Virtual Program: Let's Be Kind Storytime

For my February virtual program, I put on a kindness storytime. I wanted to do a different spin on Valentine's Day and I thought this theme fit very well.

The first book that was read was Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller. This really is a sweet book that shows all the ways you can make a person feel better just by being kind and showing empathy. This book really fit my theme and was a perfect introduction to kindness.

After we read our first book, it was time for a flannel board activity. Since we are so close to Valentine's Day, I decided to do a Valentine's Day flannel board using a rhyme and some different Valentines in the shape of hearts. 

Our following book was Finding Kindness by Deborah Underwood. I liked how this was another book that really explained being kind well. Both of these picture books allow children to understand all the different ways you can be kind to others.

For our sample craft to make at home, I used construction paper hearts and made a Valentine Bee that they could give to someone else for Valentine's Day to be kind. "Be kind and be my Valentine!"

Virtual Program: Penguin Storytime

 For my January virtual program, I was able to do a storytime about penguins. I have to remember just how many great penguin books and activities there are to do with little ones! For my virtual storytimes, I usually read two books tops and include a flannel board follow-along activity and a craft idea. I followed the same template for this program.

For our first book, I read Be Brave, Little Penguin by Rachel Elliot. This book tells the story of a cute, little penguin who wants to swim and play in the water despite being afraid, but pulls through and conquers his fear. I enjoyed how this book had a great message for kids and cute illustrations to go along with it.

After our second book, I did a short flannel board activity involving the concept of colors and different color penguins. Of course we counted our penguins too!

My last book was Little Penguin and the Lollipop by Tadgh Bentley. This is a fun book to read and hopefully got the kids at home involved by saying, "razzle dazzle lollipop!" Who doesn't love a story about penguins and lollipops?

For a sample craft to make at home, I showed viewers how to make a simple penguin out of construction paper or with any type of paper if the kids wanted to color. 

With all the picture books on penguins, it's no wonder they are one of everyone's favorite animals!

Virtual Program: Silly Stories

 For a virtual storytime this week, I read some pretty silly books and showed a silly flannelboard. Of course, this was a silly storytime theme!

For my first laugh-at-loud book, I chose Chicken Big by Keith Graves. What makes this book so silly is how all the other animals in the story can't be convinced Chicken is really a chicken. This is a good one to read out loud with funny pictures.

To take a short break in between stories, I told a rhyming story of Mr. Lou and his growing mustache. I find this gets the kids laughing in storytime at the library, so hopefully they were laughing at home when watching. Mr. Lou's mustache goes from tiny small to hilariously big. 

The second and final story I read was Because I Stubbed My Toe by Shawn Byous. This was a short enough story that is about a boy who stubbed his toe and causes a silly chain reaction in his town. 

For this virtual storytime, I didn't show any craft because our first book is on the longer side and I was already around the 15 minute mark, but there will definitely be more craft demonstrations in the future. 

Silly storytimes are the best!

Virtual Program: Make a Magnet Maze

 For one of my virtual programs in November, I made a video showing kids ages 5-8 and their parents how to make a magnet maze using supplies around the house.

This was a more challenging virtual program for me since I usually don't do science programs and it was a little outside of my comfort zone, but I did my best and glad I pushed myself to try something different. 

This program would be fun to put on again when patrons are able to come back to the library for programs so that will be something I'll consider when the time comes.

It did take a lot of effort to put the program together and I thought the magnet mazes turned out well. I liked how the kids can pick any theme they want when designing and decorating their maze.

I did show a few ideas for mazes, but the simplest one was using a box or cardboard, popsicle sticks, a strong magnet, a paperclip, and whatever they wanted to use to decorate. Foam stickers work particularly well. 

I started off by explaining a little bit about magnetism using a library book and then showed them some examples and gave them directions on how to start making their maze.

My examples included the simple popsicle stick maze, a gnome-themed maze, and two examples that were more-so on magnetism and decorating with a space theme and a transportation theme. 

