"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road" Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap) Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth) Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap) Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth) Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before) Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap) Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before) Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)
My library always does a special Halloween storytime on whichever Preschool Storytime day is closest to Halloween. It consists of two parts: storytime, and then a costume parade through the library as the families make their way through trick-or-treat stations. While this is always the formula, the youth services team nominates someone each year to organize and run the program since it has the second-highest attendance of the year (the first is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the SRP kickoff). This year it was my turn!
Facilitating Halloween Boo consists of planning the trick-or-treat stations and leading storytime. For the stations this year, I decided on four: stickers, candy, a take-home craft, and a book. We're lucky enough to have about 100 new Halloween books donated to each branch yearly for this event, so we give those out on a one-per-family basis to make sure there is enough for everyone. Stickers and candy are easy enough to buy in bulk. The take-home craft I chose was a bat headband that consisted of four parts: the bat, the paper headband, self-adhesive googly eyes, and an instruction sheet.
Instruction sheet (made in Canva)
Me modeling the finished product
For the storytime, I ended up alone in front of over 200 attendees because our other librarians were busy with crowd control and making sure the crowded room stayed safe. Luckily our Vice Mayor stopped by to run a trick-or-treat station, and also came up to dance with me during the intro.
Storytime went like this:
Intro: "Hello Hello" and "Open, Shut Them"
Story: Shake Dem Halloween Bones by W. Nikola-Lisa
Before starting the book I taught everyone the refrain so they could chant with me. It was a great way to get 200 people engaged in the story.
Shake, shake, shake dem bones
Shake, shake, shake dem bones
Shake, shake, shake dem bones
At the hip hop Halloween ball!
Also, since our huge program room was full to capacity, I found the Ebook version of this and projected it on the wall behind me. This was much more effective than reading a physical book in front of a crowd that large because everyone could see the pictures.
Movement Songs: "Baby Shark Halloween" and "Ten Little Monsters"
I projected the videos for these songs as we sang and danced. Still effective directed movement, but a little extra excitement for this special day.
After the second movement song, I did my best to get the group organized into a line before they left the program room for the parade. The first trick-or-treat, the sticker, came as they left the room and ventured into the rest of the library.
The Incredible Hulk came to storytime!
So did Iron Man! (This is my friend Muffin and he just keeps getting older)
Regular storytimers in their awesome homemade costumes!
Me with an airplane, a robin bird, and a fairy princess
My Sign Language Storytime format is:
Intro and hello
Felt story
Movement song or video
Book
Movement song
Goodbye
This storytime is special for a couple of reasons. First, it's the only one that I give a handout with pictures of the signs on it, so that the kids and grownups can refer to it during storytime and then practice at home. Second, I'm experimenting with adding an AV component to storytime by showing videos to follow along with instead of just listening to songs.
Handout:
Intro and hello: Hello: "Hello Friends"
Before turning on the music, I teach the kids (and grownups) the American Sign Language sign for "friends." Then we boogie, wave, and sing hello to all our friends!
Warming Up Motor Skills: "Open, Shut Them"
On this song we do the movements described in the lyrics: open our hands, close our hands, clap three times, put our hands in our lap, creep our fingers up to our chin, and don't let them in our mouths.
Stretch: "Tall/Small"
This is a short, easy stretch the kids get a kick out of. While we're stretching, I like to encourage them to reach for the ceiling, touch their toes, then make themselves into a tiny ball.
Felt Story
"With My Family"
I am proud to announce that I made this felt story myself, and came up with the rhyme mostly on my own with some suggestions from various internet sites made my preschool teachers and other librarians.
If you have a group of younger or wigglier kiddos, it's not necessary to do every verse. They might not sit through them all.
I usually just use the family signs and "like," but I sometimes like to throw in "play" and "sing" for an older or more focused group:
Like
Play
Sing
Before each verse, I hold up the family member and have the kids guess which family member it could be. I'm disappointed in the heteronormativity of this family, but this family looks like the majority of the ones who regularly attend my storytimes.
To the tune of "The Muffin Man"
Add each family member as you sing about them.
Tell me when you like to do, like to do, like to do
Tell me what you like to do with your family.
I like to play with my toys, with my toys, with my toys
I like to play with my toys with my daddy.
I like to sing silly songs, silly songs, silly songs
I like to sing silly songs with my mommy.
I like to play at the park, at the park, at the park
I like to ply at the park with my sister.
I like to eat yummy food, yummy food, yummy food
I like to eat yummy food with my brother.
I like to take fun trips, take fun trips, take fun trips
I like to take fun trips with Grandma and Grandpa.
I like to play fetch outside, fetch outside, fetch outside
I like to play fetch outside with my puppy.
Tell me what you like to do, like to do, like to do
Tell me what you like to do with your family!
Movement Song
"Five Little Monkeys"
I decided not to use a video this month, because I couldn't find one with family signs that I loved. So, we did Five Little Monkeys because it talks about a monkey family and helps us practice the sign for "mom," as well as some others that might come up in daily conversation like "all done."
Number signs
Monkey
Jumping
Fall off
Hurt head
Mom
No more/All done
Book
Families, Families, Families by Suzanne Lang
I love this book! It doesn't have a lot of words, but it does the important job of showing all kinds of families. Single parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, same-sex parents, only children, and kids with lots of siblings are all celebrated through the accessible language of "some children have..."
Movement Song
"You're Wonderful" by Debbie Clements
It's not necessarily about families, but this is one of my favorite storytime songs because it's all about celebrating yourself and your loved ones. It's also a slow, mellow song to sign to.
Wonderful/Marvelous
Beautiful
Magical
Filled
Curiosity
Dreams
Goodbye
"Until We Meet Again" from Out of the Box
When we sing this song, I help them recall the sign for friends from the hello song, and teach them a couple others as we sing: meet, time, and say.
Friends
Meet
Goodbye
This is the only storytime that I don't close with bubbles, because directly following is another program called Stay and Play where I set out 4-5 bins of toys for a 30 minute free play. Adding bubbles to that seems to be too much stimulation.
As the deadline to plan October programs approached, I realized I wasn't doing anything seasonal except the big Halloween storytime we do yearly. In the interest of trying to make myself more excited about Fall (it's getting cold and the trees are dying...yay?) I decided to put together a fun Fall craft program.
We had three stations: crayon rubbings, torn paper trees, and painted leaf prints. I structured this program as a drop-in for an hour and a half, and over 30 people came to make leaf art with me! This was a fun, easy program that I put together with things we already had in our supply room. If you want to recreate it, here is a supply list:
Torn Paper Trees
Torn construction paper in Fall colors
Brown construction paper for trunk
White paper for background
Glue sticks
Scissors
Painted Leaf Prints
Washable paint in Fall colors
Paper Artificial Leaves
Also, it's becoming a wonderful theme that the kids who come to my programs are more creative than I am. Some of them figured out that the Leaf Rubbing Plates also make great paint prints! Here are some of the gorgeous finished products they made.
Torn paper tree and rubbings examples and supplies
