How to create and implement programs

Due to the importance of early childhood programming, there is a great deal of pressure on youth services staff to develop and implement quality programs and reach as many families as possible.  Planning programs can be stressful.  While the need may exist in the community for libraries to be everything to everyone, and provide a program for each developmental level everyday of the week, there are some important points to keep in mind:

• Program within your means and ensure quality over quantity.  If you find you are only able to present one storytime each week, put your energy into making that the best experience for children.  Add programs as you are able.  Do not overextend, as the quality of the program will suffer along with you.

• Tie your programming into national or area campaigns.  Many of these provide on-line support materials, ready made activities and booklists which will make designing the program easier.

• Allow yourself quiet down time.  Attempt to preserve your closed hours for planning and other library activities.  Some libraries hold their early childhood programming during closed hours so it does not interfere with regular library service.  If you are among those who need to do this, schedule close to opening time.  For example, stories at 9:30 AM if you open at 10.

• Develop a support group.  Share ideas, inspirations and laments with others.  While it might be more practical, your group does not have to include other public library staff, perhaps it is a day care provider, a kindergarten teacher, etc., just so they are accessible to you and understand your situation.

• If staffing permits, share presentation duties.  Assign one person to do lapsits, another to present storytime, etc. 

• Regardless of whether there is a staff of four or just you, schedule regular breaks from programming.  This allows you to rest, recharge and plan for the next series.  For example, program in semesters such as September-November, January-April and June/July, taking well deserved breaks in December, May and August.  It also provides a break for circulation staff who also feel the heavy impact of youth services program days. Some libraries are able to offer year-round storytimes without a break, but that can become stressful.  Decide what will work best for you and your library and stick with that. Parents and children respond well to routine, whatever that may be.

• Decide whether you will require pre-registration or simply present a drop-in storytime.  If you have a small conference room or library space, limiting the number of participants via registration may be a necessity for safety (fire code), quality and effectiveness.  If you are able to accommodate everyone who is interested, drop-in offers one less preparatory step and will not leave anyone out.

When putting together a program the following tips may prove helpful:

• Ensure you select appropriate material.  Presenting a slate full of books that are too easy or too complex is a sure way to lose the attention of an audience.  Family storytimes are the exception as in that case you have found a way to engage everyone with the material.  Otherwise, always keep age and ability in mind when selecting materials and activities.

• Illustrations should be clear, bright and large so that those even in the back can see and comprehend the pictures.  Sometimes it is a good idea to point out or have a child in the front point out small elements that are mentioned in the text for those in the back.  Books with extremely “busy” illustrations are best used one-on-one so there is sufficient time to pour over the pages.

• Always pull enough books to have back-ups.  Sometimes you cannot tell what to expect from a group until the group is assembled or until you get started.  If you have enough material to choose from, you cannot go wrong.

• Make effective use of realia. Realia, Latin for real, includes physical objects both special/unique and everyday.  For example if you are sharing a book on trains, bringing out and using a wooden trail whistle at just the right point can be extremely effective.

• Well-known Boise storyteller Joy Steiner promotes the use of “Coffee Can Theatre.”  With this method, a coffee can contains purchased or handmade items that tell a specific story, such as three small toy bowls, chairs, beds, stuffed bears and a stuffed doll. A copy of the book version should be kept with the can.  The process is threefold.  First, read the story from the book; next, use the book, but help the children retell the story; and finally, use only the items in the can to tell the story once again.

• Create or buy and use flannel/felt board pieces.  There are felt board versions of many common stories such as The Turnip.  Flannel/felt stories can be created and used in place of books that you feel have wonderful stories, but perhaps you find the illustrations are too busy to use effectively in a group setting.

• Puppets can be used to introduce stories, to tell stories, be distributed throughout the group and used as part of an activity, or simply available as an added attraction for children to interact with during or after storytime.

• Consider telling stories without books.  Memorize a story and tell it with props or without.  There is an art to storytelling, but anyone can learn and tell a good story.

