Baseball Season Starts!

At our house, one of the surest signs of Spring is the day that Spring Training starts. Surrounded by males in my house, sports in general, and baseball in particular, dominate the conversation and television viewing! So, is it any wonder that one of my spring story times has to be devoted to baseball? I found a couple of finger plays and songs...and then made up several more:

If You Want to Play Baseball
(Tune: “If You’re Happy”)
If you want to play baseball throw the ball (2x)
If you want to play baseball.
Be a batter, run the bases
If you want to play baseball throw the ball…
Swing the bat
Run to first
Yell out, “Safe!”

I’M A LITTLE BASEBALL
(Tune: “I’m a Little Teapot”)
I’m a little baseball
round and white
You can see my stitching
nice and tight
When the pitcher throws me from the mound
The batter hits me and I fly around.

The kids all had fun twirling around like flying baseballs. Fortunately, this is a pretty small story time audience!

We had a flannel board "game" where we had eight little gloves, each labeled a different color and the kids had to match the colored baseballs to the appropriate glove.

We read four books:

My Padres Baseball Game by Jenny Werner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fun baseball book, all about our "home team," the Padres. The narrator is a young girl attending a game with her dad. They begin their experience at the "Park at the Park" and then pick up snacks and watch most of the game from seats inside the stadium. The text at times, was a little too commercial for my taste. The book is a nice introduction to Padres Baseball and the features of our local stadium and it made it easy to discuss what it is like to attend a game with my story time audience.

Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kids love dinosaurs and kids love baseball - so they adored this rhyming book about the plant eating dinosaurs of the Green Sox vs the carnivores of the Rib-eye Reds, played at Jurassic Park, of course! With colorful illustrations and lots of baseball action (even a team manager who "throws his hat and kicks home plate...he calls the ump a nasty name and gets ejected from the game.) This is a book that appeals to very young kids because of the rhythm and rhyme, dinosaur players and bright, colorful illustrations. Because of the vocabulary and game descriptions it appeals to the adults in the group as well as preschoolers.

Quacky Baseball by Peter Abrahams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thumby Duckling is nervous about his first game on the Webbies baseball team. The text can be read in an "announcer" voice, which the kids at storytime enjoyed. At several points in the story, "the crowd goes wild" and the kids and their moms provided the cheering crowd noices. The illustrations are bright and colorful and the humorous nature of the pictures and text had both moms and kids laughing out loud.

B Is for Baseball: Running the Bases from A to Z by Chronicle Books
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

We had a ball (no pun intended) with this book at story time. With breathtaking old photos on bright, almost scrapbook like backgrounds, this alphabet book was a big hit with my story time audience. Beginning with "autograph" and going through field positions and famous players and even hot dogs ("One of the favorite snacks found at baseball parks") through "Zinger" ( "A nickname for a grounder") this book is wonderful for all ages.