MillenniaLibrarian: Let's Pretend: Sugar Plum Bakery and Bakery Storytime

Programming librarians rarely have free time on the clock to work on other projects, but we do our best to help each other when it's possible. I'm on a part-time schedule at the moment while recovering from spinal surgery, but I still had enough time (just barely!) to cover my coworker's program while she's on leave. I don't usually post programs that weren't my own idea from beginning to end, but this one is an exception because I used my coworker's plan as a jumping off point to execute my own semi-original program.

The original concept was a semi-structured dramatic play program with a storytime at the beginning. I was nervous about it because my programming style is usually minimalist, plus I've been finding it difficult to move a lot of things around since surgery, and there were about a million items involved in the original plan. Supplies included several kitchen- and baking-related play sets, a sensory bin of tiny pom poms that kids could use to "measure ingredients," chef hats and aprons to dress up in, and a cash register so they could pretend to work in a bakery. Luckily, I have some AMAZING teen volunteers who set up most of the toys the night before, and a couple who showed up on the day of the program to help me out.

Bakery Storytime

Hello: "Hello, Hello"

Warm up motor skills: "Open, Shut Them"

Story: Baby Cakes by Theo Harris

Movement Songs: "Do You Know the Muffin Man" and "Milkshake"

Since there aren't any traditional gestures that I know of for the Muffin Man song, we practiced singing and clapping on the beat. It worked out great as a baking-theme song!

Felt Story: Down Around the Corner

I like to do this story with a hand puppet because he's our friend who buys the donuts. The more you act it out with your puppet, the more involved the audience gets!

Down around the corner at the bakery shop

Were five donuts with sprinkles on top.

Along came a friend with a dollar to pay,

And he took one donut away!

(Have your puppet "eat" a donut and put it away. Ask the group to help you count the remaining donuts. Repeat the rhyme with four donuts, then three, two, and one.)

These aren't my felt donuts, but they look a lot like them!

Final Song: "Follow the Leader" by Ella Jenkins

This song is mellow and chills out a storytime audience as if by magic. I wanted to use it to gently transition from storytime to playtime, and it worked pretty well!