It’s the age old question, isn’t it? To use storytime themes or not. To me, themes make sense. Instead of feeling constricting, themes give me a safety net and let me soar freely above them. After, cough, many years of doing outreach storytime, though, I was in need of a new approach!
As I mentioned, using themes for my outreach storytimes has long been my approach. Because I send the year’s worth of themes to the early childhood directors in August, using themes also allows the teachers to know what to expect each month. I change it up each year and have fun coming up with new, creative themes. I try to choose unique themes on everything from STEM to mindfulness, animals to movement. And yet. This summer, as I was planning the 2023-24 school year, I found myself bored. Even new themes that I had never used before felt stagnant.
So I did what any good library professional would do: I asked around! What themes had others thought of that I hadn’t?
To the rescue came Melissa Depper! Melissa is the Storytime Supervisor at Arapahoe Libraries. Her awesome but (in her words) inactive blog, Mel’s Desk , is still available. She shared the incomparable Saroj Ghoting’s approach of using verbs rather than nouns . Brilliant! Suddenly, ideas were flowing.
Each theme allows me to customize for different age groups, gives me enough freedom to explore a variety of books, and encourages the little ones to be involved and engaged. I’ve shared my final choices for each month below.
September = Feeling
October = Imagining
November = Experimenting
December = Playing
January = Creating
February = Moving
March = Growing
April = Splashing
May = our Summer Reading Program theme
Are you a storytime themes aficionado? If so, what are some of your favorite themes this year? Or do you go theme-less? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
This post addresses the ALSC Core Competencies: I. Commitment to Client Group and V. Outreach and Advocacy.
The post To Theme or Not to Theme… appeared first on ALSC Blog .
All Rights Reserved Book Blog