fall into books...

PLEASE NOTE: I have a backlog of storytime themes and activities from my first month on the job that I would like to document here; please pardon the dust as I try to catch up. :)

This was my very first storytime and I was nervous as all get-out... but I made it through and therefore believe that any devoted children's librarian can, too. :)

Here's the Setlist*:

Hello Song: 'Hello, Everybody"

Welcome: I introduced myself as the new children' librarian (the previous children's librarian was called 'Mrs. Z', so my name was sort of a foregone conclusion). :) I asked them about fall - what happens to the weather? What happens to the trees? What kinds of things do we get to do? What holidays will we celebrate?

Song: "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Leaves"
(Tune of "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians")

One little, two little, three little leaves... (bring up three fingers)
Four little, five little, six little leaves... (bring up three more fingers)
Seven little, eight little, nine little leaves... (bring up three more fingers)
Ten little leaves just blowin' in the breeze. (bring up the last finger and wave arms back and forth slowly)

Wiggles

Nuts to You by Lois Ehlert

I really like Lois Ehlert's books for children, but I have to admit that this was not my first choice for this storytime. I think I would have preferred Leaf Man or Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, but those were checked out and I hadn't even thought to request storytime titles through ILL yet (which I now do all. the. time.). Luckily, I read this story at a time when kids were still coming to storytime in shorts and t-shirts (summer seems to hang out in the Midwest a lot longer these days)... so we could still relate to the story.

It's Fall by Linda Glaser

Again, I didn't feel like this was my finest hour in story selection. While the book does highlight the colors and textures of fall, I don't think my kids really connected with it... but that could also be because I hadn't given them a wiggle break either. Lessons were being learned, people. :D



Song: 'The Leaves are Falling Down'
(Tune of 'The Farmer in the Dell')

The leaves are falling down,
The leaves are falling down,
Red, yellow, green and brown,
The Leaves are falling down.

Craft: Colorful Leaves
After I had cut out all the nametags for the session using our maple leaf Ellison die, I had a lot of negative space leaves and nothing to do with them! :) What I decided to do was to tape them to half-sheets of white paper with removeable tape. I wrote 'Happy Fall!' and a child's name on each one (I was really intent on learning the children's names) and then told them to color in the leaf. I encouraged them to scribble and mix up their colors... no need to be careful! Then they lifted off the leaf shape and each had a very colorful leaf to take home!

All in all, this was an *okay* storytime. I was sweating at the end, but it wasn't from overexertion, trust me. I didn't *love* the books I was sharing and I learned that that makes a big difference. Next fall, I'm going to nail this one!

* I call my storytime plans "Setlists" because I actually carry a half sheet of paper into the Story Room with me to remind me what I'm doing. It's all keyword/notes, so that's what it looks like to me - a setlist. And, "setlist" cracks me up. We're rockstars! :D