My Storytime project was the one I looked forward to most and least. On the one hand, it was something I’d done as a teen working with the “Readings is Fundamental” program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (my first paying library job!). I was responsible for working with the youngest children (babies to seven, approximately) of underprivileged families who were learning how to read to their children both for fun and to teach life skills. While the adults and older children participated in a read-aloud Storytime taught by the children’s librarians, I would read to the younger kids, complete a craft with them, and generally keep them quiet and entertained.
On the other hand, I hadn’t read to kids (and certainly had never sung to them, because I strenuously avoided singing in public until I was at least twenty-four, believing that embarrasment could be lethal) since I was fifteen or so. Solitary nieces and nephews don’t count.
So this was certainly the project that was going to stretch me the most. As an adult, I regretted not doing more with my RIF kids; I would make rattles or masks out of paper plates and Mardi Gras beads, read them a few stories, color with them on butcher paper…and that was about it. I didn’t have themes, I didn’t have a wide variety of crafts, I didn’t sing. Now was my chance to try doing something more involved.
I watched my supervisor’s Storytimes for most of the summer (aside from a few weeks when she was on vacation or doing school visits) and took note of what she did that worked. She always had a consistent opening song and stretch, a mid-Storytime stretch, and a closing song. I would need to incorporate these into my Storytime, since it was what all of her kids were used to doing. She would also do a lot of singing with them (she always looked for a new song for them from a variety of children’s websites), and did a simple craft at the end of Storytime with the pre-schoolers. I observed that the kids often wouldn’t sing or act along as she did the song and associated hand motions, but she said that parents were always coming up to her and telling her that the kids would sing them all week at home – they were just shy in public.
I decided fairly early in the summer that I would do a muffin themed Storytime, mostly because I was making a lot of muffins for myself (I had a ton of frozen blueberries that needed to get used up). If You Give A Moose A Muffin would definitely be one of my readings, and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” would be one of my songs, and there I stuck. For a long time. I spent a good chunk of time closer to my due date looking through the shelves for muffin- or baking-themed Storytimes and came up with a few books, but nothing that really grabbed me.
Then, suddenly (my supervisor assures me that this happens to her all the time the night before Storytime), a scant two weeks before my due date, I had a change of plans. Muffins are out. FARMS, now, farms and gardens…I love farms and gardens. I had spent a lot of time this summer at the farmer’s market and even tried my hand at making jams and canning fruit (mostly successful, tons of fun except for the burns and the cleanup, and so incredibly tasty), and this, this was a theme I could really get excited about. And was, in fact. I tossed around some other farm and garden-themed books, but nothing really grabbed me until my supervisor suggested Farmer Duck and Muncha Muncha Muncha for the pre-schoolers and Growing Vegetable Soup and The Little Red Hen for the toddlers. I had considered (was planning on, in fact) doing Potato Joe for both sets up until my run-through the day before, when I decided that it really wasn’t an excellent book for reading aloud and also had no narrative structure whatsoever, and would probably bore the willies out of the pre-schoolers. My song would be “This is the way we grow the food” to the tune of “Here we go round the mulberry bush”, and my craft would be making little garden labels out of cut-up paper grocery bags and popsicle sticks. I had a felt board for The Very Big Carrot. I had a flower stamp for the kids at the end. If I needed more to fiill the time, I’d teach everyone to sing “Inch by Inch.” I was set.
My supervisor met with me the day before to do a complete run-through of the Storytime, and it was very helpful. It was a good chance for me to practice reading the stories out loud and to practice dealing with an occasionally tough crowd of four-year-olds (she can do killer impressions of kids being excited/bored/random as the mood strikes her. It was both funny and very, very useful.) She gave me some great tips on projecting my voice (I am not a naturally loud person) and dealing with the kidlets.
I was really nervous on the morning of my preschool Storytime, but I’m lucky in that once I get on stage and reading I tend to forget to be nervous and just focus on what I’m doing. It went great! There were 120 people in the room, which my supervisor said is something she’s only had to deal with twice. I didn’t have time to do “Inch by Inch” (which I both expected and was disappointed by), my “Very Big Carrot” feltboard (told as if it happened to me as a kid) went over like hotcakes, the kids and adults helped me read Farmer Duck (especially the Moos and the Quacks and the Oinks and the Clucks), and it seemed like everyone had a really good time. Especially me. Which was a relief.
I made a few changes from my supervisor’s usual routine, mostly in that she starts each Storytime with shaking the wiggles out of your right hand, left hand, both hands, and then your face. I really can’t handle shaking wiggles out of my face; it feels like my brain is sloshing around in my head. Instead I had all the kids make a big silly faces (and I made one too, of course), and it seemed like that went over just fine as a substitute.
After playing to a crowd of 120, the 80 and 60 I got for my toddler Storytimes the next day were small potatoes. I did mostly the same routine, but swapped out the books for two shorter ones, since the toddlers only have twenty minutes to the pre-schoolers’ thirty.
The adults were hugely helpful in keeping the kids relatively still and quiet; I mentioned that these were one of my first Storytimes and they really stepped up in getting the kids to participate without getting too crazy. Everyone sang along, which was another thing that I’d been worried about.
I kept a notebook next to me with my Storytime plan written out in it as a reminder to me of what was supposed to come next, and that was a great crutch as well. My supervisor has been doing this for years and doesn’t need them any more, but it was great for me to have a cheat-sheet/security blanket. I will definitely keep doing this until I’m more comfortable with the routine of a Storytime.
Once again, a good knowledge of your collection is essential. I’m a good twenty years away from my prime picture-book years, and my supervisor was a huge help in choosing books. When she was away on vacation I processed the new children’s books that came in, and it feels like between that, weeding, shelving, and the general browsing required of a children’s librarian, a good knowledge of your collection develops by osmosis. Sadly, since I was only there for three months, I didn’t have much of that so it was extremely helpful to have her advice to support my book selections.
In general, I had a really fabulous time working on this project. The Storytimes were much more fun (and much less stressful) than I anticipated them being, giving kids their end-of-Storytime stamps is both cute and gratifying, and hearing a roomful of toddlers gasp when you get to the climax of “The Very Big Carrot” is just plain awesome. After my pre-school Storytime a woman from Page Ahead told me about their program and asked if I would be interested in volunteering, and this definitely sounds like a great way to both build my own Storytime skills and engage children in their library and what it can do for them.
