Some more spooky storytime stories and rhymes this week! I’m back to baby storytime in November, but I’m already searching for more to retell with toddlers in December! If you ever want to watch these live, we have three live storytimes a week on the Westerville Public Library Facebook Page on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 9:30 am. My next storytime is for the babies on Tuesday at 9:30 am.
Early Literacy Tip: Make up your own words to familiar tunes to create silly songs. Let your child choose unique animals for “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and unique actions for “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
Book Recommendation:The Ghosts Went Floating by Kim Norman (abbreviated)
A handful of “spooky” storytime additions this week, mixed in with some old favorites. I have a lot of great new material for upcoming baby and toddler storytimes from the book Move, Play, Learn by Alyssa Jewell.
Early Literacy Tip: Toddlers need to move, so don’t worry if they act out stories or just skip, romp, or tumble as you read to them. They may be moving, but they are listening.
Book Recommendation:Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed by Bill Cotter
Another themed Saturday storytime special! This was a little different for me because I was not a Pete the Cat fan before this storytime–but I have been won over! Pete the Cat Storytime was a ton of fun, though a little more low key than some of my past virtual Saturday storytime specials.
I made another “commercial” for this program, which you can view below:
I’m not sure how much these videos contribute to the audience for these programs, but I am looking forward to some in-person marketing when our library reopens for browsing next week. This may give some new life to all of our virtual storytimes.
To help continue the Pete the Cat fun at home, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Download it here.
The general storytime layout is below, with videos where applicable. This was a bit more chill for me, with me reading two books and retelling one more. No color-changing unicorns or flattened dinosaurs this time!
Backdrop Setup: Pete the Cat pennant banners, posters, and images. I’m happy to share these printable files if anyone is interested–just let me know in those comments or send us an email.
Pete the Cat Intro: Instead of my regular storytime intro song (Shake Your Sillies Out), we started with something a little more cool and grooving–Clap Your Hands by They Might be Giants.
Book: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin *I read this book, but I am including a previous video of this story being retold in flannel form below.
Song: Go Pete Go!
Book Retelling: Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes
Action Rhyme: Cool Cat Boogie (During storytime, we did not include the music for sake of time and so that I could include music in our last read aloud.)
Magnet Activity: Pete the Cat Playing Hide and Seek
Book: Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes I synced up the music for this book so that I read the sentences, and we all sang along with the music each time Pete sang a song.
I am so excited for October toddler storytimes! Get ready for leaves, monsters, and more things fall and spooky. No weekly storytime next week. I wish I could say I was out on vacation, but things are never that simple. You will get to read all about this Saturday’s Pete the Cat storytime though!
Early Literacy Tip: Use those finger muscles! Practice fingerplays and small motions like picking up small foods, crumpling paper, and holding crayons.
Book Recommendation:Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson
Taking another baby storytime break after this set. I squeezed a few fall activities in this time, and I am very excited for a month of fall and spooky toddler storytimes. I was also super excited for the I Spy on the Farm activity (pictured above, video below) that I wanted to squeeze in before these all have to be filmed at work, and I can’t get quite as creative with the space.
What is the best way to label baby storytime outlines? I don’t use themes, but does the current weekly title make sense? Should I change the titles to the title of the book I used? Now that I’ve been at this for a while, I’m starting to doubt my blog organization skills. It’s starting to remind me of my closet that I reorganize once a year.
I didn’t actually present this storytime (I was sick!), but I still thought I would share the outline and videos with all of you.
Early Literacy Tip: Look in the mirror and name body parts. Ask questions like “Where is baby’s nose?” Then point to your child’s nose (and your nose!).
Book:Look! Babies Head to Toe by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Anoosha Syed
As part of our virtual programming, I began a monthly school age storytime, designed for ages 6-8. This program highlights a different diverse individual from the Little People Big Dreams book series.
