Catch the Possibilities

For the last year and a half I've been visiting a group of 6-12 month old babies at one of the preschool centers in my community. I also visit the next two older groups of kids on the same day. For simplicity's sake, I've been reusing the plans for my 0-36 month in-house storytime. If you're a regular reader of Mel's Desk, you'd be familiar with most of the storytimes I present. I plan to have 20 minutes of "group" time and like to keep the book count down to 2 or 3.

Things are going well with the upper two age brackets, but I wonder if I'm providing the most that I can for the youngest group. Since I can guarantee a 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2 adult:child ratio with the current crop of in-house attendees I have, I know that bounces, tickling rhymes, fingerplays, etc. can all be done easily (as long as the child is in the mood). At the center there are, at the most, 6 kids in the class and 2 adults. So I find that all those rhymes, bounces, fingerplays, etc. don't work-- or work but not as well as I think they could.

At a previous library, the department also did regular outreach to this age group, but it was to a preschool on a college campus, so in addition to the teachers, extra students were always present, and we had a volunteer who would come, so that there was a 1:1 or 1:2 adult:child ratio and a lapsit-style storytime was possible.

I've tried experimenting with some props or exploratory play segments. For instance, today I brought a large plastic bear (from this set) and set it on the floor at the beginning of our time. I left it there and after a bit, some of the babies starting being more curious about the bear than me being there. They all had a little time holding or examining the bear before I left. I've also done a counting rhyme (10 Little Books to the tune of Michael Finnegan) with actual board books. As soon as the books were stacked up in a pile, the babies needed to be touching and opening them, so we took some time for to play with the books. But those have been kind of last minute, fly by the seat of your pants sort of decisions. On the whole, I like to be more thoughtful than not when it comes to assembling a quality storytime. :)

Since I only visit the kids once a month, the babies aren't comfortable enough with me to want to sit in my lap for a bounce. How do you all manage storytimes for such young ones in situations where a 1:1 or 1:2 adult:child ratio isn't possible? What strategies or activities could I try to add value to the books and songs I'm already using?

One of the fun things I've done with my outreach at a local preschool is how we incorporate their deposit collection into one of my visits to their site each month. The first year of our partnership, I was able to come every week, and brought new books every other week. This year, I've had to cut back to twice a month (because I've added an additional childcare center to my calendar), so I only bring books once a month. Rather than just being an exchange of items between myself and the teachers, we involve the kids in some dramatic play.

At the beginning of the year, I make fake library cards for all the kids. For the front, I used the same colors and logo from our real library cards, but added their school's logo too. On the back is a short statement: I promise to take good care of the books I borrow on this card, with a line under for them to write their name. There's a big window for their school photo, and then a barcode (a scanned copy of one of ours). I print them out on business cards and the school takes care of putting the photos and having them write their names. The school keeps the cards and one of the teachers pass them out to the kids as they browse for books.

When I bring new books, we set them up on the floor, tables, furniture, etc. and the kids "browse" for a book they want to keep at school. As they are looking, I set up a laptop and scanner. The items I bring are all checked out at the library before I bag them up to take to the preschool because we can't get access to our ILS on laptops, but the kids don't know that. Each kid brings up their card and we scan it and then their book. They love getting to hold the scanner and do it themselves. It's a pain to unhook a scanner and haul the laptop in addition to 70 books, so I've thought about looking into seeing if there's an iPad app that would beep when the library barcodes were scanned, but I don't know how to search for that? Any ideas?

At any rate, they love to check out books, and since they can't come down to the library and do it themselves, I also like that the activity introduces them to some basic library experiences-- getting a library card, browsing, selecting, and checking out books. Instead of check out receipts, they get stickers, which is pretty fun too. So many sad faces the day I forgot the stickers at the library.

We do occasionally have to redirect kids when they are arguing over the same book, or remind them not to walk on the books if they fall over on the floor, and that these are books to share, but overall, it has been a very positive activity for all the kids. And the teachers love having a stockpile of books for reading time that is separate from their curriculum.

Does anyone else do this sort of thing with their outreach sites?