Here’s what I’m doing. I did steal some rhymes and songs and an introduction from the Storytime Idea Machine, so credit goes to Cherie Rainwater credit!)
Winter Wonderland Storytime

Introduction:

Getting Dressed for Winter: Hold up items of winter clothing. Ask children to name them – proceed to wear it in the wrong place and ask children to tell you where to wear it correctly.

Repeat. (From the blog Storytime Idea Machine: http://storytimemachine.blogspot.com/2009/08/snow-storytime.html)

Songs and Rhymes:

Snowflakes, Snowflakes

Tune of “Frere Jacque”

Snowflakes, snowflakes,
Snowflakes, snowflakes,
All around,
All around–
Whirling, twirling snowflakes,
Whirling, twirling snowflakes,
Hit the ground,
Hit the ground.

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen standing in a row.
(Hold up five fingers; stand up straight like soldier.)

Each had two eyes and a carrot nose.
(Point to eyes; point to nose.)

Along came the sun and shone all day,
(Form sun with hands; wipe sweat from brow.)

And one little snowman melted away.
(Hold up one finger; slowly “melt” to the ground and say the words slower as you do.)

Four little snowmen…
Three little snowmen…
Two little snowmen…
One little snowman…

Good-bye Song: Winter Pokey (Snow-ky Pokey?)
To the tune of “The Hokey-Pokey”

You put your right mitten in,
You take your right mitten out.
You put your right mitten in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the winter pokey, [shiver]
And you turn yourself around.
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left mitten in….
You put your right boot….
You put your left boot….
You put your long scarf in….
You put your warm cap in….
You put your snowsuit in….

Five Little Icicles

Five little icicles hanging in the air
The first one said “It’s COLD out there!”
The second one said “The sun is very nice”
And the third one said “Not if you’re made of ice!”
The fourth one said “Drip, drip, drip, drip!”
And the fifth one said “I’m falling! KER-PLIP!”

Snow is Falling Down

(Like the rhyme “Rain is Falling Down”)

Snow is falling down
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Snow is falling down
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Sifting, drifting, sifting, drifting
Snow is falling down
Shhhhhhhhhhh!

Books:

Snow Dude (Daniel Kirk)
Snow Is My Favorite and My Best (Lauren Child)
Teddy’s Snowy Day (Ian Beck)
Snowballs (Lois Ehlert)
All You Need for a Snowman (Alice Schertle)
A Winter Day (Douglas Florian)
Names for Snow (Judi K. Beach)
Snowball Fight (Jimmy Fallon)
Thomas’ Snowsuit (Robert Munsch)
50 Below Zero (Robert Munsch)

Craft Ideas:

Icicle Painting: Draw a thick line of glue across the top of a black piece of construction paper (with the paper turned landscape style). Pick the paper up and let the glue run down the page. Sprinkle with irredescent glitter. Let dry.

“Frost” Paintings: Dip sponge stamps, cookie cutters, etc. into white glue and stamp on black or blue paper. Sprinkle with irredescent glitter.

Cupcake Liner Snowman: Glue 3 cupcake liners onto a sheet of construction paper to make the snowman. Use buttons, felt, construction paper, markers, etc. to make it look like a snowman.

Q-Tip snowflakes: Lay a sheet of wax paper on a table. Use Q-tips to make a snowflake on top of the wax paper. Squirt glue on any spot where 2 Q-tips meet. Let dry completely and peel off of wax paper. Don’t forget, you don’t have to use whole Q-tips, you can break them up and use pieces too!

I thought it would be a cool idea to make a snowball that won’t melt, (like the one we read about in The Snowy Day). Unfortunately for the “everyone welcome” storytimes, this just isn’t feasible. But for those of you who have a limited number of kids in attendance, here it is:

• Buy Styrofoam balls (6 at the Dollar Store for $1.25)
• Roll the Styrofoam balls in white glue and stick things like cotton balls, Styrofoam peanuts, white yarn, fabric, to the ball to make it an un-meltable snowball!

Snack: Vanilla Wafer Snowmen
Decorate your cookies to look like snowmen!

And it’s not all spontaneous fun and impromptu games – we do have a quota to fill. 20 Storytimes On Demand per month. Eeeesh. At my branch, besides myself, we have one full-time information associate, and two part-time information associates dedicated to Children’s Services. This usually means that the information associates do one on-demand per shift and I help out and even though the quota seems lofty, we’ve able to not only meet, but exceed it on several occasions.

While this is probably mainly to ensure that all of the branches are pulling equal weight on this new service endeavour, I’m not sure if we as a public service institution should be putting a number on services. What happens to the value of a particular service, (especially one so reliant on enthusiasm as story times), if we institute limits based on quantity and not quality? Or at least not one that’s so high that we’re scraping to find appropriate books to read and children for whom to read. Thennn there’s all of the implications for desk time, break time, etc. whew! That being said, we’re still in discussion as to what is the best practice for this service and what is most profitable in terms of customer experience and our service mandates.

