Happy Birthday to Me - Preschool Storytime

For the first time ever, my birthday fell on a storytime day and I decided that would make a fun theme for storytime and a fun way to celecbrate.

I began with our "Hello" song, introduced myself, greeted everyone, and went over expectations. Then we warmed up with a movement song, "Jump Down, Turn Around" by Greg and Steve:

We're gonna jump down, turn around, get your body moving.

Jump down, turn around, everybody dance.

Jump down, turn around, get your body moving.

Jump down turn around, everybody dance.

We've got dancing hands, we've got dancing hands.

And dancing feet, oh, we've got dancing feet.

And dancing hips, come on and move those hips.

And a dancing head, oh, we've got a dancing head.

(repeat chorus)

We've got dancing knees, oh, we've got dancing knees.

And dancing elbows, come on and move those elbows.

And dancing shoulders, hey, come on and move those shoulders.

Move those legs, yeah, we've got dancing legs.

(repeat chorus)

Dancing eyes, come on now, move those eyes.

And a dancing nose, hey, come on and move that nose.

Dancing fingers, can you move those fingers?

And dancing toes, come on and move those toes.

(repeat chorus)

After that we did our lead-in song, "If You're Ready for a Story", which starts from larger movements, moves to smaller movements, and ends with them sitting down and saying "shh".

For our first story I chose one that I've used in storytime a few times before, Don't Wake Up the Tiger by Britta Teckentrup. 

This is a really great interactive storytime book that features animals, balloons, bright illustrations, and a suprise ending. The animals are trying to sneak past a sleeping tiger blocking their path, and require help from the audience. All the animals pass safely until the very last one, the stork, accidentally pops a balloon and wakes the tiger. Fearing the worst, the audience discovers that the animals wanted the tiger to stay asleep because they were putting together a surprise birthday party for her! We counted the candles on the cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Tiger.

After that I segued into a rhyme about blowing up (and popping) balloons, accompanied by my flannel board and felt balloons. This rhyme let kids identify colors and blow up pretend balloons.

Blowing Balloons

I had a   (color)  balloon,

And I blew (blow), and blew (blow), and blew (blow)!

My mother said I'd better stop, but (blow),

(CLAP) Oops, too late, it popped!

For our second book I chose Cupcake by Cherise Mericle Harper, partly because of the sparkly cover, partly because everyone loves cupcakes and we were going to have mini-cupcakes after storytime, and partly because it was funny with a twist ending. I introduced it by mentioning cupcakes as an alternative birthday cake that you might take to school to share with your friends.

The story begins with mixing flour, sugar, eggs, and baking powder, baking the batter in the oven, and thus Cupcake and his siblings were born. The other cupcakes had special flavors and decoration, while Cupcake was a plain vanilla cupcake. Cupcake was left feeling said because he was not as fancy as the other cupcakes, so Candle suggests several weird and ridiculous toppers. Just when you think they have finally realized the obvious solution, the story ends with Candle making yet another silly suggestion.

I followed that with a flannel board and counting rhyme about blowing out candles on a birthday cake:

Birthday Candles

Five candles on a birthday cake, next year there'll be one more!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves four.

Four candles on a birthday cake, pretty as can be!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves three.

Three candles on a birthday cake, hope my wish comes true!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves two.

Two candles on a birthday cake, birthdays are so fun!

Blow one candle out, and that leaves one.

One candle on a birthday cake, the party's almost done!

Blow the last candle out, and now there are none!

I squeezed in a third and final book, Where is Baby's Birthday Cake? by Karen Katz. 

This was a short and simple lift-a-flap board book, which worked for my small group. Kids always love guessing what will be behind the flap, and I liked how it showed lots of different elements of the birthday party - hats, balloons, presents, friends, ice cream, and finally the cake. It tied the whole birthday party theme together very nicely.

I followed that with the classic nursery rhyme:

Pat-a-Cake

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.
Bake us a cake as fast as you can!

Roll it, and pat it, mark it with a "B",

and put it in the oven, for Baby and me!

Then we ended with our "Goodbye" song, and moved on to a birthday crown craft and mini-cupcakes! I also had a display of other birthday-themed books, including some that reflected other cultural birthday treats.

