Storytime

Paw Patrol Rescue Academy

Paw Patrol and I have a bit of a history. During spring break 2019, I planned a program featuring one of the most popular kids TV shows of the time. It was scheduled for a Friday morning, and while we could tell from patron questions that there was some excitement, I didn’t really know what to expect. I had been planning for a storytime followed by eight hands-on games, crafts, and activities where you earned badges, and ending with an obstacle course where you earned your Paw Patrol “uniform” (hat and necklace).

Before the program started, I debated dropping the storytime portion because my overzealous planning had led to very little room for attendees to sit down before completing their activities. I believe I left the room to get extra supplies about 30 minutes before the program and was extremely surprised to realize that there were over 100 patrons in the hallway. Waiting for a program that started in 30 minutes. A program that was supposed to take place in meeting rooms that have a firecode of around 200 when the room isn’t filled with tables and activities. The storytime portion was dropped, and by the end of the program over 300 people stopped by.

I have never written about that program on this blog because it didn’t go the way I had hoped (high attendance or not), and I didn’t actually have that many resources to share. Pre-COVID, I had been planning to try this program again this summer with quite a few modifications. Post-COVID, this program turned into another online special storytime, following the path of the recent Baby Shark Storytime and Elephant & Piggie Storytime.

Learn More About Other Storytime Specials:

– Baby Shark Storytime
– Daniel Tiger Storytime
– Doc McStuffins Storytime
– Don’t Let Pigeon Take Over Storytime
– Elephant & Piggie Storytime
– Fancy Nancy Storytime
– Llama Llama Storytime
– Molly of Denali Storytime
– Noon Year’s Eve Storytime
– Pete the Cat Storytime
– Pinkalicious Storytime
…and all my virtual storytimes.

To help continue the fun at home, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Download it here and view it below:

The general storytime layout is below, with videos where applicable.

Backdrop Setup: Pennant banners and Paw Patrol shields helped make my backdrop more on-theme to increase the Paw Patrol excitement:

Paw Patrol Intro: We got ready for storytime with the Paw Patrol theme song and explained our mission: to complete training activities to earn six Paw Patrol badges and become junior Paw Patrol members.

Book: Pit Crew Pups from Five Puptacular Tales

Amazon.com: Five Puptacular Tales! (PAW Patrol) (Step into Reading ...

Badge #1: Flying Badge with Skye: Airplane Song by Laurie Berkner

Whenever it was time to earn a new badge, we received pup mail. We had to guess which pup’s badge we were going to earn based on the front of our mail and then read about our challenge.

Our first challenge was to practice our flying skills with Skye!

Badge #2: Water Safety Badge with Zuma: Zuma Are You In a Boat?

Badge #3: Safety Badge with Chase: Crazy Traffic Light

Badge #4: Fire Safety Badge with Marshall: Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck

Badge #5: Construction Badge with Rubble: Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia
This was supposed to be just a read of the book, but I couldn’t get a copy of the book in time, so it turned into a last minute magnet. I’m sure I’ll reuse this set at some point in a toddler storytime.

Amazon.com: Tip Tip Dig Dig (All About Sounds) (9781906250829 ...

Badge #6: Handyman Badge with Rocky: Our Friend Rocky Had Some Tools

Graduation: Now that we had earned all six Paw Patrol badges, as shown in our Paw Patrol Badge Zone:

We recited the Paw Patrol Pledge:

And danced the morning away as Junior Paw Patrol members!

Closing Song: Pup Pup Boogie

Virtual Preschool Storytime: Week 5

I managed to incorporate shapes this week! I feel like I cover colors frequently and wow we have counted a lot in past weeks, but shapes always slip through. I haven’t put in the time to find enough great shape rhymes, but I’m going to work on that.

I’m preparing for a Saturday special storytime this week–Paw Patrol!, so a lot of storytime favorites appeared this week to make this preschool storytime a bit easier on my brain.

More Preschool Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

– Storytime Resources (includes all storytime outlines)
– Virtual Preschool Storytimes
– Virtual Baby Storytimes
– Virtual Toddler Storytimes
– Virtual Family Storytimes (including themed special events)
– All Virtual Storytime Outlines

Preschool Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip:

Playing is so important developmentally—and a ton of fun! On the go, I Spy in the car can help build vocabulary. At home, act out a story or play dress up–maybe recreate a story like today’s book!

Book: What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe and Susan Tuma

What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night: A Very Messy Adventure - Kindle ...

