Big & Little

My second storytime was all about big things and little things!

Books:

Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough

You Are (Not) Small by Anna Kang

I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry

Songs:
My Little Baby by The Jackson 5 (dancing)
Six Little Ducks by Kimbo (motions)
Big Smiles by The Eh Ohs (with shakers)

Action Songs/Rhymes:
This is Big

This is big big big
This is small small small
This is short short short
This is tall tall tall
This is fast fast fast
This is slow slow slow
This is yes yes yes
This is no no no

Little Birds

Little birds, little birds, jump up and down
Little birds, little birds, don’t make a sound
Little birds, little birds, tip-toe to me
Little birds, little birds, bend your knees
Little birds, little birds, peep, peep, peep
Little birds, little birds, sleep, sleep, sleep
Little birds, little birds, fly to the leaves
Little birds, little birds, sit down please

Storytelling with Puppet:
Go Away Big Green Monster

Extra Books:
Little Mouse by Alison Murray
Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastian Braun

How did it go?

This storytime went SO. MUCH. BETTER. than last time! I had twice as many people (a total of 42 for storytime, 40 for playtime). I definitely planned for my time much better, and though at first I was nervous having that many people in the room, everyone was so much more engaged than last time which translated to me being able to forget about my nerves and really get into the storytelling and rhymes. This is still so new to me, but I loved storytime yesterday, and it gives me a lot of hope that I can continue to improve my skills! I think I might actually be excited for next week’s storytime, rather than just nervous 🙂

As far as the content goes, I think the kids were able to understand, specially since I introduced the theme with an elephant puppet and mouse finger puppet. I think Sherry’s and Alborough’s books were the best picks for today – shout out to my coworker who recommended Where’s My Teddy? a half hour before my storytime started (I had originally planned on reading Little Mouse first, but it Where’s My Teddy? was a perfect pick for this theme, and who can resist a bear with his own teddy?). Six Little Ducks was also a ton of fun, as was Little Birds and the big green monster (the kids told me he wasn’t scary, just silly).

Seeds & Trees

Today was Earth Day, so I decided to do a tree theme for my storytime, which ended up as a seeds/trees/flowers theme.

Books:

If You Hold a Seed by Elly McKay

Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson

A Tree for Me by Nancy van Laan

Songs:
The Apple Tree by Bari Koral
Under a Shady Tree by Laurie Berkner

Action Song/Rhyme:
I’m a Little Seed

Flannels:
One Little Seed (Based on the book by Elaine Greenstein)
Five Little Flowers (the version I did was slight different, but I like this one by Mis Meg’s Storytime better).

How did it go?
This was my first storytime, and boy was I nervous (I kept thinking, is it normal to sweat this much during a storytime? Can they TELL that I’m sweating?). Thank goodness I planned extra books and rhymes because I would have been way short on time otherwise! I think overall it was a success (nothing tragic happened though there were some hiccups).

Tap the Magic Tree was definitely the biggest success here, the kids really got involved. If You Hold a Seed is alright…and maybe my ambivalence translated to the audience. A Tree for Me got a decent reaction considering I read it in a hurry at the very end as I scrambled to fill the time!

My first solo storytime is tomorrow!

I have observed a few, and read a story to a group of first graders when I led a first grade round up session, but tomorrow is the real deal. I’ll post my outline tomorrow, with an update of how it went.

Wish me luck!

Library design for children & teens

I have just begun a class on developmental psychology, so what I found really interesting about this article was the mention of how architecture and design for children and teens can (and should) take into account developmental stages of users. This seems like an excellent idea, but also a particularly challenging one to implement, especially in libraries who do not have a lot of funds to spend on redesigning. I think it must be difficult to balance the more traditional needs of shelving books while also creating spaces where children can really engage in that process of discovery which is so important for early literacy development. I also thought it was very interesting how the author mentions how young adults want to have a space that is separate from the children’s area because they do not want to be seen as children. I think most libraries that I am familiar with do have separate teen rooms, but I always felt like those rooms were just an afterthought, and not necessarily well-suited to teen’s needs. To me, they never seemed to be very dynamic or engaging. However, I can also see that as teens get older they begin to utilize the “adult” areas of the library as well which then serve as a supplement to the teen rooms. It would be interesting to get more insight from teen users on what they want in the teen area or if they prefer having a separate area at all.