Summer Reading has been over for us for weeks and weeks and all our families are getting used to their new routines. Which means preschool and school for their kids! So, of course we had to do a “Back to School” theme. There’s always so much excitement and/or nervousness around this subject. I like to add in at least one book about how it’s ok to be nervous, but mostly I focus on the good. Even for kids who don’t go to an official preschool, this is a great topic to begin to prepare kids for what to expect. I actually got covid during this storytime’s execution (my first time getting it, actually!) so my coworker, C, took control and executed everything I had planned. The show must go on! And based on what our patrons said, she did a fantastic job with it! Here’s the full storytime script below:
Opening Song: We sang our opening song, and then got started!
Opening Question:Does anyone go to preschool or daycare, yet? What’s one of your favorite things about school?
Sign of the Day: School
Book: Lola Goes to School by Anna McQuinn
I love the Lola series because they’re great for helping kids know what to expect during new situations in their lives and this one was no exception to that! Lola gets to go to school for the first time and gets to show readers what it’s all about!
Transition: When you go to school, you learn a lot – just like Lola did! One of the things you learn in school are the ABC’s. This is something you get to learn before you’re ready to learn things like reading and writing. While we’re singing, I’m going to do the ASL hand signs for the letters. If you feel like it, you can follow along. So let’s sing together!
Song: The ABC Song
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y & Z Now I know my ABC’s, Next time won’t you sing with me?
Transition: Lola was so confident in our last book! But sometimes we don’t always feel very confident, especially if we’re going to school for the first time without our grownups. Our next book is all about Chester the raccoon who feels a tiny bit nervous to be away from his grownup. Let’s see if he finds a way to feel better about it!
Book:The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
This is such a sweet book (though be prepared, it is a bit longer! So if you have a wiggly crowd, it may not be the best pick). It’s all about a young racoon who is nervous about starting school. His mom has a good solution to give him a little courage for when she’s not by his side, though.
Transition: Chester got over his nervousness with the help of his mom, didn’t he? But did you know that sometimes our teachers are also good at helping us with our emotions? In our next song, we’re going to go through a few emotions that we might have at school and use our faces to show those feelings.
Song: Where Are the Children? (Tune: Frere Jacques) with a Teacher Puppet *Note: This is a call and response song. The bolded phrases are sung by the person leading storytime and the kids and grownups in the audience sing the pieces that are not bold.
Where are the children? Where are the children?
Here we are! Here we are!
How are you today, kids? How are you today, kids?
We are fine! We are fine!
Repeat with Happy, Sad, Mad, & Silly Ask the kids to make faces that go along with the emotions they respond with.
Transition: Our first book showed us what a real day in preschool or kindergarten might be like. We learned that we get to play and learn with our teachers and make lots of friends. But the next book is a littttttle different and verrrrrrry silly.
Book:We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
I love this book so much. It’s just plain silly for the kids, but is a great conversation starter into treating others nicely or as you’d want to be treated. Of course, most of the kids won’t be eating their classmates, but you can switch the behavior for any other behavior they might be having issues with (hitting, interrupting, biting…that’s actually pretty close to Penelope’s dilemma, I suppose…)
Transition: That was one of the silliest books I’ve read in a long time, how about you? For the next few things we do, we’re going to talk about how we get to school! Sometimes our grownups drive us, but sometimes we take a bus with a lot of other kids. So let’s sing a song that tells us a little bit about buses!
Song: Bob The Driver
Transition: That song was pretty fun and told us a little bit about what to expect on a school bus. I think we learned a lot about school together! Hopefully whether you go to school now or will soon, you will feel good about spending a fun day there! Ok, thanks for helping me with all the songs and books, but now it’s time to say goodbye before we go do our craft!
Closing: We closed out with our goodbye song and then went on to craft time!
Librarian Ginny 