• Learn to tell stories in new ways.  Mix a few cut and tell, fold and tell, and string stories into your repertoire.  Children are enthralled with the magic of them.

• Memorize at least one fingerplay and action rhyme right away.  They can become your standards and any others you add in each storytime can be written out on a note card or post it note and taped to the back of a book for you to follow.  You will undoubtedly learn a great many fingerplays and action rhymes over the course of even a few months, but when using one for the first time or two, it is just fine to have a “cheat sheet” in front of you, to take the pressure off.

• Incorporate crafts effortlessly.  When finishing a storytime with a craft activity, make it simple.  Keep the necessary materials to a minimum, and the process quick and easy for all involved.

Not only can designing programs be stressful, implementing programs can be stressful and intimidating.  Some tips to help ease the pressure of storytime presentation include:

• Know that children are very forgiving.  You can forget a line, sing off key, put the wrong felt piece on the board, etc. and they will not heckle or walk out on you.  To be sure a very precocious one in the front might call you on turning two pages, or holding a horse and saying cow, but overall you will be fine.  Be honest and have a sense of humor and they will appreciate it.

• Ignore the adults.  Many librarians have no problem reading to children but find the adults in the room very intimidating and worry that every tiny mistake they make is magnified to adults.  Remember, you are the expert, you are in charge, you are offering them some entertaining and educational down time and they love you for it.  Parents/caregivers are not critics.  They are so pleased to have this opportunity to introduce their children to stories and songs and other children that whatever tiny mistakes you make do not matter in the grand scheme.

• Do not ignore the adults.  Here meaning make sure to include them in your programs.  Require that they sit with their child rather than at the back of the room.  Require that they participate in the music and movement activities, sing along or bark like a dog, cluck like a chicken, etc.  Inviting (strongly) parent or caregiver participation serves three purposes:
   
  1. It demonstrates to the children that these are important, valued activities.
  2. It provides the adult with known material to recreate and share at home.
  3. It minimizes distractions of both adults talking at the back while you are trying to read, and of children misbehaving or missing their caregiver.

• Practice your activities. Pre-read your books so there are no surprises, or words you are unfamiliar with. Garten’s The Alphabet Tale can trip up an unfamiliar reader who comes upon the animal for “X.”  The author surprises you with Xenurus, pronounced “zenerus,” the Latin name for the Armadillo family. Listen to songs ahead of time and know which actions are called for so that you can properly lead the group.

• Make sure you are holding the book properly.  The pages of the book should always be facing the audience.  Some children will outright tell you “I can’t see,” but others may suffer in silence. Hold the book out to your right or left, or over your torso (if you are talented enough to read upside down) while you are reading. 

Slightly tilt the book down toward the audience if they are seated on the floor looking up at you.  With a book containing a short amount of text it is important to pause after each page to fan the book slowly from one edge of the group to the other so that all have time to fully take in the pictures; with longer text they most likely will have had enough time.

• Minimize disruptions by both children and parents.  You may need to open each storytime with “welcome…remember we want everyone to be able to enjoy our stories so I ask that everyone listen carefully, not talk while I am reading…” and make sure you make eye contact with parents.  You may also find you need to “flash a look” at a parent who is talking while you are reading and hope s/he gets the message.  This “look” alone, by the way, never works with children.  With children, a jarring action or sudden change in the tone of your voice while reading can do the trick, but if children are too distracting, you just need to stop and bring everyone back in.

• Some libraries post and provide flyers to parents and caregivers containing “storytime instructions” which might include:
   
  1. Arrive early to get settled in and comfortable with environment and others.
  2. Wear comfortable clothing so that you can sit on floor with child.
  3. The program will include a variety of activities, children may participate or simply observe, as they feel comfortable. Adults however, are expected to fully participate.
  4. If your child is restless, please leave the room as quietly as possible to minimize the distraction of others.

