Storytime: Library Week 2023

 Today, I shared a Family Storytime Special to celebrate National Library Week! 🎉

It was not quite a ready day for this librarian, but that is okay. We talk about having a ready day at storytime. I told myself to slow down, take your time if you need it. If you need to change things up, it is okay to change things. The audience supports you. And it went well! A large turnout to celebrate library week at storytime.

In past years, I selected library books, rhymes, or songs, but for today I went with some favorites and new books. Our craft project after storytime was drawing a bookshelf and gluesticking small bookcover pictures to the shelves. It was really cute. To bring it full circle, the bookcovers I selected were books we read at storytime over the past year or so. Shoutout to GoodReads for having a grid layout!

Here's what we did at storytime today:

Welcome
SONG: Hello Song
Storytime Reminders: Be Ready, Be Seated, Be Involved, Be Respectful
Storytime Puppet: Snowbie
FLANNEL: Bookworm, Bookworm, where should we look? Are you behind the COLOR book?

Behind the 5 books: 1 bookworm, Gossie & Gertie, Gerald & Piggie, Clifford, and Skippyjon Jones
 
BOOK: The Loud Librarian by Jenna Beatrice, illustrated by Erika Lynne Jones (Atheneum, 2023)

I selected this title because it's a new book, it's diverse, and it features quiet and loud spaces in the library. There is room for libraries to be quiet and loud.

SONG: One from the Left by Jim Gill

We started this with stretches to get ready - dancing your fingers up, in front of your face, hide them behind your back and keep them there while I start our music. 

BOOK: Mister Kitty is Lost! By Greg Pizzoli (Little Brown & Co., 2023)

This book is another new book and a lot of fun. It's counting which paired well with One from the Left we just sang together.

The original plan was to do these two singing songs with a couple American Sign Language words, but I was losing my voice. We did a favorite storytime song instead - The Goldfish by Laurie Berkner 

This song we've done a lot and the kiddos are singing along and doing the actions. It's wonderful!

SONG: The More We Read Together (Tune:  The More We Get Together)

The more we read together, together, together.

The more we read together the happier we’ll be.

          For your books are my books. And my books are your books.

          The more we read together the happier we’ll be.

SONG: Read a Book (tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat)

Read, read, read a book, travel anywhere

World-wide, you decide: a book will take you there.

After our dance, we read our next book ... It's an adventure book because I think libraries are full of adventures because they're full of books to read and activities to do.

BOOK: Adventure Awaits by Henry Cole (Little Simon, 2022)

SONG: Rocketship Run! By Laurie Berkner

A favorite action song at storytime - counting down, jumping up, and running in place.

Verses are spinning, dancing, jumping, and coming back to earth (sitting down)

Announcements

Craft Instructions for Build Your Own Bookshelf (paper craft)

SONG: Goodbye, So-Long, Farewell, Toodle-loo by Hap Palmer