Books to read to a group of babies

[Mishy1234]

I'm volunteering to facilitate a playgroup for mums and children up to 2 years. The group will be no larger than 15 (mums with their babies) and I imagine that the majority will be under 1.

Can anyone recommend suitable books to be read to such a group. The idea is to open with a song and then close with story. I have no experience of reading to a group of children, so any advice would also be appreciated.

Just to clarify, this is entirely voluntary so no money involved apart from to pay for the hire of the room and drinks/biscuits.

I would be inclined to just stick with the songs. It is really difficult to get children as young as this to sit down, let alone listen to a story.

I was wondering about that purplepurple. The thing is that I'm not particularly good at that kind of thing! Any suggestions for songs? I thought 'Wind the Bobbin Up' might be a good one?

Wind the bobbin up is a good one
You need songs that have actions so that it is more visual, to hold their attention.
Some I sing at work
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Miss Polly had a Dolly
Wheels on the bus
If you're happy and you know it
I had a little turtle
I would suggest that you invest in a couple of cds and just sing along to the songs till you get your confidence. Some of the tumble tots or sticky kids cds are really good for just this situation.
Good luck
I used to run mothers and toddlers and playgroups many moons ago and found that the big group get-together at the end was just so that we could get the tidying up done without it eating into our time.

Bookstart run 'bounce and rhyme' sessions at our library (although not gor much longer probably, thanks Dave) and these include a 'story' half way through. TBH it's only the toddlers that take any notice. The babies love songs with actions and noises so 'Old MacDonald,' and 'if you're happy and you know it' are popular.

Shakers and bells are fun too.

In our baby room we have a keyboard and the babies love it when the staff sing and play it. It's really funny watching the babies dancing.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think we'll try just songs in the first instance and see how we get on. The trouble is that I won't really know what ages we're going to get until people start coming. It's primarily for the mums to have a nice space to come to and relax once a week. We may get mostly newborns, in which case we won't need too many songs!

I do feel we need some kind of general format though. A beginning and end at least.

I have been to groups with newborns and have sung ... I think it is quite reasons to get new mums singing for all kindws of reasons... and many new 1st time mums need reminding of nursery rhymes

That's true cazzybabs. I suppose it's also useful to just get people using their voices at the start. It's often easier to get a conversation going if you have a sing first!