The age range of my storytime group is about 2-5 years of age, sometimes I get home schooled children who are a little bit older and if your including the parents the age range jumps up significantly.
The group size can be anything from 5-25 children excluding parents.
To keep young children and parents entertained for the whole book can be a difficult task, there are lots of distractions in the park… dogs, tractors, cool birds, and generally a lots of cool trees to climb. When I first started storytime I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing, I didn’t know what activities to do with the children after I finished the book, the best way to structure a session, nothing. Even though I had been a nursery nurse, forest school leader and worked in education for a long time doing sessions like this on your own with a group of children and a load of parents watching was a completely different ball game.
So I did what everyone else would do in the same situation…I made it up.
My first sessions were AWFUL ! Like the first year of storytime was sooo bad, but some parents liked it, some parents I saw once and they didn’t come back, but I slowly developed the sessions overtime and now I have a really lovely regular group of parents and children which is great and I feel way more comfortable and confident in what I am doing.
So here are things i’ve learnt in my 3 years of being an amateur storyteller….
Do not be afraid to adlib.
We LOVE the Percy the Park keeper books in storytime. The park in the book is very similar to Clyne Gardens and we have our very own park keepers that drive around on tractors waving at the children and helping to maintain the gardens and keep it looking beautiful. (We also have one park keeper who looks remarkably like Percy). However these books can be a little bit long for the children with very long descriptions about the weather and lots about “how fox was feeling” etc. Even though the children love the pictures and see the similarities with the park around us, and enjoy the story, they can get a bit fidgety and distracted when i’m reading these books.
So I Ad-lib. I cut out the long descriptions about the weather and the very long dialog between the animals becomes significantly shorter. I still tell the story and the children can still understand what’s going on….. sometimes I ask “how do you think fox is feeling here? “Do you think its nice weather in Percys park today?”. As long as the children understand the story and what’s happened don’t be afraid to skip a few bits and add your own bits in.
2. Be interactive.
Kids LOVE to point out things in picture books. Ask them questions half way though “where do you think squirrel is?” Get them shouting out and pointing on the page where something is, get them to shake their heads and describe the picture. The more you make it interactive and make them a part of the story the more they are likely to remember it. I always have an activity that links to the story afterwards as-well, even if it’s a tenious link, as I think it helps them remember the story and learn a little more in the process.
3. Do silly voices…..
This one is something I struggled with for so long… mostly because it can be embarrassing when you’re reading to parents as much as you are to the children, but it does really help to keep them hooked on what you’re saying.
So put on your best “old man crochety voice” for the grandad character and your very “squeaky voice” for the squirrel character and whisper very quietly in the haunted house then "SHOUT SUPER LOUD” in the bits where its shocking. It all helps make the story that much better and memorable.
Just have fun with it.
I hate to sound really cheesy and cliche but honestly just go with whatever direction the kids want to go in, sometimes you can be throwing everything at a story and trying to keep them engaged and it just isn’t happening. The story isn’t the right one that day, or maybe there are just better things to do, like climb a tree or make a daisy chain, sometimes they go run around for a bit then ask me to read them the story again but in a smaller group or 1 on 1. Sometimes I stop… do the activity then come back to the story later… it doesn’t matter. Just have fun with it.
Other things i’ve loved this week
Found
sub-stack this week and have read some amazing reviews and tips on how to cultivate a love of reading amongst little ones .My Yoga buddy and fellow story time Mum joined Substack. You can read about her experience with ADHD and yoga here.
Thanks for the shoutout!! You are living my dream by leading a storytime and I love the reminder to have fun and what you said about adlibbing to keep it engaging for the audience (of tiny fidgeting humans). Love what you are doing and look forward to reading more!