Storytime: Jump!

Spring fever has finally hit, and no one wants to sit still.  There’s no better time than now for a jumping storytime!

Books and songs/activities:

    

• book: Hop Jump by Ellen Stoll Walsh  (there are lots of different kinds of movement in this book, so be prepared to do them all)  and song: 5 Green and Speckled Frogs (great on the flannel board, story glove or story tube http://melissa.depperfamily.net/blog/?p=1807)
• book: 5 Ugly Monsters by Tedd Arnold and rhyme: 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (which becomes 5 Little Monsters)
• book: Jump! by Scott M. Fischer and activity: retell story with appropriate puppets

Other activities/songs:

• red light, green light jumping–make a red circle and a green circle (mine are paper plates covered with red and green construction paper), hold up the green circle to indicate that it’s time to jump, hold up the red circle to indicate it’s time to stop jumping, alternate between the two until the appropriate amount of time has been spent jumping
• hold up a number of puppets or display animals on the flannel board and discuss which animals can jump and which can not jump
• Jack Be Nimble–make a paper candle and flame, let the kids take turns jumping over the candle while reciting the rhyme, substituting each of their names for Jack’s
• Transitional rhyme: We can jump, jump, jump
   We can jump, jump, jump.
  We can hop, hop, hop.
  We can clap, clap, clap.
  We can stop, stop, stop.
  We can nod our heads for yes.
  We can shake our heads for no.
  We can bend our knees a little bit.
  And we can sit down slow.
• Listen to a jumping song (either just use your favorite song or you could use Just Fun or All the Ways of Jumping Up and Down by Hap Palmer and jump, jump jump! You could turn music on and off, jumping while the music is on and stopping when you turn the music off

Other books:

• Jumping Day by Barbara Esbensen

Add your beginning and ending songs.  Be prepared for chaos, and have fun!

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