Sarah's Guide to Lapsit

This blog entry was updated on 5/21/2018 to include information about using bubbles in baby storytime!


This storytime is aimed at 0-24 months. At the beginning of each storytime I usually introduce some of our puppets. This gets children out of their shell a little. It also helps to calm any fears they may have about coming to storytime! I make sure every child gets the chance to pet the puppets if they'd like :) 

If I notice we have any new patrons at storytime, I formally introduce myself and also go around the room and do introductions. An introduction may be as simple as going around the room and having the parent/caregiver say the name and age of their child. If the group is small, I may also ask them to share a recent developmental milestone in their child's life. I also make any announcements that I have, like if the storytime session is coming to an end or I may mention any new programs for babies (like 1000 Books Before Kindergarten).

1. Opening Song - repeat the same song every week. Here are two options that I like to use.

Open Shut Them

Open, shut them,

Open, shut them

Give a little clap, clap, clap

Open, shut them, open, shut them

Lay them in your lap, lap, lap

Creepy crawly, creepy crawly,

Right up to your chin, chin, chin

Open up your little mouth

But do not let them in, in in

Welcome Welcome Sung to “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”
Welcome, welcome everyone,
Now you’re here let’s have some fun.
First we’ll clap our hands just so, (clap baby’s hands)
Then we’ll bend and touch our toes. (touch baby’s toes)
Welcome, welcome everyone,
Now you’re here let’s have some fun.

2. Book:  Try a unison read if it fits your theme.  If your library has a healthy budget, you can buy several copies of a specific book - enough so that each child and caregiver can read one together. For example, I would give everyone a copy of a board book of either Tubby by Leslie Patricelli, Pat the Bunny, or Moo, Baa, Laa by Sandra Boynton.  You read the copy and everyone follows along! This is a great opportunity for babies to get familiar with the different aspects of reading a book, like turning a page. 

3. Shaker Song - Sung to the tune of “London Bridge" Pass out shakers to the child and adult. If a parent feels their baby is too young to use a shaker, encourage the caregiver to take one to model the proper action. I actually sing this song every week! It really is awesome to see the young toddlers getting acclimated to it. After the kids have gone to enough storytime sessions, it almost becomes second nature to them! :) 

"Shake your shakers, shake, shake, shake,

Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

Shake your shakers, shake, shake, shake,

Shake your shakers!

Other Verses:

Shake your shakers high, high, high,

Shake your shakers  low, low, low,

Shake your shakers  fast, fast, fast,

Shake your shakers  slow, slow, slow"

 

Warning: Some shakers may be considered choking hazards because of the beads inside the shaker. It is important to regularly check shakers or other musical instruments to make sure they are not on the brink of breaking open. No level of safety precaution replaces the value of supervision, common sense, and caution on the part of librarians, parents and caregivers.  

4. Book: Any book of your choice

5. Song on CD: I usually choose a song by Wiggleworms or Kathy Reid-Naiman. I also love Raffi's version of "Little Red Wagon." Occasionally I will throw in a more upbeat shaker song like “I Know a Chicken” by Laurie Berkner if the kids in attendance are on the older side. However, you don’t want to play a song that is too upbeat and rowdy for the infants.

  

6. Book: Any book of your choice

7. Baby Bounce – review the other resources listed at the end of this post. Jbrary especially has great baby bounces. They are also on Youtube.

8. Another Song (And Perhaps Bubbles!) - The way you end your storytime depends on the energy levels of your group and your own comfort level. Sometimes the babies are just TOO squirmy and you may want to just end storytime a little earlier and go straight into playtime. In the past, I've also sometimes sung a Goodbye Bubbles song while turning on a bubble machine. I know some librarians make bubbles a regular routine for their program and blow bubbles while a bubbles song plays on CD in the background. It depends on your own comfort level and how you feel about it! I've had some bad luck with Bubble Machines (always needing batteries and just breaking really easily). My coworkers use a Gymboree bubble wand with a tray.


