Blog

We decided we should elaborate on what a storytime looks like for us as we generally post the outline of events so here you are. This follows the plan that we followed on Friday (for the most part) included below. You'll notice that next to the plan are the book covers and the creators for the book. We always include photos of the authors and illustrators of the texts we are using. This is one way for our storytimers to connect with creators and see who is making the media we are featuring. 

We've noted who generally leads each portion and we direct folks to the plan throughout storytime since we post it on an easel that sits between us for storytime. The other person follows their lead and if there is a story with two voices (think Elephant & Piggie), we both read a different part. We switch things, cut, or add dependent on how is at storytime that day and what seems to be working.  

• Stretch

  • We always start with introducing ourselves with our first names (and often pronouns) and then ask folks to stand if they are able to stretch and get our bodies ready for storytime. 

  • We often use a variation of Miss Katie Sings: Stretch and Sing

  • Olivia generally leads this

•  Four directions

  • We continue standing and tell everyone which direction to face for north and they repeat after us, North. Then we tell them which way to face for South and they repeat after us, South. Then east and finally west in the same way. This gives us all a good sense of place. 

  • Katelyn generally leads this

• Shake Our Sillies Out

  • We sing and dance to the Raffi song but amend it slightly. Here are the lyrics we follow: 

    • We’re gonna shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Wiggle all our waggles away
      
      We’re gonna jump, jump, jump our jiggles out
      Jump, jump, jump our jiggles out
      Jump, jump, jump our jiggles out
      Wiggle all our waggles away
      
      We’re gonna stretch, stretch, stretch our stretchies out
      Stretch, stretch, stretch our stretchies out
      Stretch, stretch, stretch our stretchies out
      Wiggle all our waggles away
      
      We’re gonna yawn, yawn, yawn our yawnies out
      Yawn, yawn, yawn our yawnies out
      Yawn, yawn, yawn our yawnies out
      Wiggle all our waggles away
      
      We’re gonna shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Shake, shake, shake our sillies out
      Wiggle all our waggles away

  • Olivia plays ukelele and Katelyn acts everything out. Part of storytime folks enjoying storytime is about us enjoying storytime and we are sure to be silly for this song. We want everyone to enjoy storytime and part of enjoying the stories later is moving our bodies a lot to begin.

• Good Morning Dear Earth

  • We all settle in and have a seat for this Waldorf inspired part of storytime that we sing/speak and have accompanying actions.

    • Good morning dear earth (form arms into circle in front of body)
      Good morning dear sun (move arm circle above head)
      Good morning dear stones (form hands into circle in front of body)
      And the flowers, every one (bring hands to side of face and wiggle fingers as if petals)
      Good moring dear bees (pinch thumbs and pointer fingers and buzz around body)
      And the birds in the trees (bring arms out to side and calmly flap like arms are wings)
      Good morning to you (open palm gesture toward someone else)
      And good morning to me (give self a hug)

  • Co-led with slow, calm breaths

• One From the Left

  • We use the Jim Gill spotify recording for this fingerplay with a bluetooth speaker from one of our phones. We sing along and do the actions with the recording. We encourage families to check out the YouTube video that accompanies the song featuring a variety of adults doing all the motions. Watch it yourself if you're unfamiliar:  https://youtu.be/2CX-jFsVtR4?si=AnwS8m3h7OI3XYcV 

  • We co-lead this part as half the fun of doing storytime together is being able to have conversations with each other and model language. This song choice changes each month. 

• Letter of the Day: A

  • This part is actually focused on the phonemes of the letter rather than the letter itself to begin. We have the letter printed (capital and lowercase, see Canva plans) but turned backwards so it's not visible to start. There are also four words with photographs depicting the word posted on our easel. Each word begins with the letter of the day (a). We start with the first word and say the word, point to the photo, and repeat the beginning phoneme. We then encourage everyone to make that sound and say the word with us. We go through the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th images and say all the words. Then we sing the song Olivia wrote. 

  • Our video: https://youtu.be/h9yf4pCapnc?si=SJLTgqvmu6oMXTGL 

  • Our work version: https://youtu.be/AhJT2gcvfHY?si=ZG3svpCjRD02n919 

  • Katelyn generally leads this part in talking, Olivia in singing.

• Sing Talk Read Write Play

  • We ask everyone to show five fingers, if they've got 'um, and take out a pointer finger and we sing the song! We use our pointer fingers to point to a different finger on our opposing hand for each of the five words. Then we sing it again and switch hands. 

  • Our work version: https://youtu.be/-ALcrZGObXg?si=C6pNzdqPU0oEEjfy 

  • We trade off leading this portion. 

