Summer Storytimes: Merbabies Play

The last summer reading storytime, wow. The summer went so quickly this year, probably since it seemed like the library was hopping after two years of interrupted/adjusted service. I’m so pleased with the turnout and response from my storytime families. I heard or overheard someone say every week: “Hey, let’s try this at home!” or “I wouldn’t have thought of this, but we could set this up at home!” That was the most gratifying part. I LOVE being able to spark ideas and inspire families to continue the learning and exploration on their own.

Another great benefit of outdoor storytimes was how welcoming they can be. I occasionally had families stop by who hadn’t registered, and/or had a child who was 4 or 5 (outside my age group), or who were able to bring older siblings. In addition, we didn’t have to worry about masking, and distancing was not a problem since we had lots of space in the outdoor lawn area. For all these situations, I could welcome these families with open arms, with no judgement that they “didn’t do it [registration] right” or worry that they had to find someone else to watch their older kids while they attended storytime with the younger one. These are usual and reasonable limitations when you’re presenting indoors, where space is also limited. But I love having a time of year where I don’t have to turn anyone away.

This week’s theme is “merpeople” and I’m glad that authors, illustrators, and publishers have started being more inclusive with their depictions. I didn’t have to look too far to find masculine presenting merfolk or merfolk of color! I do wish there were more merperson books that were simpler, with less text on the page, but I did some extensive paperclipping to make them work for the youngest group. I also had to do some scouting around to find masculine merkids as coloring pages (see below for links).

For a more in-depth explanation of the structure of this summer’s programs, read the intro to the first session, Ocean Life.

Early Learning Tip: “Down By the Bay” is a great song to exercise your creativity on. What silly rhymes can you and your child come up with together? Learning how to rhyme helps your child listen for and discern between the distinct sounds that make up words.

Welcome Song: Hello, Friends 
(tune of Goodnight, Ladies)
Hello, friends! Hello, friends!
Hello, friends, it’s time to say hello!
Hello, [name 1], hello, [name 2]!
Hello, [name 3], it’s time to say hello! (repeat as needed)
(ASL motions: salute for “hello,” then take the index fingers on each hand and you link them together as though they are hugging each other back and forth for “friends”)
Source: Glenside Public Library District

Warm-Up Rhyme: We Wiggle and Stop (repeated)
(Use the ASL sign for the word “stop” – one hand “chops” across the opposite hand)
We wiggle and we wiggle and we STOP
We wiggle and we wiggle and we STOP
We wiggle and we wiggle and we wiggle and we wiggle
And we wiggle and we wiggle and we STOP
(This week we also “marched” and, my favorite, “hugged.” I encouraged everyone to find someone to hug, even if it was themselves. I do two new motions in addition to “wiggle” each week to keep it interesting)
Source: Jbrary

Intro to Weekly Theme: Merpeople are legendary creatures that are half human and half fish. It’s fun to imagine what they might be like!

I had a lot of trouble finding a merfolk song that I liked this week. My second runner up was “Did you Ever See a Mermaid,” but I just wasn’t feeling it. I ended up with “Down By the Bay,” and I had fun coming up with lots of ocean-themed verses. I only actually used the merfolk ones, but it’s nice to have some extras in my back pocket for the future! It was also an opportunity to bring my ukulele, which I hadn’t done at all yet this summer.
Themed Ukulele Song: Down by the Bay
Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow
Back to my home I dare not go!
For if I do, my mother will say:
“Did you ever see a whale with a polka dot tail?”
Down by the bay!
Additional verses:
… a mermaid swimming in lemonade?
… a merman knitting an afghan?
… a merkid riding a squid?
… a merboy hugging his teddy bear toy?
… a mergirl playing catch with a pearl?
… a crab driving a taxicab?
… a shark eating ice cream in the park?
… a clam competing in a poetry slam?
… a pufferfish surfing on a dish?
… a sea star riding in a car?
… a seahorse playing on a golf course?
… an octopus singing to a platypus?
Did you ever have a time when you couldn’t make a rhyme?
Source: traditional, as popularized by Raffi on the album Singable Songs for the Very Young, all additional verses by Ms. Emily!

Download a ukulele songsheet for Down By the Bay!

Themed Book:
Goodnight Mermaid by K. J. Oceanak & Allie Ogg
OR
Can I Give You a Squish? by Emily Neilson
I *highly* paperclipped Goodnight Mermaid to make it work for my youngest group. It was just way too long (and if I’m being honest, a little nonsensical, too.) But the pictures are fun and the shortened story is reminiscent of Goodnight Moon, which is a familiar structure. My oldest group did great with Can I Give You a Squish, but when I tried it again the next day with my more mixed group, I skipped several pages when they seemed to be losing interest. I’m learning to be very flexible with books!

I adapted the lyrics only slightly from Jbrary’s pirate themed song to be a little more generic ocean. I also let grownups know this could be a lifting song, but only if they’re feeling ambitious! I invite everyone else to do the up and down motions with me.
Repeated Song: The Ocean Song
(tune of The Elevator Song)
Oh, the ocean is great and the ocean is grand!
There are lots of big ships but very little land
And we sleep down deep in a hammock near the floor
And this is what we do when we go out to shore:

(ready?) We… ride… the…
waves going up, we ride the waves going down
we ride the waves going up, we ride the waves going down
we ride the waves going up, we ride the waves going down
And we turn… a-… round!
Source: Jbrary

After the Ocean Song, I’m invariably out of breath, so it’s time for a breathing break. I’d considered doing ocean wave breathing on the theme, but I decided that Five Finger Breathing is an easy one to teach and for kids to remember, which is my point in doing it.
Breathing Break: Five Finger Breathing
Whew, I could use a breathing break! Let’s get out our five fingers and spread our hands out wide. We’re going to breathe in deeply as we trace our fingers up, pause for just a moment at the top of our finger, then breathe out as we trace down. Ready?