Paper Plate Birthday Crown

1. Color back of plate as desired.
2. Fold plate in half, and cut through the center, leaving rim intact, then along the folds to make eight triangles. [You can also cut first, then color]
3. Fold each triangle back so they stand up straight.
   [Other embellishments like stick-on gems or sequins would be fun, too.]

Literacy Tip - Blowing exercises the small muscles in your/your child's lips, tongue, and cheeks, which are used for speech and eating. Some fun ways to practice are blowing out candles, blowing bubbles, and blowing through a straw to push small pieces of paper, feathers, or pom-poms across a table.
 

I also led them through the mindfulness excercise of taking deep breaths and slowly blowing out one "candle" (fingers) at a time.

How It Went

This turned out to be a super fun theme, even if it was a little self-indulgent. Birthdays are hard for me these days, and it nice to be able to enjoy it for once. The last time I had an actual birthday party was when I was 16!

The kids really had fun with the interactive elements of Don't Wake the Tiger, blowing up balloons, blowing out candles, and singing "Happy Birthday". One child was pretty shy and unsure about the whole thing, but when I brought out the cupcakes, he suddenly was all smiles! He licked the icing off, then shoved the whole cupcake in his mouth. [I did include a written heads-up about the cupcakes so caregivers could duck out before I brought them out if they had allergies or other dietary concerns/preferences .]

Shark Week 2025 - Preschool Storytime

I'm back! 

You might have noticed I haven't posted much the last few months. There's a long, complicated story, but the short version is that I left my previous position due to a toxic workplace and severe burnout. I took a few months off to recover and prioritize my physical and mental health. I took a few trips, hung out with my fur babies, visited my kids, worked in my flower beds, read, started eating better and exericising again, and spent a lot of time re-evaluating my career and re-prioritizing my life. I considered leaving libraries altogether, but decided I wasn't ready to give up yet, and when I was ready I found a new position as a children's librarian at a different library where I felt I could maintain a heathier work-life balance.

I was excited that my first time doing storytime at my new library fell during Shark Week, as that is always such a fun theme to do! I was a little nervous, even though I've done over 2000 storytimes in my career, it's always different in a new place with a new community, new challenges, and requires a new routine.

I followed my standard preschool storytime structure, with a couple of minor changes. First, I switched from paper programs to putting the song & rhyme lyrics up on the tv screen, as well as announcements and expectations. While I like the idea of parents having a paper copy to take home and extend the storytime, the reality is that most of them not only don't take them home, but don't even really look at them during the storytime, and it's just a lot of wasted paper. Now that I have a large wall-mounted screen out of the reach of little ones, it made sense to make the switch now. 

The second change is hopefully temporary, but I'm back to having to do more simple paper crafts and/or coloring with markers/crayons than I'd like because this library currently doesn't have a collection of developmentally appropriate toys and activities like I had built up at my last library. Unfortunately, this library also doesn't have much of a budget for programming or any storage space, so I won't ever be able to build up the collection I had before, but I hope to at least add one or two building sets and some sensory toys, plus additional basic craft supplies.

I started with a short "Hello" song and welcomed everyone, introduced myself, asked all the kids' names, and went over expectations. Then we warmed up with a movement song, then settled for our first story with a lead-in song:

The Creatures In the Sea

The fishes in the sea go swim, swim, swim;

swim, swim, swim; swim, swim, swim.

The fishes in the sea go swim, swim, swim;

all day long,

crabs go pinch....clams go open and shut...octopus goes wiggle....
jellyfish go sting....sharks go chomp....

(let kids suggest other animals and motions/sounds)

If You're Ready for a Story

If you're ready for a story, stomp your feet.

If you're ready for a story stomp your feet.

If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story,

If you're ready for a story, stomp your feet.

turn around, clap hands, pat knees, sit down, say "shh", etc.

I chose Chomp: A Shark Romp by Michael Paul for our first book. 

This is a great narrative non-fiction picturebook that introduces children to a wide variety of sharks and is perfect for storytime. It has short, simple text that still reads as a story, with illustrations that are realistic enough to show the diversity among sharks without being too scary for more sensitive children. The kids and grown-ups really seemed to enjoy learning about all the different kinds of sharks.

