{"id":22100,"date":"2019-11-19T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T05:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=22100"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:58:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:58:31","slug":"storytimes-on-the-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2019\/11\/storytimes-on-the-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytimes on the Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Picture this:&nbsp; you\u2019re getting settled in for your morning,&nbsp; maybe getting a cup of coffee, checking emails, going through mail when the message comes in:&nbsp; someone has called in and now you are going to have to fill in for storytime. With fifteen minutes notice.&nbsp; And they haven\u2019t gathered their materials together in one place. You\u2019ll have to punt.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This has happened to many of us, mayhap even most of us at least one time in our career.&nbsp; These moments can be stressful and overwhelming, especially for people who like to be prepared. How do you find a theme, pull books, flannels, music, all in a matter of minutes?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are a few tips that I have learned over the years that can help you prepare a storytime on the fly.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have office copies of your favorite picture books.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have playlists of your best storytime action music.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep a shortlist of your go to flannels and puppets.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a template for your storytime handout started &#8211; so all you need to do is plug in date and titles.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you\u2019ve been doing this for a few years, you\u2019ll have a library of programs.&nbsp; It is fairly simple to open a handout and change the dates, make any changes you want, print and then pull the materials.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Especially If you are still early in your career, I recommend having an emergency storytime prepared, ready to go. Having a backup storytime ready to go has saved me several times over the years.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We all have different storytime styles,&nbsp; but most of us end up following a formula that works for us.My personal formula&nbsp; goes like this:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Welcome Song<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flannel game\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Book<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Action Song<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Book\u00a0 or Flannel Stor<\/span>y<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Action Song<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Book\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Action Song<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Goodbye Song<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quick suggestions for pulling together at the last minute:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Caldecott Storytime &#8212; pull award winners for your program<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dance Party\u00a0 &#8211; spin your best jams for the kiddos.\u00a0 Pull out a parachute, scarves, shaker eggs, and ribbons and boogie your way through the storytime.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flannel Storytime &#8211;\u00a0 share classic stories on the flannel board.<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Puppet storytime &#8212; kids love when we use puppets to tell a story.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take a deep breath, you can do this!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture this:&nbsp; you\u2019re getting settled in for your morning,&nbsp; maybe getting a cup of coffee, checking emails, going through mail when the message comes in:&nbsp; someone has called in and now you are going to have to fill in for storytime. With fifteen minutes notice.&nbsp; And they haven\u2019t gathered their materials together in one place. You\u2019ll have to punt. &nbsp; This has happened to many of us, mayhap even most of us at least one time in our career.&nbsp; These moments can be stressful and overwhelming, especially for people who like to be prepared. How do you find a theme, pull books, flannels, music, all in a matter of minutes? &nbsp; Here are a few tips that I have learned over the years that can help you prepare a storytime on the fly. Once you\u2019ve been doing this for a few years, you\u2019ll have a library of programs.&nbsp; It is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1104,38,1607,136,1],"tags":[115,200,117],"class_list":["post-22100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alexa-newman","category-programming-ideas","category-programming-skills","category-storytime-2","category-uncategorized","tag-programming","tag-programming-ideas-2","tag-storytime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/258"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}