Library Week - Family Storytime

 

My director wanted to make a big deal out of National Library Week, partly to acknowledge the staff for all the hard work they do, partly to remind people of all the library does for the community, and partly to get more people coming back in. So I planned for a "Library" themed storytime, which is always fun because there are several funny and cute books about libraries for kids.

A Perfect Storytime

Today was continuation of the "Library Day" theme I've been doing all month, but my storytime today was one of those rare, amazing storytimes that is just perfect, where the kids are completely engaged the whole time, and love every story and song that you do.

This is a special group to start with, as it is the classroom where I first developed my storytime skills as a volunteer while I was working as a page at the library. At the time I was caught in a catch-22: I needed program experience to advance, but as a page I was not allowed to do programs at work. I was fortunate to find a volunteer opportunity at this nearby daycare, and after 9 months I finally got promoted to the position I currently hold. So in addition to being grateful, I've been working with this same classroom for about 4 years now. It's been a different group of kids each year, but the same teachers.

We started with our welcome song, then I introduced the theme by asking them if they remembered where I worked. It took a few guesses and additional prompting, but someone finally came up with the library. We talked about all the different things to do at the library, then sang our story song.

I started with my favorite library-themed storytime book, Froggy Goes To The Library by Jonathon London and Frank Remkiewicz. Froggy is always well-liked by kids, and I like the humorous way this story teaches appropriate library behavior, and shows such exuberant enthusiasm for reading and storytime. The kids laugh at his forgetting to get dressed, ewwww at his breakfast of home flies and ketchup, and love joining in Froggy's silly song and dance, which we all did together.

After discussing using your inside voice in the library and how libraries are fairly quiet most of the time, I told them I knew a story about a day the library was NOT quiet at all, and let's find out why. 

Then we read Zachariah Ohora's The NOT So Quiet Library. Oskar and Theodore's quiet day at the library is interrupted by a gigantic 5-headed monster! They convince the monster that books aren't for eating, but then the monster wants to eat them instead! What will they do? Age-appropriate drama with a happy ending, and of course Ohora's wonderful illustrations (I just love his style!).

We followed that up with Laurie Berkner's "These Are My Glasses", which has proven to be popular with all the kids.

Then we finished up with Brian Won's latest in his "Hooray!" series, Hooray for Books! I'll be honest, I don't think it's his best work, and don't find it as engaging as Hooray for Hat!, but the kids still seem to like it pretty well. 

Turtle can't find his favorite book. Did he loan it to one of his friends? One by one he asks the other animals until finally he finds it....at the bottom of Lion's huge stack. Kids will like cheering "Hooray for books!" each time, and predicting where Turtle's book will turn up.

After that we sang our closing song and ended with passing out stickers.

How It Went

As I said, this turned out to be one of those rare, perfect storytimes. I'd like to think I always do a good job reading, but this time I felt like I absolutely nailed each book. And the kids were so engaged, seemingly hanging on every word, and I mean all of the kids! This is so rare, but particularly for this group who has been the most difficult class to keep engaged out of the four I've had here. They're good kids, but have always been a challenge and required the most engaging books, and even on a good day there's always lots of wiggling and getting distracted. But today, they were ALL quiet, still and listening! It was just amazing! They liked all of the books and the song, but I think The NOT So Quiet Library had them riveted in suspense.

While this was a wonderful storytime, it was also rather bittersweet. As I've said, this group has always been special, and after initially volunteering I was able to fold them into my outreach storytime program when I got my current position 3 years ago. But, now I'm about to transfer to the children's department in the suburban branch closest to my home, and I had planned on letting go of this storytime and letting my replacement in Outreach continue with it. However, after today I'm seriously having second thoughts and trying to think of some way to keep doing it at least once a month, even if I have to go back to doing it on my own time as a volunteer, especially since at least initially my new job will only have 1 family (mostly toddlers) storytime a month.

Library Day!

