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| Magnolia Park |
This has probably been my least successful summer storytime experience. I had high hopes for the "Every Hero Has a Story" theme because it would give me a chance to break into the folktales, many of which are a bit beyond the usual pre-school level I aim at during the school year. What folktale doesn't have its hero?
Summer storytime at our library takes place mostly at the local parks, lovely venues with a shelter that offers shade. This began in the days when the air conditioning in the Children's Room was not working. It was a constant 82 degrees in there and at 10 am it would be cooler in the park, especially with a nice breeze going. They tried numerous times to repair the a/c, but if it worked, the a/c in the rest of the building didn't. Three years ago we moved into a brand new building and now freeze our toes off in summer.
I have discovered limitations to park storytimes including and not limited to: breezes blowing the flannelboard over (fixed that by using one that hung around my neck or one on a stick), hands getting too sticky for hand puppets (only stick puppets now), and groundskeepers' noise (... no real fix for that). Otherwise, we continue doing storytimes in the parks even though we have the lovely new building and working a/c.
The parks usually have children already there, whether they expected storytime or not. It might be difficult to get them to come listen but then again it acquaints more people with our library programs, so it's great PR. This year I had a bumper crop of kids from a nearby church's summer camp, but they weren't interested in storytime. Even after the adults forced them to get off the playground equipment and come sit in the shade, they would get bored and wander off. Subsequently, they were coerced before I got there to stay put, but I could see that they just weren't into what I was doing although the books were clearly aimed at the predominant group of older kids.
I had to rethink my whole plan. I set aside all the books I'd been so excited about (Robin Hood, Perseus, etc.) and fell back on Shark In the Park! I made 30 shark masks and combined two paper towel rolls to make a telescope. The storytime dwindled from 30 minutes to 15.
After July 4th, it usually all peters out and it happened again. The group didn't come and I had 30 Midas Mouse (I was sneaking some folktale back in with stick puppets) coloring sheets that were barely used. I had two kids and their grandma and they could not sit still.
It crept back up again when a different group came by last week. They had no idea I had been doing storytimes every week. Hurray! Now they know - although there are only 2 weeks left. Next week it's monkeys. It's more like pre-school storytime, but I just don't know who will be coming.
I will still continue with storytime in the parks, but I am on the fence about continuing with the summer themes in storytimes. On the one hand, it did not serve me well this summer and I had to throw out all the preparation I'd done (which was only one month's worth, but still!). On the other hand, the themes give me a chance to stretch myself. I might be choosing books I do not normally use and have to augment those choices with new flannel boards and fingerplays.
The main lesson is, and this works for all kinds of storytimes, Don't Be Afraid to Throw It All Out and Start Over.
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| Cambridge Park |