Song: Monkey Dance by The Wiggles

Fingerplay: Old Brass Wagon

— Discover more Fingerplays. —

Book Retelling: Tickle Monster by Edouard Manceau

— Discover more Book Retellings. —

Action Rhyme: Point to the Ceiling

Flannel: Little Crab, Little Crab

— Discover more Flannel & Magnet Activities. —

Closing Song: Elmo Slide by Sesame Street

Virtual Preschool Storytime: Week 4

Due to last week’s surprise preschool storytime, I have a bit of time with this age range–6 weeks in a row. I’m passing babies back to a coworker for a few weeks as I dig into the preschool age range. Lots of fingerplays, direction-practicing, and letter and number skills!

More Preschool Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Preschool Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Singing breaks up words into syllables, slowing down the sounds that words make. It also introduces new vocabulary!

Book: I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison

Amazon.com: I Got the Rhythm By Connie Schofield-Morrison ...

Song: Wiggle Your Lah-Dee-Dah by Ralph’s World

Fingerplay: Five Green and Speckled Frogs

— Discover more Fingerplays. —

Book Retelling: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

— Discover more Book Retellings. —

Action Rhyme: There Was a Crocodile

Flannel Song: Five Little Ducks

— Discover more Flannel & Magnet Activities. —

Closing Song: Elmo Slide by Sesame Street

Virtual Baby Storytime: Week 10

I’m going to be honest–this is my third time writing this paragraph and WordPress keeps deleting this draft post. Essentially, this is my last baby storytime for a while, and this is a new book for me this week.

More Baby Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

– Storytime Resources (includes all storytime outlines)
– Virtual Baby Storytimes
– Virtual Toddler Storytimes
– Virtual Preschool Storytimes
– Virtual Family Storytimes (including themed special events)
– All Virtual Storytime Outlines

Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Sing to your babies! Your voice is better than a recording, and the quality of your voice doesn’t matter. Do you hear me singing on the Internet every day?

Book: Head and Shoulders by Megan Borgert-Spaniol

Song: Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck

Action Rhyme: Baby Hokey Pokey

Bounce Rhyme: Andy Pandy

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Bounce: Snuggle Up

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Song: Five Little Monkeys

Puppets: I Went Walking

— Find more Book Retelling activities. —

Manipulative: Shakers

Closing Song: Skinnamarink

Virtual Preschool Storytime: Week 3

Surprise preschool storytime this week! This was a little more tossed together. I’ve also realized I focus so much on counting.

I’m working on bulking up the diverse titles in my home library to help with these and future storytimes. I’m still quarantining books I get from work for a while when I bring them home, so I’ve really been creating storytimes from my home collection a lot, and most of my books are animal focused. This is a part of my personality–I also beg for a lot of animal programs–but I need to expand, and I want to show that in my storytimes. This preschool storytime isn’t a great example, but it is on my mind.

I’m also working on really digging into the musicians I use in storytime and creating a collection of diverse artists to regularly pull from. This project has gotten sidelined more than I would like as I didn’t expect to be quite so exhausted and to lose quite so much time during my work in-building days.

More Preschool Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Preschool Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Build writing muscles with scribbling, coloring, and fingerplays.

Fingerplay: Five Little Hot Dogs

— Discover more Fingerplays. —

Book: Swallow the Leader by Danna Smith

Amazon.com: Swallow the Leader (lap board book) (9781328482655 ...

Song: Jump! Jump! by Joanie Leeds

Book Retelling: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin

— Discover more Book Retellings. —

Action Rhyme: I’m a Little Dump Truck

Flannel Song: BINGO

— Discover more Flannel & Magnet Activities. —

Closing Song: Elmo Slide by Sesame Street

Elephant & Piggie Storytime

10,000 years ago, in the days that were March, spring break week was supposed to end with an Elephant & Piggie Party. We had borrowed the full body costumes for some guest appearances, I had too many games and crafts planned to fit in our space, and we were expecting a decent crowd–last year’s Paw Patrol event, on the same day and time, had 300 people.

But before spring break, our library closed because COVID, etc., etc., etc., if you are reading this post in 2020 or soon after you don’t need me to rehash the details again. If you have no idea what COVID quarantining was…well I’m surprised this blog is still being used. Hopefully Google still exists too. Anyway, last weekend, I was able to bring part of the Elephant & Piggie Party online with Elephant & Piggie Storytime.