Explore More Little People, Big Dreams Storytime Outlines:
Like all of our virtual live storytimes, this program took place on Facebook. I didn’t expect an audience here, and, as I expected, I was very much presenting a storytime to no one, but we are leaving these programs up a little longer than regular storytimes due to the content. We have had a slight increase in views over time, and I’m thinking about ways to make this more accessible (such as uploading storytimes to YouTube).
First Book: Ella Fitzgerald by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara (Little People Big Dreams)
Music Break: A Tisket, A Tasket by Ella Fitzgerald (with shakers)
Second Book: Making Their Voices Heard : The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe
Closing Rhyme: See You Later, Alligator
See you later, alligator In a while, crocodile Give a hug, ladybug Blow a kiss, jellyfish See you soon, big baboon Out the door, dinosaur Take care, polar bear Wave goodbye, butterfly!
Next Time
In October, I’m planning to focus on athlete Pele. I think the storytime outline is going to stay the same, though not all famous people are going to lend themselves to a specific song like Ella Fitzgerald does. I’d like to continue to always use diverse musicians for my music though, no matter who that month’s famous individual is. I’m hoping interest in this series grows over time.
I’m back in the baby storytime routine again, though still getting used to filming at work. I have an interesting personal conundrum with filming on our new iPad–everyone else in our department has been filming on Apple devices so that they can see themselves. I am an Adroid user, so I’ve not been able to see myself during the last five months of filming. When testing out the new iPad Pro, I realized that I find watching myself extremely disorienting, particularly because of the flipped screen. Also, I am way too focused on myself–and I am not the reason I am running storytime. I have a feeling I’m going to be flipping the iPad and still filming from the camera on the back of the device.
Another themed Saturday storytime special, this time celebrating the one and only Doc McStuffins! I didn’t have much knowledge about the young toy doctor before my deep dive for Doc McStuffins Storytime, but I genuinely enjoyed the episodes I watched. I’m surprised she isn’t more of a focal point in pandemic times, as she has a series of songs that align perfectly for kids and current times–songs about handwashing, playing outside, and even one about not being able to hug your friends right now so you don’t spread germs.
I made another “commercial” for this program, which you can view below:
To help continue the Doc McStuffins fun at home, I curated a PDF packet that we shared with event participants. Download it here.
Doc McStuffins Storytime Video
Unlike past storytimes, I didn’t create individual YouTube videos portionsof of this storytime. Most of the storytime included a lot of Doc McStuffins music, and the internet does not need more videos of me dancing along to music without clear motions.
I am going to risk the wrath of the copyright overlords and share a video of the complete storytime. This may be removed in a few weeks, but I am particularly proud of how this storytime came together, and I think it will make more sense in its full effect:
*The storytime starts about 5 minutes into the video. We start our livestreams early to allow viewers time to login and make sure technology is working.
Doc McStuffins Storytime Outline
Little ones were encouraged to bring their own stuffed animal to storytime.
Doc McStuffins Theme Song Intro: We got ready for storytime by dancing to the original Doc McStuffins theme song.
Book: Guess Who, Doc!
First Patient: Stuffy
After a quick explanation of how our program was going to work, I accidentally knocked down Doc’s Big Book of Boo Boos and Doc’s stuffed dragon, Stuffy. Poor Stuffy was instantly flattened, and we had to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.
(How to do: Stuffed Stuffy was on the bookcase. Paper Stuffy was on the floor since before storytime began. I “accidentally” knocked stuffed Stuffy onto the floor with the Big Book of Boo Boos. When I bent down, I picked up paper Stuffy. We talked through our activity and song, and then put Stuffy down so he could stomp his own feet. After the song, we picked stuffed Stuffy back up.
Cured Stuffy by moving and grooving to shake out his stuffiness by dancing along to Doc McStuffin’s Dinosaur Stomp.
