Librarian Ginny

Storytime: Animals in Winter!

What a classic and brilliant theme for storytime! This theme is used in preschools and daycares and much more, so it’s always fun to put a library spin on it! If your library does extension activities with your storytimes, there are a great number to add onto this, both craft and STEAM.

Racial Equity Book Club Kits

So, a while back I wrote the majority of a grant for our library from the Indiana Humanities and was succesful. The grant was to promote racial equity after the murder of George Floyd. We decided to write the grant to fund the creation of storytime and bookclub kits. We ended up with 7 new bookclub kits and 3 storytime kits. There’s a small write-up of our new collection here!

Storytime: Hats!

This is a great, all seasons, storytime to talk about a piece of clothing that has many different uses! Of course, you can tailor it to be seasonal (using only books with winter or summer hats), but I like to mix it up and talk about all the different uses and types!

Storytime: Winter!

Annnnnd, winter is officially here. I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of winter. I love the first snow or two and the magic it brings, but….after that, I’m done. But I try not to express that to any of my patrons!

Storytime: Family!

There are SO MANY fantastic stories about families! Seriously I have a hard time choosing what to include! No matter what I decide, I always make sure different family types are represented. I know the bond between a child and a mom or a child and a dad is really special, but not all kids have both. Maybe they’re growing up with a single parent, a grandparent, a foster family, or have two moms or two dads! Whatever it might be, I never want any child to feel as though their family is not valid. So I stay away from doing any storytimes on the theme of “mom” or “dad.”

Old-Time Family Dance

Through some sleuthing and networking, I found this awesome family in my town who loves old time family dance. They host these dances with family friends and had started some events in town. We paid them a small compensation ($50) for an hour program last winter, before Covid-19 was really big here in the Midwest.

Storytime: Harvest!

Harvest time can be kind of an abstract concept to a lot of young kids, especially if you’re in the city! I live in the Midwest, and though I live in town near my library, our county residents know all things farm and harvest very well. So for many of my storytime kids, this isn’t a new concept.

Storytime: Farms!

Living in the Midwest, farms are ALL around! So this is a theme that gets done by every single daycare and preschool around us and is always welcomed as a storytime theme!

Storytime: Seasons!

There’s so much you can do with a seasons storytime! You can center on sequence (what season comes after another), clothing throughout the different seasons, nature’s changes, or even what activities animals and humans do in the different seasons.

Storytime: Fall!

The days are already getting shorter and the sun is rising later and setting earlier. Fall is coming and it’s my favorite time of year! Comfy sweater weather, spiced coffees and baked goods are everywhere, the world is crisp and oh-so-colorful, and you can literally smell Fall. And, of course, it makes for a fun and informative storytime that has many facets. Pumpkins, apples, harvest, animals getting ready for hibernation, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and so much more! However, today I’ll be sharing a general Fall storytime,