Hello, again, readers! I hope you have had a wonderful summer, full of adventures and fun. We certainly did here at the library. I love summer, and everything it means at the library. Sometimes our negative feelings about summer reading as library staff can be in front of mind – it’s a lot of work, we’re out of our routines, we have a lot more people to manage with their needs and quirks and behaviors – it’s easy to get burnt out. But I love the summer reading season and I keep in mind that all that extra work, all that foot traffic and so on means that our library is an important part of our community. That means a lot in these uncertain days. And the smiles and appreciation of our patrons of all ages give me a lift every single day. So, fellow librarians, I hope you were able to take care of yourselves AND enjoy the vibrant chaos.
Our library generally uses the theme and graphics from the Collaborative Summer Library Program, or CSLP, a national initiative that helps libraries plan summer programming. This year’s theme was “Adventure Begins at Your Library.” Adventure is a broad theme! I used many of the weekly theme ideas from the CSLP manual and applied them to the framework I’ve been honing in the last couple of years: an outdoor storytime with sensory stations. It’s a big hit and I saw great numbers. All summer, I offered Family Time for ages 0-3.5 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with siblings welcome. As an organization we have also been working toward more weekend and evening programs, so there were a couple of those sprinkled in as well this year. I do have an indoor backup option when the weather is bad, so I still do registration and am limited by that, but it’s a bigger room than I usually use, so space isn’t generally an issue.
For each session, we had about 15-20 minutes of storytime rhymes, songs, and a book, including parachute play, then 20 minutes of free play at various sensory stations. We end with bubbles and a goodbye song. Stations are a really great way to promote socializing, practice skills like sharing and being gentle, and allow for unstructured play, which science tells us is so important to learning and development.
I only did one new station this year (in week 2, see below), the rest were all repeats from the last couple of years, which you can read about in depth at this blog post.
I just learned how to set up anchor links, so click for the overall or specific themed activities!
Repeating Weekly Plan
Week 1: Travel Adventures
Week 2: Adventures Close to Home
Week 3: Adventures in Imagination
Week 4: Animal Adventures
Week 5: Adventures at Sea
Week 6: Adventures in Reading
Week 7: Adventures in the Dark
Repeating Weekly Plan
Each week, the structure of the storytime was the same, with only three parts that changed depending on the theme: a themed song, a book, and one fresh parachute song. (Stations also changed weekly.) All the other songs and rhymes were the same:
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
(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
(We wiggled every week, but then added 2 more motions. Motions we did throughout the summer: jump, twirl, run, splash, hop, swim, stretch, stomp, wave, sway, march, lean, roll [arms,] hug)
Source: Jbrary
Intro: Our theme this summer is Adventure Begins at Your Library. Are you ready to go on an adventure? Short intro to the weekly theme (see below)
Themed Song (see below)
Transition Song: If You’re Ready for a Story
(tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It)
If you’re ready for a story, clap your hands (clap, clap)
If you’re ready for a story, clap your hands (clap, clap)
If you’re ready for a story, if you’re ready for a story,
If you’re ready for a story, clap your hands (clap, clap)
Source: Miss Keithia (my predecessor)
Themed Book (see below)
Parachute! What sorts of adventures can we have with our parachute?
Let’s head out on our adventure. Our road is going to start out very smooth. Can we wave the parachute slowly and gently?
Parachute: A Smooth Road
A smooth road! (repeat x4) (slowly, and gently)
[Uh, oh! Our road has turned a little bumpy! Can we wave the parachute medium-fast?]
A bumpy road! (x4) (a little faster)
[Oh, no! The road has gotten very rough!]
A rough road! (x4) (frantic waving of the parachute ensues!)
Oh, no! A hole! (lift the parachute up high and then down)
Source: Jbrary
Rotating Parachute Song (see below)
Breathing Break
Whew, I am out of breath! I’m ready for a breathing break. Let’s take a big breath in and lift the parachute up, then breathe out and lower it. We’ll repeat a few times.
At this point the kids are usually darting under the parachute, so I go with it!
Okay, if grown-ups can grab the edges of the parachute, kids can go underneath if they want (if you prefer to just watch from the outside, that’s always fine!)