So we took a break from Outreach storytimes in May to reorganize and make some changes, and this month the re-invented version of the Storytime-To-Go program debuted. Not only will we be going in the classroom instead of on the Storytime Bus, but the frequency of visits will be reduced from once every two weeks to once every four weeks so I can double the amount of facilities I visit. I am not in favor of this change personally, as I feel it reduces storytime to a novelty rather than a true early literacy intervention program, but I am making the best of it. 

Since it was a new beginning and I have picked up so many new daycares, I decided to kick-off with a "Libraries & Reading" theme to introduce myself and the program to the kids, and of course promote the library and reading. I read 2-3 books and did 1-2 other activities with each group (except for one daycare where the noise level was so high it was just an exercise in futility), in addition to my lead-in and closing songs. 

The Books

(Click on any image to see full-size)

• Maisy Goes to the Library by Lucy Cousins, good introduction to library
• Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beadshaw, good for youngers
• The New LiBEARian by Alison Donald & Alex Willmore, cute twist
• Froggy Goes to the Library by Jonathan London & Frank Remkiewicz, my fav
• Wild About Books by Judy Sierra & Marc Brown, cute but long, better for olders
• The NOT So Quiet Library by Zachariah Ohora, kids really like
• I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric Kimmel & Blanch Sims, funny & short
• Chicken Story Time by Sandy Asher & Mark Fearing, another favorite!
• A Place to Read by Leigh Hodgkinson, looking for the right chair, ok
• Born to Read by Judy Sierra & Marc Brown, little longer, kids like recognizing classics
• Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr, teaches how to treat library books
• Hooray for Books! by Brian Won, not as good as Hat, but most kids liked it ok
• Dog Loves Books by Louise Yates, cute, dog opens bookstore, provides RA
• Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney, longer, better for school-age
• Reading Makes You Feel Good by Todd Parr, bright illustrations & simple text

The Activities

When I first started working with this program, I was encouraged to used thematic songs and rhymes, but over time I realized that just didn't work very well sometimes, particularly for new kids or the younger kids, because they just didn't know them. So first I made sure I only used songs/rhymes with lots of very obvious hand motions so the kids could at least participate that way if they couldn't sing along even after repeating.

With the younger kids in particular, I found it just ended up being me singing/reciting to them while they just sat there, or worse, got squirmy. So I started doing a lot more old classics that they knew, and more importantly, they wanted to do: ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; The Wheels On The Bus, Old MacDonald, etc.

Since half of the kids I was seeing this time were new, many were younger, and I couldn't find any really good library/reading related activities, I stuck with traditional children's songs, and Laurie Berkner's "These Are My Glasses" since it is simple, repetitive, and has hand motions to go with it, so it is easy for the kids to do.

 One class taught me a new song that I'm definitely going to have to incorporate:

Another change I made was instead of giving the teacher coloring sheets related to the theme, I felt a more valuable resource would be to give them a list of all the above books and some songs and rhymes related to the theme. That way they could sing along, and have additional books and activities to use later or share with parents if they chose. I also included in bold red lettering when the next storytime visit would be, as well as my contact info in case they had schedule changes or questions. 

How It Went

It was a real mixed bag! Some classes loved it, were well-behaved, good listeners, engaged, and clearly enjoyed and appreciated it. Others were not engaged at all, bored, and wiggly. I think the books were not as interactive or engaging enough for some of my more challenging groups, and it seems like some of the new classes are not accustomed to structured activities requiring them to be still and quiet. It is also more challenging than I expected to get the teachers to sit and participate with the kids now that I'm in the classroom rather than on the storytime bus. 

One place had completely open classrooms, with only low half-walls dividing them, and the noise level was just ridiculous! I couldn't even hear myself, much less expect the kids to hear and listen. I just read one book to each group and got out of there as my head was throbbing and my ears were ringing! I'll have to have a talk with the director to see if there is not an enclosed room anywhere that we can use for storytime.