I like to mention that this song was adapted by an occupational therapist as a reminder of ways to self-soothe.
Repeated Movement Song: Big Sea Star
(tune of A Ram Sam Sam)
A big sea star, a big sea star
Little cuddle clam and a big sea star
A big sea star, a big sea star
Little cuddle clam and a big sea star
A pufferfish! A pufferfish!
Little cuddle clam and a big sea star
A pufferfish! A pufferfish!
Little cuddle clam and a big sea star
Source: Jbrary

Release to Stations
I have seven stations each week, which involve a mixture of dry, wet, and an action station. We spend about 20 minutes in free play.

Repeated Stations:
Kinetic Sand (Dry)
I bought some kinetic sand and added it to two plastic bins. In the recycling bin I found some fruit cup containers that had fun shapes and added them plus some plastic shovels. I keep a sheet underneath this station to catch any stray sand that escapes the bins. I didn’t realize until after I planned this station that kinetic sand should not be put in mouths, so I do warn the parents that if their kiddo is still exploring with their mouth, they may want to skip this one.

Pouring Station (Wet)
I asked coworkers to collect clean plastic recyclables with wide openings for this station and visited Goodwill for some additional pitchers. We had measuring cups and funnels in our materials, as well as a baby pool, which is the perfect container. I fill the pool with plastic bins and fill them randomly with water from the hose each week. (Also, I must have had some sunscreen on my lens taking pictures outdoors – there’s a weird blur!)

Rotating Stations:
Pompom Sort (Dry)
A really easy station to put together: I just saved a couple of egg cartons, then poured a handful or two of different colored/sized pompoms into them. Provide some plastic tongs and you’re done. (And again, weird blur)

Colored Ball Sort and Drop (Dry)
This was inspired by a Pinterest post from Taming Little Monsters. I made two, from our ubiquitous Baker & Taylor boxes, but oriented them different ways so one was tall and skinny and one was low and squat.

Dodge the Seaweed (Action)
We had some small cones in our action set, so I duct taped a paint stirrer to the tops of them, then haphazardly added green crepe paper to look like seaweed. For the amount of time it took me, I think they look pretty good! I was fully expecting them to get kind of torn up after the first week of use, but they held up. I’m amazed that I didn’t need to repair them once over the summer! 

Unique Stations: UNIQUE-ISH – I had two other stations planned, but decided to actually repeat two previous stations instead. My other plans were to do a “paint with water” on dry concrete, but the only concrete we have near our storytime area is a sidewalk RIGHT next to the street. It made me nervous to bring everyone that close to speeding cars, so I nixed it. For the art station, I had a vague idea of using pinecones to stamp merfolk tails with paint, then draw in the details, but A) that was a little advanced for my group, and B) I was too tired to think about cleaning up lots of paint at the end of the summer. I went the easy route and redid these instead:

Sponge Play (Wet)
Based on this Pinterest idea from Little Lifelong Learners, I just had sponges in bins of water for little ones to play with. Of course, I have to do some theme stuff, so in addition to simple shapes (sticks, triangles, circles), I cut out some ocean animals as well. These sponges were reused in a sponge painting craft in week two.

Dot Painting (Art/Messy)
So as I was planning this week and thinking about how I’d make the pinecone painting as easy as possible, I got a blog post in my email from The Artisan Life that had mermaid dot painting sheets. Well, let’s just make things easy on myself. Plus, the kids seemed to like doing the dot painters when we did them a couple weeks ago, a and it’s a more “unusual” craft supply that not everyone has at home. BUT – I was a little unhappy that there were no merboys (and that all the mermaids looked kind of the same, with the same kinds of hair.) I did a search for merboy coloring sheets and found this lovely set (which also includes different hair types, yay!) by Simple Everyday Mom. Did you know you can make any coloring sheet into a dot marker sheet? I used Canva, but you could certainly do the same thing in Publisher. Just add .75 inch dots to the sheet on blocks of color (avoiding faces and slender limbs like arms). Easy peasy.

After about 20 minutes exploring stations, I rang the bell to call everyone back to the storytime area. 20 minutes felt like a good time – kids had generally found their way to all the stations and were winding down.

Everybody loves bubbles! The trick to doing bubbles outside, I’m finding, is to figure out which way the wind is blowing and get upwind of your group!
Recorded Bubble Song: Pop, Pop, Pop by Nathalia
From the album “Dream a Little,” available on Spotify

Goodbye Song: See You Later, Alligator
(tune of Clementine)
See you later, alligator (wave with one hand, then the other)
In a while, crocodile (open and shut arms like a croc’s mouth)
Give a hug, ladybug (hug yourself or a loved one)
Blow a kiss, jellyfish! MWAH! (move hand like a jellyfish then blow a kiss!)
Source: King County Library System

Other books I had available for families to browse (and may work for you on this theme)
The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story by Tina Cho & Jess X. Snow
Oona by Kelly DiPucchio & Raissa Figueroa
Oona and the Shark by Kelly DiPucchio & Raissa Figueroa
Pearl by Molly Idle
Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
The Little Mermaid by Jerry Pinkney
Mermaids Fast Asleep by Robin Riding & Zoe Persico
Mermaid and Me by Soosh
How to Catch a Mermaid by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton
You Are My Sparkly Mermaid by Joyce Wan
Mabel: A Mermaid Fable by Rowboat Watkins

This storytime was presented in-person on 7/18, 7/19, & 7/20/22.