This has been a crazy past week of storytimes, but I kicked off May family storytime Saturdays with Baby Shark Storytime!
I ran this program in person back in January to a whopping 185 people! While that was just a few months ago, it feels closer to three years, and it was also something easy enough for me to replicate virtually that has a strong following.
We had a 30 minute storytime followed by about 10 minutes of Baby Shark bubbles and dancing. Videos of most content can be found below–as usual, there are a few more videos than I actually had time for during the storytime.
I also made a PDF for families filled with Baby Shark activities to do at home. See and download below:
We had about 63 live viewers, with 100 one-minute views by the end of the live recording. Not a bad turnout for one of our slowest virtual storytime days of the week.
Background: While my library is closed during the COVID pandemic, we are hosting five virtual storytimes a week, livestreamed through our Facebook page. While those livestreams are deleted soon after they are complete, we are also making YouTube clips of select elements of our storytimes that our patrons can view anytime they would like–and that I can share with all of you!
Baby Shark is popular. I know this. I use the song regularly in my storytimes for all ages. However, I don’t think I realized how popular until I had 185 kids and adults crammed in our programming space for Baby Shark Storytime.
Like many libraries, we are generally short-staffed on the weekends. While we provide a weekly Saturday storytime, many of our other popular programs, especially for the 0-5 crowd, take place on weekdays. This works better for us, and those events still get large crowds, but working parents do not often get a chance to attend these party style events.
This was my second Saturday Tales @ 10 “takeover” (read about Mother Bruce Storytime to learn about my first one). I like using this programming slot for a bigger event because you have a guaranteed built-it audience (our regular weekend storytime attendees), and you also provide an opportunity to attract new faces to the library without having to ask for an additional staff member to work that weekend to cover your desk time.
Baby Shark Storytime was a celebration of all things Baby Shark. We had a shark-themed storytime followed by a collection of shark activities in place of our regular free play.
My storytime followed a very similar structure to our standard family storytime. I tried to not make everything Baby Shark related so that parents wouldn’t pull their hair out (though, surprisingly, I think this just confused parents).
Opening Rhyme: Open, Shut Them Open, shut them; open shut them. Let your hands go clap, clap, clap. Open, shut them; open, shut them. Drop them in your lap, lap, lap.
Walk them, walk them, Walk them, walk them, Right up to your chin, chin, chin. Open your little mouth, But do not let them in!
Book: Bedtime for Baby Shark This baby shark title has some easy to replicate hand motions without just singing the song (which we will get to) as a group in book form.
Fingerplay: Two Little Sharks Two little sharks in the deep blue sea. One named Luna and one named Lee. Swim away Luna, swim away Lee! Come back, Luna, come back Lee!
Action Rhyme: Slippery Fish Slippery fish, slippery fish, swimming through the water. Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp! (clap) Oh no! It’s been eaten by a…
Continue with: Octopus, Great White Shark, Humongous Whale
Magnet: Five Sharks in the Bathtub One shark in the bathtub Going for a swim Knock, knock (clap twice) Splash, splash (slap knees twice) Come on in! (wave)
Magnet: Five Little Fishies Five little fishies, swimming in the sea. Teasing Mr. Shark — “You Can’t Catch Me!” Along comes Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be… And (claps) SNAPS that fishy right out of the sea!
After the storytime, many parents bolted because 185 people in a room meant for 75 is a lot.
But for those folks that stayed, we had some activities in the room as well as a scavenger hunt around our youth department.
Shark Fin Hats
Since this was my “easy” craft, it ended up being a bit more complicated than I would have liked. Each headband required 2-3 grey strips of paper–1-2 for the standard headband and another across the middle that the grey shark fin would be attached to. A standard shark fin shape was printed on grey cardstock to create the fin.
Shark Clothespin Puppets
The more complicated craft. Kids colored their own shark prints (found here) to make moveable shark clothespin puppets. I tried to have folks use glue dots instead of bottled glue to attach the sharks to the clothespins. That wasn’t the best idea, as they didn’t stick very well.
Pin the Fin on the Shark
This is exactly what it sounds like. Kids played pin-the-fin-on-the-shark with our lovely Baby Shark banner print from our marketing department. They received a button made on our button maker afterwards.
Feed the Shark Bean Bag Toss
This game was designed to be a standard bean bag toss game. Kids threw our toy fish into the shark’s mouth. They received a sticker after a successful throw.
This sort of worked out as planned, but essentially became a fascinating activity for our younger kids (ages 0-2) who just wanted to pick up the fish, put them in the shark’s mouth, take them out, put them in the basket, and dump them back out. Since this activity seemed to work best for the little kids, this helped the flow of the room since the older kids focused on the crafts.
Baby Shark Scavenger Hunt
Our last activity was our Baby Shark scavenger hunt, which got parents and kids out of our cramped programming space and into the youth department. After completing the scavenger hunt, each kid received a Baby Shark bookmark. Download the scavenger hunt here and the printable images here.
