Snow!

When I planned this toddler storytime way back in October, I was assuming we'd have the kind of winter we usually have in Iowa--snowy and cold!  But this year has been unusual and February feels more like March or April.  There's very little snow left on the ground, so this storytime would have been better titled "Do You Remember Snow?"

We read No by Claudia Rueda, Snow by Manya Stojic, and Snowflakes: A Pop-up Book by Jennifer Preston Chushcoff.

Our flannel story was One Snowy Day by Tammi Salzano.

This is a flannel story I haven't seen posted anywhere else yet, but when I saw the book, I knew it would make a fun flannel board.  Because there are so many pieces, I set it up ahead of time so I could just flip it around and lead children in counting the objects from each page in the book.

Between stories, we did a snowflake dance with the song "Snowflake, Snowflake" from H.U.M. (Highly Usable Music) by Carole Peterson.  I gave children squares of white tissue paper to use as snowflakes and we followed the actions in the song.  It was a big hit, especially when we had to try to keep our snowflakes in the air with our breath.  H.U.M. is my absolute favorite CD for storytime songs.  We always begin each toddler storytime with "Hello, Everybody, Yes Indeed" and end each storytime with "Goodbye Rap."

Our craft this week was making snowflake designs.  I spread a thin layer of white, kid-friendly (washable) paint on some paint trays and put 5 or 6 snowflake stamps I bought from Oriental Trading on each tray. I gave each child a piece of colored construction paper and they stamped snowflake designs on their papers.

Next year if we do this craft again, I think I'll add glitter!