• Prioritize your selections.  If there is a book you really need to share, use it early as you may find you need to cut a book or change a book midstream.  Some find using the longest book first the best method and others slip it in the middle.

• Practice the art of paraphrase. You might find a book beautifully illustrated, with a great story, but the text is way too long for your group. Use the book but read only parts of each page or paraphrase the entire story. You might also find this helpful in getting through a book you have begun, but now see the audience is getting restless.  It is also okay to simply stop a story and let the audience know you see they just aren’t ready for that one right now, then promise to read it another day and move on to an activity or dismiss.

• Become comfortable with audience interjections, questions which really are statements, and tangents.  While in the middle of a book, allow banter and discussion to a point, but know when to refocus on the book.  Draw attention to elements of the book.  Engage the audience in interacting with the book, have them make sounds, animal sounds, snoring, whistling, etc.  All of this is developmentally appropriate and healthy.

If you are trying any type of program for the first time, watch someone who has done that kind of program for a while and afterwards ask questions about the process and philosophy.  Plan to co-present a time or two before going out on your own.  Presenting just half the books and activities and knowing there is someone right next to you for support will make the experience much easier and better.

In order to make preparation and implementation easier and smoother once you are on your own, think about incorporating any of the following:

• Name tags – work best with a pre-registered group.  You could have a volunteer create tags for the entire “semester” to be picked up before each storytime and returned after.  Creating nametags before each storytime is also a possibility even for drop-in programs.  Nametags encourage a relationship between you and the participants and even among participants (parents).  You will get to know regular attendees much faster.  Whether or not you use nametags, learning a child’s name can be very impactful.  Not only do children love hearing you greet them, or refer to them by name, but also you are assisting in the development of self-esteem.

• Routine – Your 30-minute storytime always includes 12 minutes of stories, 8 minutes of activities and 10 minutes for a craft.  Designing your program simply means finding new materials to fill those slots.

• Opening / Closing activities – Find an activity that you can use to open each storytime.  It could be a song like “If you’re happy and you know it” or simply an action that lets the children know you are ready to begin such as putting on your “reading hat.”  Close with the same activity each time such as the fingerplay “Two little blackbirds.”  Children respond to routine and after the first time or times, will instantly know what is expected of them.  Simply asking children to get and then put away their listening mats is an opening/closing activity.

• Theme ideas – Constructing a storytime around a theme can make the presentation process more comfortable and flow much easier.  You will find it allows for smooth transition between books and activities and interject related banter in between.  Themes can be specific such as “bears” or more inclusive such as “transportation.”  Having a theme also aids in pulling support activities and materials together. 

• Turn your planning into take home activity sheets.  Provide participants with a list of books read as well as words to songs and/or fingerplays presented during the storytime, within the parameters of fair use regarding copyright.  This encourages home extension.

It might be a good idea to prepare and put aside a full storytime complete with books, fingerplays and activities written out on post-it notes or cards and attached to the back of books so that you have an instant storytime for unexpected groups or last minute requests (that you are able to serve) and also for someone else who may need to fill in should an emergency arise.

Group visits by preschoolers offer a good time to teach the care of books.  You can liven a talk like this up by making a game of it.  “Should you let your puppy or baby sister chew on your book? Nooooo; Should you read a book while eating a messy, sticky,  peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Nooooo; Should you grab and turn the pages so fast that they tear? Nooooo; should you leave books open on the floor and ride your tricycle over them? Nooooo,” etc.

Purchase a monthly “at a glance” calendar to assist in recording statistics of programming.  Use it to record attendance at all scheduled programs.  Use it to “book” and record attendance of visits by day cares and other outside groups as well as any outreach presentations.  If the daily space is large enough, include name of group, ages, size of group, contact information and any special notes such as “books on bears/hibernation.”  You can also use this same calendar to record professional meetings and workshops.  This provides you with a clear record of all youth services programming and activities in one easily accessible place and provides information on scheduled programs for other staff in an emergency (absence).

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