We had a smaller turnout than we would have had in person–just 51 online viewers during our Facebook Live event–but there were many familiar faces and the engagement in the comments was amazing.

To help continue the Elephant & Piggie Storytime fun at home, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Download it here.

The general storytime layout is below. I wish I could share the whole video with you because some of the best parts just aren’t in the pre-made YouTube videos. I added a few screenshots for your enjoyment where I could.

Learn More About Other Storytime Specials:

– Baby Shark Storytime
– Daniel Tiger Storytime
– Doc McStuffins Storytime
– Don’t Let Pigeon Take Over Storytime
– Fancy Nancy Storytime
– Llama Llama Storytime
– Molly of Denali Storytime
– Noon Year’s Eve Storytime
– Paw Patrol Storytime
– Pete the Cat Storytime
– Pinkalicious Storytime
…and all my virtual storytimes.

Backdrop Setup: Pennant banners and book covers helped make my backdrop more on-theme to increase the Elephant & Piggie excitement:

Elephant & Piggie Intro: We got ready for storytime with my go-to storytime intro song: Shake Your Sillies Out by Rainbow Songs.

Fingerplay: I Have One, I Have Two, I Have Three Little Piggies!

First Book: Let’s Go for a Drive by Mo Willems

Let's Go for a Drive! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (An Elephant ...

I used to perform this book as a puppet show back when I was a teen volunteer, so I’m very familiar with the content. I included some props and got quite energetic in sharing the book:

Song: Elephants Have Wrinkles by Rainbow Songs

Magnet: Piggie, Are You In a Book?

Magnet: Five Elephants in the Bathtub
**This was the planned starting point for Pigeon takeover. I made a full video for YouTube, but this wasn’t part of the storytime beyond the introduction.

Pigeon Takeover: I’ve been trying to think of ways to use virtual storytimes to my advantage. In a room full of kids, I could never transform a storytime space like I’m able to by covering the camera for a minute and swapping out decor. Hence, Pigeon Takeover was born.

**Our storytimes are live. This would have been much easier pre-recorded, but it wouldn’t have been half as fun.

How This Worked:

While swapping out magnet pieces from Piggie, Are You in a Book? to start what I told viewers was our next activity, Five Elephants in the Bathtub, I really pressed play on the iPod Touch I use for music (connected via bluetooth to a speaker), starting a Spotify playlist. The playlist contained 7 door knocking sounds followed by the Hot Dog! song by They Might be Giants (Pigeon likes hot dogs!).
Once the knocking started, I pretended to ignore it while making an annoyed face before apologizing to viewers and telling them I needed to check on the door. I’d be right back!
As soon as I was off camera, stuffed Pigeon made an appearance, using a sign to make his opinions known:

I moved the Pigeon Storytime sign up against the camera before swapping it out with a black washcloth. The Hot Dog! song continued to play and my awesome coworker kept the shenanigans going in the comments while letting viewers know to keep watching.
In a minute, I swapped out as much of the decor as I could, focusing on: the books on the bookshelf, stuffed animals, and hanging up as many Pigeon book covers and pre-cut Pigeon images on top of the Elephant and Piggie decor as I could manage. These were all pre-taped and on a table off camera.
I positioned myself with the Pigeon headband and holding some of Pigeon’s signage. I made sure before I started that my chair was close enough to the camera to remove the wash cloth in a clean motion. I stopped the music, moved the wash cloth, threw in a “is there a bird on my head?” joke, and let my confusion show before accepting my fate that I was now in a different storytime:

Book: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems, Hardcover ...

Since this was now Pigeon storytime, we had to wrap things up with a Pigeon story.

Closing Song: If You’re an Elephant/Piggie/Pigeon and You Know It!

Extra: 5 Little Pigeons Jumping on the Bed

Virtual Baby Storytime: Week 9

While we look at moving back into the library (I’m back in the library two days a week now–starting today!), virtual programs continue. We are discussing how to transition to filming in the library, especially since our building will most likely be opening to the public soon, any regular programming spaces are being used for quarantine of deliveries or returns, and an open-office staff space with no area for private filming. Returning to the library gives others staff members who don’t have the at-home tech an opportunity to film storytimes…but that also means restarting a learning curve about the technology and the differences between an in-person and virtual storytime, at a time when the patron expectation in program quality is higher (after all we’ve been doing this a while).

More Baby Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Babies understand more than they can say. Using gestures, including simple hand signs is a great way to communicate with your little one. More, Stop, and No are great words to practice.

