Toddler Participation

The best part of my week is Toddlin’ Tales, when I have a room full (usually 50 plus) of excited, active, curious toddlers and their parent, nanny, or grandparent. As you well know, their enthusiasm is delightful, their antics hilarious, and their adoration of the reader endearing. You also know that the child’s attention can flit from their plastic container of Cheerios to Daddy’s belt buckle in a nano second. A brief moment later she wants to demonstrate how well she can twirl, then tumble to a fall, followed by checking out her neighbor’s supply of bunny crackers. And then back to Daddy, for a reassuring hug and a glance at the librarian to see if anything interesting is going on at the front of the room.

“Look! There’s a puppet dog! He’s silly! He wants me to clap my hands and sing. Oh, I like that song. I can sing, too. “Storytime is here. Give a great big cheer. Yeah!” That’s my favorite part because I get to throw my hands up in the air and yell really loud. “Now quietly. Listen and see.” I like that part, too, when I put my hands by my ears and then around my eyes. “Storytime is here.” Now what is she going to do?”

Keeping a wiggle of toddlers (you know, like a business of ferrets) focused on storytime can be a challenge, but it is easily remedied with one word—participation. Find every opportunity to actively involve their bodies and voices and most will happily jump, roar, shake, hiss, tiptoe, blow a kiss, and whatever else you invite them to do. Here are four tips on participation opportunities that have been successful for me:

• Be silly! For a recent program on monsters I knew I had to choose carefully so as not to cause undue stress and fear. We began with “Going on a Monster Hunt,” which I do as a call and answer, so they were involved with the repeating chant, as well as the actions. When we found the monster in the cave, he was fuzzy, had 3 googly eyes and made a silly sound that made them giggle before we ran back home and repeated all the actions at high speed. Then I read Tickle Monster by Edouard Manceau. Whenever the tickling occurred we wiggled our fingers at the illustration and flapped our tongue between our lips, making that sound one makes that I can’t possibly figure out how to spell but sounds something like the noise Jerry the mouse would have made, with his thumb in his ears and his fingers wiggling, to harass Tom the cat. The result—total participation, no fear, and several wanting to check out the book after storytime.
• Read! Any time a book has a repeating phrase I invite them to “read” it with me while I point out the words. For instance, “I can’t sleep here,” in The Very Lazy Ladybug by Isobel Finn, and “Puff, puff, toot, toot, thrump, thrump, peep, peep, grump, grump, mew, mew, flip flop, bump, bump, off we go,” along with actions, in Down By the Station by Will Hillenbrand. Sometimes it requires moving a few words around so that the same pattern is used, and they get the cue they need to join in. When the story is finished we clap and I congratulate them on “reading” with me, so they get the connection between the words I pointed to and the words we spoke.
• Action! If you find yourself interpreting the words with a wiggle or a stomp, then include the children. Some stories are obvious, such as Down By the Cool of the Pool by Tony Mitton or I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison. Others require ingenuity, such as having them walk along with Grumpy Bird in Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard, or looking right and left, hand horizontal above the eyes, to find a moose in Looking for a Moose by Phyllis Root. One of my favorites is Funny Face by Nicola Smee, and watching the expressions on their faces for the different feelings. Anger is hi-larious!
• In-betweens. After every story, get the children up and moving to a rhyme or song. Not just a finger rhyme, but an actual stand-up-and-move-your-body action. After. Every. Story.

When a child is vocally or physically involved with the stories, songs and rhymes at storytime he’ll be more likely to remember and repeat the story (vocabulary and narrative skills), ask for the book to check out (print motivation), begin to comprehend how print works (print awareness), and retain whatever other early literacy skill you were slyly presenting, such as letter or rhyming knowledge. Plus he’s following directions and learning to wait, both of which are important social skills for kindergarten readiness. And you’re role modeling for caregivers ways they can have fun with books at home.

“What’s she doing now? Oh, I love that book! We get to dance when she reads that book, and I am very good at dancing. I liked singing with Pete the Cat in the other book, too. I want to take him home so Daddy can read it to me tonight. And tomorrow. And every day, every day, every day. Yeah, Pete!”

What are your favorite books for participation?

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Heather is a Public Services Manager for Deschutes Public Library in Bend, OR, where she supervises Youth, School, Latino and Impact Services.  She has been presenting storytimes for over 35 years and they remain the best part of each week.  She is also a professional storyteller, and the author of Read, Rhyme and Romp: Early Literacy Skills and Activities for Librarians, Teachers and Parents.  You can reach her at heatherm@deschuteslibrary.org.

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

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