I did my second storytime this week, and my theme was "opposites." I read one very large book (my library has a collection of these), The Cow Who Went Oink, and a regular-size book, Dinosaur Roar. A handful of the kids had various dinosaur apparel on so the dinosaur book was a hit. There was a lot of roaring going on even after I closed the book.
In my last storytime I gave each toddler a scarf, and after a bit of waving it around, we sang a song about putting our wiggles away. Our wiggles, which were represented by the scarves, went into a cloth bag I brought. When I asked for feedback a parent suggested we do something exciting with the scarves before putting them away. Well, of course!
During this storytime, after handing out the scarves, we sang The Grand Old Duke of York and waved the scarves around like maniacs. Then we put the scarves in the bag. It worked out beautifully. Next time I plan on upping my game and finding
Altogether, I had roughly 30 toddlers and 25 adults. It was very tricky to count everyone but one of my clever coworkers came up with an idea for next time. At the beginning, as everyone arrives, the adults fill out name tags. Well, at the end of storytime, I am going to simply ask everyone to return their name tags. It will give me another chance to connect names to faces plus a second opportunity to count everyone.
I did have a few upset toddlers and one who kept standing in front of the book. I've been asking around and have a few approaches to use in these situations when they pop up next. The biggest thing I'm going to do is assert more authority (big girl panties!) and encourage parents to help in these situations. Overall, about 60-70% of the toddlers were engaged at any given time, and I'm happy with that number.
I did ask for feedback once again, and to my relief I heard a handful of compliments and constructive feedback.
After storytime I wasn't exhausted, and I totally expected to be. Socializing usually wears me out. When I do go out with a friend I usually need a few hours of solitude and/or sleep. It's not that I don't enjoy myself when I'm with others, I just need a lot of alone time in my dark house, with only my reading light and a book, to combat the exhaustion of socializing.
Storytime didn't wipe me out at all! After I said goodbye to everyone and put everything away I immediately jumped in to help patrons. When my lunch hour came I was fully prepared to nap but instead I did my usual hour of writing and it was even productive.
I go out to dinner with a close friend and need 12 hours of sleep. I sing and read at the top of my lungs with a roomful of toddlers who are even louder than me at my loudest and I'm not even remotely tired. What a mystery!
I must admit the best part of this week's storytime didn't even happen during storytime. The day of my storytime, while driving to work, I was busily practicing a song about a snowman melting. The snowman starts out tall and ends up small, and surprise, surprise, sunlight is the reason for this. So you raise your hands up and pretend you're tall, then lower them to above your head and make a half sun, and to finish you scrunch up small. FYI this last part is tricky to do in a car.
At one point I was at a rather long stoplight and looked over at the truck next to me. To my surprise, a very burly looking guy was doing the melting snowman dance! It's likely he was making fun of me, but he had a stupid grin on his face, so whatever it was he was doing, it was clearly giving him joy. And if he was having a good time then obviously the melting snowman dance was a perfect choice for storytime.
When the light finally turned green I realized I was laughing so hard I could barely see through the tears in my eyes. All of a sudden I was the one with the stupid grin on my face.
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