Storytime Format help for new librarians

The question of storytime came up on one of the list-servs I follow, and I felt that the answers were well worth sharing. The question was “What is the best format for storytime?” The main concern was, how do we keep the children engaged during the entire storytime.

My favorite answer was “Lock the doors and hide under the desk”

More useful answers however can be found below :)

  1. Tell the stories instead of reading them.
  2. Ask the children questions during the story: If the story has a giraffe riding a bicycle, for example, I ask them if giraffes really DO ride bicycles.  When they say "no," I ask them what types of vehicles giraffes ride in.  Get two or three answers, then keep going
  3. Have everyone dance to a song
  4. Play "Button, button, who has the button?" with a puppet.  Pick a child to hide a button, then the puppet searches for it.  The librarian that suggested this has a cheerleader puppet with a very "Miss Piggy" attitude.
Overall Storytime might look like this
- Dance to a song
- Read a book
- Fingerplay
- Tell a story
- Fingerplay
- Dance

Suggestions from Jesse Ephraim, Director, Roanoke Public Library

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  1. Get the kids involved in story time-- have one or two flannel stories and let the children help put the pieces on the board; have a puppet story and let children hold puppets; have musical instruments; or at the very least have children help repeat refrains in the stories.
  2. Use books with built in excitement-- kids love pop-up books.  I have a huge collection on a variety of themes and try to have at least one pop-up book per story time.  Big books are great for large crowds and allow kids to really enjoy the illustrations.
  3. Utilize puppets as much as possible-- children of all ages love puppets.  I have amassed a huge collection over the years.  I tell many stories using puppets or use puppets to accompany a book; for example I have a puppet for each farm animal in the book: "The Very Busy Spider." As I tell the story I hold up a puppet and have the children help make the sounds.  They love it!
  4. Have a beginning and ending routine-- I start each preschool story time with "Open, Shut Them" and end with "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear."  I get tired of this routine, but the kids never do.
  5. End the program with some stretching songs and rhymes.  I end with everyone on their feet and a few favorite action rhymes such as: "If You're Happy and You Know It," "Shake Your Sillies Out," and "Shoo Fly." You can find many more on YouTube or try some CD's by Raffi, Greg & Steve and the Wiggles.
Suggestions from Charmette Kendrick, Children's Librarian, South Columbus Public Library

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A typical 45-minute storytime for me is:
Opening song/rhyme
introduction to the first story/story
fingerplay
story
fingerplay or song
story
felt board
craft

Depending on what the day's theme is, some other type of activity can be mixed in there: a matching colors game using paint chips or pom poms; arranging objects by size or shape; using a magnifying glass to look at bugs; etc.

There will always be some days where the kids get antsy and don't feel like sitting for the last story or two, but generally the time flies by and the kids enjoy hearing all the stories as long as they have some time to stretch in between and I allow the kids to interact with the books (shout out animal songs, stomp their feet or actually march around if a character is marching).

Suggestions from Tanvi Rastogi Children's & Teen Librarian, Hunterdon County Library
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Our library has two  all-ages programs every Tuesday morning. The programs are a half hour each — 10-10:30 and 11-11:30. (We also do three separate age specific programs on Wednesdays — babies, ones and twos)

. Our all-ages program has been a community mainstay for decades. We specifically call it Circle Time, to differentiate it from Storytime. Because it is an all-ages program, it's really much easier to have one story in the middle of the half-hour, but otherwise focus on rhymes, fingerplays, songs and lots of movement exercises.In addition, we have 60-75 kids and adults at each Circle Time (in our Children's Room, as we have no meeting rooms in our tiny library), so we need a program that works well with a large crowd.

We start with a chime, the rhyme "Knock at the Door," and then a brief welcome by me in which I also remind the grown-ups that, while the program is basically free, there is a small price they must pay — they MUST participate. After various types of problems with kids left alone in the program, we also now require kids to sit "within arms' reach" of their grown-ups. This also encourages grown-ups to work with their children during the program.

We then go through our body parts, starting seated and then standing up when we get to our legs. Then it's time for some kind of dancing type song, followed by our mainstay dance number the Hokey Pokey (I use the Susie Tallman version). We end this standing segment with a stretch, and everyone sits back down.

Next, I do fingerplays, rhymes and songs. We always open this segment with "Open, Shut Them" and close with "Two Little Blackbirds." I also use fingerpuppets and puppets at this stage, depending on what rhymes and song I've chosen.

I then introduce our book of the day and remind grown-ups (it's grown-ups who often are the problem!) to model good listening behavior and help their children listen. For books, I try to choose ones that allow everyone to participate (for example, with "Jazz Baby" by Lisa Wheeler, I have everyone set up a beat by patting on their knees, then I read the story to that beat. Or yesterday, we sang together the text to the new book by Karen Katz, "The Babies on the Bus" ).

Once we finish with the book, I ask if there are any birthdays, and we sing (individually) to each birthday person. I also use this time to make any announcements.

Then it's time to stand again— everyone is ready at this point for a change of pace! We always begin "Zoom, zoom, zoom, we're going to the moon." Then I do one of any number of other songs that work well with a standing crowd: i.e. Head and Shoulders, Teapot, Tooty-Ta, etc.

When we sit back down, the crowd often is still a bit riled up, but we have a secret weapon for calming things down: the "Three Little Monkeys." We begin with a "chi, chi, chi, chi" refrain, swinging our arms back and forth, then head into the song. That "chi" refrain, however, almost sounds like a whisper and it really gets kids' attention and never fails to both calm them down and immediately engage them in the song. We do a few more songs, and then finish this segment with the ABC song, followed by "Twinkle, Twinkle" (which I first introduce by telling the crowd we will try to sing it as quietly as possible.).

We wrap things up with our "Goodbye" song, followed by "Roly Poly," and then our closing chime.

This format really works well with large crowds of different-age kids. My biggest recommendation would be to ensure that grown-ups understand that their participation is required. It makes the program lots more fun — both for their kids and for you!

Suggestions by Karen MacPherson, Takoma Park Maryland Library ___________________________________________________________________________
Other resources that were suggested:
Hap Palmer CDs
Betsy Diamant-Cohen's MOTHER GOOSE ON THE LOOSE
Jim Gill’s Songs “I Know a Chicken” song, with Shakey eggs made by filing plastic eggs with rice (age 5+)

Many thanks to the librarians who allowed me to post their suggestions! Don’t forget to check out the performers and presenters that we have available to help with your other programing needs!