Sing, Talk, And Read (and eat and text)

I started co-facilitating my first workshop today. How professional am I?

The workshop is an early literacy seminar called STAR (Sing, Talk And Read). We're doing it with a teen parenting group at a local high school. Before going in today my two biggest concerns were that someone would mistake me for one of the students (it happens) and that the teens would be all too cool for singing kids' songs and making lots of animal noises. One of my favorite parts about my job is how frequently I get to act like a little kid, but the part of me that loves that is also the part of me that is stupid intimidated by teenagers.

I didn't need to worry about being mistaken for a student- public school kids wear uniforms these days. Also, the security guard thought we were lost. I don't think he'd ever seen two white women trying to walk into the school before. There were a few hiccups: we only had 25 minutes instead of the anticipated 45, the program is 6 sessions long and while we will be in the school for six sessions we won't have the same girls for all six sessions, and even though the program was designed as a sort of educational story time for both parents and their children, most of our participants haven't given birth yet.

It also took place during their lunch break. So while we were standing at the front of the room, enthusiastically enticing the girls to Sing, Talk And Read with us, they were picking at their dressing free salads and lukewarm chili dogs. Lunch time is also phone time and at the beginning almost every girl was holding her phone underneath the table, texting furiously. By the end of the session we mostly had their attention, though, and there was definitely a rousing version of Sodeo with the girls shaking their noise egg along to the beat.

My favorite part of the session was when we gave the girls a mini flannel board. Flannel boards are hands down the best part of story time and using pocket folders we made them each a portable one!

Demonstrated with my baby animals from the Monkey Face set.

That's a super cute pink bunny falling out of the pocket.

The reactions ranged from "Ooooh, I'm gonna do this with my little girl tonight" to "Mine don't work, I got the bootleg one" from a mom who didn't realize that even though it's easy to pull the felt pieces off the flannel board, they will stick when you prop the folder up. It's cool, I helped her figure out how they work and now she too can use it with her baby.

Story Time Favorites

I have a huge range of kids that show up for my story times. In any given program I may have a 6 month old and a 4 year old; it's not easy, or possible, to plan a full program that caters to both of those kids. There are a few magical books, however, that span the age range and are engaging for all of my story time regulars whether they're 8 months or the mother of an 8 month old. I use a lot of repetition from week to week and these books are kept in heavy rotation.

Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler
I use Jazz Baby as my last book in each story time that I do. The kids and their adults all know it now and are excited to see it every single time.The sparse text flows really well and interacts with the illustrations to form one integrated experience that I love. The rhythm lends itself really well to call-and-response so I usually do Jazz Baby as a "repeat after me" book where I speak a line and have the kids and their adults repeat it back.


Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberly
Everyone uses GABGM, and for good reason. There's nice tension in the build up to the reveal of the total monster and taking apart the monster piece by piece is enormously satisfying. I use a flannel version of GABGM almost as often as I use the actual book and get the kids involved by asking them to shout out what piece/color goes on or away next.


Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
Anytime a book incorporates a sung refrain, I'm on board. Pete the Cat moves so quickly and there's so much repetition that by the end even my youngest sitters are mouthing along and the adults holding babies are swaying to the beat.


Who Hops? by Katie Davis
I'm constantly on the lookout for books that engage adults as well as children. I ask my adults to model good behavior for the kids in the room, and it's so much easier for them to stop talking to each other or on their phones if they're genuinely interested in what I'm doing at the front of the room. All of the books on this list are heavy on audience participation for that very reason. Who Hops? is no different. It uses deceptively simple illustrations- eye catching for my littlest ones- while dropping some serious knowledge about a few of the animals who don't hop, fly, swim or slither.