Benefits of Bubbles: Bubbles are an excellent addition to baby program! Bubbles excite a curiosity in babies that makes them eager to investigate their world with their senses. In addition:
- Watching bubbles for a period of time helps babies recognize patterns.
- Babies may try to reach for and touch the bubbles, helping to develop motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
- Watching bubbles help babies develop visual tracking skills. 

Watch Jbrary present the Goodbye Bubbles song in this helpful video!

9. Playtime! After storytime, I bring out a few toys and let children play for about 20 minutes (you can always go longer but sometimes I have to shorten it if I am on desk at the end of the hour or if there is another program right afterwards). Toys that are really popular with children are the Little Tikes pianos and animal pop up toys. Also the spikey bouncey sensory balls and rubber animals are extremely fun for babies and toddlers. The baby musical instruments and rainmakers are also popular. We recently also got a little Melissa & Doug Playful Puppy that kids enjoy “walking” by pulling the string. I also go around with my puppets and let kids interact with the puppets. (Can you tell how much I love puppets?)

There is no Magic Lapsit Storytime Routine

Also, please know that you don’t have to follow this exact sequence as long as you include at least 1 baby bounce, a song or two on CD, and a couple of books. Do what you feel comfortable with. There is no magic format for a successful Lapsit Storytime. Some librarians do more baby bounces, less books, or more songs. I do however, think it's important to always include early literacy tips as part of your storytime - even if you think the parents might already know the fact or tip you're going to share. It reinforces what they know and helps them feel that they are doing the right thing for their child. I sometimes share early literacy tips while we’re playing with the toys so it feels less instructional or I’ll share them at the end of my last book. 

Sample Early literacy tip:
Babies may just want to mouth the book! That’s okay. When you let your child explore books in the ways that interest her, the reading experience will be more meaningful.

Source: Zero to Three, How to Introduce Toddlers and Babies to Books

OTHER RESOURCES:

https://www.zerotothree.org/document/194

This is an incredibly helpful handout that talks about early literacy behaviors (book handling behavior, what type of books infants and toddlers like, and suggestions for ways to share books with babies and toddlers). 

https://jbrary.com/babytime-beginners-guide/

Jbrary has a VERY comprehensive guide with a ton of helpful links to help you do baby storytime. I think you will find it very useful! 

https://intentionalstorytime.wordpress.com/babytime/

This is a very useful guide to lapsit as well! What I love here are the tips on age appropriate toys for playtime following storytime as well as the suggestions for board book sets! 

http://www.bpl.bc.ca/kids/find-a-good-story/newborn-to-age-five/babies

Excellent information about leading storytime to infants. Could be used for early literacy tips. Just be sure to credit the website you are getting the tip from! 

https://www.piercecountylibrary.org/files/library/wigglesticklesall.pdf

A great list of some baby bounces from Pierce County Library!

http://islandlink.bc.libraries.coop/files/2015/02/Tickles-and-Tunes-Workshop-Resources-2015.pdf

Kathy Reid-Naiman has some great tickle tunes, shaker, and bell songs. Definitely recommend her resources and CDs!

Libraries are for Babies Too

As a Youth Services Librarian focused on early literacy, I hope that I can influence more parents to bring their babies to the library through promoting our baby programs and displays of baby books. If we can get some grant money, I am also hoping that we can put together some baby-friendly kits, similar to Boston County Public Library's Baby Booster Kits. These kits contain board books on early learning concepts like colors, shapes, community leaders, healthy eating, and more. They also include a music CD and a parent resource book. I think this is such an excellent idea.
Another kit I have been curious about is the Baby Brain Box created by the New Directions Institute, a program of Arizona's Children Association. Founded in 1998, their mission is to share important messages about brain development so that parents could take advantage of the critically important window of opportunity that occurs in infancy. 
These Brain Boxes are unique patented educational products for caregivers to use with children from birth to 5 1/2 years old. Each box contains activity guides and all the materials needed for adult-child interaction that encourages healthy brain development.
I did inquire about the price and they cost $2,000 for the Brain Boxes and they also provide training to staff. We unfortunately don't have that in our budget, but it is definitely a product to consider in the future if we were to have extra funds to go towards early literacy materials.