This was originally intended to be a song where we walk around in a circle, but with the age of the kids, grown ups generally wanted to stay kind of close to where their kid was and not walk around. So we just waved up and down until the very end, where we pulled the parachute down (briefly) around the kids underneath. I also originally intended to do a second verse where we stood up, but I didn’t think it was a good idea for the kids to be trapped under the parachute for the length of a verse, so I never did it. It’s included here in case you were curious!
Parachute Song: Merry Go Round
(tune similar to Mulberry Bush, see link below for a recording)
The merry go round goes round and round (walk in a circle with parachute or wave it up and down)
The children laugh and laugh and laugh
So many were on the merry go round
The merry go round collapsed! (fall to the ground or bring parachute down)
(stand up verse)
Fishies in the ocean (stay crouched/fallen)
Fishies in the sea
We all jump up with a
1 2 3! (stand up)
Source: Read Sing Play
Okay, grown ups – for our last parachute song we’re going to let the parachute fly – so let go at the very end after we count down and I say “FLY.”
Parachute Song: Parachute Fly
(tune of Skip to my Lou)
(kids go under the parachute and adults raise and lower)
Up, up, up it goes,
Down, down, down so low
Raise our parachute to the sky
Count to 3 and watch it fly
Spoken:
Up on one…
Down on two…
Up on three…
and FLY! (adults let go and leader pulls ‘chute in to themselves)
Source: Gymboree
Release to Stations
I have eight stations each week, which involve a mixture of dry, wet, and art/creativity stations. We spend about 20 minutes before I ring the bell to call everyone back to the grassy area. See more detail here.
Everybody loves bubbles! The trick to doing bubbles outside 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
Weekly Themes
Week 1: Travel Adventures 6/4, 6/5/24
Intro: This week we’re talking about travel adventures. Sometimes you think the adventure will happen when you reach your destination, but adventures can happen on the way, too!
I varied whether I did the themed song or the book first, just depending on what made the most sense to me.
Themed Read: Go, Go, Go! by Bob Barner There are lots of ways of going on an adventure!
This is a very simple book – a beginning reader – but I had the group do a noise and motion for each kind of vehicle, which made it very interactive.
Let’s get our own adventures underway!
Themed Song: Row, Row, Row Your Boat/Car/Plane/Bus
Row, row, row your boat (row arms)
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream!
Additional verses:
Drive, drive, drive your car (steering wheel arms)
Gently down the street…Life is but a treat
Fly, fly, fly your plane (airplane arms)
Gently in the sky…Watch the clouds go by
Drive, drive, drive your bus (big wide steering wheel)
Gently down the way
Stop to let some people out
To ride another day
Source: Grandview Heights Public Library
(this is the source I had in my notes, but I’m not finding a link now)
Parachute Song: The Wheels on the Bus
I used the verses that worked well with the parachute:
Wheels: we just flapped the parachute
Horn: We held the parachute taut and “beeped” our hand on it
Wipers: we swished the parachute from side to side
People: again, flapped the parachute up and down
Source: traditional
Week 1 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Pool Noodle Soup
Fly Swatter Slap
Kinetic Sand
Sort Beanbags
Sort Craft Sticks
Color the Parachute
Ice Painting
Week 2: Adventures Close to Home 6/10, 6/11, 6/12/24
Intro: This week we’re talking about adventures close to home. You can have an adventure in your backyard or close to home – camping, exploring, and more!
This is a fantastic book with a lot of opportunity for interaction. Whenever we said “Roll, roll, little pea” they joined and rolled their arms. They called out the animals on each page and we made their noise. Great storytime book.
This story is about a little pea who finds adventure wherever it rolls
Themed Read: Roll, Roll, Little Pea by Cécile Bergame & Magali Attiogbé
Let’s do a fingerplay about five plump peas.
Themed Rhyme: Five Plump Peas
Five plump peas in a peapod pressed (make a fist and cover with the other hand)
One grew, two grew, and so did all the rest (raise all fingers on first hand one by one)
they grew, and they grew, and they grew, and never stopped (hands get wide)
They grew SO BIG that the peapod… POPPED! (hands spread wide, then CLAP!)
