Storytime from the Liberry: The Land of Nod

Bedtime storytime at the library. It's a good excuse to keep the kids in their pajamas if you bring them in the morning...or get them ready for bed early if you bring them to an evening one. Should be a win win for parents and kids either way.

I have two storytime dealing with a bedtime/night theme. One focuses on nocturnal animals and classic getting ready for bed stories. (Bump in the Night) My second one I call "The Land of Nod"
because I'm an old soul. This one focuses on lullabies, poetry and picture books about outer space.

BOOKS:
Wynken Blynken and Nod-Poem by Eugene W. Field- Yes I'm going old, old school with this one. There are called classics for a reason. There could be a possibility to work an entire storytime or family program around this book.

Hey Diddle Diddle by Eve Bunting
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
When the Moon Smiled by Petr Horacek
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jerry Pinkey (There are lots of different version of this song/story but I love the gorgeous illustrations by Jerry Pinkey)





Activites:
Bedtime Rhymes galore! We did a lot of singing and rhyming in this storytime.

Twinkling Stars
At night I see the twinkling stars (Fists up and open hands)
And a great big smiling moon (Hands form a circle over head)
My mommy tucks me into bed (Lay pointer finger across the palm of the opposite hand)
And sings a good-night tune. (Rock your hands back and forth)

The Man in the Moon

The man in the moon,
Looked out of the moon
Looked out of the moon and said,
“It’s time for all the children on earth
To think about getting to bed!”

I also found an extra verse for Wee Willie Winkie on wikipedia of all places. It's perfect for the library!
 
Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town
Upstairs, downstairs in his night gown
Rapping at the windows, searching all the nooks
To count the many children, reading library books!

Another book that I just recently discovered is The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara.
It is an adorable book about a little girl who has a library in the forest at night which she opens to the animals. It is run with the help of her three little owl assistants!  I want owls to help me in the library! It would be awesome like Harry Potter, until the owls pooped everywhere :\ It very relate-able to library workers everywhere and the illustrations are charmingly cute while at the same time being rather minimalist.

Good night books, good night chairs, good night libraries everywhere.

Storytime from the Library: Bump in the Night

No storytime repertoire is complete without a bed time theme! I’ve seen several libraries in my area that have a pajama storytime in the evening for families or stuffed animal sleepover. Unfortunately with my schedule this isn’t a possible so I always make sure to have a special pajama storytime and invite the kids and parents to wear their PJ’s. It works great for both of my toddler crowds; morning and evening.

Books: Go to Bed Monster by Natasha Wing

Llama Llama Red Pajama by Ann Dewdney (always a crowd favorite)

The Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na
This is a great book with whimsical illustrations and it’s easy enough to talk about what’s on the cover and what animals we see in the book, even with 2 and 3 year olds.

Goodnight Moon by Margret Wise Brown

Songs:

Rock a Bye Baby- We had teddy bears and puppets as our reading buddies for storytime, so the kids used them to rock their babies. However they were very reluctant to “make them fall”.

Ten in the Bed- I discovered a new way to sing this song by chance. I was singing it to my daughter (who was literally the little one in the bed) and substituted numbers for family members (Mom, dad and the dog) I also added a comical noise (OUCH OOFF GRUNT) at the end of the line when someone fell off the bed.

This made my baby giggle and when I tried it with the toddlers, I got the same result. I passed on this tip to caregivers as a suggestion to make this song more personal.

Other songs

 Wee Willie Winkie- Good for closing and letting the kids “run up and down”

Are you sleeping, are you sleeping,

Brother John, Brother John?

Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing,

Ding dong ding! Ding dong Ding!

Frere Jacques, Frere Jacque

Dormez vous? Dormez vous?

Sonnez les matines, Sonnz les matines

Don din dou, don din dou

Frey Felipe, Frey Felipe

Duermes tu? Duermes Tu?

Toca la campana, toca la campana

Bam bam bam! Bam bam bam!

Frere Jaques- Great for languages if you can get the kids/grownups to sing in English, French and Spanish. Works better for older kids.