Storytime...SOLO!

I did my first solo storytime at the public library a couple of weeks ago. My trainer, Librarian Amy, filmed the performance. It differed from my previous experiences in that this was a storyTIME not a storyTELLING session. I had to incorporate more fingerplays, songs, and read from some actual books. She did not film the whole thing, but rather segments of it, which I have posted to the left.

The actual venue was the 11:15 Tuesday Lapsit. Lapsits, or babytimes as they are sometimes called, are geared at children 6 months old up to 2 1/2 years. Our attendance averages in the upper 30's to low 40's. I had around 40...babies. The 40 does NOT include the caregivers! That is a LOT of babies, a lot of kinetic energy, and a lot of noise.

I was not overly concerned about the number of attendees, since babies tend to be fairly non-judgmental. However, there were a lot of distractions, and the parents were not familiar with all of the songs I sang, so I ended up doing a couple solos.

The theme was sheep....and the line-up included:

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Sheep Asleep by Gloria Rothstein
"This is the Way..." traditional song
"Five White and Fluffy Sheep" traditional song

New Quarter, New Directions

Since I last posted here, there have been many changes.

The biggest change is that I now work at a public library in the greater San Francisco Bay area. This means that I now have many opportunities to interact with children through storytimes, readers advisory, and library programming. It also means that I am having to learn how to think on my feet and work with children from disparate economic, cultural, and educational backgrounds. I have been making notes of book titles and read-a-likes that are popular with our patronage...and trying to delve into them as much as possible.

I have also started another quarter of my UW Masters program. My courses include LIS 565: Children's Materials and LIS 567:Youth Services. Between the two courses, I will be generating annotated booklists, reviews, and book talks in addition to continuing with my storytelling and storytimes.

I invite all of you to join me on the next leg of our journey. The format of the blog will change slightly. In addition to posting new videos of various stories, I will also be posting more in-depth reviews, video book talks, and read-a-like lists. Eventually I hope to move all of this blogs content over to a comprehensive webpage...but we will see how that goes. In the mean time, sit back, kick up your feet, and enjoy a good tale!