There’s also the question as to whether this is, as librarians, what we should be focusing our energy on doing. When I was home for the holidays, my parents had their annual Librarian Spaghetti Dinner (I’m a second generation librarian) and we had a bunch of awesome librarians over for carbs and wine. One of the lovely ladies and gentlemen to grace our table was my former boss at Bloomfield Township Public Library, who I love, adore and use as a model for the way a department should be managed.  I’ve told her a bit about these storytimes on demand, and while she’s not an “old-school” librarian by any means, she was a bit hesitant about whether or not the service actually fit into a model of library service. Her (very good) point was that as librarians, we are not there for entertainment purposes, but to serve our communities by providing information-based services (including storytimes) rather than song and dance routines. (I do apologize if I’m paraphrasing awfully – I was a few glasses of wine into dinner when I had this conversation).

So is it “Do the storytime and they will come?” or “They will come, so do the storytime?”

My answer would be a bit of both. (I know, I know, do I ever have an opinion that isn’t based on compromise?) True: We provide scheduled storytimes and it is in our best interest to focus our energies on ensuring that these are of the highest quality and truly promote reading and literacy awareness because we have the education and the knowledge to make them of greater value than a simple “song-and-dance.” Also true: The nature of libraries and the services provided therein are changing and we have to be willing to try new things. (Please note: I do not believe that “relevancy” is an issue when it comes to early literacy – but … that’s another blog post in itself). And we can use our statistics for on-demand as feedback for how we could schedule our “official” storytimes to better serve our community. Basically, it’s my belief that these traditional and informal programs can coexist and possibly even help us to improve library services with reasonable expectations and best practices in place of course.

As a children’s librarian, I believe that education about literacy and promotion of reading and books is a fundamental part of my job and I should try to do that however and whenever possible. This is especially crucial in terms of school-age kids: We have a whole curriculum for storytimes specifically for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, but beyond age 5 the children in my system are so overly-scheduled that they usually participate solely in the educational programs at the library rather than good, old-fashioned, free storytimes. So, realistically speaking, there’s little demand, but it doesn’t mean it’s not important! And perhaps these brief quick-and-dirty storytimes aren’t the most fulfilling pedagogically speaking, but if I can randomly squeeze in 15 more minutes of book-time into the day for these kids, why not? Moral of the story(time): I can’t make parents bring their kids to storytime, but I sure as hell can bring the storytime to the kids.

In addition to this change in our storytime philosophy, we’ve also started offering “Storytimes On Demand.” Quite literally, going out and offering storytimes to the people as they’re in the library. We’ve been offering story times on-demand since the beginning of 2009, so this is more or less still a relatively new service for us and I find we’re still trying to work out best practices in terms of delivery: a several stories or just one? 15 minutes or five? In its inception, I provided these services when there we had reached “critical mass” in the children’s department, sometimes giving a storytime on the fly to more than 30 people. And subsequently, the spontaneous story times were a bit longer (about 15 minutes) to compensate for the time it took to gather a decent sized crowd in one location and get all of the kids settled.

One issue we’ve come across is competition from the toy collection that we’ve recently added to each branch at MPL. Being the sort of library diva that I am, storytimes on demand usually fed my need to be centre-stage and to make babies happy, etc. but it was a little nerve-wracking to walk around to the groups of children who were happily running up and down the ramp, jumping around our story nook, playing with cars and legos, and savagely beating each other with cloth blocks and try to peddle books as a more worthwhile activity.

Imagine this if you will: It’s Saturday afternoon, the children’s department is so busy it’s become a sentient, writhing being in its own right. I grab some books and slowly shuffle up to a group of kids gleefully destroying MPL property and their oblivious parents. “Uhm, hey kids – do you want to listen to a story?” (no response.) “Hey, uh… HEYYY YOU GUYYYYSSSS.” (everyone freezes. I’m painfully reminded of my nerd-dom as a zygote). <breathes through mouth and reflexively pushes now non-existent glasses up nose> “Who … uh… who wants to read stories with me? It’ll be fun! Storytime! C’mon!”

At this point, a couple of things can happen:

1) The parents think that I will be putting on a storytime and am asking them to move out of the way and they’re confused and sometimes upset. Or the parents think that I’m asking them if they’ve come for a storytime, and they’re confused. By the time I finish explaining what it is that I’m doing and start the actual storytime, I’ve probably screwed up the break schedule back on desk.

2) The parents are absent and the kids throw blocks at me and say “NOOOOOOOO that’s BOOOORRRRRING!”

3) The parents are enthusiastic and present, but the kids are having a better time playing so they throw blocks at me and say “NOOOOOOOO that’s BOOOORRRRRING!” and then either their parents politely say “Thanks, but no thanks,” or their parents force them to listen and they cry.

4) Everyone is delighted and on board and we have a really awesome time.

Once everyone is settled, (I usually try to collect as many kinder as possible), I read one to three books and do like a “greatest hits” rhyme/song set list and say “goodbye.”

Say goodbye with your feet,

Say goodbye with your knees

Say goodbye with your bottom

Say goodbye with your tummy

Say goodbye with your elbows

Say goodbye with your hair

And say goodbye with your hands! Bye, bye, bye!

