Storytime from the Liberry : Puppy Love

Storytime Season is back in full swing here @ the liberry. It is rather shocking to see how fast some of my storytime friends have grown up. Some kids I haven't seen since April and they look completely different. I work with toddler so I get to experience their some of the supernatural growth and development they go through at that age.

I used some new things with storytime that I had worked on through the summer and decided to introduce to my regular group in the fall. Our opening in closing song is "Wheels on the Bus" so I ask the kids to pretend that the storytime area is like a bus and I am the "bus driver". We have to try our best to sit on our bottoms and use our listening ears to hear stories and directions. I used the suggestions of having a puppet come out and tell the rules because it seems to relax the kids, make them smile and creates a better atompshere. I don't feel like I'm lecturing the kids and grown ups if they are smiling at me and my puppet.

I also had the balls to state this rule at every storytime to grownups.

"We know that kids often model our behaviors, so please turn off you cell phones and save your personal conversations till after storytime. We will have time to play and socialize after the stories. Let's all do storytime TOGETHER!"

I put this together by gathering examples of other brave and seasoned storytime pros from around the interweb.  I got a few nods in agreement when I stated this to my first group. I had a few cocked eyebrows and disapproving looks from previous offenders in my second group but I'm sorry, not sorry ..It is so nice to have quiet while I'm reading stories!!  It makes a world of difference. Not that I need complete silence, I understand the squirmy nature of toddlers. But reading aloud and having just the sound of my voice carry, knowing that kids were watching and listening and not having to overhear caregivers talking about last week's church service lunch date or whatever BLISS. My job is not to ensure everyone likes me. I'm not going to be the chatty track suit wearing grannies' best friend. I'm here to read and inspire children. My job is to spread the joys of literacy so sometimes I have to be the cranky librarian and tell you to shush.

Okay enough of my blathering. Onto the stories. My theme was Puppy Love- because come on who doesn't love puppies?

Books:
The Best Thing about A Puppy By Judy Hindley

What Puppies Do Best by Laura Numeroff

Bark George by Jules Feiffer- I LOVE this book. I ADORE reading it out loud and getting the kids to laugh and the end is slightly twisted.

Activities
The Saints of Pinterest provided much inspirations for this storytime.
I did Dog's Colorful Day (by Emma Dodd ) as a flannel storytime.
I also sing BINGO whenever I do a storytime about pets or dogs. I just had crummy flannel letters on a board until I saw this super cute design done StorytimeABCs .

We also had fun talking and acting like puppies.
We did our closing song of Wheels on the Bus before we did our last activity, which was a song that was going to introduce puppets to to group. I knew I would lose their attention once those puppets came out. The kids and I had a blast singing Going to the Pet Store


Verses I use for Wheels on the Bus (Opening and Closing Song)
Opening:
The Wheels on the Bus go Round and round
Round and round, Round and round.
The Wheels on the Bus go Round and round
all through the town

The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep
The kids on the bus go up and down
The driver on the bus says "Have a seat!"

Closing:
The babies on the bus go "wah, wah wah"
The grown ups on the bus go "shush, shush, shush"
The doors on the bus go open and shut
The kids on the bus go "See ya next time!"