All About Ambulating

For a year or more I've been doing babytimes and storytimes for 3,4, & 5 year olds.  My current partner and I have changed it up a bit and I'll continue to do the storytimes, but she'll take over with the babies and I'll "move up" to the toddler programs.  While this doesn't sound like a terribly huge change, it is actually a major shift in focus for me.  When working with babies and their caregivers I primarily concentrate on simple touch, tickle, bounce, clap, and peek-a-boo rhymes.  With the toddlers it's all about ambulating.  I do lots of activities and songs that involve movement with them, because that's what they do and like, and that's what gets their attention.  In any given toddler program we may gallop like a horse, splash like the rain, twinkle like a star, tip over like a teapot, row our boats, and stop like a dragonfly on a leaf, among other things.  At the end of Toddler Time we are all exhilerated and a tad tired, which is a wonderful seque into quietly (?) looking at books.