(Continued in Part 2…)

The program itself was bit harder because I was exhausted and I got really hot jumping around with the kids. Usually their enthusiasm has proven to give little attention seeking me the fuel to finish the 20 minutes or so of story times. But I think the kids were as restless as I was tired so it was a struggle. Not to say they didn’t have fun… they shook their sillies out, but they spent more time kicking each other than actually listening, haha.

Here’s the outline of the program:

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Book: What Did You Put in Your Pocket?

Song/fingerplay: Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Five green and speckled frogs,
Sat upon a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs!
Yum! Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool.
Then there were four green and speckled frogs!

Glub! Glub!
Repeat for 4,3,2,1

Action rhyme: Bouncing Ball

Book: The Mud Puddle

Song: Mr. Sun

Oh Mr Sun, Sun Mr. golden Sun
Please shine down on me.
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun Mr. golden Sun
Hiding behind those trees.
These little children are asking you
To please come out so we can play with you.
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun Mr. Golden Sun
Please shine down on me.

Song: The More We Get Together

Book: Jamberry

Song: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Book: Peanut Butter and Jelly

Song: Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Book: Slop Goes the Soup

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It

Actually, I didn’t get to Slop Goes the Soup, cuz the kids pretty much were just bugging each other by the time I got around to “Mr. Sun” but… I had planned it. Overall, I think The Mud Puddle (by the wonderful Robert Munsch) was a bit too old for the majority of the kids, although it’s a great book for story telling and they listened politely. What Did You Put in Your Pocket (Beatrice De Regniers) was possibly a bit too trippy for the kids. It’s a strange book – great visuals , putting pudding in your pocket, but it doesn’t really flow as well as I’d like. I feel like there should be a rhythm (“What did you put in your pocket? What did you put in your pocket? In your pockety-pockety pocket? Early Monday morning…) but somehow I’m not getting it very well. It lent itself well to a great tie-in craft, though: I had the kids make their own “pockets” by cutting out a pocket shape in construction paper, and then stapling a plastic baggie to card stock under the pocket shape. It made a transparent pocket which they could decorate then stuff it full of strange things, just like the book. I gave them glitter, feathers, foam shapes, crepe paper and cotton balls. Hm. Might have to post a picture of that one, haha. So, I think they had fun… Wellll, that’s my report for this “Family Fun Day Monday”… tune in next time for “Hilarious Hats and Headwear” (ohhhhh I am such a children’s programming cheeseball).

Good thing it went much better than expected!

The kids were incredibly cute. I’ve found that small children like stickers and clapping their hands and jumping around more than … oh, I don’t know… Donald Trump likes money? That much. Kids would maybe even eat bugs for a sticker. And if anything involves clapping and jumping around it’s an instant hit. So “Shake Your Sillies Out” = instant success! Altogether this was a much more positive experience, despite my nerves, than previous story times. Hurray!

Funny Foods

The Beastly Feast by Bruce Goldstone

Shake My Sillies Out

Apples and Bananas

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and bi-ni-nis

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and bi-ni-nis

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to ute, ute, ute, ooh-ples and bu-nu-nus

I like to ute, ute, ute, ooh-ples and bu-nu-nus

Mmm, Cookies! By Robert Munsch

Betty Botter bought some butter,
But, she said, the butter’s bitter;
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter,
But a bit of better butter
Will make my batter better.
So she bought a bit of butter
Better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter
And the batter was not bitter.
So ’twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.

If You’re Happy and You Know It

Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? By Philemon Sturges

5 Little Cookies

5 little cookies sitting on a tray

5 little cookies smiling all day

Along came a little child rubbin’ her tummy

One cookie disappeared, yum, yum, yummy! (Repeat 4.3.2.1)

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Bee- Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

I guess when librarians plan programming consistently, we don’t realize how much we also program customers. I had maybe 2 families here for the actual story time itself… the rest were just people I wrangled and co-opted to come to the story time, and those who just happened to stop over. After the program ended and during the craft portion of the program itself I got all sorts of questions like “you really have a story time Monday nights? Every Monday? Really?” I was told later it was because Mondays at AG have traditional NOT been story time nights. So have we confused them or “delighted” them? Who knows? At least the kids seem to enjoy it. Too bad it all ends in the fall. We’ll see what happens to the customers then! Mwahahaha…

I’ve discovered that SRC in Canada is extremely intense! It involves book reporting as opposed to just writing the names of the books down like in the U.S. Because of this factor, it seems like the SRC is much more work intensive than I’d anticipated. That, plus the de-centralized control over it all. I wonder if it’s easier for children’s librarians to be in a stand alone library because you get to be more creative with your programming and marketing, etc. or in a branch system because everything is done for you in a package? I guess it sort of depends on what kind of person you are… I find myself a little bit stifled by the canned programs, but when I’m really busy… I can see how it would work.

We’re trying to generate more revenue this summer by depending on volunteers (in Canada community service is required whether you’re in honour society or not… I actually don’t know if they HAVE honour societies…). But either way, we’re using a workforce of volunteers to power the SRC.

Anyway, whether totally canned or not, run by volunteers or not, this should be quite the summer. LOL.