Rain Rain Go Away by Caroline Jayne Church made a splash at our Scholastic Baby Book Club

Some cultures do rain dances to bring on the rain.  Today at Sharkey’s Milton, we improvised and created our own rain scenario at our Baby Basics Books for Babes.  ScholasticCanada has been very generous providing us with a fantastic books each month for our little ones to explore. This month our giveaway book was Rain, Rain Go Away by Caroline Jayne Church and our little ones had a splish splashing good time.
 

The mom’s and babies alike, got into the singing spirit to belt out familiar “rain” tunes.  Once the first round of singing was complete, we did a reading of Rain, Rain, Go Away and watched as the babies took in the bright colors and faces in the book. The phrases are short and sweet and the board book makes it easy for little hands to grasp and turn the pages.

 

After one more round of singing, it was time for some sensory play.  In light of it being a “rain” theme, the babies had an opportunity to have water play!! 

Some of the younger ones just watched and took it in as the older babies were stripped down and got right into the spirit of splashing.  Although they enjoyed the singing, and reading the book too, their favorite part of this program was making a big “rainy” mess!! 

 
 

 

Congrats to our winner Jiya who was super excited to take home today's featured book!  As always, thank you Scholastic Canada for another lovely book and thank you to Sharkey’s for providing us the space for our mamas and babies to hang out!

Looking forward to seeing what adventure we will take next month at our Scholastic Books for Babes Program.  We hope you can join us!

Alligator Baby by Robert Munsch was a hit with our Milton moms at our Scholastic sponsored books for babes program!

For last month’s Books for Babes Program, our lil' explorers took a trip to the zoo as we read “Alligator Baby” by Robert Munsch sponsored by Scholastic Canada.  The babies were told all about the adventures of a Mom and Dad trying to find their baby amongst a bunch of zoo animals! 

At first the parents came home with an alligator and then a seal and finally a baby gorilla. After the third failed attempt their daughter saved the day by going to the zoo herself and rescuing her baby brother.

As new moms themselves, our moms could definitely relate to the sleep deprived parents and simple mistakes they made. We even shared stories about the silly mistakes that we had made over the past months. I shared my story of dumping out my freshly pumped breast milk down the drain at the wee hours of the morning. We were thankful that Scholastic sent a board book for the little ones so that we didn't have to worry about damaging the book and it made for easy page turning.

After we finished reading the book, we sang a round of songs that kept in theme with the Alligators.
Here was the song lineup: “Alligator Pie” by Dennis Lee, "Going to the Zoo” by Raffi , “5 Little Monkeys swinging in a tree” (teasing mr alligator, you can’t catch me), “The Crocodile” We even had a visit from Ally the Alligator. The babes were memorized.

Congrats to the mamma and baby who were lucky enough to win a copy of "Alligator Baby" to add to their personal library collection. It looks like it will be a book well read!

Looking forward to seeing what adventure we will take next month at our Scholastic Books for Babes Program.  We hope you can join us!

momstown Milton Baby Basics Celebrates the Canadian Game with "My First Hockey Book" sponsored by Scholastic Canada

Last month we celebrated, “The Good Ol’ Hockey Game” at our momstown Milton Baby Basics – Books for Babes, at Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids.  Scholastic Canada provided us with the book, MyFirst Hockey Book by Ian Crysler and the babies enjoyed looking at all of the large photograph pictures of children playing hockey both on the ice and at the playground. 

 

 

Some of our Babies came in full spirit wearing their hockey gear and or sports clothing. 

To help get the rest of us in the mood we sang, “The Hockey Song” by the late Stompin’ Tom Connors and assisted the babies in the “Hockey Pockey” (A version of the Hokey Pokey). Both of which they enjoyed doing the actions and moving to the beat.  Here is a copy of the lyrics incase you would like to sing them with your little one.

The Hockey Song by Stompin’ Tom Connors

www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/stompin_tom_connors/the_hockey_song.html

Hello out there, we're on the air, it's 'Hockey Night' tonight.

Tension grows, the whistle blows, and the puck goes down the ice.

The goalie jumps, and the players bump, and the fans all go insane.

Someone roars, "Bobby Scores!", at the good ol' Hockey Game. 

:: CHORUS ::

OH! The good ol' Hockey game, is the best game you can name.

And the best game you can name, is the good ol' Hockey game. 

Second Period.

Where players dash, with skates a flash, the home team trails behind.

But they grab the puck, and go bursting up, and they're down across the line.

They storm the crease, like bumble bees, they travel like a burning flame.

We see them slide, the puck inside, it's a 1-1 hockey game.

(Chorus)

Third Period. Last game of the playoff too!

Oh take me where, the hockey players, face off down the rink.

