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.

The Gingerbread Man - Preschool Storytime

I typically do a "Cookie" theme as an inclusive, holiday-adjacent storytime in December. However, in January a new staff member will be taking over the preschool storytime and really wanted to do a cookie theme as Laura Numeroff's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is her favorite childhood book. So I decided to give mine a more narrow focus, and made it "Gingerbread Man" themed (or "Gingerbread People" if you prefer, but I unfortunately could not find more gender-inclusive gingerbread books that were short enough for preschoolers).

I greeted everyone and introduced the storytime by talking about how many people like to bake cookies this year, and even more people like to eat cookies this time of year! We discussed who had already done some holiday baking and favorite cookies, which led into our warm-up, an action rhyme that would allow us to pretend to make cookies:

Making Cookies

We are making cookie dough;
Round and round the beaters go.
Add some flour, just two cups.
Stir and mix the batter up.

Roll them, cut them, nice and neat.
Put them on a cookie sheet.
Bake them, cool them on a rack.
Share them with my friends for snack!

Then we sang our lead-in song, "If You're Ready for a Story", prior to our first story. I began with a traditional telling of the classic Gingerbread Man story, which I found in a collection of classic folktales by Usborne unfortunately entitled Stories for Little Boys. Despite the completely unnecessarily gendered and sexist title, it is otherwise a nice collection of classic folktales that are not too text-heavy or dark, as so many are. (It also includes Pinocchio, Under the Ground, In the Castle, and The Emperor's New Clothes.) 

Since most children aren't familiar with the classic folktales, I like to incorporate them when I can for cultural literacy, and to provide context for the contemporary retellings that often have a humorous twist.

Next, we did a counting-down rhyme, with clipart images of gingerbread people on the magnetic board (I had intended to make nice felt ones, but ran out of time):

Five Little Gingerbread Men

Five little gingerbread men in a row,
Not gonna eat one no, no, no!
But they look so sweet from head to toe
Crunch, munch...uh oh!

Continue until...

No little gingerbread men in a row;
Wasn't gonna eat one, no, no, no.
But they looked so sweet that it's sad to tell
Crunch, munch... oh well!

I followed that with reading How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton. There are numerous titles in the How to Catch... series, and while I have found this series to be somewhat hit and miss, this was definitely one of the better books of the series. 

The story is set in a bookstore storytime, where they are reading the classic Gingerbread Man story when the Gingerbread Man leaps out of the book and runs away, with the children in quick pursuit. They try various traps in an attempt to capture the Gingerbread Man, but with the help of several other classic storybook characters he always manages to escape. In the end, he decides to return to his story on his own. I loved the way the book featured a storytime setting, and tied in several other classic stories. Though preschoolers may not recognize them all, the adults will appreciate them.

I followed that with another "Five Little Gingerbread Men" rhyme, instead of the song I had originally planned, due to the small size and low energy of the group.

Five Little Gingerbread Men

Five Little Gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away,
Shouting, "Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can...
I'm really fast, I'm a gingerbread man!"

Four Little Gingerbread men... (Count down the numbers repeating the stanza above...)

No more gingerbread men lying on a tray,
They all jumped up and ran away.
I guess I'll have to make more another day,
and next time I'll eat them before they run away.

I skipped the usual "Good-bye" song, and sent the kids to wash their hands (we have a preschool restroom attached to the program room) while I put out the craft and some mini-gingerbread men cookies I happened to find at the grocery store a few days earlier. 

In the past I've gotten the regular Pepperidge Farm Gingermen and given them icing to decorate with, but after discovering most kids don't like them, I decided against it this time. But then by chance I found small packages of mini-Gingerman on sale, and thought that would be perfect; since they were smaller, there would be less waste if kids took one taste and didn't want them. However, these were sweeter and less spicy than the regular Gingermen, and the kids enjoyed them.

For the craft, I had gingerbread houses with stickers to decorate with that I had found in my office when I first started working here, something I presume my predecessor had planned before deciding to retire. I'm not sure where she got them, but similar ones can be purchased from Oriental Trading and Amazon.

While they were enjoying their gingerbread men cookies and working on the craft, I decided to read a third book, The Ninjabread Man  by C. J. Leigh and Chris Gall, because I think it's really cute, I knew at least one of the kids would really appreciate it, and it was just too quiet (a very rare occurrence!). As the name suggests, this is a clever re-telling of the gingerbread man story set in a dojo, with the old sensei making a magical ninjabread man, who runs off to test the speed, strength, and wisdom of the ninjas in training.

