Hugs and Kisses Storytime

What better way to share Valentine's Day with your little one than to read stories and sing songs about hugging and kissing? Here's what I've chosen to share during my Oh Baby! storytime.

If Kisses Were Colors by Janet Lawler
A parent describes kisses in many different ways, all of which express love for baby.

This book has beautiful illustrations, which is great for dialogic reading, or reading and talking about the story with your little one. This helps build vocabulary, even if your little one isn't talking yet! Be sure to give some time for your little one to respond.

Won't You Be My Kisseroo? by Joanne Ryder
Rhyming text describes many different kinds of kisses.

The rhyming text in this book helps develop baby's phonological awareness, or the ability to hear and play with small sounds in words. It may be fun to make more rhymes with the words in the book.

Huggy Kissy by Leslie Patricelli

This is a board book with simple, rhyming text and colorful pictures about hugs and kisses.

This is a good book if you work in a library setting and are sharing storytime with families and have access to multiple copies of the same book. Even if you don't, this would be fun to read with your little one and will help develop print awareness, one of the six early literacy skills. This skill is all about learning to hold books and see words and pictures on a page, understanding that a book is a book!

Here are some rhymes that can be used as knee bounces or movement activities with your little one. I have provided how we will interact with baby during Oh Baby! storytime.

Kissing Rhyme
Up, up, up in the sky like this
     (swing baby up high)
Down, down, down for a great big kiss!
     (swing low and give a kiss)
Up like this,
     (swing baby up high)
Down like this,
     (swing low)
Up like this,
     (swing baby up high)
Down like this,
     (swing low)
Up, up, up in the sky like this
     (swing baby up high)
Down, down, down for a great big kiss!
     (swing low and give a kiss)

Bouncing Everywhere
I bounce you here, I bounce you there
     (bounce baby on knees)
I bounce you, bounce you
     (bounce baby on knees)
Everywhere!
     (bounce baby on knees)

I tickle you here, I tickle you there
     (tickle baby)
I tickle you, tickle you
     (tickle baby)
Everywhere!
     (tickle baby)

I kiss you here, I kiss you there
     (kiss baby)
I kiss you, kiss you
     (kiss baby)
Everywhere!
     (kiss baby)