Reader’s Theater

I am not a theater person. That isn’t entirely true–I love watching productions. However, I am not a fan of performing in them, nor do I have any background in theater or drama club beyond that one play in middle school and a scattering of elementary full-class productions. Even with all of that, For unknown reasons, within days of starting my current job, I was told I would be the partnering librarian for the monthly reader’s theater program.

Fifteen kids ages 8-12 attended a one-hour weekly rehearsal for three weeks followed by a performance for family and friends during the fourth week. We would take a two week break, and restart the cycle with a new set of scripts and (potentially) a new batch of kids.

This program has grown on me, and evolved, over time. It is still quite bare bones for a theater/acting program. I only see the attendees for three hours ahead of performance day, and this program has no budget beyond the folders that hold their scripts and a roll of masking tape. However, the kids enjoy the program, the simple structure works for me, and the low budget makes this easy to replicate.

Before the Program

Most of my work takes place before I see the kids the first time. Personally, I don’t use standard “reader’s theater scripts” that you can find on Google–they often feel forced or aren’t as fun for my 3rd-5th graders. Instead, I look for funny picture books that can be adapted to a reader’s theater style performance. I also have a stash of old Zoom Playhouse Scripts. The Zoom website is no longer available, but some of these can be transcribed from YouTube videos.

Some of my favorite picture books I’ve adapted over the years include:

I’ve also been creating a jokes script that all the kids can perform in at the same time (mostly pulling from the Just Joking series).

I plan for a full group of 15 kids. Not every kid is in every play. I select scripts that allow for 60 parts total (four per reader). Many picture books allow for multiple narrator roles, allowing me to tweak scripts to fit the number of parts I need to reach 60.

Once I have all of my scripts, I print them all out and highlight the appropriate lines for each part. Then, the sorting begins.

I sort scripts into folders before the first rehearsal. Kids then randomly select a folder without knowing what parts are inside. This doesn’t let me control which performers get which parts, but it does allow for scripts to be more evenly distributed and leads to less arguments from kids (and parents) about favoritism.

To break scripts down into folders, I try to aim for the following:

  • 4 scripts per folder
  • At least 1 script that is a “lead” role (more lines)
  • Not all parts in one folder are narrator roles
  • Folders generally stick to one “gender”. I try to use gender neutral names when possible, but if I am stuck with a few more obviously gendered parts I try to keep them together. (I was so proud of my group this last round–this was the first time that we had boys as Cinderella and girls as Princes and not one complaint or argument about switching parts from kids or parents.)
  • If possible, spread scripts out based on the chosen performance order (not all scripts are at the beginning or end)

After (or during) the script organization process, I create the performance order. Once that is set, I create labels that list which scripts are in a particular folder as well as a second label listing the performance order. Both labels are put on the front of each folder, and then the folder is filled with the appropriate scripts, in performance order. I use three-prong folders, so scripts are hole-punched and inserted into the prongs.

Some other practices to make script assignment smooth:

  • Scripts are all labeled with a letter.
  • I create a master sheet for me, organized by play, labeling which scripts have which parts. Eventually, I change script letters to the name of the performer. This helps a ton when 15 8-11-year-olds are paying zero attention to which play comes next.
  • I have a jar on hand with the names of each kid inside on a separate slip of paper. If someone is absent, I pull a name out of the jar to evenly distribute extra parts.

Reader’s Theater Program

Each Reader’s Theater session follows the same 4-week structure:

  • Week 1: Intro to Reader’s Theater, Basic Stage Terminology, Random Script Distribution, Rehearsal of First Half of Scripts
  • Week 2: Script Folder Exchange (optional), Rehearsal of Second Half of Scripts, Practice any scripts from week 1 that now involve props or a lot of entering and exiting
  • Week 3: Full Rehearsal
  • Week 4: Performance for Parents

Before the kids arrive, I set up our stage, by running a piece of masking tape to block off a chunk of the room. This is the easiest “stage” creation, and everyone understands the distinction.

The first three weeks begin with a theater game, normally either Bippity Bippity Bop or Splat. I’ve never been too successful with other theater games. Normally only 2-3 kids out of 15 are actual current or future “theater kids”, and at least a few will shut down if I try to get them to dance in front of their peers or do something that could be seen as embarrassing. The kids are generally already full of energy after school, so I also avoid any game that encourages running as it is hard enough to get them to not do that on their own.

We only rehearse one script at a time, so the kids who are not currently practicing are welcome to watch and give feedback, or they can explore some busywork packets–mad libs, dot-to-dots, kawaii coloring sheets, Captain Underpants Name Changer, etc.