This program has a science/STEM element to it, a creative and artsy element to it, and a game/fun element to it so it was nice to have all of these into one program.

Virtual Program: Rawr! Dinosaurs! Storytime

For my next virtual program it was a dinosaur storytime that was a lot of fun to do and with tons of books to choose from that were silly and a dino-delight!

The first book I read was That's What Dinosaurs Do by Jory John. I love his books because they have that perfect element of silly and fun. The repetitiveness of this one is what makes it fun to read.

Once I was done reading Jory John's book, I brought the flannelboard out and we did some dinosaur counting. 

The next book read was Dino by Diego Vaisberg about having a dinosaur as a pet. This book really brings out the imagination.

Our last book was We Love Dinosaurs by Lucy Volpin because we really do LOVE dinosaurs! I wanted to include this book and it was short enough to add it to the storytime. 

For the sample craft to try at home, I found an adorable dinosaur craft using a paper plate, a paper towel/toilet paper roll, and some markers. I'm really trying to keep these crafts simple and with basic supplies so no parent has to make a special trip to get anything during the pandemic. This also shows how crafts and activities can really be done with anything around the house so long as you use your imagination. 

Virtual Program: Food Art for Kids

 Food Art for Kids was a virtual program I was really excited about doing, but it definitely took the most work and prep out of all the virtual programs thus far. It was a challenge and out of my element, but I think it came together well and it's always good to challenge ourselves as librarians and educators. 

Since there were so many great ideas to choose from on what food art to make, I knew I wanted to make sure I included really easy options and more difficult ones so this could be for kids of all ages and for parents who wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to narrow it down to a theme and came up with the idea of food based on children's books. This theme made the program so much fun to show. 

There are so many examples online and some really great holiday ideas too. 

I started off explaining a little bit about food art and how you can play around with food shapes, get your kids to eat healthy foods, and make a nice surprise for snacks and parties. 

The books I used to base around my food art were The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Cat in the Hat, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, and Rainbow Fish. All classics and all fun to use as inspiration to make some food art. 

Since it is around Halloween, I also added a simple pumpkin food art craft that uses a clementine and celery. 

This was a virtual program that allowed me to try something I would have avoided doing for an in-person program because it involves food and I wouldn't want to worry about food allergies and germs when food is involved. 

Virtual Program: Zoo Animal Storytime

One of my virtual programs for September was a Zoo Animal Storytime. This came together really well, was a whole lot of fun to film, and had a lot of books and ideas to chose from to put together. 

I ended up reading a total of three stories, making this a longer video but I added the two books at the end of the video so that parents could stop the video after the first story and craft demonstration. 

Typically, our videos have been anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, with 15 minutes being the average. It's tempting to make longer videos but we do have to be conscious of little one's attention spans and screen times. 

I started off storytime by reading Lori Degman's silly book 1 Zany Zoo. It's laugh-at-loud funny and really brings out the zoo theme. Afterwards, I did a rhyming color flannelboard story using elephants and then we jumped into our next book.

Our next book was Warning: Do Not Open This Book! by Adam Lehrhaupt. Another funny one that was a pleasure to read out loud. 

I wanted to add an animal song to this storytime and was able to add animal pictures to the background to help kids follow along with the help of my husband. 

After our song, it was time to show my virtual audience the swinging monkey craft they could try at home using construction paper and a straw. I thought the kids would enjoy playing with their craft and having their monkey swinging from the trees. 

At this point, I ended storytime for those who might not be able to sit still at the computer for another story, but did mention if they could to stay for Jory John's Giraffe Problems. I just couldn't pass up reading this one! It's one of my favorite books to read for a zoo storytime.  If you haven't read it, please do! It will not disappoint. 

Virtual Program: Nature Journaling for Kids

 Nature Journaling for Kids was my third virtual program. I knew I wanted to incorporate my creative writing programs virtually and thought nature journaling would be fitting for the summer and for summer reading. 

