Building it up

Today, we read about the Tiny King who is a bit lost in his great big castle, protected by his great big soldiers and eating great big dinners all on his own. We related to some of his predicaments, but we also noticed that we were somewhat luckier than him: we at least have teddies to keep us company in our big beds! 
As we looked through Taro Miura's colourful pictures we played a bit of spotting and counting and looking for our favourite things to eat. This week again, lots of conversations got started thanks to a book...
Then we moved from the 2D world of the page to the 3D world of building blocks. Inspired by the geometrical shapes of the Tiny King's castle, we built our own towers, houses and even slides! Fine motor skills, balancing, estimating, shape recognition, all came into play without anyone noticing. The best kind of learning!
As promised, the links to the songs and videos!

Suzi Shelton - Tomboy In A Princess Dress:

Bounce Patrol: Royal Finger Family Song:

Brunswick Project: King of the Castle (with goats!): 

Chapi Chapo: Le Cube Espiègle, a (psychedelic!) wordless French cartoon from the 80s full of squares and shapes like The Tiny King: 

Putting our Stamp on Things

Baby Book Clubbers had great fun this morning following the adventures of Zebedee who looks high and low for his round, red balloon and makes plenty of new friends along the way.
We were really taken by the pictures and their stark contrast of black and white and red, and we had all sorts of conversations about the taste of strawberries and our favourite colours.
To flex our muscles (both physical and creative) we then moved on to stamping and populated our blanc and white forests with colourful friends for Zebedee. Mainly dinosaurs, but really friendly ones!
As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos. Enjoy!

It Only Takes One Night to Make a Balloon Your Friend by Lunch Money 

Steve Lee - Grab A Balloon - Miller Made Music Showcase

Colorful Time-Lapse of Hot Air Balloons in New Mexico | Short Film Showcase 

All Aboard!

 Baby Book Club explored new territories this morning as we took up our new quarters in the sensory room. The babies weren't phased in the slightest by the darkish, reddish light and made a beeline for all the new things they just had to try out: the blackout tent, the foam balls, the bean bags, the skittles!
We were a bit distracted in our reading, but that's all right. We still got a good helping of Car Car Jeep Jeep and we did some excellent singing. We then moved on to our craft and play session, drawing a collective city with roads, playgrounds, train tracks, trees and resident cats for our toy cars to drive around. We enjoyed naming things and colours and practising with markers and crayons. we noticed the latter didn't taste particularly well, no matter their colour.
As promised, here are the links to the videos and songs.
Until next time, team!

The Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang song! 

Drive My Car by the Beatles: 

For an action-packed day at ‘Digger School’, watch Here Comes A Digger: 

New Recruits: Baby Book Club is Back!

Thanks to all who came along to our first Baby Book Club of the new school year! It was lovely to see veterans coming back and new recruits joining in the fun. We've added a few things to our regular schedule and you can now expect songs! tickling rhymes! teddies!
To kick us off this year, we revisited a favourite of babies across the world: Chris Haughton's A Bit Lost. We loved repeating 'uh-ho' when Little Owl falls out of the nest and mimicking his bumpy way down to the forest floor. And we agreed that Squirrel's ideas of what a Mammy Owl might look like were just hilarious. We also practised our evil laughter, just because.

We rounded up the session with some craft-making and put our fine motor skills and our imagination to good use: gluing, placing, taping our baby owls together... and pretending they were lollies to lick!
Thanks again everyone and well done!









As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos.
See you in two weeks!

The Owl Song, by the Whizpops

The Old Owl Said, "Who?", by Eric Ode

Non-stop birdsong! http://birdsong.fm/

And A Bit Hungry, a tiny play inspired by A Bit Lost

Babies Do... Waterplay

Inspired by Barbro Lindgren's books about Max, a toddler who loves putting things into other things, the babies had a brilliant time putting water into pots and pans, watering cans and jugs, and, let's face it, they loved getting the water out too.
We made some connections today between Max's and our bath-times; we predicted what would happen if Max's wagon got too full and we tried working where Max's cookie had disappeared to. Could Dog have anything to do with it?

The water play was a lovely, messy, but quiet affair. Most babies would have been happy to splash about all day.
No songs and videos this week, but a list of the baby and toddler storytimes run in nearby libraries. Those are a great way to spend an hour with your little one while someone else provides the entertainment. All involves songs and stories, some add crafts into the bargain. Some you must book ahead, all are free. Give it a go!

Dolphin’s Barn Library: Toddler and Carer Group

meet every Tuesday morning from 10.30am to 11.30pm.

Tel. 01 4540681

Rathmines Library: Toddlers at Twelve Parent and Toddler Group

meets every Monday from 12pm - 1pm. All welcome!

