During the summer, staff rotates a Saturday morning storytime for all ages. The program is drop-in which means we never know how many families will attend or the age range. This summer, we’re focusing on community helpers and I played to my strengths — space! Well, pilots and astronauts really. I only starred the materials used at storytime, but I pulled more than I needed.
The Plan
Books
ABCs on Wings by Ramon Olivera*
The Airport Book by Lisa Brown
Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
Flying by Donald Crews
Hello, Airplane by Bill Cotter*
Higher, Higher by Leslie Patricelli
I Want to Be an Astronaut by Byron Barton*
Extension Activities
Flannelboard: “Four Rockets”*
Finger Puppets: “Two Little Astronauts”*
CD: Laurie Berkner’s The Airplane Song*
Action Rhyme: “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom”*
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the moon
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the moon
If you want to take a trip,
Climb aboard my rocket ship,
Zoom, zoom, zoom, we’re going to the moon
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off!
Credit: Jbrary
How It Went
I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced the “please come, please come, please come” storytime mantra like I did during the wait before this program. I was scheduled for Fourth of July Saturday and I just had that gut feeling that I might not have any families attend that day because of the holiday.
It started small with only a few friends (two families) but grew to have eight families of fifteen friends! It was definitely a more toddler crowd, but I had books that would work for them. Caregivers loved ABCs on Wings especially after I gave my vocabulary tip and kids had the best time waving along to Hello, Airplane.
You’ll notice that I did all of the extension activities to hold the crowd’s attention. Since it was such a younger crowd, I knew that doing the activities would help me out. The toddlers and babies had the best smiles during both “The Airplane Song” and “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom”.
storytime katie 
what was your “vocabulary tip”?