Category: Family Storytime

Virtual Storytime: Shapes

For information on how virtual storytimes work at my library, please visit this post.

Materials

Books

[The covers of the four books listed below: Friendshape; My Heart is Like a Zoo; Press Here; and Walter’s Wonderful Web.]

Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall*
Press Here by Herve Tullet
Walter’s Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood*

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: Color Zoo*

Flannelboard: The Shape Story*

Prop Sticks: Where is Shape?*

Props: Song Cube

Planning

Shapes is an always popular, great theme to do and I thought it would work well virtually since I could have the kids draw shapes in the air or make simple shapes with their hands along with our materials — both great fine motor activities.

I definitely anchored this storytime with Tim Hopgood’s Walter’s Wonderful Web since it’s such a wonderful book about shapes, but also it’s a great social-emotional book about perseverance. I wanted the kids to hear a great message about trying again and again.

I also chose to use more visual-based props — like “Where is Shape?”, which is a take on Thumbkin with cardstock shapes on popsicle sticks — rather than the usual recorded music break that I had previously used at in-person storytimes.

How It Went

Some of the kids chose to participate by drawing shapes in the air/making them with their hands and some kids didn’t. It wasn’t a wholly successful adaptation, but I feel like those that wanted an additional way to connect with me and the materials enjoyed it.

I saw some great engagement during Color Zoo on the flannelboard — I asked the kids to either make animal noises or to move like the animal featured on the board. Some of the animals take a little longer to identify — ox and lion — so I did wind up giving clues since we weren’t in an environment where I could call attention to the kids giving the correct answer.

And lastly, My Heart is Like a Zoo gave me a great early literacy tip/extension activity to pass on to caregivers at the end of the book. I brought the book close to the camera and explained that the illustrations were made up of different sized hearts. Then, I suggested that caregivers continue that activity at home with either hearts or various cut-out shapes.

Another great storytime that I was quiet pleased with.

November 3, 2021 2 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Virtual Storytime: Birds

For information on how virtual storytimes work at my library, please visit this post.

Materials

Books

[The four covers of the books listed below: Charlie Chick; Early Bird; Grumpy Bird; Riki’s Birdhouse.]

Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield & Ant Parker*
Early Bird by Toni Yuly*
Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard*
Riki’s Birdhouse by Monica Wellington

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: Three Little Birds

Flannelboard: Ten Fluffy Chickens*

Prop Sticks: Blue Bird, Blue Bird*

Props: Song Cube

Puppets: Two Little Birds*

Planning

Another storytime that was converted to virtual. This was my last pre-pandemic scheduled storytime and I wasn’t going to let the planning go to waste!

After the success of doing emotions storytime, I definitely chose Grumpy Bird as my opening book for this theme since I would be able to engage the kids with making grumpy faces. I also encouraged the kids to get up and walk in place during the walking portion of the book — doing my best to keep a screen as interactive as possible to create a quality screen time experience. I also have to admit that I have a delightful “I’m WALKING” grumpy voice.

I planned to ask the kids to identify the color of the bird in the prop stick activity that was inspired by Mollie. I made all the different colors of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and used the rhythm of the text as my rhyme. To make this work via Zoom, I cut down my colors to just: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, I planned to ask participants to type the first letter of the color in the chat (R, O, Y, G, B, or V) or the name of the color I brought out OR to hold up an item that was the color they wanted to guess to their webcam.

How It Went

Both of the books were definitely enjoyed by the group! I was curious to see if Charlie Chick, which is a pop-up book, would translate over Zoom and it totally did. I honestly think it might have worked better than in-person because everyone was centered in one area and I didn’t have to “pop” each page multiple times so it could be seen.

“Ten Fluffy Chickens” was a great flannelboard because I could see the kids following along by clapping during the “cackle, cackle, cackle” part right before the reveal. Since this is such a short flannelboard, I always do it several times to build that repetition. By the end of the third time, nearly every child was following along!

I really felt like I was getting into a Zoom rhythm at this point. The butterflies (for me!) had definitely settled and it felt like everyone had settled into how virtual storytimes were working for us.


October 27, 2021 0 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Virtual Storytime: Houses & Homes

For information on how virtual storytimes work at my library, please visit this post.

Materials

Books

[A collage of the five book covers listed below: Grandma’s Tiny House; My House; Noisy Night; This is Our House; & Windows.]

Grandma’s Tiny House by JaNay Brown-Wood*
My House by Byron Barton*
Noisy Night by Mac Barnett*
This is Our House by Hyewon Yum
Windows by Julia Denos

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: A House for Birdie*

Flannelboard: Little Mouse, Little Mouse

Props: Song Cube

Puppets: I Have a Little Turtle*
I have a little turtle (put hands on top of one another)
He lives in a box (make box)
He swims in a puddle (swimming motion)
He climbs on the rocks (climbing motion)
He snapped at a mosquito (clap)
He snapped at a flea (clap)
He snapped at a minnow (clap)
And he snapped at me (clap)
He caught the mosquito (cup hands together)
He caught the flea (cup hands together)
He caught the minnow (cup hands together)
But he didn’t catch me! (shake finger “no”)
Credit: Childhood

Planning

This was a storytime that I had planned for in-person spring 2020 and converted to a virtual storytime. I had a lot of diversity featured in the books that I chose: Grandma’s Tiny House features a diverse extended family coming to gather; Noisy Night takes place in an apartment building; This is Our House showcases an intergenerational family living in the same house; and Windows show a brown-skinned child walking through their neighborhood.

