Sunday, March 10, 2013

Why I Jazz Up My Storytimes

Welcome! I'm glad you found me! I sure hope you're in the right place.

My name is Lora and I've been a children's librarian in a public library setting for about 7 years. In that time I've done a lot of storytimes, for all ages. I have the most experience with preschool storytimes (which is also the best storytime to plan and execute). I also believe strongly in early literacy and introducing those practices to children and caregivers in any way I can, whether it be subtly or punching them in the face with it.

Because I have been doing these programs for so long I've started to notice that I'm getting bored with my format and style. I felt like I was in a storytime rut that just consisted for reading stories, dancing occasionally, and throwing in a story enhancement once in a blue moon. I decided to start challenging myself more and adding new and exciting elements to the program. I wanted the preschoolers to leave the storytime with excitement and be able to remember the awesome activities we did together.

I decided to start bringing the "jazz" to storytime. I want to make each program unique and fill it with flannel stories, retellings, puppets, games, music, dance, participation, action rhymes, reading, early literacy elements, and anything else that I think will make the storytime meaningful for the children.

This blog was created to help me keep track of these challenges I'm giving myself. I wanted a place to record the new techniques I'm using, successes, and inevitable failures. I follow a lot of other storytime/librarian blogs and get inspired every day to try new things. My coworkers and friends encouraged me to join the ranks of those awesome bloggers and start recording my own experiences.

I hope you will find this to be a place of inspiration, or at the very least, someplace to make you feel not so alone in the library world.

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