Children’s librarians are some of the most creative people I have ever met. Some of the programs and storytime crafts I have seen over the years have really been impressive. But, all these great ideas take time to flesh out and put into a program. And sometimes, many times, we just don’t have the time. That’s where the old phrase “keep it simple” came into play for me this past summer. During the school year, we peppered our program schedule with what we viewed as “anyone can run” programs. Bingo days, play dough drop-ins, and Game Club, to name a few. These programs garnered some big attendance numbers. For a one-hour play dough drop-in, we had 51 people attend and they stayed the entire time! As we began planning for summer programs, I realized my programmers were a bit burned out and the new ideas were just not flowing. That’s…
Category: Blogger Early Childhood Programs and Services committee
Focusing on Pronouns @ Baby Storytime
Hello! My name is Katelyn Martens-Rodriguez and I use she/her pronouns. I’m a children’s librarian for Washington County Library at the Park Grove Library in Cottage Grove, MN. This is my first ALSC blog post and I’m excited to share how I address pronouns at baby storytime! Baby storytimes are the ideal place to foster conversations with grown-ups so they are more likely to talk with their babies (or toddlers) about the same content at home. Pronouns are often an important part of someone’s identity. Therefore, I find it important to talk about pronouns at storytimes regularly and focus on them specifically a few times a year. For baby storytime, I like to use The Pronoun Book and integrate the three most oftenly used pronouns in the songs and rhymes. These pronouns include: The main rhyme I like to pair with this text is Little Mousie Brown. I encourage grown-ups…
Stuck on Storytime: Tips to Plan for Fall
Summer Reading is officially over at my library and fall programming planning is well underway. Even after a month-long programming break, part of me dreaded returning to weekly storytimes. After 10+ years of children’s librarianship, keeping storytime fresh with new themes, stories, songs, etc. is tiring. I felt stuck. Fortunately, there is plenty of help in past ALSC blog posts. Read on for some articles I found helpful in becoming unstuck on storytime, plus a peek at my first storytime plan for September 2023.
Save Time and Alleviate Evaluation Stress with these 8 Questions
Emotions are high, and energy is low. Chocolate overflows on every youth services workroom counter. As soon as we hand out the last incentive, relief roars across the children’s floor. Summer was great. Summer is done. Now it is time to buckle down, plan for the slower pace of fall, and think about plans for next year. Yes. That’s right. We get to do this all again. How will you evaluate this summer’s learning program and plan for next year’s while you are still recuperating from the summer sprint?
All Early Learning All the Time at ALA Annual 2023
As my colleague prepared to attend her first ALA Annual Conference in Chicago later this week, I found myself daydreaming of the sessions I’d attend. My colleague is an adult services librarian, so her professional interests vary wildly from my own in youth services and early learning. I decided to scour the official scheduler to find all the early learning options and share my findings below. Definitely check out the 2023 ALA Annual Conference Scheduler to view session descriptions in full; I’ve only included a very succinct summary (any quotes are taken from the session description). All events take place in McCormick Place unless otherwise noted. Thursday and Friday These days include preconference workshops and professional meetings, many of which need a pre-purchased ticket. The opening general session features Judy Blume (!!) and the exhibit floor opens with lots of giveaways. Saturday Bright and early from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m….
The Changing Face of Summer Reading
Spring is in the air here in Washington, D.C. and I find myself thinking ahead to the upcoming summer months. We will be starting our annual Summer Reading Challenge soon. At my library, this is geared towards people of all ages though it is more popular with the children. In past years, we have had game boards with different activities for each age range including our youngest patrons ages birth to five. Some of these activities are as simple as reciting your ABC’s. Older preschoolers have had the opportunity to practice writing. These activities seem geared towards early literacy which we know is very important for emerging readers. In addition, we often have special guest performers who get the children further excited. Past visitors have included science programs as well as storytellers. We also have had the Washington Nationals, our local baseball team, as one of our sponsors. This has…
Picturing Palestine
President Biden officially declared April National Arab American Heritage Month and in that spirit, this post will take the opportunity to highlight some picture books about Palestinian Arabs, a group that does not often make it onto our library shelves. For an excellent discussion about the absence and erasure of Palestinian stories from the publishing landscape please see this discussion from November 2022 between Betsy Bird and Nora Lester Murad in SLJ’s fuse 8 blog. The selected picture books listed below celebrate and highlight Palestinian culture, self-determination, and identity, while also acknowledging the loss and trauma faced by Palestinians due to their expulsion from their homeland and subsequent life spent under military occupation, in refugee camps, or in exile. For other related picture books about the refugee experience please see the ALSC blog post Exploring the refuge child experiences through picture books. For books for older readers about Palestinians and…
5 Questions For Better Storytime Planning
5 questions to ask when planning the perfect storytime for your library audience.