I would say the books that worked the best were The NOT So Quiet Library, Froggy Goes to the Library, Chicken Story Time, and Maisy Goes To the Library. The kids who were older and could listen to the longer Born To Read got very excited about recognizing some of their favorite classics in the illustrations. I thought The New LiBEARian was really cute, but it seemed to go over the kids' heads. Almost everyone like Laurie Berkner's "These Are My Glasses".

Going To The Library

I had originally planned this storytime for National Library Week, but the daycare was closed for Good Friday, so I saved it to kick off Summer Reading and promote going to the library.

We started with our welcome song, then talked a little about libraries before singing our story song. I decided to start off with Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw as a more realistic introduction to going to the library. (Lola Loves Stories is also good for promoting reading.)

The story is simple and straightforward, and talks about returning books, checking out more books, storytime, and how children don't get "shushed" in the children's department. (I changed some of the words slightly to fit the way my library does things.) When it mentions Lola singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" we paused to sing it as well. The illustrations are sweet and colorful.


We followed that with a short little rhyme about "Five Little Books" being checked out of the library from What Happens In Storytime, but I made my felt books a little differently. First we counted the books, then identified the colors, then did the rhyme. Instead of specific names, I inserted things like "a little girl", "a little boy", "Mommy", "Daddy", and "a teacher", because I didn't want anyone left out, but I didn't really feel like repeating it 3 or 4 times to use all their names, either.

Five Little Books

Five little books at the library,

Five little books as great as can be.

Along came _______ with their library card,

and checked one out to read.

Four little books at the library.....[repeat until you get to zero]

Our second book stars one of my favorite characters, Froggy Goes to the Library by Jonathan London and Frank Remkiewicz. Froggy enjoys going to the library as well, but in his excitment he almost forgets to get dressed and eat breakfast. Then, once they are at the library, Froggy lets his imagination get the best of him! But then he settles down for storytime, and gets everyone, including the librarian, to join him in a silly song and dance.

The kids seemed to like Froggy's silly song, so I asked them if they wanted to stand up and do it themselves, and they did. So, we all stood up and sang and danced:

Wiggle, wiggle; Waggle waggle

Giggle, giggle; Gaggle gaggle

I was thinking I'd probably just read two books today because they've been more restless lately and Froggy was a little longer. But, it was a smaller group than usual and they were doing really well and really wanted another story, so I went ahead and read The Not So Quiet Library by Zachariaa OHora. 

In this story, Oskar and Theodore go to the library with their dad, after stopping by the dougnut shop for breakfast. They are reading quiety, when a many-headed monster suddenly appears, with a taste for books. Can Oskar and Theodore convince the monster that books are not for eating? And neither are Oskar and Theodore!

After that, I talked more about the summer reading program, showing them the classrom log and explaining that all they have to do is check the boxes every time they read 20 minutes or visit the library, then at the end of the summer when they've checked 30 boxes I will bring each of them a book to keep, plus extra books for the classroom. Then I showed them the calendars I brought for each one of them to take home that describes all the cool events going on all summer.

Then, we sang our closing song and passed out stickers.

How It Went

It was nice having a slightly smaller group; they always do a better job listening when there aren't quite so many of them. They seemed to enjoy all the stories, particularly The Not So Quiet Library. I'm always happy to see how horrified they are when characters mistreat books in our stories. They had to sing Twinkle, Twinkle as soon as it was mentioned in the Lola book, and loved doing Froggy's song and dance. As soon as I held up the Lola book, two little girls said, "She looks like me!" Even though the "Five Little Books" rhyme was so simple, they really liked it and wanted to do it again. They were particularly eager for more stories today.

They were very excited when I told them they would each get a book to keep at the end of the summer reading program; I saw many little faces light up and mouth's in the shape of an "O", and one boy said he wanted one about dinosaurs. I told him I couldn't promise that, but we would see.