On performance day, kids enter our Activity Center first for one last talk through before we invite friends and family inside. I give them a hodgepodge of cheap dress up items we have on hand to help them get the theater vibe and feel a little bolder when performing in front of a crowd. I introduce the performers to the room, and we run through our scripts for our audience.

Once the initial work is complete, this program is easy to setup and roll out each week, with little prep needed week-to-week. I currently run this program once a year (instead of monthly), and while I don’t see this as strongly with the less frequent programming, there is a notable improvement in the kids reading skills and confidence reading out loud over the course of the month. It also fills a gap in our programming–we regularly offer tech programs and quite a few art programs, but there isn’t an alternate offering that fits that “performing” space. Between helping interested kids test out their stage skills on an easy audience and the direct connections to reading fluency, Reader’s Theater is always a winner.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

We are joining the blog trend of Monday posts about what we have read during the last week (3/2/20-3/8/20).

Annamarie’s Reading

Annamarie Top Titles include:

Note: I watched Runaways this week, so my reading is still down. I should get through my own massive stack of new release picture books next week though.

Michala’s Reading

Michala’s top titles include:

Note: .

Note: I rolled heavy on illustrated books this week trying to quickly cut down the stack of books at my desk…..it sort of worked.

Kids Passive Program: Book Tournament

A few year’s ago, one of my personal work goals was to start a monthly kids passive program. At the time, our library offered a monthly Imagination Station, a pretend play space for approximately ages 2-6, and a monthly teen passive, for students in grades 6-12. Children in the middle often ended up trying to participate in the activities designed for younger or older kids.

Read about some of my other passive programs at the links below:

One of my favorite passives is our Book Tournament voting bracket. I select 16 titles that have appeal to ages 6-12 (generally our most popularly requested titles), and match them against one another.

Visitors of all ages can vote about once a week for their favorite titles. Over a month, our titles are whittled down to our final match-up, which has now twice resulted in Harry Potter vs. Dog Man (but a different outcome each time).

Voting sheets and a voting box are displayed at the youth desk and beside our large bracket poster.

For 2020, our first round match-ups included (winners in bold):

  • Dog Man vs. Magic Tree House
  • Land of Stories vs. Amulet
  • I Survived vs. Wimpy Kid
  • Big Nate vs. Smile
  • Harry Potter vs. Last Kids
  • Bad Guys vs. Captain Underpants (by one vote!)
  • Who Would Win vs. Percy Jackson
  • Wings of Fire vs. Baby Sitter’s Club

Our rounds continued until we were eventually whittled down to the same match-up as 2018: Dog Man vs. Harry Potter. In 2018, Harry Potter won by a landslide. In 2020, however, Dog Man took the trophy by a single-vote victory.

Many patrons came in each week to check on–and sometimes attempt to contest–who had won the previous week. I’m excited to bring this back again next year and to see if we have a different outcome. 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

We are joining the blog trend of Monday posts about what we have read during the last week (2/24/20-3/1/20).

Annamarie’s Reading

Annamarie Top Titles include:

Note: I knew my reading would slow down–spent a lot of this week adjusting vacation plans for the next year (coronavirus!), so not so much time buried in books.

Michala’s Reading

Michala’s top titles include:

Note: .

Note: I was on vacation most of this week and really fell behind on my reading.

Baby Storytime Outline

More baby storytime highlights:

The songs, rhymes, stories, and activities I used for a 25-minute baby storytime, followed by 20 minutes of free play in February 2020 are below. Our baby storytime is for ages 0-24 months, with most children being 12-24 months old. Approximately 112 people attended this storytime, including about 55 babies.

My powerpoint is available here:

Room Setup: Doors open about 5 minutes before storytime. Powerpoint slides are displayed on a smartboard at the front of the room with words to all songs and rhymes. As folks enter, two bubble machines are hard at work in the front of the room while baby songs play from the department iTunes account.

Welcome Song: Wake Up Feet (play from 0:14 to 1:00)
Wake up feet, wake up feet
Wake up feet and wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
Wake up feet, wake up feet
Wake and wiggle in the morning.
Continue with: Legs, Arms, Hands

Welcome Rhyme: Clap and Sing Hello
We clap and sing hello,
We clap and sing hello,
With all our friends at storytime,
We clap and sing hello!

Continue with: kick and sing hello, wave and sing hello

Early Literacy Tip: During play, ask open-ended questions such as “What do you think will happen if…”, “can you think of another way to…”, or “what else can you build…”. Make sure to give little ones time to think about their answers (which they probably won’t express verbally).