I started to think more about the perception that libraries aren't meant for babies and after doing some research, I found this wonderful article from publiclibrariesonline.org that discusses a lot of the challenges of bringing babies and toddlers to the library. I never thought deeply about it until now, but it makes sense why some parents might find it daunting to bring their young child to the library. Parents might find it embarrassing if their toddler begins screaming and babies can be incredibly unpredictable too. Parents might also not realize that the library even has baby programs and board books specifically aimed at infants.

So what can a library do? Well there are a lot of ways that the library can make the environment more baby/toddler friendly. Not only can we have a vast array of board books and baby-friendly kits, storytimes aimed specifically at infants, we can also make changes to the environment. There are many changes that can be made to the library's play area, like creating a clean and dedicated early learning space of the library where we invite and encourage caregivers to bring their young ones. Such a space should help to contain the noise and fluster of activities which is better for all patrons. The space should also include developmentally appropriate reading materials, open ended toys that encourage creative free play, appropriate and comfortable furniture for parents, caregivers, and children to sit on (maybe even a glider for nursing mothers), and posters/signs that remind parents that this space is for them.
As I read on this article, "The Case for Making Libraries Full of Games and Toys", games and toys are an important aspect of early learning for children. "In a study with 70 six-year olds, psychologists at the University of Colorado found that the children who engaged in more free play had a 'more highly developed self-directed executive function' than those who had spent more time in 'structured activities,' that were adult-led rather than child-initiated."

This is one of the reason why I am excited to lead my Imagination Station Storytime in October. Open ended free play is very important in the lives of young children.

With regards to programming for young children, a worthy program is 1000 Books Before Kindergarten. This is an excellent program that many libraries across the world are participating in. Learn more about it here: http://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org. Demco also has a lot of great resources and some are free too!: http://www.demco.com/goto?1000_books
I will be launching 1000 Books Before Kindergarten at Messenger Public Library where I work in just a few days so I am thinking A LOT about the ways in which libraries can promote early literacy practices to caregivers! Look for a blog in the next week where I will talk in detail about how the program works. :)
While I am very excited, I have already begun to notice a lot of parents don't think their babies should participate but are interested in signing their toddler or preschooler up. I noticed this with the Summer Reading Program too! It seems as though a lot of caregivers don't realize the importance of reading to children the minute they are born. I hope that I can encourage people to not just sign their 2 or 3 year old up, but their infant as well! Babies need books too. It is truly never too early to start reading to babies. Don't believe me? Check out this NPR article which presents a strong case for reading to infants, citing research and advice from pediatricians.
What do you do to promote library services to babies?

Graphic Novels for Emerging Readers

Graphic novels and comic books are taking up increasingly large amounts of shelf space in libraries across the world. No longer is reading comics and graphic novels thought of as a purely fun pastime but instead is being seen as powerful way to help children become lifelong readers. Children seem to simply love comics so it is a no-brainer to introduce comics to children at a young age to scaffold their reading comprehension.  According to Stanford Professor Emeritus Barbara Tversky, “Comics are similar to face-to-face interactions, in which meaning is derived not solely from words, but also from gestures, intonation, facial expressions and props. Comics are more than just illustrated books, but rather make use of a multi-modal language that blends words, pictures, facial expressions, panel-to-panel progression, color, sound effects and more to engage readers in a compelling narrative” (Comics in the Classroom, 2015).

