Well...yeah, we had 5 inches of snow followed by arctic temperatures this week making it the perfect setting for winter themed storytime.
This was also an exercise for me in adapting your storytime for your audience. We had low attendance this week because of the weather and other factors. One of my co-workers would not deviate from her schedule of what she was going to do in storytime, even when she had only one kid show up and started begging for them to participate in every single activity. It was pretty awkward to watch.
For my first storytime I had two little girls and their moms. My storytime is for 2 and 3 years and they is a huge diffrence from a child who has just turned two to one that is 3 and a half. These girls were new, and on the younger end of the spectrum. They wanted to huddle up close to their mom and suck their thumbs. They weren't very chatty. It was very clear that they weren't going to be the bunch singing "Wheels on the Bus" with all the motion or lasting 2 and half minutes of direction in "Shake your Sillies Out"
So instead of playing the fool and singing these songs all the way through by myself and possibly making my group uncomfortable, I adapted. I sat on the floor with them, introduced myself and my puppet. I said we would be doing some song and stories and they can let me know what they would like to do the most. It was easy to read to them since they wanted to stay in their mom's laps. When they go antsy we distracted them with something else ( a nursery rhyme or song that was not on my list of planned things to do) I didn't pressure them to do activities with too many directions or that were too noisy. Therefore this also made me feel more at ease.
But for the regularly scheduled program, this is what we did...
Opening Song: The Wheels on the Bust
Book: Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonahtan London
I'm kinda of kicking myself for not reading this book before. I'm skimmed through this series and dismissed them as too long for my storytime. Yep I'm an idiot. This book in particular is excellent for this age. It's full of great onomatopoeia for the little ones and gets the grown ups to laugh too.
Song: Snowman Song
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman tall tall tall
(Stretch your arms up tall)
Then the sun it melted melted melted
(Shrink down and do you best Wicked Witch of the West impersonation)
Then the sun it melted it small small small
Book: One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George
Song: Winter Hokey Pokey- Piggy back using items like mittens, boots and hats. Ask they kids where they would wear these items on their body before each verse to give them direction
Book: Under my Hood I Have a Hat By Karen Kuskin
Dancing Song: Shake Your Sillies Out
Book: Three Little Kittens by Paul Galadone
Activity: I really wanted to do a mitten matching activity and I saw many great ideas on the Flannel Friday Pinterest page but some felt a little too advanced for my group. I was also worried about size because I usually have a day care group come in and double or triple the number of kids, so they can't all be rushing towards the flannel board at once! For a simple version, I cut out mittens on the Ellison die in different colors. I put some on the table with a sign directing each kid to pick up one for storytime and I hid the others in the picture book stacks.
We talked about how one mitten wouldn't be very useful on a cold day like today (-6) and that you have two hand you need two mittens. The kids "found" their mittens like the kittens in the book and brought them back in exchange for a sticker.
Closing Song: Wheels on the Bus
Despite the lower attendance and freezing cold, I'm glad to be back doing storytime for our patrons. Thanks to the parents who made the effort to bundle up their kids and make a trip to the library for some storytime fun.
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