Program: Family Storytime

My second foray into Family Storytime occurred on St. Patrick's Day; fittingly, our theme for the week was green. As I began to choose books for the session, I got increasingly frustrated - all the St. Patrick's Day or leprechaun books owned by our library were way too long for storytime. My session was taking place on St. Patrick's Day itself so I really wanted to include something relevant. Eventually, I came across something that worked. Here's what we did.

Opening: Welcome, reminders (no food, please participate, stay out of the blinds), and introduce our theme.

This would be the point where I complete forgot to do "Open Shut Them," but I did have it written in my plan.

Book: Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox - this is a classic but very fun. I was surprised by how much the kids really loved it.

Flannel: "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" - I had planned on finding a recording of this and including it but then I discovered we had a flannel version. I did end up singing the rhyme and, thankfully, some parents knew it as well and sang along.

Book: Green Wilma by Tedd Arnold - they seemed a little on the fence about this one, and I don't think they really got the ending but they did laugh at Wilma's desperate fly-catching antics.

Song: "The Hokey Pokey" - I showed them the book Croaky Pokey by Ethan Long and then told them we were going to stand up and get our wiggles out by doing the human version. This went much better than my failed attempts at "The Chicken Dance."

Book: Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley - I was surprised because they did not seem into this at all. I thought for sure this would be a hit but they seemed pretty ambivalent about it.

Song: "And the Green Grass Grows All Around" - allegedly, we have a flannel of this somewhere but I couldn't find it in the week and a half I spent preparing before storytime, so I just ended up singing the song, having the kids repeat after me, and miming the parts. They seemed to enjoy this.

Book: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown - I knew this was a risky choice because it's a little on the long side but I love it so much that I stubbornly included it anyway. They were not so into it in the first part but once they saw the garden starting to spread and explore, they seemed more interested.

Draw a story: "Draw a Leprechaun" - like I said, I really wanted to include something related to St. Patrick's in my storytime, so when I found this really simple drawing rhyme, I was sold. The kids absolutely loved it.

Goodbye rhyme: "Wave Goodbye" by Rob Reid - I'm making this my default goodbye rhyme. Everyone seems to really love it and I've gotten a good laugh at the "wave your derriere" part every time.

And that was my green family storytime! What would you have done?