Today was my very first official library storytime! It was an “all ages” summer storytime, so I brought more books than I was planning to read, so that I could be flexible depending on who showed up. There was a good mix, from infants to about four years old. I didn’t get an exact headcount, but I think there were at least 15-20 kids, with several trailing in throughout the storytime (it’s supposed to be a 45-minute program, though we ended about ten minutes early).

Here’s what we did, with a huge hat tip to my fellow (and far more experienced) children’s librarians, Lauren and Ms. B:

• Welcome, thanks for coming, introduced self, mentioned a few ground rules (leave the doorways clear, take snacks outside)
• Song: “Hello” song with American Sign Language (ASL) from Jbrary. Demonstrated the signs first and invited everyone to do the signs and/or sing along; sang it twice.
• Book: Hello Hello by Brendan Wenzel
• Song cube: I made a song cube with pictures on each of the six sides that correspond to a simple song; the first one was “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”
• Book: Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee (I like to rotate the book 360 on the “it goes all the way around” page)
• Song cube: “I Had A Little Turtle”
• Prop/toy: Hand out colored scarves (the Golden Rule of Storytime: you get what you get and you don’t get upset!). I enlisted two of the older kids to help pass out scarves, which we keep stored in empty tissue boxes.
• Book: Huff & Puff by Claudia Rueda. We “huffed and puffed” or waved the scarves at the appropriate times during the story. All of the kids were super into it! Collected the scarves afterward.
• Book: Tickle Monster by Edouard Manceau
• Activity: My husband made flannel pieces for our own Tickle Monster; I set them up before storytime, and as I read each page and a piece of Tickle Monster disappeared, I took off the corresponding pieces. With a group of all older kids I would have let them come up and take the pieces off, but because we had a lot of littles and this was my first time, I did it myself.
• Song cube: “I’m A Little Teapot”
• Prop/toy: Hand out shaker eggs. Shake shake shake…stop!
• Book: Tyrannosaurus Wrecks by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. Kids shook their eggs every time Tyrannosaurus “WRECKS!” (And sometimes in between.)
• Song: “Shake your sillies out” (with the eggs). Collected eggs.
• Book: Please Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
• Okay, we have time for one more song cube and one more book…
• Song cube: “Zoom Zoom Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon”
• Book: Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi
• Song: “Goodbye” song with ASL from Jbrary. Same tune as the “Hello” song, taught the signs first, repeated it twice.
• Music and dance and bubbles! “You’re Welcome” from Moana, bubbles. The kids were pretty into it, especially the bubbles. Some trickled out right away, others stayed longer. I had put out all of the books I read during storytime and invited people to check them out – several were taken!
• Another thank you for coming, and a reminder to check the schedule for our other summer programs.

I’m already looking forward to my next summer storytime in August! What are your favorite read-aloud books? Favorite tie-in activities to do with scarves, shaker eggs, puppets, etc.?