No booking required but places are limited.

Tel. 01 4973539 E. Rathmineslibrary@dublincity.ie

Terenure Library: Toddler Time

every Tuesday from 10am - 11.15am.

Please note this event is run on a first-come basis and numbers are limited to 20 (children and adults).

Tel. 01 4907035

Walkinstown Library: Parent and Toddler group,

every Tuesday, 11.00am - 12.30pm.

Tel. 01 4558159

Ballyfermot Library: Baby Bounce

meets every Tuesday 11.00am - 12.00pm

Tel. 01 6269324 / 6269325

Tallaght Library: Toddler Time.

Every Wednesday at 11.30.

Love is in the Air

What a ball we had at our latest Baby Book Club session! Thanks to two of Mary Murphy's books we were all about hugs and snuggles. We discovered how various animals kissed their mams and dads in A Kiss Like This and how to look after a baby in Did You Kiss the Baby? We practised blowing kisses and elephant snuggles and really enjoyed the cast of animal characters.

We then went fishing for love hearts in a big pile of confetti paper. Some babies found this challenging as they didn't like the feel of our fishing rods (pipe-cleaners) and were worried about what might be hiding in the paper, but they overcame their fear in the end and we had a mad run-around-throwing-paper-everywhere party. We also used the hearts to make bracelets (by stringing them onto the pipe-cleaners), and found innovative ways to wear the paper on our heads as hats or hair... or jellyfish.

One club member eventually decided that the hearts were treasure and we were pirates, so off we went over the 7 seas, shouting about hearties and singing yo-ho-ho and unfortunately crashing our ship. Thankfully, Paw Patrol was promptly called to the rescue...
See where baby books can take you?!


As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos to spread the love!

Barney! (sorry 😉) 

All You Need is Love by the Beatles

Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder

Beautiful Boy by John Lennon

Beware, Babies, Here Be Monsters!

Baby Book Club is back after the Christmas break and this week it was all about food, glorious food! Or at least, about what a ravenous beast and some very, very, VERY hungry animals might consider eating, given half the chance...
We read Niamh Sharkey's Ravenous Beast, with a lit of roaring and nibbling and giggling along the way and as we progressed through the story, the bravest of us came up to feed the beast: a yellow house, a little mouse, a marmalade cat, etc. A good job the beast had an extendible tummy!

We then fed our very own monsters, using pictures from various catalogues. Interestingly, when faced with strange and wonderful options (think office furniture, baby cots, nappies, chairs, detergents...), all the babies went with images of actual food. They loved using the toddler-friendly scissors, and I suspect the parents did too: cutting paper is always so relaxing!

As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos:

The animated version of the Ravenous Beast

I Like Pie, I Like Cake by the Four Clefs

Food, Glorious Food - Oliver! By the Young People's Theater

Laura Linney - Please can I keep it? 

Check out this video about the Edible Book Festival

Baby Book Club: the Christmas Special!

We had a brilliant session to finish off 2017 with the babies last week. In the whirlwind of the school fair, Baby Book Club was the eye of the storm, an oasis of quiet, great concentration... and driving Santas.
We read not one, not two, not three but FOUR books on various festive themes, from Maisy's Christmas Tree to the Noisy Book of Christmas, the hilarious Santa's Beard and Whizzy Santa (where Santa drives around on a magic scooter and, in our version, crashes with a toy school bus from the resource room we were in).
The babies loved listening to the Christmassy sounds, 'driving' the scooter book (it comes with cardboard wheels!) and wearing Santa's facial hair!
Inspired by Maisy and her friends we then decorated our own Christmas trees with sticky maize (aka Magic Nuudles or Amazing Maize, etc.). Aren't they pretty?

And of course, Santasaurus dropped by!

As promised, the links to festive songs and videos!

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - The Muppets Christmas Song 

You're a mean one, Mr Grinch (Original 1966 Version) 

Watch the Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs

For an amazing display of lights, check out Trista Lights 2016 Christmas Light Show - Featured on ABC's The Great Christmas Light Fight.

And for something closer to home, watch this short video of the Wild Lights festival in Dublin Zoo, or get there yourself if you can!

Or you can simply tune in to Christmas FM online or on 105.2 FM.

Fishy goings-on

Last week at Baby Book Club we were all about those fish as we read and read and read Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins. It was a great success and the babas spent ages looking at and chatting about all the strange creatures on the page, pointing out shapes, colours, numbers and lots more.

