Nina Schatzkamer Miller - The Storytime Handbook: A Full Year of Themed Programs, with Crafts and Snacks

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

All photographs are by the author

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-0353-7

2014 Nina Schatzkamer Miller. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

On the cover: Reading to students (Purestock/Thinkstock); background iStockphoto/Thinkstock

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places youll go.
Dr. Seuss, from I Can Read with My Eyes Shut

This book is dedicated first and foremost to my parents Mary Bray and William Schatzkamer, both teachers who spent their lives enriching the lives of those they taught. To my sons Alexander, Andrew and Austin, on whom I experimented with my earliest storytelling, crafting and music and without whose love and patience I would not be the mother I am proud to be. To my husband Steve, whose support has allowed my creative side to flourish throughout our many years together. To my siblings Helena Bunnow, Kyriena Schatzkamer, Mark Schatzkamer and Laura Schatzkamer: I have seen each of you accomplish so much in such varied fields and your successes always inspire me to try harder. To James Schwentker and Thom Schaffner at Borders, your belief in me and the gift of freedom to explore storytime in my own way allowed me to have a wonderful work experience and ultimately to find a whole new career. Helen Miller, I hope you are proud of me, since you were an early inspiration. Your interest and support, Bernard Miller, meant a lot to me. Helen Lach, you kept pushing me to finish. Without your help at the end, Sheila Stegeman, I would never have gotten all the craft and snacks made and photographed. Tammy Goodsell, you are a great writer and you inspire me in so many different ways, mostly by getting so much done and by always being there for me, no matter what the issue. And to the children and parents with whom I have had the privilege of sharing my storytime, thank you for providing me with the inspiration to share my storytime with the world. You are the ones who made it all happen and make all the effort worthwhile.

I have searched for several years for a complete storytime guide and could not find one. There were books about crafts, games, books to read ... but not one book in which all things essential to a complete storytime experience for preschoolers could be found.

This book is for anyone who wants to provide a complete storytime experience for children. It can be done for your own child at home, for a group of children at the library, in a preschool, at a bookstore or for a party.

This book is organized into storytime themes by month and week, with an entire years worth of themes plus holidays. Care has been taken to space out the snacks, crafts and games so that there is not immediate repetition but some attention to using similar craft or snack parts fairly close together for budgeting, purchasing and ease of preparation.

There is a template at the back of the book to help you plan each storytime. The template is designed to follow these steps:

Begin with group gathering
Sing the arrival time song, The More We Get Together
Make circle introductions and assemble the felt board character Friend
Introduce the theme
Read longest book (book 1)
Read a short or nonfiction book about the theme (book 2)
Read medium length storybook (book 3)
Sing song or do fingerplay
Play a game
Read a poem or a short book (book 4)
Play a game
Read a short storybook (book 5)
Make craft (play theme-related song while assembling)
Make snack
Read another book (book 6) while children are eating their snack
Close storytime

You can use the ideas in this book and know that you will provide a great learning experience for the children for whom you provide storytime. Or you can pick and choose from the ideas to suit your own taste and materials and still provide a wonderful time for those children. Choose a game, craft and snack for each theme that best suits your group, and remember there are alternatives for each theme that might be a better fit. With the various alternatives provided, the activities in this book can be used for more than the year it outlinesat least four years or more.

We want to provide children an opportunity to interact with others and their environment. We want them to experience art, music, literature, movement and food in an hours time, in a noncompetitive setting. When the child has a parent present, they can also benefit from the exposure to these areas in order to further the childs home learning experience.

For convenience, throughout the book I refer to the person who accompanies the child at storytime as the parent, although it might in fact be a grandparent or other relative, nanny or babysitter. If these individuals are present, have them sit around the edges of the circle of children, and be sure to find creative ways to involve them so that they enjoy storytime too.

The storytime is planned for approximately one hour of time, divided into circle time, discussion of the theme, music, literature, movement, craft and snack. All of the childs senses are stimulated in the space of just one hour.

Choose a place thats a little bit separate from the action if youre in a library or bookstore. Youll need some open space for the games, but its also nice to have some kind of containment, such as bookshelves or other furniture to act as boundaries to keep the children in the designated area. You can use a large vinyl felt-backed tablecloth on the floor and have the children sit around it with their parents (if present) behind them. Feel free to sit on a low stool at one end of the cloth, with a CD player to one side, and a chair with the song poster taped to it to the other side. Place the books on the floor next to you in the order you plan to read them. If the craft and snack supplies are placed on the same cloth, be sure to cover them with another cloth so that they dont distract the children. Have the game supplies in place in other parts of the storytime area, ready for when its game time.

Set the scene for the theme with simple decorations placed around the area related to the theme of that week. Also wear something related to the theme, like a hat, headband, clothing, or jewelry. Point out to the children as they arrive what youre wearing so they will know the days theme. These introductions give the group time to gather so that everyone will be present and seated when its time to begin.

Show any parents where the storytime calendar is kept, where you display upcoming events, book lists and storytime books. Once its storytime and everyone is seated, show any extra materials that might relate to that weeks storytime, like books for adults or older children, CDs, DVDs, educational toys, stuffed animals or gifts.