July 5th

Planning Pre-School Storytime

Picking a theme.
I'm going to use the theme of "Up and Down" for my storytime. It's a little abstract as opposed to choosing an animal theme or season theme. The trick is to brainstorm ideas for the theme. What are other ways to convey "up and downess"? Flying? Jumping? Falling? Bouncing? Under the sea? Over the mountain? Down in the hole? Then you can do subject searches for those words in the catalog.

Finding books on a theme
Start with a general key word search. For example "Jumping". Then play with the catalog. Limit the search to "fiction"(i.e. jumping-fiction). Most of the hits will come up with children's books. Then you can further limit it to "picture books". When you get the requested books, put them in unavailable status. That way no one can place a hold on them but patron will be able to check them out after storytime is over.

Titles for Up and Down theme:
Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
Chicken Little by Steven Kellogg

Storytime Resources
Dewey Numbers-
027 - Preschool storytime books. Fingerplays.
Example: I'm a Little Teapot: Presenting Preschool Storytime, compiled by Jane Cobb
372 - Educational resources. Classroom activities.
Example: The Giant Encyclopedia of Preschool Activities, edited by Charner and Murphy
780 - Goofball songs
793 - Games

Online
PlanetEsme.com - Former elementary school teacher, librarian and children's books author Esme Codell. Recommended book: How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Codell.

A to Zoo
Reference book: subject listing for picture books. Great for librarians and patrons.

Books to Grow On
The KCLS catalog lists the items in the Books to Grow On kits. Of course, each kit is based on a theme. A good resource for ideas! Go to the "Kids Page" and then choose "Preschool".

Advice
Make it simple for yourself. Although themes are fun, the kids don't really care about the theme. They just enjoy a good storytime. You don't have to be original every time. In fact repetition is good for preschoolers. Prepare to be flexible. Request more books than you need. If the kids are getting antsy choose a shorter book over a longer one. Or stop and do a finger play or song. If the group is just not listening that day you can say, "And they lived happily ever after" and end the story and go to your craft or something more kinetic. Group discipline is referred to as "managing the kids". Also, request more books than you need so that there is enough for the kids to check out after storytime. When you include a craft make it compatible with the theme, and make it easy and do-able.

To list or not to list
One thing I really enjoy in my directed field work is seeing different styles of different librarians. For example, on the subject of making lists of the books used for storytime. One librarian said she makes a list of the books she used on a theme so that she doesn't have to start from scratch every time. It's also a way for her to remember books that she thought worked really well. Another librarian said she does make lists of her storytime themes but not the specific books. By the time she does the storytime theme again next year there will be new titles in the catalog and sometimes titles becomes unavailable. You don't want to use titles that have very few copies because you want the books to be available for the kids to check out.

Idea
Brainstorm 52 ideas for storytime themes. Print out a blank calendar and fill in the themes for each week. This is a method for inventory control - if you have more than one storytime in a week you can make sure that you have enough books available on the theme for the kids to check out.

General Outline of a Storytime
Start with an opening activity: a song or a game
First story - the longer story because they're fresh and ready to sit and listen
Kinetic break: fingerplay, or Simon Says, etc.
Second story - Shorter story
Kinetic break
You need to judge whether they can sit for one more book. Sometimes they can, sometimes they need to get up and move around. Be flexible.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge was J.K. Rowling's favorite book as a kid.

Roberto Ascalon: poet. Very popular after he came and did a reading at SPL.