Storytime Session: Music & Movement

When my regular-session storytime ended, I couldn't bear the thought of those poor parents and kids with nothing to do on Friday mornings until our summer reading program starts in mid-June! I had heard a number of other libraries talking about their music and movement, jump & jive, etc. programs and thought it might go over well with our kids.

There are a handful of songs my storytime kids love that we used to do regularly, but I got into the habit of choosing songs and rhymes that fit our weekly topics instead. I thought this Music & Movement program would be the perfect way for the kids to enjoy those songs, and I advertised it as such:

I ripped songs from my collection of cds onto my computer, then created a playlist of nine songs and burned them to a cd. We start with lots of movement, mellow down a bit, pause to read a single book (which is a great opportunity for me to just pick some of my favorites that don't always fit into regular storytime!), then finish with a few more big songs.

THE KIDS LOVE IT.

"Wait a minute! We're fish! We don't take showers..."

This was from the very first week, where I had 7 kids.
We doubled in size the following week!

And I love it too.

1. The parents appreciate that I don't need any registration or notice of whether or not they will be there, since how many kids we have each week has no effect on what we do (no craft supplies, chairs to set out, etc.). 
2. There is no additional planning for me, other than pulling a single book off the shelf to read, so I really do get a break from storytime.
3. I get 20 minutes of aerobic exercise. :)
4. I now have essentially a "sub plan." If there is ever a week, even during the regular-session, that I suddenly cannot be there, all any staff needs to do is pop the cd in the player and let the kids have fun.

I am totally going to keep this program going. I'll have it during August, once summer reading is done but our regular-session hasn't started up yet. I'll have it in December, since that was the time when I only had 2 kids show up for my storytimes anyway. It truly gives me a break, yet still offers something for kids and families to do at the library on a weekly basis. 

Here is my current list of songs -- I might tweak it later, add or take away a song or two. It lasts about 25 minutes. 

1. Shake Your Sillies Out - The Wiggles, Yummy Yummy
2. Hot Potato - The Wiggles, Yummy Yummy
3. The Goldfish - Laurie Berkner, The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band
4. If You're Happy and You Know It - Twin Sisters Productions, 30 Toddler Songs
5. Twinkle Twinkle - Twin Sisters Productions, 30 Nursery Rhyme Songs
6. Moon Moon Moon - Laurie Berkner, Whaddya Think of That (I changed a few of the motions to this one)
7. These Are My Glasses - Laurie Berkner, Whaddya Think of That
8. pause to read a book
9. Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) - Laurie Berkner, Whaddya Think of That (we just sleep on the verses, and run and jump and stuff during the wimoweh)
10. We Are the Dinosaurs - Laurie Berkner, Whaddya Think of That

Yup it's heavy on LB. But those are the cds I found in my stash when I took this job, and YouTube has great videos with the motions to the songs. I'm sure as time goes on I'll discover other great artists, but this is what we've got for now. :)

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