For this program, I gathered research online and used some craft books and professional books to help me with this one. 

First most, I explained what nature journaling is and what the benefits are of nature journaling. Nature journaling can be beneficial for both kids and adults and is a fun idea to do as a family.

After I talked a little bit about journaling and how you can involve nature, I showed my virtual audience how to make their own nature journal using paper, ribbon, and a folder, along with some cut out nature magazine pictures to decorate and make a collage.

Once done making the journal and showing the steps, I shared some of my simple journal entries to get them started and what things they could look for in nature that they could write about and keep stats about in their journal.

Lastly, I showed them a little clip of me in my backyard interacting with nature and showing them how they can be inspired to write in their journal in their own backyard.

This was a fun to film outside and show them what kind of things I found in my backyard-what kind of flowers, leaves, and even a turtle! It was such luck to run into that turtle that day of filming.

Virtual Program: Playdough Party Home Edition

 For my second virtual program, I switched it up a bit from a traditional storytime and did a playdough program. The playdough parties I have been putting on in the library were having great turn-outs that I wanted to find a way to bring the same fun to them at home. 

It also was a great opportunity to incorporate some playdough ideas that I always had in the back of my mind but never felt like they quite fit with the playdough party itself. For instance, I showed the kids/parents how to make playdough at home. This is something that if I did in the library, I would have to make it a separate program all together. 

For this virtual program, I started off by showing how to make your own playdough using stuff around the house. There are plenty of homemade playdough recipes online, but my challenge to myself was to find the simplest one with the easiest ingredients. I also knew I didn't want to use any recipes using the oven since I wanted the kids to be able to make and play with it as much as possible.

Once I showed everyone watching how to make the simple playdough at home and what ingredients they would need, I showed them some playdough tools they could use to play with their homemade playdough around the house. I hoped this element of the program got the kids to think and realize that practically anything could be used to play with their playdough and make designs and shapes and art.

The last part of my playdough program video was a playdough challenge. I challenged everyone watching to use the playdough they just made to make themselves out of playdough. I thought this would be a fun idea and showed them the playdough version of myself and gave them the option of making it 3D or just styling it on a piece of paper.

I enjoyed making this video and felt like I had my own cooking show for a minute there haha! This video definitely had more prep time than a storytime, but I think it was well-received. 

Virtual Program: Dig Deeper Storytime and Craft

 For one of my first virtual programs, I did a storytime around our library's Summer Reading Club theme: Dig Deeper. I was happy to start off my first virtual program as a storytime because truth be told it was a little scary to do any program virtually. Thankfully, everything worked out and it was a lot of fun. I do miss having a live audience though because it really adds to the atmosphere of storytelling.

I started off this virtual program talking about the summer reading club and provided step-by-step instructions on how to register online via Beanstack.

After that brief explanation, I read Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal. This was the perfect story to go with our digging deeper theme that fit well with the gardening theme. It also was available to use from the publisher. (This really narrowed down choice of books quite a bit.)

Once I was done reading our fitting story, I explained how to do an easy gardening carrot craft using a paper plate, construction paper, and tracing your own hand.

This was a good start to getting the feel of doing things virtually.

Virtual Program: Doggy Storytime

For my first virtual storytime, I got inspiration from being at home with my dachshund Daisy and thought I should put on a dog storytime with the help of her. 

I started off storytime talking about dogs with my dog Daisy and then read a couple of doggy books and gave a craft suggestion to try at home. 

The first book I read was Land Shark by Beth Ferry. Bobby wants a shark for his birthday but instead he gets a puppy. This book is so cute and fun for a doggy storytime.

The other book I read was Just Dog by Hiawyn Oram. Dog is a dog but wants to be called something more exciting than "dog." This is a funny book for any dog lover. 

I ended my virtual storytime by showing those watching how to make a dog puppet using a piece of folded paper.