And the Stanley Cup, is all filled up, for the champs who win the drink.

Now the final flick, of a hockey stick, and the one gigantic scream.

"The puck is in! The home team wins!", the good ol' hockey game. 

(Chorus x3)

Hockey Pockey

http://edamonth.homestead.com/HockeyPockey.html 

You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out,

You put your right hand in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about. 

You put your  left hand in, You put your left hand out,

You put your  left hand in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about. 

You put your right leg in, You put your right leg out,

You put your right leg in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

You put your left leg in, You put your left leg out,

You put your left leg in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about. 

You put your right side in, You put your right side out,

You put your right side in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

You put your left side in, You put your left side out,

You put your left side in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

You put your whole self in, You put your whole self out,

You put your whole self in and you shake it all about.

You do the hockey pockey, And you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about.

 

My First Hockey Book begins by showcasing a family that supports each other as they practice their skating, cheer their siblings on as they play the game and even finish with a warm cup of hot chocolate.  Our moms really enjoyed the teamwork and cooperation that Ian Crysler displayed in this book as the big brother, “gives tips” to his siblings of how to skate as well as handle the puck and both teams celebrate a “great game” by shaking hands.  The second half of the book illustrates how a group of children meet regularly at the playground to have a game of ball hockey on the pavement.

My First Hockey Book is a Board Book, which allows the little ones to turn the pages more easily, and has full-page photographs that help to tell the story.  Some of our babies were extra intrigued by the large photos of real people (versus illustrations) and shared their joy with babbles and shrieks of delight.

After listening to Miss Jen give a read aloud of the book, each baby got a chance to flip through the pages and enjoy a second read.  Since Scholastic Canada generously donated the book to our momstown Milton Books for Babes program, we were able to raffle the book to one lucky baby.  Now she officially has her own First Hockey Book.

Thanks again, so much Scholastic Canada for allowing our little ones to learn about,  “the best game you can name, the GOOD OL’ HOCKEY GAME.”

We would love to have you join us for our Baby Basics - Books for Babes program sponsored by Scholastic Books. A fun way to introduce Early Literacy to your infant and to connect with other moms.

Register here for your 6 week FREE trial.

This blog was written by: Jennifer Green momstown Milton member and mother to a beautiful baby boyl

momstown Milton Baby Basics Program encourages Early Literacy

It was all about “Love” today at our momstown Milton  Baby Basics – Books for Babes at Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids this week.  Scholastic provided us with the book “I Love You” by Carolyn Jane Church and the babies just “loved” this soft cloth book that they were able to manipulate on their own and flip through the pages with ease.

 

 

In case you don’t know the story, this is how it goes:

I love my fingers.

I love my toes.
I love my eyes.
I love my nose.
I love my arms and belly, too.
But most of all, I love you.

 

 

The mirror on the front peeked their curiousity as they realized that there was "someone" looking back at them.  Some of our little ones even started a babbling conversation with this new found friend and the mamas giggled as we listened to the sweet sounds.

 

 

After reading the book, we had Miss Jen lead us in 4 songs.  Here’s a list of them…in case you need to add a little “love” to your song bank!

Skinnamarink:

Skinnamarinky dinky dink
Skinnamarinky do,
I love you!

Skinnamarinky dinky dink
Skinnamarinky do,
I love you!

I love you in the morning,
And in the afternoon
I love you in the evening,
Underneath the moon…

Skinnamarinky dinky dink
Skinnamarinky do,
I love you!  

Tony Chestnut:

Tony Chestnut knows I love you. (Point to your toes, knees, chest, head, nose, eyes, heart and to a friend)

Tony knows, Tony knows. (Point to your toes, knees and nose)

Tony Chestnut knows I love you. (Point to your toes, knees, chest, head, nose, eyes, heart and to a friend)

That's what Tony knows. (Point to your toes, knees and nose)

 

I love you (Barney Song):

I Love you, you love me

We’re a happy family

With a great big hug, and a kiss from me to you

Won’t you say you love me too!

I love you, you love me

We’re best friends like friends should be

With a great big hug, and a kiss from me to you,

Won’t you say you love me too!

You are my Sunshine

You Are My Sunshine
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away

After we finished singing the songs we had one more read through of the book.  Since Scholastic so generously donated the book to momstown, we were able to give the book away to one lucky baby. 

 

I hope he’s enjoying his book as much at home as we did at the program!  I know we’ll be looking forward to the book for next month.  Thanks so much Scholastic!!

We would love to have you join us for our Baby Basics - Books for Babes program sponsored by Scholastic Books. A fun way to introduce Early Literacy to your infant and to connect with other moms. 

Register here for your 6 week FREE trial.

This blog was written by: Melissa Aquilina a momstown Milton member and mother to a beautiful baby girl