Farm Animal Baby Lap Time!

I had so much fun having baby lap time at the Covenant House/The ARC in Washington, DC! Today's theme was farm animals and I read two board books.

Because I had a small group of seven babies I was able to read Farm by Charlie Gardner and give each of the babies a chance to feel all of the textures: the soft fluffy ducklings, the hairy goats, sheep with woolly fleece, pigs with pink shiny skin, horses with shiny silver buckets, and more! All of the babies loved this book.

I didn't read the next book Old MacDonald Had a Farm by James Dean, instead I sang the book along with the babies and their caregivers! In this revised version of Old MacDonald had a farm by James Dean, Pete the Cat sings the traditional verses and adds a few verses of his own. Everybody loved this book!
The rest of the baby lap time consisted of songs, rhymes, bounces and finger plays.
Because they were teaching the babies about farm animals, I left the following board books for them to read together:

Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker

How kind! by Mary Murphy

Farm by James Brown

Baby cheep! cheep! by Dawn Sirett

Fall Baby Lap Time!

I am so happy to be presenting a baby lap time again! Today, I presented a baby lap time at the Covenant House in Washington, DC. The babies, caretakers, and I had a wonderful time! More baby lap times will be forthcoming.
Normally I only read one or two board books at the most during a baby lap time, but today I read three because a second group of babies joined us when the baby lap time was halfway over.

Fall by Ailie Busby introduces babies to fall by mentioning the delights you can experience on an autumn day, such as collecting acorns, kicking leaves, picking blackberries, and collecting apples, pears, and pumpkins in a wheelbarrow.

In Duck & Goose Find A Pumpkin by Tad Hills, duck and goose look everywhere for a pumpkin! They look in a leaf pile, in the apple tree, under the water, and on top of a stump. Then Thistle walks by and suggests that they try the pumpkin patch.

In The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri, squirrel is too busy to nibble a pumpkin with mouse, rest on a branch with bird, hop rocks with frog, lie in the sun with cat, run in the field with dog, and watch the moon with owl. At the end of the day, squirrel is fast asleep.
You can't have a baby lap time without a lot of songs and rhymes. In my baby lap time today, we did the following: Bumping Up and Down in My Little Red Wagon, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Two Little Blackbirds Sitting on a Hill, Five Little Ducks, Tony Chestnut, and Roll, Roll, Roll Your Hands.
If you're not familiar with Two Little Blackbirds Sitting on a Hill, this is how it goes:
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,
One named Jack.
One named Jill.
Fly away, Jack.
Fly away, Jill.
Come back, Jack.
Come back, Jill.
I held up two fingers to represent the blackbirds.
If you're not familiar with Roll, Roll, Roll Your Hands, this is how it goes (Tune: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"):
Roll, roll, roll your hands
As slowly as can be.
Roll, roll, roll your hands
Slowly just like me.
Roll, roll, roll your hands
As quickly as can be,
Roll, roll, roll your hands
Quickly just like me.
I used two other verses; one with clap your hands and one with shake your hands.
I found some other board books about Autumn that I liked, but did not read. These books are the following:

Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell

In My Tree by Sara Gillingham is also good as a one on one read aloud book because baby can pat the soft fluffy baby owl throughout the story.

Biscuit Visits the Pumpkin Patch by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

I Love Fall! by Alison Inches is also good as a one on one read aloud book because baby can rub the soft scarf, pat the smooth pumpkin, feel the shiny pie tin, touch the leaves, and feel the smooth wicker on the fall basket.