Marching Band Storytime

 I had a special guest star at storytime recently: a Marching Band!

Warming Up Before Storytime

I contacted members of a local high school marching band, and coordinated a visit to storytime. We did it on a day where there was no school, and the teens were able to get extra credit for visiting. I had about 15 band members visit with their instruments, and it was fantastic!

The parents LOVED it. The kids ended up loving it too, but many of them were very apprehensive at the beginning of storytime. Since the marchers were warming up, the room was very noisy before storytime, and there were a lot of unfamiliar faces at the front of the room. I offset this by

• Asking my band to stop playing five minutes before storytime started so people could get settled.
• Playing one of the familiar music cds I usually play before storytime.
• Making sure that I was visible, welcoming, and reassuring as families arrived.

I did my normal opening song and our letter of the day with Fergus, then introduced the band. I had each of the teens say their name, what their instrument was called. Then the played a quick scale or rhythm to show what their instrument sounds like. Then I read Wynton Marsalis' "Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!" Each time I came to an instrument that was in the room, I paused and prompted the teen with that instrument to give us the 'real' sound. I talked about sounds a lot with the kids, specifically high and low sounds, and we practiced a lot of sounds as a group.

The trombone was particularly popular! But we did have to adjust our tape line to accommodate the reach of the trombone and make sure no littles were sitting right in the way.

Normally during storytime kids are sitting ON my tape line, lol

After that, the band played their school fight song, and "Happy and You Know It" and "ABC's" while we sang along.

Then, with the help of the drum we used our voices to make beats with the book "Tanka Tanka Skunk" by Steve Webb (a new favorite of mine).

 Then we added a new twist to our favorite storytime song of all, "The Watermelon Song" by singing it with musical accompaniment (I told the teens that if they didn't know Frere Jacques/couldn't play it they had to sing and dance with me).

And finally, we finished by reading, "Soon Baboon, Soon" by Dave Horowitz

Then I sang our closing song, we clapped for the band, and I invited kids up for hand stamps (every member of the band also lined up for hand stamps).

You may want to put up noise-level warning signs for patrons if you do this! My colleague also did a kazoo parade through the library when she did this, but that wasn't a great fit for my library (though it would have been fun).

Storytime Scarf Love

I love using scarves in storytime; they are definitely in my top three favorite ST props. I would say I probably incorporate them into storytime once or twice a month on average.

Photo Credit: FaP ;-) via Compfight cc

I'm sure to bring them out for any dancing or music themed storytime, but what I really love about them is their capacity for imaginative movement and play. I'm not too fussy about tying them to a theme (no surprise there). I've used them for:

--Butterfly theme (Flying! Changing them from 'long' skinny caterpillars into hidden fist-cocoons and transforming them to flowing butterflies).
--'Get Well storytime' and 'bathtime' theme where we pretend to wash and talk about body parts.
--I LOVE using them for a work-machine themed storytime. We read "I am a Backhoe" by Hines and "Tip Tip Dig Dig" by Garcia. Then we used the scarves to act out the motions of the different vehicles. My favorite is the dump truck, where we hold the scarf behind our heads while bending at the waist then stand up and, "Tip, tip--Let it go!" and drop the scarf down our backs behind us.

I'm usually working with a group of 50 people, so one thing I try to make sure of is that if I take all the time to pass out the scarves, that we play with them long enough to make it worthwhile! 

This is my standard "playlist" for using the scarves:
--We Sail song (listen here). The MacPhail Center for Music is local, so I love using their music for ST
--Two Little Black Birds action activity (below)
--Popcorn song (below)
--any thematic tie-in that I want to make, or just directed actions, eg: "Throw your scarves up in the air and let them fall to the ground--there they go! Can you try and catch it? Ok, make your scarf disappear into your hands. Now let's throw them one, two, THREE!"

Using scarves in storytime is pretty much limited only by your imagination!

Have you written about using scarves in storytime? Leave me a comment and I'll link to your post!

Two Little Blackbirds sitting on a hill. (Wave scarves)
One named Jack, and one named Jill
Fly away Jack (hide one behind back)
Fly away Jill (hide both)
Come back Jack, Come back Jill

Two little blackbirds sitting on a cloud
One was quiet, and the other was loud
fly away quiet, fly away loud
come back quiet, come back loud

...sitting on my hat
one was round (wave scarf in circle)
the other was flat (pull scarf taut)

...sitting on my toe
high, low (wave high, wave low)

...sitting on a stick
slow, quick (you get the idea)


Popcorn Song (tune of Frere Jacques, so sing each line twice)
Popcorn Kernels (wave scarves overhead)
In the pot (I pause and tell the kids to make their scarves 'disappear' by bunching them up in their fists)
Shake them shake them shake them (shake)
'til they POP (Toss scarves up into the air)

Sing Sing Sing!