Second Patient: Gustav the Gator
Now that Stuffy was all better, we checked into our waiting room and discovered Hallie Hippo had a patient for us: Gustav the Gator! Gustav has been warned in the past by Doc about eating the right foods for him, and we had to talk to him again about foods he should sometimes eat versus foods he should always eat.
Taught Gustav about foods he can always eat and foods he should just eat sometimes as a special treat.
For our Always vs. Sometimes activity, I divided a magnetic cookie sheet in half, and we sorted chocolate chip cookies, apples, french fries, bananas, carrots, and ice cream (doughnuts and water were cut for time).
Third Patient: Lambie
Now that Gustav was feeling a bit better, we let him rest. We were about to check in on our waiting room again, when we started to smell something odd. Lambie was covered in mud! We needed to give Lambie a bath to get her nice and clean, and then we also practiced washing our own hands.
Gave Lambie a bath with the song “This Is the Way We Wash Our Legs.”
Practiced washing our own hands to the Doc McStuffin’s Wash Your Hands song.
We sang “This Is the Way We Wash Our Legs” to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”:
This Is The Way We Wash Our Legs This is the way we wash our legs, Wash our legs, wash our legs. This is the way we wash our legs, Wash our legs, wash our legs, When we are nice and dirty!
We continued with our arms, bellies, and heads.
Fourth Patient: Chilly
We realized that we were missing one of Doc’s friends! We hadn’t seen Chilly all morning. Doc left us a clue with a guessing game activity. We found a picture of Chilly behind a picture of a white bear, and we found the real Chilly behind the real stuffed bear in our waiting room. Chilly was a bit nervous about seeing so many people for storytime, but we helped him get over his nerves by finding ways to say hello virtually.
During Chilly’s turn as a patient, we:
Played “Chilly, Chilly, Where Do You Hide?” to find Chilly.
Found stuffed Chilly behind our white bear.
Diagnosed Chilly with a case of The Shy Guys.
Said “hello!” three different ways with the song “We Wave and Sing Hello!”
We played our own version of the storytime classic, Little Mouse, Little Mouse, by checking behind various toys to see where Chilly might be hiding. We used the words:
Chilly, Chilly, where do you hide? Are you behind the _______________? Let’s look inside!
After we found Chilly, we taught him different ways to say hello:
We Wave and Sing Hello We wave and sing hello! We wave and sing hello! With all our friends at storytime, We wave and sing hello!
We continued with: Sign and Sing Hello, Smile and Sing Hello
Fifth Patient: Hallie
All this time, we had left poor Hallie in the waiting room, but we realized that she hadn’t been talking much. We found out she was very tired today, even though she slept a lot last night, and we realized she might need some exercise to get some new energy.
Cured Hallie by doing some exercise with the Doc McStuffin’s Ready for Action song.
Showed off Hallie’s talking skills (she is a squeeze and talk stuffed animal).
Closing
We wrapped things up by reviewing everyone we helped today, talking about our Doc McStuffins School of Medicine Certificates (in those Doc McStuffins At Home Packets), and dancing along to the Doc McStuffins Theme Song – Toy Hospital Edition.
I wasn’t sure about attendance at this program, as the Doc McStuffins tv show ended in April, but this was my second highest Saturday Special attendance yet (after Baby Shark). Lots of Doc love, and now that I’ve spent some time with the character, I see why.
And we are back! I haven’t presented a baby storytime in over two months, which feels a little odd, but makes it more refreshing to come back to this age range. Trying out some new bounce rhymes, a new action rhyme, and a new puppet activity. I’m also super excited about my Shaker Song this week–Baby Loves Beignets by Jazzy Ash.
I also really wanted to use this perfect new baby storytime book, but alas, my August counterpart claimed it for storytime two weeks ago. But you should use it!
Early Literacy Tip: Sing all the time with your little one—make it a part of your routine. Tune “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” is great for singing about daily activities.
Book:Wheels on the Bus by Jane Cabrera
Song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Old Town School of Folk Music
