Program: All By Myself

As I've mentioned before, I sometimes fill in with storytimes when needed. For the last week of storytimes this summer, my boss was on vacation and needed someone to take on All By Myself, the preschool storytime I had taken over (briefly) back in April. I told her I'd be willing to do it, knowing our storytime staff was pretty stretched and it being toward the end of summer, as my other programs were winding down. Here's what I did!

Story: Hilda Must be Dancing by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Suzanne Watts - I decided I wanted to have a dance themed storytime, figuring I could maximize active time and maybe skip the craft (which I didn't end up doing, but it was a thought). I think this book is pretty standard for any storytime about dancing, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I like all the different kinds of dances that Hilda tries and the outfits she wears while trying them. This group was a bit out of control (this storytime swelled to insane numbers during the summer) so I don't think they got as much from the story as they could have.

Song: "The Twist" by Chubby Checker - yes, the original. This was actually my whole reasoning for having a dance-themed storytime: I wanted to see a bunch of preschoolers doing the Twist. I put the song on and showed them the basic move, and then threw in a few ways they could change it up. Yes, it was as adorable as I'd hoped it would be.

Book: Fritz Danced the Fandango by Alicia Potter, illustrated by Ethan Long - I probably should have known better and skipped a second book, as the kids were very short on attention span, but I couldn't resist this dancing goat story. They liked the yodeling the best, I think.

Song: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer - I'm sorry, but a lot of music made specifically for kids is just not fun for an adult to dance to. So, I decided to introduce them to something from my generation. I put the music on and told them to dance any way they wanted to, but I also showed them some classic dance moves: the sprinkler, the running man, the cabbage patch - you know, the goodies. They loved seeing the different dance moves, but a lot of them didn't know what to do when I wasn't highlighting one. Still, we had fun!

Craft: Dancing hippos - I completely stole this idea from the fabulous Abby the Librarian. To expedite things a bit, I made kits with all the supplies beforehand, so I could just hand one to each child and then set them loose with the crayons. Once they were finished coloring, they had to come see me or my colleague for help with stringing their hippo on its dancing stick. A few parents came in at the end to help their children as well. The kids LOVED this craft (and my colleagues had fun with the leftovers). The link above will take you directly to Abby's post explaining the craft.

And that was my latest adventure in storytime! I had a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to a regular monthly storytime in the fall!