Blogging A to Z: Umbrellas

During the month of April, I’ll be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge.  My theme for the month is Storytime Plans From A to Z.  Each plan will have eight stories as well as four songs, fingerplays or rhymes to match the theme!  As you can see, I’ll try and attribute where I found all of this fun (and often you can find it in multiple places).  My goal is to make storytime planning a little easier on myself in the future and to make storytime planning for other librarians easy as well!
Booklist:

1. Rain! by Linda Ashman
2. Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
3. Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems
4. Who Likes Rain? by Wong Herbert Yee
5. Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray
6. The Umbrella by Jan Brett
7. Un-brella by Scott E. Fanson
8. Umbrella by Taro Yashima

Songs & Rhymes:
“Rain is Falling Down”
The rain is falling down (flutter fingers down)
SPLASH! (clap once loudly)
Pitter patter pitter patter (tap legs softly)
The rain is falling down (flutter fingers down)
SPLASH! (clap once loudly)
Pitter patter pitter patter (tap legs softly)
[Repeat until kids are worn out.]
“If All the Rain Drops”
“Making a Rainstorm”
This is such a simple activity, but always fun.  I ask the kids to do what I’m doing in order to make a rainstorm.  First we rub our hands together, then click our tongues (to sound like drops of rain), then clap our hands, then slap our knees, then stomp our feet.  Finally I have them all stand up, and we all jump at the same time to make a thunderclap, and then we do all of the actions in reverse to make the rain “stop.”
“Little Moon”
Oh no, some rain clouds are hiding the moon!  We tried to find the moon by chanting, “Little moon, little moon, are you behind the _______ cloud?”
This game is a favorite in storytime, and the kids were especially good at finding the little moon.