Today the Preschool Discussion Group brainstormed ways to incorporate play into storytime. Guest speaker, librarian Amanda Robinson, spoke to the group about the importance of storytime play.
She reminded us that children learn every single time they play and that storytime is a great way to model good adult-child play. She encouraged librarians to add play before/during/after storytime because it’s a sneaky way to teach parents without making a formal presentation.
Then the floor was opened for ideas and questions. Amanda emphasized the importance of toys such as blocks because they encourage imaginative play. Additionally, many parents now buy their children gadgety toys with bells and whistles, so many kids don’t have the opportunity to play with simple toys.
Here are a few of the suggestions from attendees of toys that encourage imaginative play:
~Straws and connectors
~Felt board
~Lacing cards
~Sensory balls
~Magnetic Color maze
~Puppets
~Magnetic gears
~Magnetic shapes
~Play food, dishes, plates, kitchenware
~Socks
~Flashlights
What else would you add to this list?
Renee
Oh, how I love this post! I want to give it a big hug!
Before I was a Children’s Librarian, I was a preschool teacher with an undergrad in Early Childhood Education. I do miss those days working each day with a specific group of 3-5 year olds. But I get to combine my love of libraries and early childhood ed with my current job.
I lead the weekly Preschool Story Class at our library. The format I use is usally to share 3 books on a certain theme with movement, dance, felt board songs, or singing songs in between each story. At the end of each story class, we either have an art activity, a full group parachute play activity, or a play activity for the last 15-25 minutes. Caregivers and parents attend the class with their child and are in the room through the whole class. Again, as the author posted, it is a great way to model to parents and caregivers how they can incorporate play at home that address the developmental needs of the children and encourages imagination, socialization, and fine/large motor skills. Most of the play activities I have incorporated at the end of the Preschool Story Class have started out teacher directed but expand to what and where the children take it after completing the initial task.
Some examples of the play activities that I have used include:
Give each child a piece of colorful tissue paper and let them explore it (rip it, crumble it and throw it like a ball, explore how it moves in the air when one blows on it, throw it in the air and see how it moves, see how it reacts when placed in front of a fan, etc.) Great after a story class using Eric Carle books.
– After a winter time story class, the kids were given a large pile of paper cut out mittens of various colors and designs that I made. I had yarn tied to some chairs to make a couple clothes line in the room. The kids were given clothes pins and encouraged to find pairs of mittens that matched and to hang them on the clothes line next to each other. It combined matching, fine motor, and socialization as kids worked together. I told families that I had a favorite memory of doing this when I was a little girl with my grandmother. I have a picture of me hanging up my doll’s clothes on my pretend clothes line in my grandmother’s house.
Children were given containers of pom poms of all sizes and colors. A number of small jewerly sizes boxes were placed on the tables with a number written on each. The initial activity encouraged kids to put the matching number of pom poms into each box. This supported one to one correspondence, number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills. I also had clothes pins out on the tables if children wanted to pick up the pom poms that way. The kids and families loved it and really went into other directions that play often takes. (I love that part!). Some kids started working together to sort by color and/or size.
Children were given pom poms of all sizes and colors as well as little cardboard tubes similar in size to a craft glue stick but only half the height. The activity first started out as another one to one correspondance activity in which I just gave the kids the choice of using the pom poms or the little tubes, just for a variety of materials option. After the task, the kids moved on to balancing the pom poms on top of the little tubes, pretending they are small trees, hiding the pom poms inside the tubes (how many can we fit in there?), stacking the tubes on top of each other to see how high they could make them, etc. I had one mom who was just amazed at how a simple activity completely engaged her kids and how it could be so open ended. I gave her some of the little tubes to take home and she went right out to a dollar store to buy some pom poms so the kids could continue this play experience at home!
Amy Musser
Thanks for sharing all these great ideas, Renee!
I think a bit of imagination can go a long way, for librarians, parents, and children. 🙂