
April Kid and Tween Activities
April Kid and Tween Activities



Is your toddler a wiggle worm? They might have fun reading and learning about “real” wiggle worms. Try some of these activities and books which are just for the little wiggle worms in our lives.
Ages 2-5
Here we are together, together, together! Oh, here we are together in our library. There’s (sing names)… Here we are together in our library!
Hello everybody let’s clap our hands*, clap our hands, clap our hands. Hello everybody let’s clap our hands today! *pat our head, stretch up high, wiggle our fingers, tickle our knees, kick our feet, bounce up high!
(Sing while pointing to each finger on your child’s hand.) Sing, talk, read, write, play! Sing, talk, read write, play! Sing, talk, read, write, play! Sing, talk, read, write, play each day!
Books like “Cuckoo Can’t Find You,” which have lists of activities or items are great for babies because there’ isn’t a strong narrative. That makes it easy to read as many or as few pages as keep your baby’s interest. Stopping books when babies are done listening is a great way to keep your book sharing experiences positive and not stressful.
Find a book with a simple narrative, but vibrant pictures. Then explore and talk about the illustrations with your baby. Most picture books have a “traveling” character which moves through the book. Play “Look and Find” for this character as you and your baby turn each page.
Follow the adventures of these bright, bold caterpillars in this peek-through counting book!
Each animal has lost an object that rhymes with its name and the hidden item is concealed within the pages.
To keep from being eaten, an inchworm measures a robin’s tail, a flamingo’s neck, a toucan’s beak, a heron’s legs, and a nightingale’s song.
Here are some worms who are, oh, so sad.
They’ve lost all the wiggles that they once had.
They wonder if you, just for today
would lend them your wiggles so they can play.
Wiggle them up and wiggle them down
Wiggle the worms around and around
Wiggle them high and wiggle them low
Wiggle them fast and wiggle them slow
Wiggle them over your shoes and your socks
Then wiggle them back into their box.
Trit, trot to Boston, (bounce baby on your knees)
Trit, trot to Lynn,
Take care, Baby, (substitute child’s name for “Baby”)
Don’t fall IN!
(on “IN,” part knees and let baby slip through)
– Childhood
You put your scarf up. You put your scarf down. Your put your scarf up.
And you shake it all around,
You wiggle on your knees and you wiggle on your toes.
You’re doing the scarf wiggle!
You put your scarf out. You put your scarf in. You put your scarf out.
And you shake it all around.
You wiggle on your head and you wiggle n your nose
You’re doing the scarf wiggle!
You put your fingers up. You put your fingers down. Your put your fingers up.
And you shake them all around,
You wiggle on your knees and you wiggle on your toes.
You’re doing the finger wiggle!
You put your fingers out. You put your fingers in. You put your fingers out.
And you shake them all around.
You wiggle on your head and you wiggle n your nose.
You’re doing the finger wiggle!
– Adapted from the “Hokey Pokey” song
Wally the Worm went up and down
(lift baby up & down)
Up and down,
Up and down.
Wally the worm went up and back into the ground.
(let baby slip through knees)
Illustrations and rhyming text follow ten caterpillars as one wriggles up a flower stem, another sails across a garden pool, and one reaches an apple leaf, where something amazing happens.
The Earth is awesome! It starts with the letter “E”. And it’s the only place we have to live, so we better take care of it. Try talking with your child about some of the small things he can do to help take care of the Earth such as turning off the water while brushing his teeth, picking up garbage outside, or even recycling the bottle from the juice he drank for lunch. You might find some other ideas in the books and rhymes below.
Ages 2-5
It’s fun and easy for children to learn about topics that are relevant to them. For instance, songs about everyday experiences, body parts, senses, and their environment help children make sense of the world we live in.
Sing “We’ve Got the Whole World” with your child and then change the lyrics to things in your home or outside. For example, “We’ve got yummy bananas to eat…” or “We’ve got the chirping birds in the trees…” or “We’ve got a playful puppy who loves to bark…” Then read a book about the Earth and sing the song with the illustrations.
(Tune: “Itsy Bitsy Spider”)
Once there was a litter bug
Who went from town to town,
Throwing out his garbage,
That landed on the ground.
