Always Remember to Sing, Sing, Sing!

Over Winter Break 2016, I had the pleasure of presenting Family Storytime to a large group of kiddos of varying ages. For my final story, I read Marsupial Sue Presents The Runaway Pancake by John Lithgow. In this silly rendition of The Runaway Pancake—a variation of The Gingerbread Man—Marsupial Sue and her friends perform their version of the tale as a play. Throughout the story the mischievous Pancake sings a cumulative song about his wily escapades.

 One of the fantastic things about this silly ditty is how catchy it is—so catchy that two-year-old Bennett, an attendee of my storytime, was caught singing it to his family at their dinner table more than four months later! After only hearing it (albeit repeatedly throughout the story) once way back in December, young Bennett knew the tune and the concepts enough to provide his own version of the song.

 If this isn’t a commercial for the powerful connection between singing and memory, I don’t know what is. And, not only does singing help with memory, it builds vocabulary and it breaks up words into their natural phonemes (or pieces) which helps young minds sound out words when they first learn how to read.

I can’t imagine a storytime without music, but the fact that it so benefits child development is icing on the cake…or in this case, syrup on the pancake. 😉

Whatever your age, don’t forget to sing! Sing! Sing!

**************************************************************************************************

Dori is a children’s librarian at the Allen County Public Library where she tries to incorporate as many songs into her storytimes as she possibly can. Later this month, she will graduate from Hamline University with her Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. She hopes to one day publish works that emphasize the value of empathy and that inclusively reflect the diverse world in which we live.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com.