Rompin’ Stompin’ Story Time takes place every Thursday at my
library and it is by far the most popular story time that I offer. We offer this story time for all ages and
have everyone has a blast. I normally have between 15 and 25 children
attend this story time.
Rompin’ Stompin’ has three parts: songs and dance, rhythm and movement,
and read aloud. The parts occur is about 5
minute spurts so that the dynamic is always changing for short attention spans. I use a lot of children’s music in this story
time and keep the schedule pretty much the same. In the example linked below the song and
dance portions are in green, the rhythm and movement portions in blue and where
I read aloud is in red.
We do a lot of the same songs every week. I have a few that I switch around and I introduce a new song about once a month.
This is by far the easiest story time to plan and the most fun to
do. Our Rompin’ Stompin’ Story Time
normally last about an hour.
Since we are moving around almost the entire time we have
juice boxes for the children when we are done.
The kids definitely work hard and earn their juice!
This week we read:
- Dogs by Emily Gravett
- Underwater Dogs: Kid’s Edition by Seth Casteel
I try to find short and funny stories to read so that they
hold the children’s interest and not bore them.
Stories that allow the kids to move around and make noises are the best!
The most popular part of Rompin’ Stompin’ is the parachute and
we save this for last. The children
start by holding the parachute and I play the song Popcorn by Barenaked Ladies (yes, they have a children’s
album). I shake pom-pom balls out into
the middle of the parachute. The
children shake the parachute and pop the balls like popcorn as the song speeds
up. We normally have to do this at least
twice. Below is a You Tube video for the song, listen and you will see how perfect it is for this activity!
