Last week's storytimes were a success! I took a couple days off work, so when I looked back at my storytime notes to jog my memory, I was surprised to see only one thing. After my storytime the librarian at the desk (who is a little older than me) was helping a patron she clearly knew. As I listened to their interaction I was flabbergasted to learn the patron was her second grade teacher! Isn't that the best thing ever?
As you can see the best thing about storytime wasn't actually storytime. 😂
Looks like I needed to write a few more notes!
My first traveling storytime went very well. I was a little concerned about doing a storytime in the play area because of distractions and having my stuff on their level. I kept everything contained in my bag, with the exception of my ukulele, which was on a stand, and there was only one grab for the ukulele. That's it! All of the furniture had wheels, so it took only seconds to set up the space. About halfway through a few kids did wander off to explore things in the play area, but I feel good any time I can hold their attention, even if it's just for a book or song. I just didn't want all the toddlers conspiring together and toddling off in revolt when I hit my first perfectly-off key note.
I don't use puppets every week, so last week was a little special. About half the kids at the first storytime looked at me like I was crazy. To be fair, I was not their usual storytime lady, so I had some puzzled looks for most of storytime as the group tried to size me up.
When I brought out the puppets, their suspicions were confirmed muahahahaha.
Half the group, however, were appropriately spellbound by my puppet friends. A couple grownups had a nice chuckle listening to me caw to the melody of The Wheels on the Bus. I practiced I swear! So much so that Robert was considering a separation. There's really no pleasing way to caw and sing at the same time though - the crows in the tree go CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW CAW all day long. You give it a try and see if you don't burst out laughing halfway through.
During my regular storytimes at my home branch I had a much better reaction to the puppets. It felt like my crowd was thinking, "It took you long enough! We knew you had puppets somewhere!"
I messed up a little on the ukulele at the branch I travelled to. I was weirdly nervous, and there were a couple times the ukulele kept going even though my voice stopped or I kept singing even though my ukulele stopped. Each time it happened I just feigned puzzlement. No idea why the ukulele stopped working folks. No idea why I'm not still singing.
It's a wonder I can put one foot in front of the other some days.
One of my books was received so well I think it deserves a nod. It's called, Knight Owl. Check it out if you are in the mood to make a lot of whoosh and whoooo sounds.
Here is my traveling storytime bag. I was too excited to make any kind of reasonable or normal face.
No comments:
Post a Comment