NEW!!! FIRST storytime for VPK+, Ages 4 - 7, Thursday, June 9 @ 10:30

What a likeable creature a worm is! I've always loved these helpful slimy dudes. Maybe I'll even see if I can find a bucketful to bring in.

Books

• Very Hungry Caterpillar by Guess Who. Since every child in the room either actually owned the book or had it at school, we read together, chorally.  They chimed in on the # & type of fruit, and it was a great opening plus I found out who was allergic to strawberries. 
• Fly Guy by Ted Arnold. 
• Tiny Little Fly by Michael Rosen.  Kids liked guessing which animals were on the pages.
• Butterfly Butterfly: A Book of Colors. by Petr Horacek I got out all the colors to match the bugs on each page -- but the kids were too busy looking at the pages of this beautiful book, which I think is a GOOD thing!
• A Flea Story by Leo Lionni. Don't forget: fleas have very small voices.
• Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. So funny. 

Songs

• There was a little froggy who liked to eat bugs (see frog storyhour)
• Five green & speckled frogs (with frog cut-outs)
• Eency weency spider
• Butterfly Pokey/You put your antennae in/You put your antennae out/You put your six legs in/You put your six legs out/You put your wings in/You put your wings out
• Poor little bug on the wall, no one to love him at all/No one to wipe his nose, no one to tickle his toes/
• 1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 8 9, 10 11 12, 12 ladybugs went to the ladybug picnic
• There was an old woman who swallowed a fly
• There's a spider on the floor, on the floor done with giant spider puppet. I did a mash-up between Raffi's version and Peter, Paul & Mary's Boa Constrictor:
  
  
  There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
  There's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
  This is nutty for sure! To have a spider on the floor.
  But there's a spider on the floor, on the floor.
  
  Now the spider's on my knee, on my knee.
  Now the spider's on my knee, on my knee.
  Oh, gosh, oh gee! There’s a spider on my knee.
  Now the spider's on my knee, on my knee.
  
  Now the spider's on my tum, on my tum!
  Now the spider's on my tum, on my tum!
  Oh, now I’m really bummed, with a spider on my tum!
  Now the spider's on my tum, on my tum!
  
  Now the spider's on my neck, on my neck!
  Now the spider's on my neck on my neck!
  Oh, I'm gonna be a wreck, I've got a spider on my neck!
  Now the spider's on my neck on my neck!
  
  Now the spider's on my head, on my head!
  Now the spider's on my head, on my head!
  Oh, I wish that he were dead. I've got a spider on my head!
  Now the spider's on my head, on my head!
  
  
  There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.
  There’s a spider on the floor, who could ask for anything more?
  There’s a spider on the floor, on the floor.

Plays

I had a bag of insect puppets, and asked them to guess. I started off with tough clues (for ladybug, "This is a beetle" for spider "Not really an insect, it has 8 legs" and of course Milo had to say, "An arachnid."

Crafts:  Caterpillar buddies. Easy and cute little guys,virtually NO preparation on your part?  I made a point of showing the kids how to cut a pipe cleaner in half and gave out scissors (and pencils to twirl the antennae and, in the end, fine point sharpies to draw on the face.) We also made butterflies with two pipecleaners, simply twisted together in the middle with a little green in the middle and folded upward for the antenna. While I was helping the kids, behind my back, one of the dads started creating little spiders out of a pipe cleaner cut into 1/4s and pulled through a single bead/abdomen!

OR Butterflies: Coffee filters, precut and prefolded in the shape of butterflies, magic marker and drops of water

I gave the kids prefolded, precut butterflies made from coffee filters. I told them to make a nice “juicy” dot with magic marker on one side, and then to drip one drop of water on top of it. The drop of water spread, and when the kids opened the butterflies up, they had created beautiful symmetrical wings out of the drops. Plus, it was like magic.

We did butterflies and then caterpillars, and for this group, two easy crafts was very fun.

For the VPK+ :