Source: Jbrary
Since eyes, ears, mouth, and nose are all in the same place, I changed that line. We did this three times, getting faster!
Parachute Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
(move parachute to correct height)
Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes
Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes
Wave the parachute up and down
Head, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes (repeat, faster)
Source: traditional
Week 2 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Lemon Sensory Bin
Mystery Water
Kinetic Sand
Pool Noodle Sort
Feed the Croc
Color the Parachute
Spray Silhouettes
New Station: Spray Silhouettes!
I used liquid watercolors in spray bottles and provided a myriad of shapes to create negative image artwork. Some of the shapes were plastic food, big puzzle pieces, the shapes from a baby toy sorter, and duplos. Basically anything I could find that could lay mostly flat and be okay getting wet. It was important to set the spray bottles to “mist” instead of “stream,” and we still had kids who just saturated the paper, but it’s all about the process and not the product! Idea and photo on the sign from Picklebums.
Week 3: Adventures in Imagination 6/17, 6/18, 6/19, 6/20/24
Intro: This week we’re talking about adventures in imagination. When we imagine, we can make adventures anywhere with anything.
To start, we all pretended we had a stick. Then we did some kind of action for each imagined use as we read.
Themed Read: Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis
Let’s put our imagination hats on and get some practice.
Themed Rhyme: Can You Pretend?
Let’s hear you roar like a lion
Let’s see you jump like a frog
Let’s see you snap your jaws like a crocodile
Let’s hear you howl like a hound dog
Pretend you’re an elephant with a big, looooong, trunk
Pretend you’re a monkey
Let’s see you jump, jump, jump
And now you’re a mouse
Just let me see
How very, very quiet you can be
Source: YouthScope
Teddy Bear is going on an adventure – up and down a hill with LOTS of friends.
Parachute Song: Funny Teddy Bear
(tune of Grand Old Duke of York)
Funny teddy bear
Bear had a thousand friends
Bear marched them up to the top of the hill and
Marched them down again
And when you’re up you’re up
And when you’re down you’re down
And when you’re only halfway up you’re neither up nor down
Source: Storytime Katie via ALSC Blog
Week 3 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Sponge Play
Scooping Blocks
Kinetic Sand
Colored Ball Sort
Pompom Sort
Color the Parachute
Fly Swatter Painting
Week 4: Animal Adventures 6/23, 6/24, 6/25, 6/26/24
Intro: This week we’re talking about animal adventures. Can you imagine going to see amazing animals in the wild?
Themed Read: It’s a Tiger! by David Larochelle & Jeremy Tankard
Can you imagine being a tiger? A SLEEPING tiger?!
Themed Song: Sleeping Tigers
(tune of Sleeping Bunnies)
See the fearsome tigers sleeping till it’s nearly noon
Shall we wake them with a merry tune
Oh so still! Are they ill?
Wake up, wake up, wake up sleeping tigers!
Wake up, wake up, wake up sleeping tigers!
Wake up tigers and roar, roar, roar
(repeat, second time: pounce, pounce, pounce)!
Source: adapted from the traditional
Even tiny animals might go on an adventure.
Parachute: Itsy Bitsy Spider
(move parachute up and down as indicated in lyrics)
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Up came the sun and dried up all the rain
So the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again
Source: traditional
Week 4 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Pool Noodle Soup
Whisking Bubbles
Kinetic Sand
Beanbag Sort
Craft Stick Sort
Color the Parachute
Shape Sorter Stamping
Week 5: Adventures at Sea 7/1, 7/2, 7/3/24
Intro: This week we’re going out to sea – get your lifejackets on!
I tried this book at the first session as a “sing aloud” but it just did not go over well, even with several pages clipped to shorten it. I ditched it for the other two sessions.
Themed Read: Port Side Pirates by Oscar Seaworthy & Debbie Harter (Monday only)
This one worked much better – we did some kind of motion or noise for each page to make it interactive. I wish the book itself was bigger and the illustrations were more vibrant, though.
Themed Read: Sheep on a Ship by Nancy Shaw & Margot Apple (Tuesday and Wednesday)
When the ocean gets rough, that’s an adventure!