• Just One Flake

  • Time to read the first book. Generally folks are settled by this point but we will add a calming song if needed. While most folks are seated for this portion, we never ask a child to sit if they end up standing for a book. 

  • Katelyn generally reads. Katelyn will adjust the book or stand and read if there are littles up close blocking the view of others. 

• Scarf Songs

  • After the first book we take out a bag of scarves and ask everyone to come get a scarf and go back to their grown-up. We most often start with a song about the weather and do actions with the scarves to that songs. 

  • Sun is shining (make big circles)
    Sun is shining  (make big circles)
    On the ground (wave back and forth on the ground)
    On the ground (wave back and forth on the ground)
    Shining over here (wave to one side of the body)
    Shining over there (wave to the other side of the body)
    Everywhere (make infinity sign in front of body)
    Everywhere (make infinity sign in front of body)

  • Other weather options included "rain is falling," "snow is falling," or "snowflakes falling,"

  • We always do "popcorn kernels" at some point and add a song if it feels we need it or there is a seasonal option that fits. Many of the songs we use can be found on the WashCoLib Scarf Songs YouTube Playlist.

  • We end with counting and toss our scarves up in the air for each number. We count a calendar related number of the date, 7 for the days of the week, 12 for the months of the year, 25 for the current year, etc. After we count to the number we then ask folks to put the scarf in their other hand and then we count to zero. After zero, they return their scarves to the bag. 

• Monet Manatee

  • Olivia assists with the returning of scarves while Katelyn gets Monet the Mantee (a puppet) out and passes out a 1/2 sheet with a piece of art on it to each grown-up. Often this art is related to one of the books read that day. We ask grown-ups to ask their child(ren), what do you see? After everyone has art and we wait about 30 seconds, Katelyn has Monet ask, what do you see? This is an opportunity for folks to call out loud what they are looking at while we repeat what they say. No raising hands, just talking. We spend a few minutes looking at art and then we put away Monet and tell them they can bring their art home to look at again later. 

• Follow the Leader

  • This portion of storytime is either follow the leader, parade, or dance and is highly active. Katelyn cues up the music on the portable speaker she carries along while Olivia talks about what we are doing. Katelyn starts the line, Olivia ends it. We travel throughout the children's area and around the information desk of our library, the patrons in the other parts of the building are often smiling as we travel by them with our music nice and loud. 

  • Last week's song was Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. We try to cover a wide variety of music throughout the course of the year and are often exhausted after this portion. When we do dancing, we also often incorporate shakers or scarves. 

• Square Breath

  • We do a new breath each month and it is printed on the opposite side of the art for Monet Mantee. We ask folks to look at the breath on their half sheet. We explain it and then do it at least twice.  

  • We trade off leading this portion. 

• Who Jumps More?

  • Time to read the 2nd book now that we are all exhausted and ready to focus. Both books share a theme, we never read more than two books, and we try to have one book be more of a story while the other is more focused on a concept. 

• Square Breath

  • We practice the breath again after the book. 

• I’m a Little Snowman

  • The song in this portion changes either weekly or monthly depending on the theme and what is most relevant to do. This song choice often has actions such as this week with I'm a Little Snowman that follows the I'm a Little Teapot tune. We never refer to a tune even if one of our songs follow it in order to not assume prior knowledge of grown-ups or children. We often have 1/2 or 1/4 sheet printouts of this song for those who want it. 

    • I’m a little snowman (point to self)
      Short and fat (make short motion and arms out wide for fat)
      Here are my buttons (point to imaginary buttons on our bodies)
      Here is my hat (point to imaginary buttons on our bodies)
      In the summertime, I cannot stay (make ASL for summer, then wiggle finger no)
      I just simply melt away (melt body until laying on floor)

• So Long, Farewell

  • We do our version of the wonderful goodbye song from Out of the Box: https://youtu.be/VDQ3DBnlAYY?si=vMVREfWn4CJ34r0D 

After storytime concludes on Fridays we have art cart which we will be telling you all about in an upcoming post. Katelyn talks about what the activity is right before our goodbye song. After we sing So Long, Farewell, Katelyn preps the activity while Olivia gives out stickers and then cleans up our storytime stuff and brings it in the back. We do this storytime in our public children's area. When one of us needs to be absent, the other person does everything. Katelyn doesn't play ukelele so there is an acapella version or drum version when Olivia is gone for letter of the day and she subsitutes for Shake Our Sillies Out. 

We have all of our Friday Storytimes planned for 2025 and want to share them with you! It's much too large a PDF (342 pages) so we're sharing the Canva link and Spotify Playlist. 