How It Went 
It was a bit of an off day. I was looking forward to this storytime, which would be my last preschool storytime as my assistant will be taking over in January to free up some of my time for other things, but at the time it was supposed to start, there was no a single soul in the children's department. I waited 10 minutes, then gave up and went back to my office to work. A couple of minutes later, one of the circ staff came back and said there were a couple of families, chronic latecomers, asking about storytime.

Normally at that point I would've just said, sorry, no one was here so storytime was cancelled, but since I really wanted to do this last storytime, and had dressed for the theme (see below), I told them I would do an abbreviated storytime since it was so late. Since it was just three kids, I skipped over some of the usual intro and warm-up. It worked out, and the kids enjoyed it. I overheard one later telling a friend who arrived at the library later all about it and telling him he should have come. I don't know why, but we really struggle with attendance for the preschool storytime, while the toddler storytime consistently has 12-15 kids, and sometimes as many as 20-25.

I decided to be extra festive, and instead of my usual "Oh, snap!" gingerbread man t-shirt, I went all out and wore a gingerbread woman dress I bought on clearance after the holidays several years ago, which I also wore later that evening to promote the library at the local preschool's "Festival of Trees" where each classroom decorates a tree based on a different picture book. In keeping with the theme of the festival, I decorated a small tree on my table with gingerbread people and animals.

Going On Safari - Elementary Program and Preschool Storytime

This is a program I did back in the summer; I originally planned it for the elementary aged program, then adapted it for the preschool storytime (see below) the next day. We had an animal show booked that week with animals from around the world, so I wanted to do something with a safari theme. Not knowing if I was going to have any help over the summer or not, I also wanted to keep it fairly simple, without a lot of advanced prep, set-up, or clean-up, so decided on a simple binocular craft and safari activity using inflatable animals (cheaper and take less storage space than plush animals).

This was one of my "splurge" programs for the summer, as purchasing all the inflatable animals was a bit pricey, but they can (and will) all be used again in the future. If you already own larger plush or inflatable animals you can use, it would be significantly less costly to do.

Program: Going On Safari

Ages: 5-10, then adapted for ages 3-5 (see below)

# of Participants: Planned for up to 30, actually had 14 kids, then 8 for storytime

Budget: $165, but bulk of cost was reusable inflatable animals, consumable items cost less than $1/participant

Materials:

• cardboard craft tubes (such as from toilet paper, but I opted to purchase for hygienic reasons), 2 per participant, $0.33 each, 60 for $20
• colored masking tape, $7 for 8 rolls
• washi tape (already had), optional
• yarn or heavy string (already had)
• markers
• crayons
• construction paper cut into pieces sized to fit around tubes
• glue sticks
• tape
• scissors
• hole-punch
• assorted inflatable animals - $138 (The ones by JET were good quality, though scale is inconsistent since they are all about the size of a medium-large dog, so we just said some of them were babies.)
• elephant, $18
• rhino, $18
• zebra, giraffe, & tiger, $40
• alligator, kangaroo & kiwi bird, $38
• monkeys, $14 (poor quality, leak, but will last barely long enough for program)
• snake, $10 (this one was plush)

Activities:

Binocular Craft 

1. Participants could decorate two cardboard tubes however they liked using crayons, markers, colored paper, colored masking tape, and/or washi tape.
2. The tubes were then glued together, as well as taped together by wrapping tape around the middle. [Realized too late that it would have been nice to have something to act as a spacer in the middle to have at a more appropriate width.]
3. Holes were then punched on the outer side of each tube at one end, and string or yarn tied to them so they could hang around the kids' necks.

 

Safari 

1. Prior to the program, my co-worker had made a "fact sheet" for each animal with one or two interesting facts, along with a photo of a real animal, and a checklist of animals to find with a question about each animal that had to be answered.
2. The animals were hidden all around the library, and the appropriate fact sheet was posted next to them.
3. The kids took their binoculars and checklists and searched the library until they found all of the animals and answered the questions, requiring them to have actually found the animal and read the fact sheet. They were reminded that it was NOT a race, it didn't matter how fast they found them, or who found them all first, and there was no running or yelling. I also encouraged them to take photos with the animals.
4. Once they had found all the animals, they returned to the program room and showed one of us their checklist. If they had all the questions answered correctly, they got to pick a small prize (I gave them a small selection to choose from: small plastic animals, slap bracelets, or pop-it bracelets).
5. If they had missed a question or had the answer wrong, I sent them back to find the animal again and get the correct answer (most were because they didn't read the question carefully, a couple accidentally skipped a question), then they got to pick their prize.