Themed 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
I remind everyone to start rowing very gently, then after the first verse, say, “Oh, the wind is picking up, can we row more firmly?” and before the third verse, “Oh, no, there’s a storm! Row as strongly as you can!”
Parachute: Row Your Boat
(repeat 3 times)
Row, row, row your boat
Gently/Firmly/Strongly down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
(Wave the parachute gently, then firmly, then wildly!)
Source: traditional
Week 5 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Ping Pong Fishing
Ice Play
Kinetic Sand
Pool Noodle Sort
Feed the Croc
Color the Parachute
Dot Painting
Week 6: Adventures in Reading 7/8, 7/9, 7/10/24
Intro: This week we’re celebrating books, and all the adventures we can have in them!
Here’s a song about someone who wears glasses getting ready to read.
I’ve found that if I set this one up right, it’s very fun, and if I don’t, it’s a little awkward. We practice making glasses, putting them on and taking them off. Then we make a book and practice opening and closing it (several times!) THEN we sing.
Themed Song: These Are My Glasses
These are my glasses, this is my book
I put on my glasses and open up the book
Now I read, read, read
And I look, look, look
I put down my glasses and
Whoop! Close up the book!
Source: “Whaddaya Think of That?” by the Laurie Berkner Band
I’ve used this book for years in outreach and for library tours, so I was a little disappointed that it didn’t go over quite as well with the toddler set as the preschoolers. A good reminder that developmental age matters! Another good option for this week would have been Hooray for Books! by Brian Won, but I wasn’t able to get it last minute. The parents enjoyed the jokes, but the kids got antsy.
Themed Read: Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss & Tiphanie Beeke
Teddy Bear is going on an adventure – up and down a hill with LOTS of friends.
Parachute Song: Funny Teddy Bear
(tune of Grand Old Duke of York)
Funny teddy bear
Bear had a thousand friends
Bear marched them up to the top of the hill and
Marched them down again
And when you’re up you’re up
And when you’re down you’re down
And when you’re only halfway up you’re neither up nor down
Source: Storytime Katie via ALSC Blog
Week 6 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Flower Sensory Bin
Scooping Blocks
Kinetic Sand
Colored Ball Sort
Pompom Sort
Color the Parachute
Finger Painting
Week 7: Adventures in the Dark 7/14, 7/15, 7/16, 7/17, 7/18/24
Intro: This week is about adventures you might have after dark. Have you ever taken a walk with your family after sunset in your neighborhood? Or maybe gone outside to chase fireflies after dark? I love fireflies. Did you know that the Indiana State Insect is the firefly?
Let’s do a rhyme about some fireflies. Can you make your hands “blink” like a firefly light? (Open and close fingers)
Themed Song: Two Little Fireflies
(like Two Little Blackbirds)
Two little fireflies, Blinking in the sky (open and close hands)
One blinked low, And one blinked high
Fly away low, Fly away high
Come back low, Come back high
Other options, choose 2 or 3 more:
…Blinking in the grass…one blinked slow And one blinked fast…
…blinking by the car. . .1 blinked near, one blinked far…
…blinking by a gate… 1 flew wobbly and the other flew straight…
…blinking by the lilies, 1 was serious, the other was silly…
Source: adapted from the traditional
I love doing this one. It’s so silly. And thanks to a librarian friend, I can do the song with my ukulele, which always captures the group’s attention.
Themed Read: Let’s Sing a Lullaby with the Brave Cowboy by Jan Thomas
Get a copy of the sheet music here!
Listen to the song on the Jan Thomas website!
In honor of our brave cowboy, let’s sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider!
Parachute: Itsy Bitsy Spider
(move parachute up and down as indicated in lyrics)
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Up came the sun and dried up all the rain
So the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again
Source: traditional
Week 7 Stations: (details here)
Pouring Station
Sponge Play
Fly Swatter Slap
Kinetic Sand
Beanbag Sort
Craft Stick Sort
Color the Parachute
Chalk Art
Back to our regular indoor storytimes next week – upcoming themes include Sports, Alphabet, Counting, Shapes, and more!
Storytime with Ms. Emily Library 