I’ve been wanting to do a New Year’s program for a while, after having seen fabulous posts from other librarians like Fat Girl Reading, Librerin, Book Cart Queens, and Storytimes at the Library. I finally committed and it was tons of fun! We had a turnout of 43 kids with 32 adults, for a total of 75 – larger than any storytime I’d done before. Our library is always closed on the actual New Year’s Eve, so we celebrated the eve of the eve on December 30.
My scope was a little wider than my usual storytimes (babies and toddlers ages 0-3.5), but I still wanted this to be a “storytime” kind of program. The description let caregivers know that the program was geared to kids ages 2-6, but older and younger siblings were welcome. The registration allowed anyone 0-8 sign up, to accommodate kids who might not be developmentally in line with their actual age.
This felt like a program that I spent a lot of time preparing and thinking about – from the structure and activities, to timing and supplies – it was on my mind for at least a month and a half! It was scheduled from 11:30 AM-12:30 PM, which gave me a very strict timeline in order to hit the noon countdown just right. I wanted the crafts to actually be used with the storytime, so we started with them, and I budgeted 10 minutes to get two crafts done. Definitely something I would change next time! It actually felt like I was checking people in for almost the whole 10 minutes. Thankfully, everyone was gracious. There were 5-6 families who just had infants or babies with them that forwent the crafts altogether, and everyone seemed to get at least partially done by the time we started activities.
Storytime was budgeted 15-18 minutes, then the countdown. After that, there were options for different station activities families could do, so it dispersed the crowd a bit while still allowing for engagement. I led a dance party, we had photo ops, coloring and worksheets, a scavenger hunt, and anyone who didn’t finish a craft could still do that.
I’ll definitely try this program again next year, with some lessons learned and confidence from having the experience under my belt already.
Early Literacy Tip: Connecting your child to holidays and traditions is an important part of their cultural knowledge. Using a song like Hickory Dickory Dock or Tick Tock to demonstrate the tradition of staying up until midnight forms new connections in the brain, and helps them learn to see relations that will eventually help with reading comprehension. In addition, use books to find out what other cultures do to celebrate common holidays to learn more about the world around us.
Scavenger Hunt
This activity was actually available to anyone all day long. Using Canva, I assembled twelve icons representing typical New Year’s activities and symbols and hid them all around the children’s department. There were handouts showing each picture and as kids found them they could check it off their sheet. When they found them all they got a sticker from our stash. Simple and cheap, and it was a big hit. I know a lot of libraries do scavenger hunts regularly, but ours had not. We may need to start!
Download a PDF of the scavenger hunt, including guide sheet, pictures to hide, and a sign!
Crafts
As mentioned above, I had two crafts that I wanted everyone to make BEFORE we started storytime, and I gave them 10 minutes to do it. (Ha.) We made crowns with 2023 on them, and noisemakers made of paper plates and dry cereal. I tried to emphasize to adults to get the crafts functional and then let the kids decorate them in any time remaining, and I also tried to make it as easy as possible. It worked fine for the kids that were there on time, but I had a lot of stragglers who didn’t get a chance to make everything. It worked out, and I had shaker eggs available for anyone who didn’t get their noisemaker finished before we started, which alleviated any upsets. We opened the divider between our two adjacent children’s program rooms so half was used for crafts, and the other half was for storytime. It was nice to have the room for both without having to move anything during the program.
Crowns
I cut large sheets of construction paper (18×24″) in half lengthwise using a zig-zag. 24 inches seemed just a little too short to fit around an average 5 year old’s head, so each crown was one full length strip stapled to a half a strip (which was pre-done, so all they needed to do was glue on their numbers and staple it to fit their child’s head.) I used all different colors and used our die-cut machine to punch out 2s, 3s, and 0s, and there were crayons for decorating. I’d considered putting out stickers, too, but I simplified.
Noisemakers
I saw a Pin from Kiddie Crafts 365 for paper plate noisemakers that looked perfect for Noon Year’s Eve. I provided paper plates, dry cereal for inside, colorful strips of construction paper, crayons and lots of staplers.
Storytime
At 11:38, I gave a two-minute warning to finish up crafts, and then started our first song at 11:40. That allowed people to trickle over from the crafts area even after we started. Throughout the whole storytime, I had a countdown projected on the wall. You can make a customized countdown at timeanddate.com (the pre-made New Year’s one can’t be changed from the actual New Year’s midnight, so I couldn’t use that one.) It was extremely helpful to be able to glance up to see it at any time.