How It Went:

I was a little worried some of the older kids would think the binocular craft was too babyish, but they seemed to enjoy being creative decorating them, and most did use their pretend binoculars on the safari. They really enjoyed the safari, and I got a lot of positive feedback from caregivers, too. More animals would make it even more fun! Of course you can use whatever animals you want, and either inflatable or plush. I chose inflatable because I could get larger animals for less cost than plush, and they could be deflated and thus take less storage space. I will definitely do this program again in the future!

Preschool Storytime Version:

Since we had so many cardboard tubes leftover, and had so much fun with the safari, I decided to just adapt both activities to use after the safari-themed preschool storytime the following day. I followed my usual storytime plan, reading Sitting in My Box by Dee Lillegard & Jon Agee and Starry Safari by Linda Ashman & Jeff Mack and singing songs featuring exotic animals ("The Animals in the Jungle Go...", or "If You're a Lion and You Know It"), then did modified versions of the binocular craft and safari afterward, simplifying both in order to be more developmentally appropriate and take less time.

For the binocular craft, we provided fewer options for decorating, skipping the colored paper and washi tape, and just having them color directly on the white tubes with crayons or markers, and using the colored masking tape to attach them together. For the animal safari, instead of sending them out to search for them, I led them around as a group to find the animals together, and read the facts to them, skipping the checklist with questions and prizes. Then they were free to go back for photo ops with the animals.

How It Went: This streamlined version worked perfectly for the preschoolers, and they loved it! One caregiver left me a note over the weekend telling me her child had not stopped looking at the world through her binoculars, and when I saw them again a couple of weeks (or more?) later at the library, the child still had her binoculars, except that the caregiver said they were a different pair, and that she had been obsessed with making them at home since the program. So definitely a hit! 

 

New Books - Preschool Storytime

 
This was a bit of an "off" week, as it was the week of the Fourth of July. Our numbers are always low for this week, so we back off on the programming a little bit. The holiday fell on the day we would normally have had the elementary program, and instead of booking a performer I just did a very simple family Lego program. There was no weekly theme, and I had a couple of new books that I really liked, so decided to forego a theme for storytime and use them.

We started with a "Hello" song, followed by introductions and expectations, then this month's warm-up song, followed by our lead-in song:

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes.

Eyes and ears and mouth and nose,

Head, shoulders, knees and toes; knees and toes.

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, sit down, clap hands, pat knees, say "shh"...)

For our first book I choose The Wrong Book by Drew Daywalt and Alex Willmore, which starts out as a perfectly normal book, presenting objects/animals/people and saying what they are and what they say. On the first spread, a red apple is shown, and the text reads "This is an apple. And apples go 'Crunch! Crunch! Crunch' when you eat them." However, things soon begin to go hilariously wrong when the book says that a pretty flower smells good and says "Chugga, chugga, Chooo-Chooo!", followed by a puppy that the book says is a bicycle and goes "Buurrp!". The silliness and mis-information continue, much to the consternation of the serious bookmark.

This book is super silly, and super fun to read aloud! It would be even better if done with two readers, one reading the main text of the book, and the other reading the part of the bookmark, which I realized as I was reading it and really wish I would've thought of earlier, in time for a second person to prepare. This would be a great book for elementary classes, too.

After reading such an incredibly silly book and getting our sillies all wound up, it was time to shake them out!

Next up was another new book I ordered primarily to beef up my selection of beach/sand related picture books. The Squish, by Breanna Carzoo, tells about a poor little sandcastle that keeps getting knocked down. He gets stepped on, hit by a frizbee, rained on, wiped out by waves. He tries picking himself up, dusting himself off, and rebuilding himself taller, to no avail; he still ends up getting squished. Will he give up and just stay squished?

This story starts out a little bit funny, a little bit cute, and a little bit sad. The messaging about dealing with trauma felt a bit heavy-handed to me, and I felt took away from what could have been a fun, cute story (which is what I thought I was ordering). But the kids didn't really notice, and it might be a good book for someone who needs that message, and it can be interpreted as dealing with frustration when things don't work the way you want them to and trying again, which is the spin I put on it for storytime.

I decided to stop there rather than attempting another song, book, or rhyme and sing a quick "Goodbye" song, followed by activities and play time.

Activities

Since I expected a very small turnout, I just planned on two activities, figuring I could always pull out more if we needed to.

