Read Spider on the Floor by Raffi or use the Raffi recording on Singable Songs for the Very Young.You can add verses with less familiar parts of the body.
Activity: Give each child a plastic or rubbery spider. As the song progresses have them put their spiders on the correct body part until it jumps back on the floor. (Shopping for spiders around Halloween is the best time for getting creepy rubbery spiders.)
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Using props during a song or story that prompts children to act out the meaning of the words, provides children with a fun and active way to learn new words and to practice their vocabulary skills.
Submitted by Kathleen Moore, Dayton (OH) Metro Library System
Earlly Literacy Aside--Explain: Welcome. Today we are going to have stories that have elephants in them. [Show elephant puppet] I am also going to highlight vocabulary as a fun way to help your child get ready to read. The more words they know, the easier it will be for them to understand what they read and also to make sense of words as they sound out words.Early Literacy Aside--Example: Very young children learn the names of things they see or see pictures of, like elephant, flowers, mouse. As they get older they understand words for feelings and concepts like sad, happy, good, bad, big elephant, little elephant. And older still, they understand words for ideas like brave, kind, mean. These are examples of ways you can develop your child's vocabulary daily in a fun way. You can use books to help develop all levels of vocabulary. Listen to some of the words as I read our next book.
Read No Matter What
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: The library has many books with opposites, feelings, and other concepts to help you have fun with vocabulary development with your child. Books from naming items to talking about ideas. Just ask us for some suggestions.
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Hello, parents. Today in storytime we are highlighting one of the early literacy skills, phonological awareness. This is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words including rhyming, beginning sounds and today we'll be doing animal sounds. Developing this skill will help children later sound out words as they learn to read.As you read Cock-a-Moo-Moo, note when the rooster crows that the font is large which means to use a LOUD voice. Point out the words for the corresponding sounds. Conclude the story by having the children say cock-a-doodle-do loudly to convey the rooster getting it right.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Hearing and learning animal sounds helps children hear the smaller sounds in words too.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Hearing the rhythm of language and making the sounds of animals, both of these contribute to phonological awareness, hearing the smaller sounds in words, one of the skills that researchers have found helps with reading later on. Take opportunities during the course of the day to point out and to imitate sounds you hear, a car horn, the doorbell ringing, and so forth.
Read Dog's Day. As you point to the title also point out the letter D in Dog and Day.Early Literacy Aside--Example: Help your children find letters based on the subjects they like. D is the first letter in dog. If your child is interest in trucks, you can point out the letter t.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Remember that letters are everywhere! Have your child make letters with their fingers, whole body, or playdough.
Cat Puppet: There's a cat in my hat, a cat in my hat, a cat in my hat today (do twice). What does the kitty cat say? [cat puppet says meow]Read Mama Cat Has Three Kittens
Early Literacy Aside--Example: When children hear rhymes, rhythms and sounds of animals, it helps them develop phonological awareness, hearing the smaller sounds in words. This is a skill that will help them as they begin to read.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Keep doing rhymes with things in your children's world. Today we did cat in my hat. You can do ball in the hall or star on my car (give a star sticker).
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Today we are going to be reading stories about Australia. We're going to be hearing about a lot of new animals and learning a lot of new words. Those new words PLUS all the words you already know are vocabulary. If children have a good vocabulary, know a lot of words, which they learn from you and from books, it will be a lot easier for them to understand what they are reding when they learn to read. It starts NOW! That's why today, as we read about all these new animals, we're going to be learning about vocabulary, too.As you read Swim, Little Wombat, Swim use the pictures to explain unfamiliar words.
The furry little wombat is something like a pig with a grumpy nature and an awful urge to dig, complete with claws made mighty and strong for moving tons of dirt along . . .
Early Literacy Aside--Example: This story had a lot of words you might never use in everyday conversation. By using the words in the story and not replacing them with more familiar words, your child's vocabulary will grow. Also, they learn to use the pictures to get an idea of what the word means.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Now that you've heard all these stories about Australian animals like the platypus and the wombat, you all can look at these factual books with photographs of Australian animals that I have pulled from the shelves. You and your children can use your new vocabulary and you might even learn some more new words to use as you share these books together.
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Narrative skills is the ability to talk about events and tell stories. Having children tell you what they are thinking, talk about things that happen, or tell you stories is later going to help them understand what they read.Read The Three Bears and have children help you retell the story using props or a flannel board.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Retelling stories helps children understand what they read. Using props found around home can help children remember and retell stories.
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: When children do what is called dramatic play, when they act out stories, this kind of play helps children understand the structure and story and helps them understand the story itself. Play is a great way to support later reading.
Introduction: I am going to read our next book, Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck. Then you can tell it with me on the flannel board.Read Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea. Repeat some of the rhymes to help them remember.
Flannel Board: As you put up pieces on the flannel board have the children retell the story.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Using the flannel board pieces as a clue will help your child remember the story to retell it. Encouraging your children to retell stories helps them to both remember and to understand them. It is a first step in helping them to later understand what they will read.
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Today we're going to highlight narrative skills. This is the ability to describe things and to talk about events and tell stories. Researchers have noted this skill as one of the early literacy skills that will help your child be ready to read. It helps children 
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Researchers have found that one of ways you can support later reading is by helping children hear the smaller sounds in words. This skill is called phonological awareness. Today I'll point out some thing you can do to help your childrne develop this skill.Early Literacy Aside--Example: Rhyming is one way that children learn to hear that words are made up of smaller parts. By doing rhymes with your children you are setting the stage for them to sound out words to read.
Read Train Song
Early Literacy Aside--Empower: Find a book at home which has rhyming words and see if your child can identify words that rhyme. If you don't have a rhyming book, just read a book and then pick a word and think of rhyming words together.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: This is a favorite book of mine. It shows children enjoying planting seeds and also how children think, in interesting ways. Let your child know when you are reading a favorite book of yours. This helps develop print motivation.Read Flora's Surprise
Early Literacy Aside--Explain: Researchers have found that children with a large vocabulary, who have heard a lot of different words, find it easier to learn to read when the time comes.Read Who Wants a Valentine?
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Don't replace unfamiliar words, use them and explain them if necessary. For example: "Tea for two?/ I decline./ I don't want a valentine." I didn't change the word decline, I explained it: decline means to say no.
I fed my duck under yonder tree.
Duck goes quack, quack,
Cat goes fiddle-i-fee.
Keep adding verses one-by-one:
Bought me a dog and the dog pleased me,
I fed my dog under yonder tree.
Dog goes bow-wow, bow-wow,
Horse goes neigh, neigh,
Cow goes moo, moo,
Pig goes oink, oink,
Sheep goes baa, baa,
Goose goes hissy, hissy,
Duck goes quack, quack,
Cat goes fiddle-i-fee.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: This song includes some silly animal sounds which is the beginning of making the child aware of the sounds within words.
Our next book is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney.Early Literacy Aside--Example: This is my favorite book from my son's early years. We would read this one every night and we both knew the book word for word. Having a positive interaction with books and reading is an example of print motivation, helping children to associate reading with enjoyment.
Submitted by Karri Marshall, Lane (OH) Public Libraries
[New words in this book: activities, camera lens, grinning, waddle, amazing, developed]Listen to the interesting words in this book as I read it.
Read the book.
Early Literacy Aside--Example: Hearing new words in books helps your child learn lots of words and the more vocabulary they learn the more they will understand what they will read.