Baby Storytime – April 21, 2016

Hello Song

Hello, Friends

Tickles / Fingerplays

Round and round the garden

Head and shoulders

Roly poly

Book 1: I Can Roar

Bounces

A Smooth Road

While driving down a bumpy road

A hippopotamus got on a city bus

Book 2: Tuck Me In

Movement Songs

He didn’t dance, dance, dance

Zoom Zoom Zoom

The Elevator Song

Cool Down Songs

Mm-ah went the little green frog

Good Bye Song

Goodbye, Friends

Lots of chatting today at babytime, which was lovely.  Parents commenting on the different songs and books that their babies enjoy, and getting to know each other. We didn’t cover as much material as I’d planned, but we had a smaller group (7 moms), so it was a casual, laid-back program.

We also talked about different ways to tell the rhymes or sing the songs we covered. One mother prefers to do Round and round the garden on her son’s palm, while other babies like to have a circle traced around their bellybuttons, or on their backs. There are also different ways to sing Head and Shoulders. These are great conversations to be having with caregivers, because the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t really matter what you sing or say with your baby, or how you sound. All that matters is that you are spending time bonding with your baby and exposing them to language!

Note: The babies were completely mesmerized by I Can Roar. I had 100% eye contact and 100% attention. It was incredible. I’m not sure if they were fascinated or terrified, but either way, it was pretty hilarious to watch their little faces follow me as I swept the book around the group. Highly, highly recommended!

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Preschool visit and story time – March 19, 2015

One of the things I love so much about being a children’s librarian is the variety that comes with the position – no two days are ever quite the same! We get to do so much outreach in our positions, and I for one am pretty passionate about getting out into the community, meeting our neighbors and being involved in what’s going on around us.

Today I had the opportunity to visit a local preschool and participate in their circle time. It was a bit of a last-minute arrangement, and due to scheduling constraints I didn’t have my usual thirty minute story time allowance, so I had to be a little creative with my program. As I’ve said before, that’s one of the things I love about doing on-call or drop-in story times – they’re perfect opportunities to spread my wings a little, branch out and try new things!

We had a small group – only 16 kids, but they were so engaged in the stories and so excited to participate.

Here’s what I did with the lovely little preschoolers I met on this super soggy spring day:

Book 1: Little Owl Lost / Chris Haughton

Song: Roly poly

Book 2: Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons /  James Dean, Eric Litwin

Songs: I wake up my hands

The itsy bitsy spider

Book 3: I’m a Dirty Dinosaur /  Janeen Brian & Ann James

And just for fun: Here I am sitting in the neighborhood house with my books, waiting to make my grand entrance into the preschool –  a little bedraggled from the terrible rain, but ready to get this story time started!

Family Story Time – March 13, 2015

Another Friday, another set of story times! We had a smaller group at family story time today – it’s spring break, and a lot of branches take a story time break, but we decided to motor on through, even with a smaller group than normal. To be honest, though, this smaller size was just about perfect – we had about 65 people in our meeting room, and it was really nice – not too empty, not too crowded. Here’s what we did!

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends

Book 1: Ten in the Den / John Butler

Hand Rhymes

• I wake up my hands
• Wiggle your fingers
• Open-shut them
• Roly poly
• Little turtle in a shell, sitting so still…

Book 2: The Wheels on the Bus / Jane Cabrera

Action Songs

• Zoom zoom
• Twinkle twinkle little star
• If you’re happy and you know it
• The elevator song
• Orca whale

Goodbye Song: Goodbye, Friends!

Remarkably similar to last week’s family story time, but I’m still struggling with my voice and my stamina, so I’m sticking to the old standards until I’ve got a bit more of my juice back!

Funny story – a mother came to tell me how her little girl was so upset at the part in “Ten in the Den’ when all the other animals have rolled out of the bed, and it’s just the little mouse alone in the den, missing his friends. So empathetic, and so sweet!

Baby Story Time – November 7, 2014

I’ve started doing a Mother Goose story time program at my branch, and it’s been a great opportunity to expand my baby time repertoire and learn new some great new material. My co-facilitator and I have been introducing each other to new songs and rhymes, and I’ve been incorporating them into my regular baby time programs. There are a few regulars from baby time who are in my MG as well, and it’s nice to see them twice!

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends!

Touching Rhymes/Tickles

• Wake up, feet
• Baby put your pants on
• Say hello, can you touch your nose?
• Roly Poly

Book 1: Sleepyheads / Sandra J. Howatt

Songs/Bounces

• Toast in the toaster
• Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap
• You be the ice cream
• Bumping up and down in my little red wagon
• The grand old duke of york

Book Two: Jump! / Scott M. Fischer

Movement Songs

• Love somebody, yes I do
• Mamma’s little baby loves dancing
• What shall we do with lazy Katie?
• Zoom, zoom, zoom
• The elevator song

Soothing Songs

• Rain is falling down

Goodbye song: Goodbye, Friends!

Oh, Jump! What a winner! We did this as an interactive picture book – caregivers lifted their babies every time we said “jump!” It was adorable – the babies were loving it! As I’ve said before, I love a book with jazzy text, and this one is just so much fun to read. I can’t wait to try it out with my big kids!

Sleepyheads is absolutely beautiful, the illustrations are just so charming. It’s a wonderful bedtime book, but my little wigglers were not in the mood for bedtime, so I shortened it considerably and it was still lovely.

Toddler time!

Speaking of surviving the on-call story time, I delivered a story time to an entirely new group yesterday, and survived! It was all about the toddlers yesterday morning. I hadn’t actually done a toddler time since my student librarian days, but fortunately I learned from some of the best in the business, so I didn’t feel too unprepared!

I followed a template that a children’s librarian shared with me back in the day, and made sure to follow my own advice and include plenty of golden oldies that hopefully everyone would know. Here’s (more or less) how it looked!

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends

Book 1: I Spy on the Farm/ Edward Gibbs

Body rhymes

• I wake up my hands
• Roly poly
• Open shut them

Book 2: Monkey and Me / Emily Gravett

Action Songs

• Bend and Stretch
• Zoom Zoom (multiple times as per audience requests…)
• If You’re Happy and You Know it
• The elevator song

Goodbye Song: Goodbye, Friends

It was a great group, about 36 people in total, so definitely nowhere near as big a group as I’m used to. I hope they had as much fun making animal noises as I did!