Book: Leo Loves Baby Time by Anna McQuinn

Leo Loves Baby Time: McQuinn, Anna, Hearson, Ruth: 9781580896658 ...

Song: She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain by Old Town School of Folk Music

Action Rhyme: Head and Shoulders

Bounce Rhyme: Old Grey Mare

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Bounce: Two Little Boats

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Song: The Tickle Song by Rainbow Songs

Puppets: Jump!

— Find more Book Retelling activities. —

Manipulative: Stuffed Animals

Closing Song: Skinnamarink

Virtual Baby Storytime: Week 8

Babies, babies, babies! I’m adding a couple new items this week I haven’t tried before–a new action rhyme and puppet activity. I’ve really enjoyed book retellings with toddlers and preschoolers, and I’m going to try to rethink some of my puppet activities to still include those animal noises that are so important for this age while theming them to stories instead of mostly rhymes. Not sure how that will actually work in person, but I think it works well virtually. This was the first time I used Everybunny Count as well–not for lack of trying, as I kept meaning to use it and then I would get sick or something like a pandemic would happen and my storytimes would be cancelled.

More Baby Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: When playing, have fun making noises like animal sounds or truck sounds. Hearing different noises and experiencing different pitches and volumes helps baby’s language development.

Book: Everybunny Count! by Ellie Sandall

Everybunny Count!: 9781444933840: Amazon.com: Books

Song: What Shall We Do with the Sleeping Baby? by Rainbow Songs

Action Rhyme: Clap Them

Bounce Rhyme: I’m Bouncing

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Bounce: Rocking Horse

— Find more Baby Bounce Rhymes. —

Song: Hands Together, Hands Apart by Rainbow Songs

Puppets: Do Crocs Kiss?

— Find more Book Retelling activities. —

Manipulative: Drums

Closing Song: Skinnamarink

Virtual Preschool Storytime: Week 2

Back to preschool! I’m not sure how many more of these I will get to do as we move back into the library in the next few weeks, so I’m excited to have another opportunity to program for preschoolers. I particularly like being able to retell books with flannels, puppets, and props, which just isn’t something I can do as much with babies, since everything is so action-oriented due to those short attention spans. I even broke out one of my personal flannel sets for the camera this week, since I’m filming from home anyway.

I’ve really enjoyed virtual programming–there is something freeing in not having a group of kids in front of me. I know many don’t feel this way, and it was an adjustment at first, but I am much less self-conscious without kids and adults staring at me. I’m not nervous beforehand the way I am for an in-person storytime. I also enjoy the YouTube videos–it is an interesting way to make what feels like a more permanent footprint with our services. I know we will be virtually programming for a while longer, but I hope we also continue some version of our YouTube presence after this is over. There are always people who can’t make it into the library, but some of those people can watch us on their devices. It’s a different way to reach our community.

More Preschool Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Preschool Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Have your preschooler tell you a story they are familiar with

Book: Grandma’s Tiny House by JaNay Brown-Wood (Watch Book Talk Video here.)

Grandma's Tiny House: Brown-Wood, JaNay, Burris, Priscilla ...

Song: Banana Banana Meatball by Blazer Fresh

Action Rhyme: Funky Spunky Monkey

Retelling: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

— Discover more Book Retellings. —

Action Rhyme: Dino Ditty

Magnet: Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?

— Discover more Flannel & Magnet Activities. —

Closing Song: Elmo Slide by Sesame Street

Virtual Baby Storytime: Week 7

I am bouncing with ages quite a bit in June, and while I will be presenting two more virtual preschool storytimes this month, I am also back to Baby Storytimes the whole month. I’m excited to be back with babies, though not so much to have to live up to my coworker’s adorable baby who made appearances throughout May.

As I expected, I am recycling some of my content here that I used in the first six weeks. Repetition is good for this age, and I also keep to a more strict routine with this age range week to week (though I am reordering my middle slightly). I have had more time than I may have had in the library, so I was able to do more research than usual, and I am planning to scatter a few new content pieces throughout, especially new body rhymes and puppet activities, which will mean a couple new videos a week.

More Baby Storytime Content:

Find additional storytime content at the links below:

Baby Storytime Intro Song & Rhyme

Early Literacy Tip: Talk to your baby as you go about your day, even if they can’t respond with words yet. Encourage, listen, and respond to your baby’s babbling.

Book: Peek-a-Baby by Karen Katz