Book: Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It by Old Town School of Folk Music

Movement Rhyme: 5 Little Monkeys
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Continue with: 4, 3, 2, 1

Body Rhyme: Where Is Big Toe?
To the tune: Where Is Thumpkin?

Where is big toe? Where is big toe?
Here I am! Here I am!
Wiggle, waggle big toe,
Wiggle, waggle big toe,
Here I am. Here I am.

Continue with:
Elbow…bendy, bendy elbow
Tummy…squishy, squashy tummy
Two hands…happy, clappy two hands

Tickle Rhyme: Pizza, Pickle Pumpernickel
Pizza, pickle, pumpernickel
My baby deserves a tickle!
One for her nose
One for his toes
One for the tummy where the cracker goes!

Song: Hands Together, Hands Apart by Rainbow Songs

Movement Rhymes: This portion of my storytime involves 2-3 rhymes that specifically focus on bouncing, swaying, or tilting to the rhythm of the words. I talk about how these types of rhymes help develop phonological awareness.

  • Toast in the Toaster
    I’m toast in the toaster, (sway)
    I’m getting very hot!
    Tick tock, tick tock,
    Up I pop! (lift)
  • Grand Old Duke of York
    The Grand Old Duke of York
    He had ten thousand men.
    He marched them up to the top of the hill (lift)
    And he marched them down again!

    And when they’re up, they’re up. (lift)
    And when they’re down, they’re down.
    And when they’re only half-way up, (small lift)
    They’re neither up nor down!

    Oh he marched them to the left.
    And he marched them to the right.
    Then he marched them round and round
    And marched them out of sight.
  • Here We Go Bumpy-Boo
    Here we go bumpy-boo
    Here we go bumpy-bye
    Here we go bumpy-bee
    All on top of my knee.

    I bounce you to the left
    I bounce you to the right
    I bounce you up and down (lift)
    I bounce you out of sight! (tip over)

    Here we go bumpy-boo
    Here we go bumpy-bye
    Here we go bumpy-bee
    All on top of my knee.

    I bounce you very fast.
    I bounce you very slow.
    I bounce you up and down.
    And back we both do go.

Puppet Time: Dear Zoo
Dear zoo,
I want a pet.
And they sent me a….

This week’s friends: Elephant, Lion, Sloth, Monkey, Dog

Manipulative Time: Bells (and tambourines due to crowd size)

  • Manipulative Rhyme: We Shake and Shake
    We shake and shake and shake and stop.
    We shake and shake and shake and stop.
    We shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and shake and STOP!
    Continue with: Tap, Bounce

Closing Song: Skinnamarink by Sharon Lois and Bram

Discovery Time Activities: Discovery Time is 15-20 minutes of free-play at the end of storytime that encourages parents to have time to talk to one another and for parents to interact with their children. I try to include a variety of fine motor, gross motor, and sensory activities that appeal to my wide age range as well as a mixture of purchased toys and items that parents can remake at home. This week’s activities included:

  • Ball Pit Balls and Easter Grass in Baby Pools
  • Tumbling Mats with Soft Blocks
  • Baby Dolls
  • Tower Builders
  • Large Balls
  • Sensory Tiles
  • Pom Pom Drop

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

We are joining the blog trend of Monday posts about what we have read during the last week (2/17/20-2/23/20).

Annamarie’s Reading

Annamarie Top Titles include:

Note: My reading is slowing down a bit…I think I’m going to have to look for some quick, light reads soon. I’ve been reading a lot of books with heavy topics or focusing on murder lately, and I need to balance out my brain.

Michala’s Reading

Michala’s top titles include:

Note: .

Note: Next week will be super light on titles from me as I was on vacay for most of the week.

Innovation Academy: Coding 101

The Innovation Academy series began as monthly tech programs for kids ages 8-11. Since then, it has evolved into a series that lets school-age students explore different skills, art forms, technology, and more. One of my favorite program themes is Coding 101. In just an hour, with kids with a wide range of coding skills, we covered the basics of block-based coding and how computers work.

Learn about how I made this program virtual in this post.

The PowerPoint I used during this program is below:

Inside of a Computer

We started by talking about how computers work. I have an old computer tower and some extra parts from our computer services department. We discussed what each piece did. The kids loved getting their hands on all of the small parts and looking at them up close.

Eventually, our conversation shifted from hardware to software, which led us to coding.

Group Coding Practice – Jelly Sandwich

After talking through some coding vocabulary, we discovered key coding concepts by completing a group activity. I was the “robot” and the kids told me, step by step, how to make a jelly sandwich.

Things quickly got quite ridiculous. The kids always seem to start this activity by telling me to “get some bread” or “open the bread” which leads to me promptly tearing open a bag of bread in a way that causes bread slices to fly everywhere.

