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This was a special storytime I conducted as part of an ongoing civic engagement program at my library system. It was lots of fun but I do wish I’d practiced more beforehand. A great name for this story time is “Community Jam Session.”

Hello songs

Book 1: Drum City by Thea Guidone

A rhythmic book about a kid who brings the community together by conducting a drum march through the city. Children follow along behind the main character, playing all kinds of makeshift drums.

Transition/re-focus song

Book 2: Bing, Bop, Bam Time to Jam! by Valerie Bolling

A community comes together for a weekly jam session!

After the second book, I handed out a bunch of assorted instruments so we could have our community jam session. We played and sang along to the following songs:

Play On Your Instruments by Judi Cranston (song begins at :40 seconds in)
Shake Your Maraca by Little Groove
Shake Shake Shake by Nancy Kopman
Egg Shaker Song by Mister Q

Goodbye song

 

 

This was a wildly successful story time that I did for the Halloween “season.” I don’t specifically do Halloween story times because many in my community don’t celebrate, so I would call this a Halloween-ish story time. For this story time I thought a lot about fear. What actually scares toddlers and babies? Losing track of your grown-ups can be pretty scary right? So, for my first book I chose a book about (temporarily) losing track of a parent. My second book was a hide and seek book that I thought might encourage families to play a little hide and seek themselves at home.

The hide and seek theme played right into our theme song of the week as well. More details below!

Hello songs

Book 1: Mommy, Where Are You? by Leonid Gore

There are many “lost my mommy” books out there. I like this one for its large, simple text. Large flaps to lift also help make the book more interactive.

Theme Song: Peekaboo! by Cocomelon (I could not find a good version on Youtube so this is the Spotify link)

I am truly not a fan of CoComelon in any way but I must admit this song was a HIT. I printed out and laminated simple versions of the characters mentioned in the song (a wizard, a spider, and a pumpkin), then I gave the characters out to a few choice grown-ups before story time with instructions to hide them until the right moment. Children and grown-ups alike had such fun looking for the characters to pop up around the room!

Transition/re-focus song

Book 2: Where’s Lenny? by Ken Wilson-Max

A title from one of my favorites series, Lenny has easy fun playing hide and seek with dad around the house.

Favorite songs and goodbye

Recently my library had an open house week. No better time to do a library themed storytime right?! This one was another big hit. It was so inspiring hearing all my patrons sing about how much they love the library (even if I was directing the singing) and we received great feedback from our regulars on this one.

Hello songs

Book 1: This Is A Story by John Schu

A sweet, not too wordy book about readers and libraries.

Theme song: The Library Theme Song

This song is sort of a combination of two other songs, which I’ll also link below. Basically I took the tune of one song, some of the lyrics of the other and also added some of my own.

Tune: Going to the Library by The Kiboomers

Some of the lyrics: Library Song by Kiwi Kidsongs

Re-focus song

Book 2: The Library Book by Tom Chapin (this is both a song and a book)

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbhsFINv0dQ

We sang this book while also listening to the song. It went over really well, definitely practice beforehand as reading/singing/keeping up with the song at the same time is tough! You can also just read it or sing it without the song in the background.

Additional theme song: ABC Gospel by ChooChooSoul

My patrons LOVE this song. I do it occasionally as a favorite song but it fit in with our theme so I threw it in as an additional theme song as well.

Favorite songs and goodbye

It’s that time of year! So many of my storytime regulars are going back to school or going to school for the first time. The books were fun but the song was a HIT this week. It’s a basic movement song with an added story twist. I introduced it by telling the kiddos that they’ll need their listening skills when they go to school, so we’ll practice with this fun song!

Hello songs

Book 1: Rosie Goes to Preschool by Karen Katz

Theme song: Stand Up, Sit Down by Patty Shukla (they LOOOOOVED this song)

Re-focus song

Book 2: Dinosaur vs. School by Bob Shea

Favorite songs and goodbye

We’ve been doing storytime outside during the summer, so I love doing outdoor themes during this time. Here’s one about bugs! Both books and the song were a hit. I like this updated version of Raffi’s classic Spider on the Floor.

Hello Songs

Book 1: Butterfly Butterfly by Petr Horacek

Theme Song: Spider on the Floor by the Kiboomers

Re-focus song

Book 2: Some Bugs by AngelaDiTerlizzi

Favorite songs and goodbye

Orange you glad you’re doing a fruit themed storytime? Okay I had to fit one pun in there, but seriously this was berry fun! For each storytime I did this week, I read two different books but used the same fruity theme song.

Theme Song: Bananas Unite! There are many versions of this song but I base mine on the one from Jbrary.

Alt theme song: My crowd absolutely LOVES Watermelon by Justine Clarke.

Books:

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Two Little Monkeys by Mem Fox

Technically not about fruit but monkeys=bananas right? This was a really good one for getting the grown-ups involved. Every time we said “Cheeky,” I had the right side of the room say it, and every time we said “Chee” I had the left side of the room say it.

Guess What? – Fruit by Yusuke Yonezu

A simple book, easy to make interactive.

Honorary Mentions:

I didn’t use these books in this storytime but they would also wok well for the theme:

We’re Going to the Farmers’ Market by Stefan Page (good for younger crowd)

Lemons Are Not Red by Lauren Vaccaro Seeger (good for older Pre-K crowd)

Little Mouse’s Big Secret by Eric Battut (good for older Pre-K crowd)

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Stawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear (a classic for all ages)

As always, I started with a couple of hello songs, and ended with some favorite songs and a goodbye song.

We had so much fun with this storytime! This is the first time I used a felt board with this crowd and it was a big hit.

Hello songs

Books:

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Theme Song: Sally the Camel by Tinsel Town Kids (with extremely rudimentary felt board)

For each hump that needed to be removed, I threw it up in the air. Everyone got a kick out of that. Then at the end I flipped over the felt board to reveal Sally the horse!

Safari Animals by Simms Taback

Favorite songs and goodbye!

This is another theme I did over several weeks, so I’m just listing all the books I read. I’m pretty sure the theme song for each one was the same though, which was Zoom, Zoom Zoom, Kiboomers version.

Books:

Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton

I Love Space by Allison Wortche

Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson

8 Little Planets by Chris Ferrie

Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli

Zoom, Rocket, Zoom! by Margaret Mayo