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
Last week of toddler storytimes until October and then I actually get to do a few fall/spooky activities! I’ve only done baby storytimes during the fall season before, and I always preference age appropriateness and literacy skills over themes, so I’ve never really looked at fall-themed activities. So much to sprinkle into toddler time! I basically have those storytimes already planned with the amount of stuff I’ve saved…
I do want to look for more toddler books generally, and more specifically, diverse toddler books. Some of my diverse baby books could overlap with this age, but I really want to find more content ideal for toddlers. So many of the great diverse books being published now are solidly preschool or are essentially books for babies (baby body parts, baby faces starring diverse babies). A lot of toddler books that I enjoy star animals–I need to expand that.
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!
Early Literacy Tip: Introduce new vocabulary to your child during imaginative play. Use the big words AND the small words. Use as many words as you can.
First time filming in the building, which was a little bit of an adjustment. It is nice to get back into the toddler groove for a while, though I am missing the simplicity of having a long stretch of the same storytime. At the end of summer session, I ran with preschool storytime for about 6 weeks, allowing me to build on activities and more intentionally look at growth and skill development. Only three weeks with toddlers doesn’t give quite the same amount of time, and since a lot of our storytime presenters have different styles, I know that when I come back to this age in October, its a little more like starting over than flowing from what happened before.
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!
Early Literacy Tip: Read books with excitement and anthusiasm–this can be much easier with books that encourage silly actions, voices, or behaviors. Try being extra silly! Nothing is over-the-top to your kid.
Book Recommendation:Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas
Song: Jelly in the Bowl by Kiboomers
Retelling: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Hello toddlers! For the rest of the fall, I am in a rotation between toddler and baby storytimes (plus a once a month Saturday special!). I will have to do some reassessment on my content for toddlers–this was the age where I ran long the most often, and part of that is not having quite as solid of a routine as I did for babies and preschoolers (and wanting to squeeze so much into just 30 minutes!).
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!
Early Literacy Tip: Singing with your kids is key to early literacy development. It helps kids break down the smaller parts of words. If you aren’t comfortable singing, try rhyming books or books with a great rhythm.
Book Recommendation:Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig
Song: Hot Potato by the Wiggles
Flannel: Five Ferocious Lions
— Find more Flannel & Magnet Activities in this post. —
Another themed Saturday storytime special! I first thought about having a Pinkalicious Party over a year ago after having two different moms ask me for Pinkalicious readers for their sons. Previously, I had felt that a program on this book and tv series was a little too close to conforming to gender norms for my taste, but I was convinced otherwise by the number of young boys expressing interest in the books. While it was never my intention for this program to be virtual, I see a distinct advantage to it–there were many young boys in my virtual audience, and we didn’t have any of the parent comments that could have occurred in person or the social stigma that could have kept a parent from bringing their son to a program celebrating all things pink. (Another way virtual programming can open doors for patrons!)
To help continue the Pinkalicious 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.
Backdrop Setup: Pennant banners and Pinkalicious book covers and images helped make my backdrop more on-theme to increase the Pinkalicious excitement (and it helps that my wall is pink!):
Pinkalicious Intro: We got ready for storytime with Shake Your Sillies Out by Rainbow Songs, my go-to intro song.
Book: Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann
Song:Dance All Day by Bari Kori Pinkalicious is fairly long, so I wanted to get some wiggles out with a movement-heavy song after the book.
Fingerplay: I Have One, I Have Two Little Mermaids (celebrating Aqua from Aqualicious)
Puppets: Down Around the Corner starring Pink Animals
Song: Pink by Pancake Manor (freeze dance!)
Action Rhyme: Pinkalicious, Pinkalicious Turn Around (skipped in storytime)
Magnet: Pinkalicious, Pinkalicious Where Do You Hide?
Magic Wish: Make our unicorn light up with our wishing powers! (only repeated twice in the actual storytime)
My last preschool storytime (outside of specials)–possibly for a long while. If we keep with our proposed schedule for the fall and spring, other than those Saturday programs, I won’t be doing these again. This was such a fun age range. (I think I say that about all of them!)
For me, a benefit of COVID has been being able to really dig into storytimes for different ages. When I started as a youth librarian, I had very little storytime experience, and I essentially served as a substitute. I was tossed head first into Baby Storytime, which I made my own. I substituted for other ages, but I often just repeated the same program because I saw the kids so infrequently. Now that I’ve really been working with each age range, I can see the improvement across all of my storytimes, plus I have more awareness of what is appropriate for each age range.
One thing I didn’t get to explore as much as I wanted these last few weeks is diverse musicians. I am still working on this project, but as happens, especially now, deadlines keep trumping projects like these. I have been chipping away, however. I have a great lists of artists and CDs, and I am working on the listening. More soon!
When sharing a story together, take a look at the book cover. Have your child predict what the book might be about. Read them the title and see if that changes their thoughts. Take a look at the pictures inside, and see what they think.
Book:King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes
Song: Wiggledy-Woo by Mr. Eric & Mr. Michael (No video, as we don’t need a permanent record of me dancing to this.)
My second to last preschool storytime! I’m trying to keep to the same routine, but I also feel like I want to just squeeze as much content in as I can. Starting in the fall, I’m rotating between baby and toddler programs, so I don’t know when I will see this age range again outside of themed Saturday specials (Pinkalicious, I’m coming for you!).
Generally, I ended up with too many pieces this week that were a touch too long when all put in the same program (longer book, longer song, longer retelling). Virtual attention spans are still short, even with my preschool friends.
Encourage your child to choose books they are excited about, even if you think the story is too long for their attention span or bedtime. Try a “picture walk” if you really think the book is too dense, but consider trying to read it–their patience may surprise you when they are genuinely interested.
Another week, another storytime. Lots of first time selections for me this week–actually all of this is first time activities except for the opening and closing song. Yay new stuff!
Talk about print awareness. Start reading a book upside down and let your child figure out what is wrong. Locate the cover, title, and author’s names. Talk about reading from left to right.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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
