I just had my first nice big storytime. All of them so far have been only one or two kids, so it was a big surprise when I had ELEVEN kids and seven parents. They ranged in ages from six months to four years (the storytime age is 1-3, but siblings come along) and although it was not a perfect storytime, it was damned good. If I do say. (But not in front of the children.)
The two main things I noticed the crowd doesn’t know my rhythm yet, so I tried to keep a steady pace, and announce what we’d be doing as we went. The other thing is that there was some lost concentration. That’s not surprising with the toddler crowd, but I didn’t recognize until we were in the middle of a story, and there were still about half the kids paying rapt attention, so I decided to finish the story out. The key is to switch up the plan if what you’re doing isn’t getting their attention, but with such a big age range, it was hard. I’m lucky in that the parents did a good job of trying to get their kids back in the zone. It’s not always possible, but I think you can only ask for so much from someone who can’t tell the difference between their shoes.
Here’s today’s lineup for bunny themed storytime:
*Frank discussion of what bunnies do (i.e. hop, wiggle their noses, move their ears, sit on their fluffy tails)
*Hickory Dickory Dock (regular speed, slow, fast)
*Row Row Row Your Boat
*Story: Carrot Soup by John Segal
*Patty Cake
*Row Row Row Your Boat
*Story: Five for a Little One by Chris Raschka
*Ring Around the Rosie
*Free play (wheeled out the basket of toys, and tried to keep chaos from erupting forth, spewing drool)