After the library stopped hosting “Afternoon Storytime” and a trial program of “Starry Night Stories”, I made the decision to start a monthly “Pajama Storytime” session at the library. I wanted to give families the chance to enjoy hearing stories together — and especially wanted to try again to host an evening program. Our suggested age range is ages 0 to 7 and their families, which means I sometimes get a few older siblings. The goal in this program is simple: foster a love of reading and particularly of reading together as a family!
The Plan
Books
Back to Bed, Ed by Sebastien Braun
A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
The Squeaky Door by Margaret Read MacDonald
Extension Activities
Flannelboard: “Papa, Please Get the Moon”
Rhyme Wheel: “Hey Diddle Diddle”
Rhyme: “Good Night”
One fluffy quilt on my bed,
Two little pillows on my head,
Three teddy bears to hold tight
Four kisses from Mom for a restful night,
Five hugs from Dad, and off goes my light!
Good night!
Credit: Canton Public Library
Rhyme Card
Each month will have a different rhyme that we do at storytime and then send parents home with the words. This is a picture of the rhyme cards after quite a few months. This month was “Hey Diddle Diddle.”
How It Went
The Squeaky Door. Holy cats, THE SQUEAKY DOOR. I saw this performed live last spring and this book captured my heart. It is funny. It has animal noises. It’s repetitive. It’s great for an older crowd or mixed audience. And it absolutely won this storytime. Hands down, favorite book.
storytime katie 
How is attendance at your Pajama Storytime? People here always seem to ask for evening or weekend storytime, then don’t seem to show up.
We were seeing around twenty children registered, but only about half of them actually attending. And we always had a few drop-ins or people in the department who joined the program once they heard what was going on. I would say the average was around 15 kids. But! I had a lot of both parents actually attending, so our numbers there were much improved. Attendance did taper off once the weather got nasty in Chicago though.
Would you be able to share the file that you used for your Rhymes and Songs cards? I would love to start using those with my bedtime group.
Yes, Lori, I can share them. I’ll look through my files (still transitioning between jobs), and get them to you as soon as possible.