Comics essentially help children with visual literacy, an important skill in today’s modern world.  Children are growing up in an increasingly visual culture where they must regularly interpret and process visual clues whether on screens, in print, or in their environment. As Tversky points out, comics help children interpret this multi-modal language which is essential for reading diagrams, maps, and graphs as required in the Reading Informational Text standards, part of the Common Core Standards. When comic books are used to supplement the common core curriculum, this genre gets students comfortable in literacy, and allows them to become autonomous, strong, lifelong readers. This is particularly true for English Language Learners as research shows that comics have a great power to reach students from diverse linguistic and social backgrounds in ways that traditional literature cannot. 

As Chun (2009) explains, “the teaching of critical literacy [with English Language Learners] can take place while students develop literacy skills through their engagement with these texts so that they will be better equipped to deal with more traditional texts.” Essentially, graphic novels do a great job at building an interest in reading that might not be there for English Language Learners as well as native speakers of English. When comics are properly used, parents, librarians, and teachers can use this type of reading material to teach many concepts. For example, “Comics can help show the importance of context clues (vocabulary or visuals), teach components of a novel (protagonist, climax, character development, etc.), grammar, writing (having students analyze what a character says and how he/she says it), discussion (with partners or in small groups---discussing a character's actions for example), etc. The limits of how these books can be used are up to the teacher” (Stewart, 2011). Graphic novels aimed at emerging readers help strengthen reading skills of English Language Learners to such a point that they can slowly transition over time to beginner chapter books with less visuals. With time, English Language Learners may form an interest in reading to the point that they may want to read outside of class.

Not all graphic novels are created equally, however. There are some books that are better for emerging readers than others. One series that is particularly helpful for both English Language Learners and emerging readers is Toon Books. Toon Books, particularly their Level 1 books, have shown to be useful for emerging readers and English Language Learners due to the reduced text, making the language manageable for readers new to English.  Toon Books, the critically acclaimed and award-winning publisher of comics for early readers, was created in 2008 by designer and editor Françoise Mouly with her husband, Pulitzer Prize–winning author-illustrator Art Spiegelman. The comic-book series took off, won awards, and continues to thrive to this day. TOON Books (a Candlewick imprint) are comic books designed for beginning readers ages four and up and are intended to be books they can read themselves.
 

This humorous graphic novel depicts several short stories of Benjamin Bear’s activities with other animals, mainly a rabbit. Each picture in a story shows the action taking place and the unexpected outcome.  The stories have titles describing what happens via well-known phrases such as “Follow the leader” and “Hot and cold”.  What is shown to the reader is that there is more than one way to get things done. There are also wrong ways to get things done as in “Too smart for his own good” when Benjamin Bear uses two rocks as stepping stones to cross the river.  Unfortunately, when one of the rocks sinks to the bottom, he is stuck in the middle of the river on one rock.

Each thing that makes her mad takes up two pages in the book. The first page is typically one panel and shows Nina being mad about anything from, “When you don’t know what I like…” to “When I try and no one else does…” to “When I do something nice and no one cares…” This is then followed by the thought bubble, “…that makes me MAD!” On the second page of each thing that makes her mad is anywhere from 2-7 panels describing the scene in great detail. These panels will have Nina confronting a problem with her family, as they seem often too busy to truly sit down and pay attention to Nina and what she needs.
Toon Books has many more books than just these two titles, however, and each book in the series is absolutely worth being inside a children’s library.  For teachers or school librarians looking to add Toon Books to the classroom but can’t find the funding, http://www.donorschoose.org/ is a great website that will allow them to submit a project idea that needs funding. Hundreds of teachers have found the proper funding to allow Toon Books and other graphic novels into the classroom through Donors Choose. For more information and a complete list of Toon Books, visit http://www.toon-books.com/. Ultimately, graphic novels are becoming a necessary part of a children’s library collection and many libraries around the world have dedicated shelf space to contain these books. It’s important that teachers and librarians utilize graphic novels in the classroom and in library programming as these books can have a tremendous impact on a children’s interest in reading!