Afterwards, we discussed how this activity connects to the coding practice they will be doing later. The kids catch on quickly to coding skills such as having to be very specific and learning that they will spend time making and correcting mistakes–and that is okay.

Activity 1: Drawing with Dash

I have been presenting fewer technology programs lately. I’m burnt out on them, and I think a lot of my growing disinterest is doing the same activities over and over again. My regular kids get bored, and so do I. We can only do so many obstacle courses. There are only so many challenges that the kids find fun that also work well for a mixture of kids with differing abilities. Every program, I have those few kids who have attended every one of my technology programs, mixed in with those kids who have never heard of the word “coding.”

This month, I pulled out an activity I have done before, but with a bit of a twist. We used Dash robot LEGO connectors and rubber bands to build a marker attachment for Dash. This takes a majority of the activity time, though there is always that one group that eventually realizes that two rubber bands will work just as well to hold a marker in a standing position as the most elaborate LEGO arm.

After attaching their marker, kids then pulled a variety of drawing challenges out of a jar. They used the Blockly coding app to try to create everything from letters to simple shapes to more elaborate and ridiculous creations (like a sloth or a banana–which end up with some interesting pictures).

Activity 2: Sphero Bocee Ball

This was a first-time activity for me and a smash hit with attendees. Kids worked in pairs to play an abbreviated version of bocee ball. The goal: get your SPRK+ robot as close as possible to the center of the target as possible.

All teams started in the same place. Once the game started, no one could stand in the playing field or physically touch any robots. Robots can hit other robots, (hopefully) pushing them away from the target. Robots can only be moved via code through the Sphero EDU app.

Each round was timed carefully to keep things moving.

Pairs had two minutes to practice their strategy and familiarize themselves with block-based coding via the Sphero EDU app. Giving the kids practice time was vital to let them realize exactly how far the robot could go in a short amount of time at a high speed.

The competing pairs played a round of rock, paper, scissors. The winning team decided whether they wanted to go first or second.

The team going first had one minute to finalize their code. After Team One’s turn, the second team then had another minute to work on their code.

We repeated this for three rounds.

Kids got very competitive trying to see who could get their robot closest to the center of the target (preferably knocking other robots out of the way in the process).

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

We are joining the blog trend of Monday posts about what we have read during the last week (2/3/20-2/9/20).

Annamarie’s Reading

Annamarie Top Titles include:

Note: Slowly listening to an audiobook over three weeks was kind of amazing. Sadie is just as outstanding as everyone had told me. (I also completely understand why it didn’t come to discussion for our age 0-14 list a few years back.)

Michala’s Reading

Michala’s top titles include:

Note: .

Note: Fan favorite of the week was Little Heroes of Color: 50 Who Made a BIG Difference. So much information from a board book and now I get to research amazing POCs I never learned about until finding thins read.

Favorite Baby Songs

For more baby storytime posts explore:

Music is a staple of baby storytime. It is more valuable for little ones to hear people singing instead of recorded music. When singing acapella, adults can slow down words to help little ones hear small parts. Little ones often respond more to their parent’s voices than recorded music, and singing can help build the child-caregiver bond. I use a scattering of well known songs throughout storytimes that we will sing as a group without backing music (often Wheels on the Bus or If You’re Happy and You Know It).

However, like many folks, my voice is far, far away from Beyonce’s. My singing can be politely described as off-key. I sing in front of parents and poke fun at myself, reminding them that if I can sit in front of 100 people and sing horribly, they can do it with their child who doesn’t know any better. For everyone’s sake, however, I include a good amount of recorded music in my storytime. My favorite songs are linked below.

Just like my rhymes and other activities, all the words to our baby songs are on my PowerPoint in the front of the room:

Kids Music – Storytime Baby Songs

These are my favorite baby songs to use as an element of storytime (like books, rhymes, and puppets).

Kids Music – Play Music

These are some of my favorite kids songs that I use for play time.

Popular Music

Popular music is a great way to engage parents in a storytime as well as littles.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

We are joining the blog trend of Monday posts about what we have read during the last week (2/3/20-2/9/20).

Annamarie’s Reading

Annamarie Top Titles include:

Note: I’ve been pushing through many of the ARCs I got at ALA Midwinter, so we can get them into the hands of our patrons. I have a bad habit of holding onto those longer than I should. Lots of graphic novels this week. This Book is Anti-Racist was an excellent read that I’ve been recommending to coworkers.

Michala’s Reading

Michala’s top titles include:

Note: .

Note: Woot woot books! I just got all the ARCs to read for next week……now to wonder if I count them here.

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