Storytime Theme: Snakes and Snails and Reptile Tales

Icky, sticky and gooey goodness was the theme this week at my library.  Well, it was actually desserts and sweets but the week before was cows and ice cream...so its safe to say that I've had my fill of the frilly and fattening.  To give us some much needed balance, (and fun), I decided on a slithery and slimy focus for this week's storytime.  (I just used a LOT of adjectives...and parentheses).  Anyway, ON TO THE BOOKS!

Books for Toddlers
Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett
Snip Snap! What’s That? by Mara Bergman
Can I Play Too?  by Mo Willems
A Color Of His Own  by Leo Lionni

Books for Preschoolers
Manana, Iguana by Anne Whitford Paul
Diamond Jim Dandy and the Sheriff  by Sarah Burrell
I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff
Help! A Story of Friendship by Holly Keller
Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff

Songs and Fingerplays

I was at a loss originally for finding songs and fingerplays for this theme but when I started searching for specific reptiles, I came up with a few.
Two of these were found on ChildFun.com.






Lizard Finger play (Use fist of one hand to represent the lizard - have pointer finger move in and out of fist quickly to be the lizard's tongue. 5 fingers of the other hand are the bugs that "disappear" as the lizard's fast tongue "gets" them.)
5 little bugs on the forest floor
Along came a sticky tongue lizard ... SLURP!!! Now there are 4.
4 little bugs on a kapok tree
Along came s sticky tongue lizard ... SLURP!!! Now there are 3.
3 little bugs without a single clue.....
2 little bugs soaking up the hot sun....
1 little bug knew that he was done.....
Now there are none.

All the Snakes …to the tune of London Bridge 
All the snakes are slithering, slithering, slithering.
All the snakes are slithering, across the grass.
All the snakes make a hiss, makes a hiss, make a hiss.
All the snakes make a hiss, and smile at the sun.
Snakes smell with their tongues, With their tongues, with their tongues.
Snakes smell with their tongues, and they can smell you!   


A Salamander
I saw a little creature that was slimy, smooth, and wet.
I thought it was the oddest thing that I had ever met.
It was something like a lizard, but it had no scales at all.
It was something like a frog, but it didn't hop- it crawled.
So I took it to my teacher and she told me right away,
"I see you brought a salamander into class today."


Craft/Activity
A really easy and fun activity to do with this theme is making PlayDoh Snakes.  Tubs of crafting dough or clay can usually be found at the Dollar Store and if they are always put back in the canisters after use, they can be used repeatedly for all kinds of activities.

For older kids, check out this great Paper Plate Snake found on Craft Club.