Are you using the plans? Reach out to us with questions or comments on how the plans worked for you. We're also available on Instagram! 

-Your Childish Librarians

Katelyn wrote another blog for the Early Childhood Programs and Services committee she's part of that went live on September 22nd on the ALSC Blog. If you missed it, please visit the ALSC Blog to check it out: 

Making Choices: Voting Behavior at Storytime

This post is about voting behavior as opposed to our upcoming election. Stay tuned for booklist of our recommendations of voting books and SO MANY MORE TOPICS.

As always, we're available for questions or comments, please reach out via email or on Instagram if you notice an edit we need to make or have a request to personalize this for your library! 

-Your Childish Librarians

On Tuesday, we are presenting at the 2024 Diverse Texts Conference held at Bemidji State University! This is the 2nd annual offering of this conference and we're excited to be "up north" and connect with an entirely new network of folks who all care about children & their families accessing authentic texts. 

However you've found this blog, welcome! Here are the slides for the presentation. 

We've also chosen to include a variety of prior resources. See prior blogs for scavenger hunts and reader's advisory brochures. Links to the bingo boards ready for sharing can be found below.

• ALA Award Bingo

  • Geisel Bingo

  • Schneider Bingo

  • Sibert Bingo

  • Stonewall Bingo

The program and schedule of events can be found here. 

As always, we're available for questions or comments, please reach out via email or on Instagram!

-Your Childish Librarians

Today we presented a free webinar at 12:00 CST as part of the Spring Webinar Series for The Information School at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. 

Here are our slides: Library Scavenger Hunt Slides

Now the resources:

Google Drive Folder PDFs

Links to each file on Canva: 

• Rainbow

• Black

• Brown

• White

• Red

• Orange

• Yellow

• Green

• Blue

• Purple

• Family

• Trees

• Mammals

• Reptiles

• Amphibians

• Birds

• Fish

• Arachnids

• Millipedes & Centipedes

• Insects & Springtails

• Crustaceans

• Gemstones

• Gameplay

• World's Largest Cities

• Summer

• Winter

• Activist A

• Activist B

• Artist A

• Artist B

• Scientist A

• Scientist B

This post and the Google drive folder will be updated with new scavenger hunts as we complete them. Thanks for checking things out.

Reach out with questions or comments.

We’re starting some regular blogging and one of our threads will be what we storytimed. Our combined storytime schedule throughout the course of a week looks like: 

• Wednesdays @ 10:30 with Olivia

  • Storytime aimed at developmental ages 0-8

• Thursdays @ 9:45 with Katelyn

  • Lapsit/Baby Storytime aimed at developmental ages 0-2. This is the only storytime that is in a separate space with a door and there is playtime after for all ages that runs through noon.

• Fridays @ 10:30 with both of us!

  • Storytime aimed at developmental ages 0-8

We also facilitate monthly storytimes as follows:

• 1st Tuesday of the month @ 10:30 - Storytime at Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park (This is a collaboration opportunity with county parks. We work in a county system.)

• 3rd Tuesday of the month @ 10:30 - Storytime at Woodridge Park (This is a collaboration opportunity with the City of Cottage Grove.)

• 5th Tuesday of the month - Record Virtual Storytimes that are released the first Tuesday of each month. We generally record three storytimes in one recording session to be time efficient because we record at a different branch and need to have them ready to go months in advance.

Siblings are welcome at all storytimes and we encourage families to try out all the storytimes, even if they feel they might be “too old” for something because it might just be the right fit. All of our storytimes have different vibes, intentionally.

Onto our plans from December 2023, we’ll be sharing our weekly plans as our monthly visits often remix content from other storytimes of the month!

There are separate files for each of the storytimes mentioned above. For Friday storytimes there is a template and some extra information at the start since this is our first share of this material. Please reach out with questions or comments.

Look for more in the future; they seem to take an incredibly long time to execute! We think these Bingo Boards make for a welcome change in all things summer reading (or any time of year reading). 

Take a few moments to make a bingo or even blackout one of these bingo boards, you’re sure to find a few you love!

Recently we presented at the Lead the Way: Libraries at the Heart of Community Engagement conference at the iSchool at UW-Madison. Our presentation was about welcoming families through collaborative storytimes - AKA - why do we co-present storytime? And at those different locations? And film all those songs? 

Each attendee was given one dozen storytime plans as well as a packet of storytime-appropriate breathing exercises, and a couple baby storytime plans. We promised others we'd have the digital option - so here it is! A whole cartonful of plans, we hope you enjoy!