The books are divided into three categories: Level One, or beginning comics for those just learning to read, are for grades K to 1 with short sentences and only one to two panels per page; Level Two, or easy-to-read comics for emerging readers, are for grades 1 to 2, also with short sentences, but more repetition and one to four panels per page; and Level Three, comics for beginning readers well on their way, are for grades 2 to 3 with longer sentences, transitions in time and place throughout the story and chapters. Leveled books helps parents, teachers, and librarians locate books that will be useful for children who are just beginning to read on their own. In addition, for each of the level, Lexile guided reading and reading recovery values are shown with specifics listed about content in the comics.

Most importantly, besides the books having an appropriate balance of text and illustrations, the content in each Toon Book is of very high quality. Stories are amusing, clever, and relatable to children. Illustrations are rich with appropriate shading and each book is well thought out, with images matching the text seamlessly. For example, Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas! By Philippe Coudray is a Toon Book that is perfect for English Language Learners and emerging readers.
 

The illustrations are very descriptive of the stories, conversations, and thoughts of the characters which helps to support reading comprehension.  There are also puns as in “Ringleader” when Benjamin Bear meets two aliens emerging from a spaceship with rings around their heads. Benjamin Bear tells them to taken him to their leader and the leader steps off the ship with a ringed halo in the air over his head. Also worth mentioning are the several wordless pages in this graphic novel, giving this book yet another reason to be an excellent choice for ELL readers. Illustrations sometimes speak for themselves which helps children feel proud of the pages they have read which in turn, gives them the confidence to continue reading. Another popular Toon Book for emerging readers is Nina in: That Makes Me Mad! By Hilary Knight, Based on a text by Steven Kroll. This book is about a red-haired young girl named Nina who expresses when something makes her mad. 

This shows keen insight to the mind of a child who doesn’t always understand that not everyone is thinking the same thing that they are at all times. At the end of the story Nina finally lets out her feelings saying, “But I feel better when I can tell you that I’m MAD!” Nina’s mom is now paying attention to her needs after she expressed that she’s mad because her toy airplane is broken. Her mom grabs some glue and then they both hug as a conclusion. The thought bubbles are either circular or rectangular, and change from panel to panel. The color schemes contained within Nina are varying shades of orange, blue, green, purple, and pink. This graphic novel is best suited for Preschool through 3rd grade because of Nina’s age and the style of writing in short sentences and words being geared toward a younger reader.

Sources:

Chun, C. W. (2009). Critical Literacies and Graphic Novels for English-Language Learners: Teaching Maus. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 144-153.

Comics in the Classroom | TOON Books – Educator Tools. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2015, from http://www.toon-books.com/why-comics.html 

Coudray, P. (2013). Benjamin Bear in "Bright ideas!": A Toon book. New York: Toon Books.

Daud, F. (2011). Bridging a Curricular Gap with Graphic Novels By: Children's Literature and Learner Empowerment : Children and Teenagers in English Language Education. Engaging Cultures & Voices, The Journal of English Learning Through Media, 18-40.

Knight, H., & Kroll, S. (2011). Nina in That Makes Me Mad!: A Toon Book. New York: Toon Books.

Rycroft, K. F. (2014). "Graphic Novels: Preparing for a Mulitmodal and Multiliterate World." Student Pulse, 6(08). Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=907

Stewart, D. (2011, September 19). Teaching Successes with ELLs: Free Graphic Novels (Comic Books) for Kids (Along with Teacher Tools):). Retrieved June 17, 2015.

Smith, J. (2009). Little Mouse Gets Ready: A Toon Book. New York: Toon Books.

TOON Readers | TOON Books – Just for Kids. (2015). Retrieved June 17, 2015, from http://www.toon-books.com/toon-readers.html

Wing, D. (2015, April 13). Using Comics to Teach English Language Learners. Retrieved June 10, 2015, from http://www.slj.com/2015/04/standards/using-comics-to-teach-english-language-learners/