As for converting to Zoom, I planned specifically to have the kids count along to Grandma’s Tiny House using their hands and their caregivers’ hands (since the book counts up until 15!), or to type numbers along in the chat.

And I knew that I wanted to try a thumbs up/thumbs down interaction for “A House for Birdie” on the flannelboard. I would purposefully put a bird in a house that didn’t fit and pretend like I had solved the problem, waiting for the kids to tell me whether or not the bird fit with their thumbs up/thumbs down.

How It Went

Even though the theme was planned pre-pandemic, it wound up being a very topical theme during the pandemic! Illinois had just come off of a stay-at-home order for the months of April and May, so the kids were very familiar with their homes.

The guessing game aspect of Noisy Night didn’t quite translate to Zoom like I had hoped it would. I wound up doing a lot of talking to call attention to the clues hidden in each page spread. And it was hard for me to understand what the kids were guessing. I did a lot of “Oh, I think I heard the answer — let’s turn the page to check!”

Prior to storytime starting, I tested my “Little Mouse, Little Mouse” flannelboard with my co-worker, and it turns out that my instinct was right — the contrast between blue/purple and red/orange were REALLY hard to tell via webcam. After this incident, I did try to preview flannelboards to make sure that they were still viewable via Zoom.


October 6, 2021 2 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Virtual Storytime: Emotions

For information on how virtual storytimes work at my library, please visit this post.

Materials

Books

Book covers of the four books listed below: Hooray for Hat; I Feel Teal; I'm Worried; and The Rabbit Listened.
Book covers of the four books listed below: Hooray for Hat; I Feel Teal; I’m Worried; and The Rabbit Listened.

Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won*
I Feel Teal by Lauren Rille
I’m Worried by Michael Ian Black
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld*

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: Go Away Big Green Monster

Flannelboard: Pete the Cat & His Four Groovy Buttons*

Prop Sticks: If You’re Happy and You Know It*

Props: Song Cube*

Planning

This was my first virtual storytime, back in June of 2020. I definitely wanted to kick off virtual storytimes with a discussion about emotions and feelings. I wanted to support the kids and their caregivers during this time of upheaval, and to hopefully give caregivers ways to continue to talk openly about emotions and feelings.

I also chose to use The Rabbit Listened because it features a non-gendered child. It was important to me that every child could see themselves in Taylor.

How It Went

Have I ever mentioned that Hooray for Hat! is one of my favorite books? I probably have and it should come as no surprise that it was a great hit over Zoom. I really loved seeing my friends’ GRUMPY faces, as well as their hands raised as we said “Hooray for hat!” I had some children turn their cameras on especially so I could see their GRUMPY faces.

For our first flannelboard, I did Pete the Cat and asked the kids to roll their hands along with me and to clap for the “POP!” portion. This was a great way to monitor if everyone was following along with me. I don’t know if they sang Pete’s buttons song since our Zooms are muted, but they definitely rolled and popped along!

During The Rabbit Listened, I took the time to ask a lot of questions and brought the book close to the webcam so the kids could really see what Taylor’s face looked like and the kids could talk about how they thought Taylor was feeling. I invited them to participate in several ways: they could tell the grown-up in the room with them, they could type the name of the emotion, or they could make the face.

Lastly, we finished up with “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, with more emotion face-making encouragement and a flannelboard telling of Go Away Big Green Monster which I asked the kids to use their arms when we repeated “GO AWAY!”

Since this was my first, I planned a lot of different ways for the kids to interact with the materials and with me — I had NO IDEA how they would adapt to storytime on a screen. I’m very pleased to say that they were engaged and attentive and that we really had a meaningful storytime together. I definitely had to cry out my emotions — both sad and happy — after we had closed the Zoom room for that day.


September 28, 2021 1 Comment Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Pilots & Astronauts!

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

pilotsastronauts

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”.

August 10, 2016 1 Comment Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Interactive Books

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-interactivebooks

It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle*
Mix It Up! by Herve Tullet
Tip Tip Dig Dig by Emma Garcia*
Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Rock and Roll Playground*

Featured Track: #2 Jump Up (It’s a Good Day)*

Flannelboard: “Dear Zoo”*

Flannelboard: “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus”*

Props: “Green Says Go”*

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

  • ABCs
  • Dance Your Fingers Up
  • Everyone Can March*
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Open, Shut Them
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  • Zoom, Zoom, Zoom*

How It Went

For my last Family Storytime (another staff member is taking over for the spring), I decided to go all out and do really high energy, interactive picture books and activities. I let each child put up a “No!” on the flannelboard during the Pigeon and encouraged everyone to get up and move and be excited. Since we were up and moving so much, I got through three books! That is a family storytime miracle for me!