We then made our very own fish tanks (with baking parchment!) and turned them into lanterns.
As promised, here are the links to more underwater fun!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive from Neurotic Films Official

That’s What Makes the World Go Round (the fish scene from the Sword in the Stone)

And for real marine life, The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a great YouTube channel with lots of videos. Try the Bell Jellies (https://youtu.be/nbY7dSf3GYE), the Galloping Bay Pacific Seahorses (https://youtu.be/0hLt2QrADvc) or their Bite-Size Ocean Clips playlist!

Thanks all and see you next time for our Christmas special!

All Aboard, a Baby Book Club about things that go

We were all about cars and things that go last week at Baby Book Club, as we read Christophe Merlin's The Garage. We followed Mr Bear as he looked for his fellow mechanics to help him fix his car. Thankfully, we had plenty of assistants in the room. Armed with cardboard tools and plastic cars, they did a great job screwing, hammering and tinkering generally. And then there was the driving!
We enjoyed pulling the flaps, guessing what might be hidden behind them and laughing at what we sometimes found (what was that pair of pink knickers doing in the engine??).
There was also a lot of sharing going on (well done, team) and problem solving as some of us decided to drive in tunnels and explore the dark space Under the Table.
Our craft this time involved drawing with cars. We taped markers to the back of our motors and wheeled them around the paper, adding houses and trees along our 'roads' to make them more scenic.

As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos!

The Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang song!

Drive My Car by the Beatles

For an action-packed day at ‘Digger School’, watch Here Comes A Digger

See you all next time!

Baby Booooooook Club

Today was our Halloween Special here in Baby Book Club. Witches! Black cats! Owls! and even monsters! To help us with ambiance we enlisted world-famous witch Meg and her companion Mog, created by Helen Niccol and Jan Pienkowski. The babies helped Meg getting dressed for the spell party, provided appropriate miaowing sounds and really listened.

We then got to our artistic work and were busy making monsters out of playdough, pipe cleaners and Halloween-themed pasta!

As promised here are the links to the songs and videos that will get you and your little ones into the spirit of the season!
(nothing too spooky!)

Halloween Rules by Bounce Patrol (a family favourite)

Ghostbusters dancing version by Just Dance

The Monster Mash by Bobby Picket

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, the Disney version

Baby Book Club: the New Season!

Welcome back to our veterans and welcome to our new members! It was lovely to meet you all on Friday!
This week, we read all about Rosie, a very lucky little hen who goes for a walk. But who is that on her tail? A silly old fox!
We had a great time looking at all the farm animals (let's not forget we also spotted A TRACTOR) and trying to guess whether the fox was going to get Rosie this time. There was already a lot of learning going on here, about making predictions, connections and sequencing. Not bad for a crew of 4-month-olds to 2-and-a-half-year-olds, don't you think?
We then enjoyed painting our very own chickens (and the grown-ups' clothes, sorry) using square and triangular bits of sponge, to create colour and patterns, like on Pat Hutchins' bright illustrations.

As promised, the links to the songs and videos:

Rosie’s Walk, the animated version

Sandra Boynton’s Philadelphia Chickens by the Bacon Brothers

Chicken song - [Geco Remix] – for some mad dancing

And for something out of this world… Takeo Ischi - New Bibi Hendl (Chicken Yodeling) You have been warned!

Thanks all and see you next time!

A toast!

We had our last Baby Book Club last week and it was all about diggers. And trucks. And cranes. We read Susan Stegall's wonderful The Diggers Are Coming! and spent ages looking at the brilliant pictures of all the machines and vehicles needed to build new houses. We actually read the book twice!

We then drove our own cars for a while before PAINTING WITH THEM. That's right, we drove our wheels through paint and made some lovely works of art. The babies were interested to see how different cars made different patterns, but mostly they enjoyed doing something that's not allowed everyday!
To finish the year in style (9 sessions in total, which is brilliant for any book club!), we threw a party of tea and juice and glorious toast.

Thank you so much to all the babies and their grown-ups, it's been a brilliant year! To the big boys and girls who will be going to pre-school next year, we'll miss you, so do pop in and say hi if you can!
And before I forget, here are the links, as always.

For an action-packed day at ‘Digger School’, watch Here Comes A Digger

We Built this City, the Muppets version! 

Madness - Our House:

The Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang song! 

Drive My Car by the Beatles: 

A good yarn

The latest Baby Book Club session took place on a gloriously sunny and warm Friday, so of course we had to have it outdoors. Which was great because we were reading about Little Owl who lives with his mammy in a tree on the edge of the park and the babies immediately made the connection between the trees around us and the Owls' home: maybe (surely!) they lived just over there!
This time, they did most of the reading, using all their guessing and predicting skills to figure out what was going on in Tatyana Feeney's Little Owl's Orange Scarf and what might happen next. They all approved of Little Owl's choice of wool for his new scarf, although they all said it was 'blue' when all the grown-ups saw it green...

