H is for Hat: Storytime Plan

Opening Song: "If You're Happy and You Know It" [standing up] with whispered added verse "If it's storytime and you know it, say Shhhh..."

Letter of the Day

Talk/Act Out: Before we go further, let's do some things that start with the letter "H." We can HIDE our faces. We can HEFT something HEAVY. We can HUM [hum first bit of "Twinkle Twinkle"]. We can HISS like a snake. We can HUG ourselves.

Activity/Guessing Game with Magnet Board: "Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Behind the _______Hat? 

Book: Finders Keepers by Keiko Kasza [Tell group in advance that when I say "finders," I want them to throw their arms up gleefully and say keepers!" Say: "What do you do if you find something like a hat at the library? Do you keep it? No, you take it to the Lost and Found. But there’s no Lost and Found in the forest…"]

Action Song: "Silly Hat Song" 
[Tune: "This Old Man". With silly hat prop. Kids stand, wear pretend hats] "Imagine the silliest hat you can think of. It could have feathers sticking out all over it. It could be made entirely out of LEGO. It could be made entirely out of JELLO!. Now put it on your head so we can sing about it!"

On my head, I wear my hat.
It is such a silly hat
that my head goes wiggle waggle to and fro.
Where else can my silly hat go?
[Repeat using foot, elbow, knee, and/or kids' suggestions]

Song: Dance, Freeze, Melt by The Learning Groove from their album Rockin' Red

Talk with Magnet Board: "One of the things I LOVE about the word "HAT" is that so many other words rhyme with it. [Use magnet board with letters, switching out to show quickly HAT can become RAT or BAT, etc]

Book: I Want My Hat Back by Jonathan Klassen (or This Is Not My Hat by same)

Song: [if time. No theme tie-in] "Body Part Song" by Greg and Steve from Shake, Rattle, and Rock or Jim Gill's "Silly Dance Contest," etc

Book: [if time] A Good Day for a Hat by Sean Bryan

Closing Song: Laurie Berkner's "These Are My Glasses" a cappella. "Today, everything we find in our book will begin with "H". Possibles before opening to kids for suggestions: helicopter [whup whup whup whup]; hungry hippopotamus; hug [hug self warmly]

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Alternates to swap in:

Book: Harold Loves His Woolly Hat by Vern Kousky
Book: Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won (a little long if audience skews young) 

Song [a cappella] "Old McDonald Had a Hat"

Old MacDonald had a hat

He wore it on his head

And on his hat he had a cat--

A cat is what I said!

That cat went here, that cat went there,

That silly cat went everywhere!

Old MacDonald had a hat

He wore it on his head

[Repeat with rat and bat.]

Action Rhyme "I'm A Little Snowman"

(tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little snowman
short and fat--
here are my buttons;
here is my hat.
When the sun comes out, then
you will see
I melt...til there's...no...more...of...me. 

[do standing up, melt down to floor at end]