Toddlertime 11-21-18: Thanksgiving

My Toddlertime format is:

• Intro and hello
• Book
• Toddlers are basically babies who can run away from you, so I tend to look for books with no more than two lines of text per page. When they're that age, kids are still figuring out how books work, how you hold and treat them, and looking at the pictures. They will listen to the story and participate if the book has an interactive element, so anything that will keep them engaged verbally or physically is Toddlertime gold.
• Movement song
• This is the time for a longer movement song. Ideally one that corresponds to your theme, but that's not a requirement. Some themes just aren't compatible with music, and that's okay.
• Felt story
• My favorites are the ones where the kids have to help you chant, identify colors, count with you, or sing a song.
• Movement song(s)
• Depending on how much time we have, I'll use one 2-3 minute song or two that are under a minute long.
• Goodbye
• 10-15 minute toy time
• Toddler attention spans are short! In this storytime, I only plan 15-20 minutes of content because that's about as long as you can hold their attention. After that, we do a short community playtime with educational toys to give kids the opportunity to learn to play in a group, and parents the opportunity to meet and interact with one another.

Book

All for Pie, Pie for All by David Martin

This book didn't go over great with the toddlers, and I think it was because it's too long. I would probably paperclip some of the pages together to make it shorter if I used this book again. However, it is a very cute story about families of different sizes and species sharing pie together and definitely gets you in a Thanksgiving mood.

Movement Song

"Happy and You Know It" by Mr. Jon

Has nothing to do with the theme, just a fun song that most kids know.

Felt Story

"Five Little Turkeys"
[A good way to get kids involved is to ask them to help you count how many turkeys are left after each verse, and invite them to chant with you if they pick it up]

Five little turkeys at the barn door
One waddled off and then there were four

Four little turkeys out under a tree
One waddled off and then there were three

Three little turkeys with nothing to do
One waddled off and then there were two

Two little turkeys in the noonday sun
One waddled off and then there was one

One little turkey--better run away!
It's almost Thanksgiving Day!

Movement Songs

"Follow the Leader" by Ella Jenkins

"Peek-a-Boo"

Both of these songs have a strange hypnotizing effect on small children. Even if they're mid-tantrum, most littles will stop what they're doing and follow my motions until the song is over.

Get Twisty!

Sometimes when I'm short on programs, I refer to those online calendars that list every single local and national holiday that's ever been celebrated. That's how I found out that National Tongue Twister Day is November 8th. I wanted to have a tongue twister program, but couldn't figure out what we would actually DO in that program until I started searching for tongue twister-related crafts and activities. Thanks to a bunch of websites I didn't keep track of, I came up with a plan.

Station 1: Craft
Using only markers and construction paper, you can make this awesome tongue twister craft! I took it one step further and actually cut a slit in the mouth with scissors so the tongue could literally stick through. Some of the results were terrifying (mostly mine because I can't draw faces) and others were downright adorable. This is an example from Teaching Madness. Unfortunately, I was too busy running the program to get pictures of what our patrons made.

Station 2: Twister

I ordered the actual game of Twister for this program. When I was clicking around Amazon looking for the best version, I found out that Finger Twister is a thing, too! I had to order two Finger Twisters in addition to an extra-large Twister board.

Station 3: Tongue Twisters

Of course, no tongue twister program would be complete without people actually reading them aloud. I set up the microphone and encouraged everyone to pick a tongue twister out of a hat and step up to the mic. Everyone who read one was entered into a drawing to win one of four prizes: the two Finger Twister sets, a small tongue twister coloring book, or a 3D printed Einstein with his tongue sticking out. 

This is just the 3D printer template. The finished product was much less terrifying.

This was a fun program that I might repeat in the summer or the next time National Tongue Twister Day rolls around!

Sign Language Storytime: Things That Go

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
"This Little Train"
To the tune of "This Old Man." Bolded text is where I encourage storytimers to sing along.
Start out with just the tracks on the board, add each train car with their verses.

This little train, painted black (add black engine)
It comes chugging down the track
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car, painted blue (add blue train car)
It has seats for me and you
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car, painted yellow (add yellow train car)
It shimmies and shakes like a bowl of jello
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This little car, painted green (add green train car)
It's the fanciest train car you've ever seen
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

These train tracks, metal and gray (point to tracks)
They take you places far away
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

This caboose, painted red (add caboose)
It will take you home to bed
With a choo-coo, toot-toot, hear the whistle blow
This little train goes chugging home.

Movement Song
"Five Little Monkeys"

I decided not to use a video this month, because I once again could not find one with signs relating to our theme that presented a good amount of signs in an accessible way. So, we learned the signs for "boat" and "bus," then rocked out to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Wheels on the Bus."

Book

Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman

This book is one of the few that is great for toddlers and preschoolers alike. Even if you don't want to use the official signs for "truck" and "town," it still has a great opportunity for repetition and directed movement. The kids love being included when it's time to "Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the trashy town!" An added bonus is, the universal sign everyone uses when pretending to drive a car is actually the official sign for car or truck! 

Movement Song
"Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck"

Since we already learned the sign for truck (on the handout above), I gave a bonus sign, "fire," and then we practiced our sign for "firetruck" between the usual movements in this song. A lot of the older kiddos seemed delighted to know the sign for firetruck, which was really fun to watch.

Fire

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.

Baby Lapsit October 2018

My Baby Lapsit formula is:

Intro and hello
Board Book #1
Lap Bounce Journey ("Bumpy Road/Smooth Road" and two recorded songs)
Board Book #2
Movement song or another lap bounce song (optional, depends on time)
Peek-a-Boo
Goodbye
Bubbles and Community Playtime

October 2nd

Board Book #1

I Will Love You Forever by Caroline Jayne Church

Lap Bounce Journey

"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)

"Pop Goes the Weasel"

"Humpty Dumpty"

Board Book #2

Freight Train by Donald Crews

Movement Songs

"Wheels on the Bus"

October 9th

Board Book #1

Global Babies by Global Fund for Children

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"This is the Way the Ladies Ride"

"Walkin' Ol' Joe"

Board Book #2

Baby Faces Peekaboo! by D Sirett

October 23rd

Board Book #1

Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"Pop Goes the Weasel"

"Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck"

Board Book #2

Hello, Garden Bugs! by Julissa Mora

Movement Song

"Baby, Put Your Pants On"

October 30th: Halloween

Board Book

Eek! Halloween! by Sandra Boynton

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"Walkin' Ol' Joe"

"Wheels on the Bus"

Movement Song

"Ten Little Monsters"

Halloween Boo 2018

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

Me with an airplane and a fairy princess

Sign Language Storytime: Families

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.