new day rising

Maybe you follow me on Twitter, maybe you don't. No big deal. But if you did follow me on Twitter and you were home (or just on Twitter) New Year's Eve, you would have heard the glorious good news about my new puppet. You may have even had a chance to join in on the fun of coming up with her name, which is officially Bianca by the way. Thanks, Amy! And here's Bianca now:

And so. Big changes! Well, a new opening song anyway. With a new puppet no less. Goodness gracious!

1.  Opening:  We Wave Hello Like This [with Bianca]
2.  Song/Activity:  Open Them, Shut Them

3.  STORY: Duck! Rabbit! / Amy Krouse Rosenthal & David Litchfield
4.  Fingerplay: Itsy-Bitsy Spider/La Pequeña Araña

Since we've never done this in Spanish before, we'll do it once in English to get comfortable then give La Pequeña Araña a try. Yay! As noted elsewhere, I want to keep it as a staple, both for the kids' benefit and my own.

5.  Stretch: A Sailor Went to Sea
6.  Fingerplay: Ten Fat Peas

7.  STORY: Press Here / Herve Tullet

I am excited to read this book, but am slightly nervous about doing it justice. It's a really great book.

8.  Stretch: This is My Right Hand
9.  Song: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star [with Gareth]

So yeah, I am not putting Gareth out to pasture entirely. I think that would be cruel. Who knows, the kids might hate Bianca (they won't); in any event its good to have Gareth make an appearance for a song. He is well-loved, and I want that fun part of storytime to continue. The transition will be interesting, and I will paying close attention.

10.  STORY: Row, Row, Row Your Boat / David Ellwand

A really great singalong full-size board book I got from an awesome OPL librarian (it has a weird built in thing that plays the melody to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," MIDI style, like one of those greeting cards). Technically I got it because the built-in noise thing is almost dead and a patron complained so rather than discarding a perfectly good storytime book, she gave it to me. Score!

11.  Closing: We Wave Goodbye Like This [with Bianca]

No shakers today, and maybe even a slightly shorter storytime, because everyone is coming back from the break and I don't want to tax shorter(ish) attention spans. Who knows, maybe I'll bring the shakers with me as a goof - though that pretty much guarantees someone will get into them before storytime is over and then the cat would be very definitely out of the bag.