Bookbug Session Plans: How to Catch a Rainbow

The Hello Song

Benefits

Familiar start – lets everyone know a Bookbug session has started.

Tips

Smile and use names if you know them. Clap or tap along to the beat and use signs if you know them.

Round and Round the Garden

Benefits

This rhyme is great for positive touch, interaction and building anticipation and excitement.

Tips

This rhyme opens up opportunities for older children to take turns in tickling each other. If you’re looking for something more active, you could encourage children to move around the room as you say ‘round and round the garden,’ and when the rhyme indicates taking steps, ask the children to take giant steps or baby steps towards a friend, before ending with a tickle.

Grand Old Duke of York

Benefits

This song is great for conceptual language and helping the children understand up and down. For babies it helps encourage face-to-face interaction and the opportunity for the baby to feel beat and rhythm.

Tips

Use this song while you’re out and about. It encourages the children to march and walk and adds fun to your journey. For babies, sit them facing towards you and gently bounce them as you sing.

Two Little Dicky Birds

Benefits

This rhyme is great for fine motor skills and beginning to move fingers independently. This song also helps children understand object permanence (knowing that objects continue to exist even if they can no longer be seen).

Tips

Children love repetition, so offer variations to this rhyme by doing it slower or faster, louder or quieter. Look for birds and other animals while out on your walk and recycle the rhyme, e.g. ‘Two little caterpillars sitting on a leaf, one named Mary, one named Keith. Crawl away Mary, crawl away Keith; come back Mary, come back Keith. . .’

How to Catch a Rainbow by Naomi Jones and Ana Gomez

Benefits

This fun and joyful story is full of adventure and discovery. Through the magic of rainbows and Freya’s curiosity and determination, children can learn about colour, science and what can be achieved when we don’t give up!

Tips

Sharing stories outside can provide a magical experience for children and grown-ups. Use this story to inspire your own colour adventures and exploration by taking the children outside to share this book, encourage them to look for the colours around them just like Freya is doing in the story.

Incy Wincy Spider

Benefits

Songs with actions help link the words with their meanings. This song is great for fine motor skills and developing the pincer grip.

Tips

When sharing this song with babies, sit face-to-face and use your fingers to tickle as the spider moves around in the song. Encourage toddlers to use their thumb and index finger to demonstrate the spider climbing.

A Big Red Bus

Benefits

This is a great action song to help children understand size and develop their gross motor skills and co-ordination through actions and movement.

Tips

Add other verses to the song, take to the sky by introducing ‘an aeroplane, a mini helicopter and a rocket’, or take your adventure into the sea with a ‘a rowing boat, a CalMac ferry, a kayak’. With older children, ask them to come up with their own transport ideas too.

Bluebells, Cockle Shells

Benefits

This is a great song for face-to-face interaction with your baby, rocking your little one in your arms as you sing to them.

Tips

For older children you could try adding some actions (sniff a flower for bluebell, hold a shell up to your ear) and of course if wee ones want to get active, they could try a head over heels on 'over'!

Rainbow Song

Benefits

This song is a great way to introduce and explore colours.

Tips

Encourage children to point out things around them that match the colours in the song. Watch the video in the above link to see how you can use Makaton to support the sharing of this song.

The Goodbye Song

Benefits

Tells everyone the session is coming to an end.

Tips

Wave, smile and use names if you know them. If you know Makaton you can support this song with signs.