Welcome! We are here to celebrate the new year – which year will it be? 2023! Let’s start with a little celebration song. Now, we’ll be doing some motions, but when Jim Gill sings “WAIT…” we are going to freeze. Ready?
Welcome/Recorded Song: Can’t Wait to Celebrate
We clap our hands when we get together
Clap our hands to celebrate
We clap our hands when we get together
My friends and I can hardly wait…
To stamp our feet…..
To wave hello…..
To bounce up and down…
To clap our hands…
Source: Jim Gill, from the album “Irrational Anthem & More Salutes to Nonsense”
Talk: So why are we celebrating? Well, the calendar is changing from the end of one year to the next year. We should note that there are other calendars that change from one year to the next at a different time than this one – some people celebrate those new years instead of or in addition to this one! Each have special traditions that make them special. Does anyone know of a new year’s tradition? Party, fancy clothes, countdown, ball drop, fireworks, midnight kiss, auld lang syne, resolutions, good luck foods – peas, greens, cabbage, pork.
One thing people do is cheer the moment it changes from one year to another. That means staying up until midnight and watching the clock! Let’s do a song about the clock.
Rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory, dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock
the clock struck one (clap once)
the mouse ran down, hickory dickory dock!
…two… the mouse said, boo!
…three… the mouse said, whee!
…four… the mouse said, no more!
Source: Jbrary
One of my favorite parts of New Year’s Eve is the dancing! There are often parties where you can dance and have a good time. Let’s read a book about dancing!
I absolutely love this book – the illustrations are so fun. I was really glad that it was available as an e-book so I was able to check that out and project it on the wall so everyone could see. Since my audience skewed a little older than my usual group, I was also happy I could do a longer book like this one for them!
Read: How Do You Dance? by Thyra Heder
Another tradition when the new year comes is to make a lot of noise! You’ve made some beautiful noisemakers here. Let’s use them in this song!
I wanted to make sure we used those noisemakers a lot during the storytime.
Shaker Song: Shake it To the East
Shake it to the east
Shake it to the west
Shake it all around and
Then you take a rest
Shake your shakers up
Shake your shakers down
Shake it, shake it, shake it, and
Then you settle down
Source: Jbrary
Waiting for the countdown is making me hungry – let’s make some popcorn!
Shaker Rhyme: Pop, Pop, Pop
Pop, pop, pop
Put the corn in the pot
Pop, pop, pop
Shake it ’til it’s hot
Pop, pop, pop
Lift the lid and what have you got?
Popcorn!
Source: Jbrary
Shaker Song: If You’re Ready for the New Year
(tune of If You’re Happy & You Know It)
If you’re ready for the New Year shake up high
If you’re ready for the New Year shake up high
If you’re ready for the New Year
If you’re ready for the New Year
If you’re ready for the New Year shake up high!
(change action: wave bye-bye (to the old year), shake it fast, slow, low)
Source: Book Cart Queens
At this point I only had one more song planned, and looking at my countdown I had 6 minutes to go! (I guess I went faster than I had in practice.) So I pulled out the back up book that I’d planned if my group was too young for the longer How Do You Dance.
(By the way, there is a serious gap in books about the New Year – publishers, take note! The only picture books in our library were way too long (and there were very few of them), so I had to ILL a couple board book titles out of desperation. Corduroy had a slightly better story and beat out Happy New Year Spot by Eric Hill.)
Read: Happy New Year, Corduroy by Don Freeman & Lisa McCue
It’s almost time for our countdown! Let’s practice with this song. It’s a take on one of our favorite storytime songs, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, but it’s the NY Edition!
Lifting Song: Zoom, Zoom, Zoom (NY Edition)
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, The year is changing soon
Zoom zoom zoom, The year is changing soon
If you want to make a wish
Hold it tight inside your fist
Zoom zoom zoom, The year is changing soon
In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!
Source: Jbrary
Countdown
So, many of the libraries who wrote up their Noon Year’s programs culminated in a balloon drop and/or confetti of some kind. I was not excited about that – messy, lots of possible failures and disappointment with a drop that didn’t work (plus our ceilings aren’t very high), as well as the potential for scared kids at popped balloons, not to mention the choking hazard balloons can be. So, brainstorming alternatives, we went with stomping bubble wrap and blowing bubbles, and the kids loved it. It’s so much less messy, still noisy but not scary, and sustains the excitement for as long as the bubble machine is going!