Hi Miss Julie posted a great piece on singing in storytime today, and it's motivated me to finally, FINALLY write down my experience with singing in storytime. I've been thinking about and planning this post for, oh let's see...wow. Over a year ago. 

Stage Fright

I don't use recorded music in storytime, except when we've had a storytime that was specifically ABOUTexploring music. Because I believe there is lots of great recorded music out there, I play music before and after storytime. I rotate the CD each month. This helps me learn new songs, highlights our music collections, and sets the stage for storytime really well.

There are two main reasons I don't use recorded music DURING storytime. First, my personal storytime philosophy emphasizes modeling behavior to parents and caregivers. I want them to have NO REASON not to sing at home, and I don't want them to feel like they need a certain CD to sing at home. Second, I can't sing along with recorded music.

If you had told my 10 years ago that I would regularly and happily sing in front of people I would have literally started to cry. For years, I listed wanting to be musical as the one thing I would change about myself if I could. I couldn't even hum a few bars of a song in front of a friend without tearing up with embarrassment and wanting to hide under the bed.

I did, however, always love camp songs but could never figure out why I could happily sing those songs but nothing else. Despite a few years of piano lessons and band, I don't understand music. I don't know how to change the key, and if someone is singing differently than I am able to (pitch? key?), I don't know how to adjust. In fact right now I have a mom/nanny who sits right in front during storytime and she sings really well...and it's totally throwing me off the same way recorded music does.

I had a HUGE revelation when I realized that I wasn't a soprano. I know, that sounds dumb, but so much singing is soprano and I always tried to emulate that. Once I had that revelation I was able to understand why I could sing songs I knew very well, but nothing else. I have to know a song really well in order to be able to sing it within my range. When I'm in my range I have a fairly nice, serviceable voice--and I love singing in storytime!

I can't read music, so to learn new songs I listen to them over and over until they're in my head. Then, I sing them over and over--usually in the car--until they are second nature to me.

Now singing is one of my favorite parts about storytime, even though it doesn't come easily to me. I'm never afraid to sing with children, no matter where I am. There's such joy in holding a friend's baby and bouncing out a little tune. So much of the feedback I get from parents and caregivers is about favorite storytime songs. Just sing, you won't regret it!

Dance Storytime

This one was a bit of a stretch for me, but I'm so glad I pushed myself because we had a blast!

We started by reading If You're Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera, which I actually sang. Only the second time I've done that. You would seriously never know it if you attended my ST, but if you had told me five years ago that I would regularly sing in front of people I would have started to cry.

Anyway, love this book and we had a great time with it.

Next I brought out the tub of rhythm instruments that's been mocking me for a couple years now.  It was great! and NOISY! The kids listened to me really well, and we just did different things like fast, slow, quiet loud, up high, down low, etc.

After I collected all the instruments we did one of my favorite fingerplays, Five Fat Peas

Five fat peas in a peapod pressed (crouch, hold up fist)
One grew, two grew, and so did all the rest (pop fingers up)
They grew and grew and grew, and they did not stop (both arms up, slowly stand as you 'grow')
Until one day, the pod went POP! (clap!)

Then we moved into I Can Jump Jump Jump--a great action activity that really gets the wiggles out.

I can jump jump jump
I can hop hop hop (we do one foot)
I can clap clap clap
and I can stomp stomp stomp
I can shake my head yes
I can shake my head no
I can bend my knees a little bit
and do it again for show/sit down slow

The second book that we read was Baby Danced the Polka by Karen Beaumont. I absolutely adore this one, and I really hammed up the refrain, "Did you hear what Mama told you? Did you hear what Papa said? It's naptime little baby so you BETTER STAY IN BED!" And the kids all joined in.

And what dancing storytime could leave out my beloved Watermelon Song? Not this one.

Fingerplay: Three Bubbles
A teeny tiny bubble
A medium sized bubble
a GREAT BIG bubble I see
Let's count them
Are you ready?
One...two...three...POP!

Fingerplay: My Hands
My hands upon my head I'll place
On my shoulders
By my face
At my waist
and by my side
and then behind me they will hide
Then clap clap clap
and 1, 2, 3
I'll show how quiet they can be

Because I planned so many extension activities we only ended up reading three books, and the final one was Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig. I associated each animal with an action, so this one was boisterous too!

And finally, I did something I've never done before, which was use recorded music in storytime.  I handed out the dancing scarves and played sections of four different pieces of classical music. I told the kids to listen to how the music made them feel and how it made them want to move.

I used the cd, "Beethoven's Wig 2" and chose four very different pieces of music--Light Cavalry Overture by Suppe, In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, Humoresque by Dvorak, and the Blue Danube Waltz by Strauss.

Then we played the opposite game with the scarves, sang our closing song, did hand stamps, and moved on to craft.

For the craft, we made dancing wands using craft sticks. The taped a (precut) star onto the craft stick, colored it and taped ribbon and crepe paper on to twirl and swirl. I played music so they could try them out, and that was all.