After a sneaky extra story under the sun (Feeney's Small Bunny's Blue Blanket), we all retreated inside for the day's craft. Using rectangles of leftover net curtain, some very hairy cotton yarn and A LOT of glue, the babies made their very own scarves!

As promised, some songs and videos about clothes and knitting!

Sandra Boynton’s One Shoe Blues

Bill Oddie, The Knitting Song

Sophie Madeleine – also The Knitting Song

Something to try with older kids: Finger knitted snakes by Red Ted

The Babies have voted!

We had a brilliant session at Baby Book Club last week: it was all about the books! We read the lovely Snatchabook by Ellen and Thomas Docherty and that prompted us to have another look at all the books we have read together so far this year: The Tiny King, Dinosaur Roar, Goodnight Everyone, Every Bunny Dance, Penguin and A Bit Lost (click on the links to go to each session's dedicated blog post). Everyone seemed to have a favourite from the lot and it was great to see them rediscover stories and characters they had liked.

We then went on to make our very own books using scissors (we like to live dangerously at Baby Book Club), glue sticks and pictures from all our seven books. Each reader was encouraged to pick their favourite images or those from their favourite titles, and all went home with a bespoke best of good reads.

Incidentally, the babies were also doing something else: they were shadowing the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year Award. Every year, children of all ages get to read and rate the titles on the award shortlist. They are signed up through their school, their reading group, their crèche and so on. When the shortlist came out in March and I saw that Chris Haughton's Goodnight Everyone was on it, I knew I had to sign up the guys and girls at Baby Book Club. We had enjoyed Chris's A Bit Lost hugely and I thought it would be interesting to see what the babies made of this new book about a little bear who is not at all tired at bed time.
Getting the littlies to choose their favourite images to create their own book was a sneaky way of finding out how highly they 'ranked' Goodnight Everyone compared to the rest of the books. The answer was: quite high. After some complex and entirely scientific calculation (honest!), a mark out of 100 was produced and duly communicated to Children's Books Ireland. The SMGS Baby Book Club has therefore officially taken part in a national award! Not bad for babies, right?
The winners will be announced on Tuesday 23 May. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile and as always, here are the links to songs and videos you might enjoy after reading The Snatchabook or other books about books!

The Library Song, a fun kids’ song from New Zealand

Lil B Dub / The Rapping Bookworm, a thing of silliness!

Martians Discover a Book, classic Sesame Street madness

Bruno Mars Uptown Funk Parody: Unread Book (you’ll never look at your librarian in the same way!)

The Mount Desert Island High School version of Meghan Trainor's "All About The Bass/Books":

Goodnight Everyone first thing in the morning

We had a brilliant time at Baby Book Club this week. We read Chris Haughton's Goodnight Everyone and practised loads of stretching and yawning and snoring. If after that the babies weren't ready for their morning nap, we must have done something wrong...

The babies really joined in the reading, turning pages, making sound effects and wishing all the animals goodnight.
Inspired by Chris's art we then created our very own starry night using black paper, white and purple paint, bubble wrap and GLITTER.

As always, here are a few links to some tips, videos and songs about bears and bedtime.

Freddy Bear The Teddy Bear

Hush Little Baby by The Bluegrass Babies

Elvis Presley - Teddy Bear

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Debbie and Friends

 

Or try Rockabye Baby for lullaby renditions of heaps of rock hits! https://www.youtube.com/user/RockabyeBabyMusic1

And finally, Bedtime and book-related tips from the RTE Jr Book Club: https://rtejr.rte.ie/rtejr-blog/book-club-rtejr-blog/2017/01/and-so-to-bed/

Good luck everyone!

Penguins galore!

Last week at Baby Book Club it was all about penguins and more specifically Polly Dunbar's Penguin. Everyone was fascinated by the story of a boy who receives a present of a penguin and tries his hardest to make him laugh, play, talk... 'but Penguin said nothing'. The babies enjoyed describing what was going on in the pictures and joining in with the repetitive text.

We then had fun with glue and cotton wool and made our very own penguins, who may or may not be more talkative than the original one.


As promised, here are the links to the songs and videos, for more penguin-mania!

Do The Funky Penguin by Rufus Thomas -

Fairy Penguin Strut by Don Spencer -

Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton and Davy Jones (song and slideshow of the book!)

Penguins ice-skating, clip from a BBC documentary

Pingu!

Lost and Found, a 24-minute animated adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling picturebook: https://vk.com/video7035628_163325456