So after two runs through Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, we had three minutes left on the countdown, which was perfect. I handed out a square of bubble wrap to each kiddo (with help from some of the grown-ups!) and got us in place, watching the clock. With a minute and a half, we went into one of my backup noisemaker songs, We Wiggle and We Wiggle and We Stop, to fill the last few seconds of time. Which… took us up to 5 seconds (I must have forgotten to look up often enough!) but that was fine! We counted down 5 seconds, then jumped and stomped and chased bubbles while shouting Happy New Year! I started my Noon Year playlist on Spotify, which starts with Caspar Babypants’ Days Gone By (which is basically Auld Lang Syne). It’s kind of long and slow, so I was able to turn the volume down after we’d had a few minutes of bubbles and announce to everyone what would be happening next.
Stations
So after the countdown, we had a few things that families could do.
Dance Party
I stayed in the storytime area and hosted a dance party! I had extra shakers and scarves available to use throughout. My playlist was mostly kids movement songs, but I sprinkled in a couple grooving pop hits as well. As you see, Can’t Wait to Celebrate and Days Gone By were both on the playlist, so the dance party started with Pop, Pop, Pop, and I kept the bubble machine going through that one before putting it away. The total music time was a little over 30 minutes, but I actually skipped a couple songs and ended with the Baby Bear Waltz at 12:25. I only had two die-hard families that stuck it out with me the whole time, but we had fun! The others petered out maybe halfway through.
Photo Booth
Families could snap a photo for the new year, using props if they wanted. I used black butcher paper to make the backdrop, with a purchased Happy New Year banner and some gold glittery shapes (I was slightly worried they’d get pulled down, but they were intact at the end!) I printed the year and our library logo, plus a little “tag us” hashtag for social media purposes. A colleague was available to help take pictures (and oversee that end of the room since I was busy dancing!) The props were a purchase from Etsy seller GlitterInkDesigns, and I was really happy with them. There were a TON of options (like, 55?) in the printable, and there were lots that had nothing to do with drinking. The photo booth props I saw at Party City were almost all about being drunk and champagne toasts (fine for an adult party, but not so great for my purposes.)
Make a Wish Wall
“What is your wish for 2023?” We had post it notes and pens available to see what kids wanted in the year ahead. I started us off with “Walks in the park” and “Time for reading.” After the program, we moved the sign and existing notes to a window right by our children’s door, and have had lots of wishes added!
Some of my favorites include “that dinosaurs would come back,” “I could get another german shepard,” “get better at bike without training wheels,” “[scribbles] learn to write my numbers [in an adult hand],” and “for chocolate chips.”
Year in Review and Coloring Sheets
It seems a little silly for little kids to make New Year’s resolutions, but I really liked the idea of a “Year in Review” sheet that they and their grownups could fill out. It includes some “resolution-y” kinds of things like what/where they would like to “learn,” “go,” or “try” in the new year but the emphasis is not on improvement. I also had a coloring sheet on the back of my usual take-home page that includes book suggestions, song, and rhyme lyrics. Of course, all the craft materials were still out on this side of the rooms, so kids could finish or start their crafts if they hadn’t already.
Download the Year In Review sheet here!
As mentioned above, there’s a serious dearth of books available on New Year’s. When I started thinking outside the box, to dancing and celebrations/parties, I had a lot more options. Here are other books I had available for families to browse (and may work for you on this theme)
ABC Dance – Sabrina Moyle & Eunice Moyle
The More the Merrier – David Martin & Raissa Figueroa
Night Before New Year’s – Natasha Wing & Amy Wummer
Baby Party – Rebecca O’Connell & Susie Poole
If You Give a Pig a Party – Laura Numeroff & Felicia Bond
Everybunny Dance! – Ellie Sandall
Where is Bina Bear? – Mike Curato
How Do You Wokka-Wokka? – Elizabeth Bluemle & Randy Cecil
Hilda Must Be Dancing – Karma Wilson & Suzanne Watts
Duck Sock Hop – Jane Kohuth & Jane Porter
This storytime was presented in-person on 12/30/22.
Storytime Handout:
Storytime with Ms. Emily Library 