• Kinetic Sand - I gave each child a couple of handfuls of kinetic sand on a tray, along with a handful of shells, 2-3 mini castle molds, and 2-3 animal molds.
• Sensory Bin - This week it contained rice and several different kinds of beans, along with measuring cups and spoons.
• Soft blocks - we got these out for the one younger sibling who was too little for the other activities.
  
  

How It Went

It was a weird morning, being the day after the Fourth of July. I expected a small crowd, and at start time only one family was there. I waited a couple of minutes to see if others would show up, but none did, so we went ahead and started. After we got going, 3-4 other families trickled in, the last one not arriving until we were almost finished with the storytime part. Other than that, it went well. I think kids that are a little older, 5-8 years old would appreciate the humor in The Wrong Book even more.

Art Storytime - Preschool

As with the previous toddler storytime, this preschool storytime took place during the third week of summer reading, which had an "Exploring the Arts" theme as part of the overall "Adventure Begins at Your Library" summer theme, so our books and one of our songs were about art, and the activities afterward were arts-related.

We started with a "Hello" song, introductions, and expectations, then proceeded with our warm-up song for the month, "Hello, Everybody". Then I introduced the topic of exploring the arts, and asked the kids to name different types of art. They immediately came up with painting, drawing, and coloring, and with a little prompting added music and dancing, and I added sculpture. One of the kids also mentioned jewelry-making. 

After our lead-in song, I read our first book, simply titled "Art", by Patrick McDonnell. There is a little word-play involved, as it is about art, but the boy's name is also Art. 

Though I wish the book were a little bigger and had bright, bold colors rather than muted ones, I liked that it was short and simple, had motions to mimic, colors to identify, and showed various types of art - zig-zag lines, wavy lines, dots, splotches, blotches, splatters, black & white doodles, and full-color drawings.

I followed this with an action-song about painting to the tune of "This is the Way We..." (aka "Do You Know the Muffin Man"):

This Is the Way We Paint

This is the way we stir the paint, stir the paint, stir the paint.

This is the way we stir the paint, when we are painting.

This is the way we dip the brush, dip the brush, dip the brush.

This is the way we dip the brush, when we are painting.

This is the way we paint on the canvas, paint on the canvas, paint on the canvas.

This is the way we paint on the canvas, when we are painting.

This is the way we blow it dry, blow it dry, blow it dry.

This is the way we blow it dry, when we are painting.

This the way we hang it up, hang it up, hang it up.

This is the way we hang it up, when we finish painting!

For the second book I chose Arlo Draws an Octopus by Lori Mortensen and Bob Sayegh, Jr. I chose this book not only because it has a cute story with colorful illustrations and a child of color, but primarily because I love the way it addresses creativity, making mistakes, perfectionism, and frustration.

Arlo is trying to draw an octopus, but in the end becomes frustrated because he doesn't think his drawing is good enough, and doesn't really look like an octopus. He initially tries to push through, and reminds himself that it's okay not to be good at something, because no one is good at everything, and recalls some of the things his friends & family are not good at. But he ends up crumpling his drawing up and throwing it in the floor. But, in a twist ending, he discovers that an actual octopus thinks it looks just like his aunt!

This story was a little long for this group, and I was started to lose some of the kids by then end, so I decided to scrap the song I had planned, and do something more engaging instead. In the story, Arlo thinks his attempt at drawing all the suckers on the octopus's tentacles looks more like a bunch of bubbles, so I decided to do bubbles instead.

Then I ended with a "Goodbye" song, prefacing it with saying we did have activities afterward, but we would go ahead and sing our goodbye song now, in case we didn't get to say goodbye to all of our friends later.

Activities 

Just as I did for the toddler storytime earlier that week, I had a variety of different artistic activities for them today to "explore the arts":

1. Sculpture - I provided multiple cans of Play-Doh, rolling pins, cookie cutters, rotary cutters, and plastic knives.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Painting - The kids are always excited about using paint, and this time I jazzed it up by giving them a few unusual items in addition to thick and fine paintbrushes - textured paint "brushes", textured scrapers, sponges, cotton balls, bubble wrap, and fluffy bath scrubbers made of wadded plastic mesh, along with red, blue, and yellow paints. When they asked for other colors, I reminded them they could mix the primary colors to make new colors.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Music - I provided a variety of musical instruments: maracas, bells, cymbals, triangle, tambourines, wooden sounder, and toy microphones.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Drawing - I put crayons and paper out on one table, but I don't think any of the kids actually chose to do this activity, finding the often forbidden-at-home paint, play-dough, and musical instruments much more exciting.

