• Activities

    Storytime Theme: Mail Time!

    mailbox

    I’m so surprised that I’ve never done a mail-themed storytime before! Who doesn’t love getting fun mail? Honestly, my reluctance probably stems from elementary school. For a few years, we’d spend the early part of February learning about the postal service system. We took a field trip to the post…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Favorites

    kids playing

    Today’s post – Storytime Theme: Favorites could have easily been named Storytime Theme: Oldies, but Goodies! When I was doing storytime regularly as a children’s librarian, these titles were some of my tried-and-true, must-have books. They would work every time, no matter the crowd! So today, I thought I’d pull…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Home

    home mat

    This storytime theme: home was a little tricky to pull together. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find enough content, but then I realized you could really take this storytime in a lot of different directions for a lot of different age groups. I kept…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Interactive Books

    preschool children playing

    Today’s storytime theme is probably one of my most favorites to do with older toddlers and preschoolers – interactive books! At this age, the kids are able to follow the instructions the book typically asks of them and they still are young enough to have the wonder and magic of…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Community Helpers

    mailboxes

    Community Helpers is a popular theme for preschool and there are dozens of books that would work! You can actually make this one storytime into an entire series – choosing just one type of community helper for each week. For today, I chose to provide books about nine different types…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Measurement

    measuring tape header

    I’m going to share another STEM theme today for storytime! If you missed last week, we talked about patterns. Today’s storytime theme: measurement can be done in a variety of ways including the very basic “opposites” take which is, really, all about measuring differences. Preschool STEM Introducing STEM and math…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Patterns

    pattern

    Our library struggled this past fall to engage a lot of families to attend our programming. We more often than not have too much interest in programs, so not filling up our programs was really throwing us for a loop! After brainstorming, asking families, and just being willing to try…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: New Year’s

    Happy New Year

    New Year’s is a great big celebration for so many people! It may be celebrated at different times of the year (Lunar New Year or Rosh Hashanah), but it’s all about a fresh start and new beginnings. Teach kids about New Year’s Eve with both fiction and nonfiction titles with…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Mustaches & Beards

    beard

    This is such a fun storytime theme! So many picture books center on mom and child relationships, whereas a few of these focus more on dads (or moose)! These somewhat silly books can make great read alouds for storytime or for one-on-one sittings with your favorite little one. Check out…

  • Activities

    Storytime Theme: Mindfulness

    mindfulness

    Mindfulness has been on my mind a lot lately. As the days get shorter and the darkness lasts longer, many people struggle with their mental health. And not only that, the holidays, for some, are the most difficult times of the year. I know a number of people who use…