow them out
Watch and you will see. blow and bend fingers down

Make a Cake
Mix the batter, stir the batter make a stirring motion with one arm/hand
Shake some flour in make a shaking motion with one arm/hand
Mix the batter, stir the batter make a stirring motion with one arm/hand
Place it in a tin pretend to pour
Sprinkle in some chocolate chips pretend to sprinkle
Put it in to bake open both hands, palms up, and slide them forward
Then open wide the oven door pretend to open door
And out comes the cake! open both hands, palms up, and slide them forward

Music

Can’t Wait To Celebrate by Jim Gill
The More We Get Together by Raffi
Milkshake Song by Old Town School of Folk Music

The Surprise

This puppet story is based on the book “The Surprise” by George Shannon. The book is long out of print but has been popular with the librarians in the library system I work in. We have a couple of different versions floating around. This one involves little bunny and a birthday surprise for his mother. Whenever another version makes its way in my direction I will add it here.

Stacking boxes that are used as baby toys were wrapped in wrapping paper are revealed each time the mother bunny opens the box. If you have two matching rabbits kids will be amazed if you start telling the story with one rabbit (but it away before the mother gets her present) and then reveal the second matching rabbit in the last box. It is like magic.

The Surprise PDF

Five Candles

This is a cute flannel board for birthday and party themes. As I read through the rhyme I have the kids and parents help me blow out the candles. It is fun to see who can flow the hardest. I found this flannel over at Felt Board Magic.

To make this I used a clip art image I found as a template for the cake. A while ago I stopped using puff paint on my flannels because I always had a hard time drawing even lines or the pieces would stick together after a while. I still wanted to dress up the cake with sprinkles and settled on a colorful pack of beads that I randomly sewed onto the frosting.

Five candles on a birthday cake,
Five, and not one more.
You may blow one candle out,
And that leaves four!

Four candles on a birthday cake,
Four, and not one more.
You may blow one candle out,
And that leaves three!

Three candles on a birthday cake,
Three, and not one more.
You may blow one candle out,
And that leaves two!

Two candles on a birthday cake,
Two, and not one more.
You may blow one candle out,
And that leaves one!

One candle on a birthday cake
We know its task is done.
You may blow one candle out,
And that leaves none!

Five Candles PDF