I followed that with one of my favorite activities: "Five Little Fishies" using a shark hand-puppet and little felt fish finger-puppets that I made specifically for this rhyme:

Five Little Fishies

Five little fishies swimming in the sea,

teasing Mr. Shark, "Well, you can't catch me!".
Along swims Mr. Shark, as quiet as can be,

and CHOMPED! one fishy right out of the sea!

Four little fishies....three....two....one....

No little fishies, swimming in the sea,

just Mr. Shark, as full as can be!

Before I do this rhyme, I show them the puppets that I'm going to use, and instruct them to hold up five fingers on one hand to be their little fishies, and use the other hand to be the shark. I try to be really dramatic with the first little fish, and often get squeals of surprise and delight from the kids, who often ask to repeat the rhyme.

For our second book, I chose my favorite shark book of all times, The Three Little Fish and the Big, Bad Shark by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton.

This re-telling of The Three Little Pigs is perfect for storytime. It is super fun as a read-aloud, has bright illustrations, and all the repeated lines that the audience can say along with the presenter. On a personal note, I like that it was sister Kim, rather than brothers Tim or Jim, that had the best house. I also use it as a lesson to illustrate how bad it is for your teeth to bite things that are not food.

I followed that with another song about ocean creatures and the food chain:

Slippery Fish

Slippery fish, slippery fish; swimming in the water.

Slippery fish, slippery fish; gulp, Gulp, GULP!

"Oh, no! He's been eaten by an octopus!"

Octopus, octopus; swimming in the water.

Octopus, octopus; gulp, Gulp, GULP!

"Oh, no! He's been eaten by a tuna fish!"

Tuna fish, tuna fish; swimming in the water.

Tuna fish, tuna fish; gulp, Gulp, GULP!

"Oh, no! He's been eaten by a great white shark!"

Great white shark, great white shark, swimming in the water.

Great white shark, great white shark; gulp, Gulp, GULP!

"Oh, no! He's been eaten by an orca whale!"

Orca whale, orca whale, swimming in the water.

Orca whale, orca whale; gulp, Gulp, GULP!

"BUURRP! Whoops, excuse me!"

I had a third book planned, the classic Shark in the Dark by Nick Sharratt, but since the other two books were on the longer side and we were short-staffed that day, meaning I needed to cover the desk for breaks, I decided to stop there. I gave the literacy tip for the day, upcoming storytimes and programs, and then we sang a "Good-bye" song and I got them started on the after-storytime activities.

Activities 

1. Walk the Plank - I printed out some shark fins on cardstock and taped them to the floor around a wooden board, and drew water with sidewalk chalk. This is a fun way to work on balance, gross motor skills, and proprioception.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Ocean Painting w/Cotton Balls - I put out paper plates with different shades of blue, green, and white tempera paint and had the kids use cotton balls to daub circles of paint all over their paper, then they could add a shark silhouette to their ocean. This activity allows color and sensory exploration as well as using the pincer grasp and eye-hand coordination.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Puppets - I had three shark puppets that the kids could play with, using imagination, expressive language, and socio-emotional skills.

How It Went

This was my first storytime in six months, and it was a bit bittersweet. It really felt good to be back at it. I'm normally a fairly shy person, but I do enjoy the performative aspect of storytime and I really enjoy the feedback from the kids and their caregivers, and having more meaningful interactions than just handing out computer guest passes. But it also made me miss all my regulars that I had built relationships with at my last job. 

The storytime went really well, everyone was engaged and seemed to enjoy it, and I got a lot of 'thank you's and compliments from caregivers, which was nice confidence boost and confirmation that this is what I should be doing. I had a smaller crowd than I'm used to, but this is a small library in a primarily working-class neighborhood with a growing immigrant/refugee population. I'm really hoping over time with more outreach, community partnerships, and word-of-mouth I can eventually build up library use and program attendance by kids and families.

I also really missed the collection of developmentally-appropriate toys and activities I had built at my previous library! It is frustrating not to have any of that available here. I'm even considering buying at least one building set and some sensory toys from Lakeshore myself, as much as I'm against teachers and librarians having to buy supplies out of their own pockets. But then they would be mine, and I would always have them no matter where I might end up in the future.