April 7, 2016 0 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Music

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-music

Be Quiet, Mike! by Leslie Patricelli
Drum Dream Girl by Margarita Engle
Music Class Today! by David Weinstone*
Tanka Tanka Skunk by Steve Webb*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Dragon Dreams*

Featured Track: #13 We Make Some Noise Together*

Flannelboard: Seals on the Bus*

Props: Handbells with Track #13

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

  • ABCs
  • Dance Your Fingers Up
  • Everyone Can March
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes*
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Open, Shut Them
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  • Zoom, Zoom, Zoom*

How It Went

We had a very noisy class today! (I had compliments from our Technical Services department which shares a wall with our meeting room.) Both books were immediate successes and we had a great time clapping along to Tanka Tanka Skunk. But the best part of the day was definitely when I let the kids have handbells to shake along to “We Make Some Noise Together.” The kids loved getting their energy out and I liked getting to watch them actually use an instrument.

March 31, 2016 0 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Counting

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-counting

Count! by Denise Fleming
Counting Ovejas by Sarah Weeks*
One Family by George Shannon*
Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: The Irrational Anthem*

Featured Track: #7 Jumping and Counting*

Flannelboard: “Pretty Ladybugs”*

Puppets: “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”*

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

  • ABCs
  • Dance Your Fingers Up*
  • Everyone Can March
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Open, Shut Them
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star*
  • Zoom, Zoom, Zoom*

How It Went

This was honestly a really weird family storytime. I only had four kiddos in the room and it’s been a REALLY long time since I had such a small audience. (My guess is that because Shake, Shimmy, & Dance was this week and we had snow that families opted not to come to our weekly event and instead go to the monthly. That resulted in SSD having a super high attendance of 71, so I’ll take it!) Anyways, we got through a TON of material since it was an all preschool crowd and they were great. I put the flannelboard on the floor and let them add the spots to the ladybug. All of the books worked well, but Jane Cabrera has something really special with Ten in the Bed so I’ll call it the favorite — I loved watching the kids play along with the characters as they fell out.

March 10, 2016 0 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Arctic Animals

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-arcticanimals

Baby Penguins Everywhere by Melissa Guion
Polar Bear Night by Lauren Thompson*
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.*
Where Is Home, Little Pip? by Karma Wilson*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Stinky Cake*

Featured Track: #18 The Penguin Song*

Flannelboard: “Five Bears”*

Flannelboard: “The Penguin Went Over the Iceberg”

Puppets: There’s Something In the Snow
There’s something in the snow, now what can it be?
There’s something in the snow that I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound…HOWL HOWL HOWL
A wolf is what I found! HOWL HOWL HOWL
(CAW CAW CAW, A cardinal is what I found! / GRR GRR GRR, A bear is what I found! / WADDLE WADDLE WADDLE, A penguin is what I found!)
Credit: Modified from “There’s Something In My Garden” originally found at SurLaLune Storytime

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

  • ABCs
  • Dance Your Fingers Up
  • Everyone Can March*
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Open, Shut Them*
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  • Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

How It Went

Every storytime that includes a guessing game with animals makes my storytime kids lose their minds, so the clear winner was “There’s Something In the Snow” this week. I enjoyed reading all the books this week, but probably pushed it by including Where Is Home, Little Pip? after we had already done two books. Because this is a drop-in program, I have to cater to the larger group which was preschoolers this week, but the few toddlers in the room were definitely out of attention. I found myself skipping page spreads in Little Pip so that the preschoolers could hear the end since they were still super invested.

March 3, 2016 2 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Families: Dinosaurs

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-dinosaurs

Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont*
Dinosaur vs. the Library by Bob Shea*
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen
Inside-Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro*

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Whaddaya Think of That?*

Featured Track: #1 We Are the Dinosaurs*

Flannelboard: “Ten Little Dinos”*

Puppets: “Dinosaur, Dinosaur”*
Dinosaur, dinosaur, turn around
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the ground
Dinosaur, dinosaur, reach up high
Dinosaur, dinosaur, touch the sky
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your nose
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your toes
Dinosaur, dinosaur, find your knees
Dinosaur, dinosaur, sit down please

Puppets: “Two Little Dinosaurs”*

Repeating Extension Activities

I had lots of back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I starred which ones I used in this storytime:

  • ABCs
  • Dance Your Fingers Up
  • Everyone Can March
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
  • If You’re Happy and You Know It
  • Open, Shut Them
  • Pat-a-Cake
  • Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
  • Zoom, Zoom, Zoom*

How It Went

Seriously, how fun is this theme? I love doing dinosaurs stories and would read them every week to joy of many of my preschoolers. I had a young man who dropped his jaw when I revealed that our theme for the day was dinosaurs! He was very on top of answering questions and leading the group in roaring. It was a perfect storytime to come home to after ALA Midwinter. Really, everything was a great success. Dini Dinosaur has such a great refrain and lets the kids practice body identification, but it also lets parents with babies and toddlers do some touching and tickling as we identify “head” and “stomach”. It’s a great cross-over title and I love giving my families those modifications to make a book work for all attending this drop-in.

February 25, 2016 2 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

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