How It Went 

I would have preferred to have had one of the books be about some type of art other than drawing/painting, but I couldn't really find anything suitable in our collection about sculpture, dance, or other types of art. I did find one board book about musical instruments, and in hindsight I wish I had used it instead of Art. I had originally thought I might be able to sneak it in as a third book, but since Arlo was on the longer side a third book just wasn't going to work.

The kids really enjoyed the play-dough, painting, and musical instruments since unfortunately most parents don't allow those activities at home. My assistant did not particularly enjoy the musical instruments, but sometimes you just have to let kids do the noisy, messy things. Especially when they are not only very developmentally appropriate, but also bring such joy, and they get so limited opportunities to do them elsewhere. This was a much smaller group than for toddler storytime, so it was not as noisy at chaotic.

Messy Storytime - Preschool

 

Finally, a new storytime theme that I haven't done before! 

I'd been thinking about trying the paper marbling activity using shaving cream for a while, and after doing it for a group of developmentally disabled adults and seeing how easy it was, I decided to incorporate it as part of a "messy" storytime for kids.

We started with our usual "hello" song, followed by this month's warm-up song "The Wheels On the Bus". Then I introduced the topic of messy play and messy art, and lead into our first book with "Are You Ready for a Story?".

I started off with a new-ish book, Oops! by Julie Massy and Pascal Bonenfant. This is a great interactive book that encourages the audience to explore cause and effect, often with funny, unexpected, and/or messy results. 

It's perfect for storytime because it is interactive, has repetition, and is not too text heavy, something that is seemingly harder and harder to find in picture books these days. This is not only a chance to have some silly fun, but also an opportunity to talk about accidents and how everyone makes mistakes.

We followed that with two messy songs, "Icky Sticky Sticky Bubble Gum" by David Landau:

"Icky Sticky Bubble Gum"

Icky, sticky, sticky, sticky bubble gum, 
Bubble gum, bubble gum.
Icky, sticky, sticky, sticky bubble gum
Makes my hands stick to my _____.

And I pull, and pull, and *puuulllll* them away!

And Laurie Berkner's "I'm a Mess":

"I'm a Mess"

I'm a mess, I'm a mess 
I'm a big old messy mess 
From the north to the south 
And the east to the west 
What I am is a really really, really big mess!

I try to get dressed but I make a mess 
I jump in the puddles and can you guess 
 make mud pies when the mud is fresh 
And then UH OH I've made a big mess 

I'm a mess, I'm a mess . . . 

Now eating messy food. You know it's the best 
'Cause no matter what I do I make a big mess 
Get dinner on my jacket; Breakfast on my vest 
Lunch in my socks, UH OH what a mess!

I'm a mess . . .

For our second book, I choose the classic I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont and David Catrow. This is a really fun and funny book about a naughty child who just can't stay out of the paint. They are caught painting all over the walls, ceiling, and floors by their caregiver, who hides the paint in the closet and tells the child "Ya ain't gonna paint no more!", and sends them to take a bath. However, the mischievous child just can't help themself, and gets the paints out and begins painting all over....themself!

The book has a great rhythm for reading aloud (and can be sung as well), using a rhyming scheme to help the audience guess what is being painted next, ending with "I'm such a nut, I'm gonna paint my ____!" This is a really fun book, though I have to confess the improper grammar bothers me, from years of being drilled that "ain't" isn't a word in grade school.

Then we went straight to our messy activity!

Activity - Paper Marbling

I filled the sensory bin with shaving cream (not really full, but a nice thick layer) and squirted drips of washable tempera paint all over the top, then used my fingers to swirl the colors. Next, the kids, with their caregivers' help, pressed a piece of paper down onto the shaving cream, rubbing it to be sure it made contact. [You can also give each participant their own individual tray or foil pan to spray shaving cream on.]

Next, the carefully lifted the paper up and placed it on a tray, then used a squeegee to scrape most of the shaving cream off and followed with a paper towel to get the remaining residue. Then let dry.

While the papers were drying, I invited the kids to play in the remaining shaving cream in the tub, which I thought they would be all over. However, some of the kids didn't want anything to do with it, a couple of others finally at least tried it, and only one child really got into playing in it, eventually blending all the colors into a peachy-beige. One little boy kept going back and forth, dipping his hand in the shaving cream, then going to the bathroom to wash it off, and repeat.

The marbled papers really turned out well, and I was surprised at how easy it was and how well it worked.