The garbage grew so high
That when he turned around,
The litter bug got buried
And he was never found!
(Sung to: “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”)
Five bottles of juice on the wall,
five bottles of juice.
Put one in the recycling bin.
Four bottles of juice on the wall.
Continue until there are no more bottles left.
Print out this coloring page!
A love letter to the Earth shares striking photographic images from around the world that introduce such concepts as nature and science. Water, air, light. Patterns, curves, shapes, colors. Things that crawl, fly, float, run, bloom, ripen. Think of everything Earth gives us. What are you most thankful for? Includes notes from the author about related activities and resources.
Library Appreciation Week is on its way, and we’ve got some great things planned.
Peeps Diorama Contest!
Submit a book-themed potato and Peeps diorama by 5 p.m. April 2 to be considered for a prize.
Potatoes and Peelers
During Library Appreciation Week (April 4-10), we’re giving away a free bag of potatoes and a potato peeler per family! Come to the library to get yours and see the entered Peeps dioramas.
We thank Webster’s Mile High Farms and Wilcox Fresh for sponsoring us this year!
Green is great! We celebrated everything green for St. Patrick’s Day today. There were green frogs, green peas and of course… green shamrocks. For more books about the color green, check out some of the additional titles listed below.
Ages 2-5
Here we are together, together, together! Oh, here we are together in our library. There’s (sing names)… Here we are together in our library!
Hello everybody let’s clap our hands*, clap our hands, clap our hands. Hello everybody let’s clap our hands today! *pat our head, stretch up high, wiggle our fingers, tickle our knees, kick our feet, bounce up high!
(Sing while pointing to each finger on your child’s hand.) Sing, talk, read, write, play! Sing, talk, read write, play! Sing, talk, read, write, play! Sing, talk, read, write, play each day!
“I wonder what would happen if…” seems to be the constant unspoken question in toddlers’ minds. They have discovered that they can make things happen. This is actually the beginning of logical thought: action A causes response B.
Secure a cardboard mailing tube to a stair railing and place a box or basket at the bottom. Give your toddler a ball to feed through the top of the tube. They will love watching the ball go in one end and come out of the other. Talk about why this happens with your toddler. Don’t be afraid to use “large” terms like gravity. It might help to clap out the syllables as you say the word. Then have fun with the tube and balls!
Featuring a soft padded cover and rounded edges, a board book celebration of the Irish holiday depicts the bright and colorful objects associated with its traditions, from costumes and rainbows to four-leaf clovers and pots of gold.
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text explore the many shades of the color green.
From the Okefenokee Swamp comes a frog with a wide mouth that he just loves to use. Until one day, he meets a big green animal with lots of teeth who finds wide-mouthed frogs simply delicious.
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs.
Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm…yuuummm!
One jumped into the pool,
where it was nice and cool.
Then there were four green speckled frogs,
Glub glub.
Four green and speckled frogs…
Three green and speckled frogs…
Two green and speckled frogs…
One green and speckled frog…
…Then there were no green speckled frogs!
Glub glub, glub, glub
-Songsforteaching.com
Bumping up and down in my little green wagon,
Bumping up and down in my little green wagon,
Bumping up and down in my little green wagon,
Won’t you be my darling!
– adapted from Pewaukeelibrary.org
Over on the hill in the grass so green
Were the five biggest shamrocks than I’ve ever seen
Along came someone on St Patrick’s Day
And they picked a shamrock and took it away.
– Melissa.depperfamily.net
Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed,
(have your child hold their hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest.
(have your child release their fingers one at a time)
They grew and grew,
(have your child wiggle their open hand)
And did not stop,
(have your child wiggle their open hand)
Until one day,
(have your child wiggle their open hand)
The pod went POP!
(have your child clap their hands for the POP)
– Grandmasnurseryrhymes.com
All-a-gump! Went the little green frog one day.
All-a-gump! Went the little green frog one day.
All-a-gump! Went the little green frog one day.
And the little green frog went All-a-gump! All-a-gump! All-a-gump!
– Traditional
Follows the life of a tadpole from spawn to frog.