I’ve Got Two Dogs, by John Lithgow. Heidi from Rice Lake says she uses this one with the CD, which is read/sung by John Lithgow. She doesn’t usually do this, but the quality is so high, and kids love it. Plus, then families are introduced to the book/CD kits.

Adam from Clear Lake reminded us to use nonfiction with excellent pictures or photographs for storytimes, too. Who Hops, by Katie Davis; Whose Tail Is This? by Peg Hall; and books by Steve Jenkins were noted.

Since storytime audiences are trending younger, there was a short discussion of titles that will engage younger kids. Here are a few suggestions from the group–watch here for a bigger list, coming soon!

Jiggle Joggle Jee! by Laura Richards.
Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett. (extra fun if you get some cheap gloves for parents to use)
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox.

Activity suggestions:
In Osceola, they have a regular storytime, and are also offering 2 other monthly programs. In Artsy Smartsy, Tiffany shares a story and then they have art projects related to it. In The Best Ever Story Time, there is a regular storytime on a theme, and then an extra-special activity (one day the theme was llamas, and a staff member with a llama brought it in for a visit, and kids did art projects with llama fiber).

In Clear Lake, the kids help pick the themes! Also, the kids at storytime love to dress up, so many of the art projects are a hat or mask that kids make half-way through storytime to use to help act out a story in the second part of the program.

In St. Croix Falls, Cole said that painting, painting, painting is the most popular thing. Families stay longer and enjoy themselves more at every storytime when kids have time to explore with various kinds of painting projects.

In Balsam Lake, science projects (simple garden-related projects work best for them) and process art (where the emphasis is on the process of creation and exploration rather than a tidy product) are the most popular choices.

In Cumberland, Julie had great luck with a stuffed animal sleep-over at the library. They made little books with photos of each stuffed animals overnight adventures to give to kids the next morning.

Promotion suggestions:
In Rice Lake, they make one of the super-cool art projects that will be created at family storytime a few weeks ahead of time and put it in a prominent place with a “Want to make something like me? Come to the storytime on X date!”

In Prescott, Becky has contacted the school’s video production teacher to ask if any students want to take on library promotion as their project. She has some kids coming to make a video in the next few weeks about storytime to put on the website and on the community access television channel.

Lori and Joey from Frederic also suggested sending information out to all the family and other daycares to invite them, but also ask them to tell parents about the evening storytime offerings. In addition, she works with the school, which heavily promotes the Friday morning storytimes with the 4K program.

Scheduling Suggestions:
Make sure to find out what is going on in your community and plan accordingly. Work with the 4K schedule. In Clear Lake, they have good luck scheduling storytime around CCD classes on Wednesday nights–parents drop older kids off at church and come to the library with their younger children. Don’t be afraid to ask people what would work best!

To Theme or Not To Theme:
There was some discussion about themes, and how to keep them from taking over your storytime planning. Some participants were big advocates of themes as a way to help plan, organize and present. Some participants suggested that themes can be limiting–if you are chosing stories that are the best and most developmentally appropriate, sometimes trying to find them within a specific theme keeps you from sharing the best books, songs and fingerplays.

Others suggested themes like “Soft and Warm” give you a chance to engage the kids in discussion about the theme before you start, but are broad enough to include just about anything!

Frederic does a monthly theme (Around the World, etc) and also has an author of the month–they read one author per month.

Repetition
Heidi from Rice Lake and Becky from Prescott reminded us: Don’t be afraid to repeat tried and true favorite books, songs, fingerplays. Becky says it’s great to have a few of them up your sleeve for when you need to bring kids’ attention back to you.

Family Story Times
With evening or Saturday storytimes, you need to be prepared to engage a wide range of ages–toddlers to elementary school age. People shared some of their tips (preparing a variety of books and choosing according to the audience, having a craft or project for older kids to work on during the whole time, interactive things and music that appeal to a wide range of ages).

Favorite Websites
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/
http://www.bestkidsbooksite.com/

We talked about more than this, and this hardly does justice to the real, live discussion, but hopefully it will help some!

Watch for the next Youth Services Idea Swap in Bloomer in April.