BayViews Storytime Ideas - Websites Helpful for Storytime Planning

Websites Helpful for Storytime Planning

One of the BayViews website's most popular areas is the Storytime listing of Helpful Websites on Storytime Planning. Since websites go in and out of business relatively quickly, we thought we should revise this list, so it is as up to date as possible. We also broke the list into categories to make it easier to find what interests you.

General Planning / Arts & Crafts / Songs & Fingerplays

General Planning

www.perrypubliclibrary.org/storytime_themes Perry Public Library, OH

Looking for more Storytime ideas, especially ideas for Toddler Time? Check out this website from the Perry Public Library in Ohio. They have several theme pages, with lots of book choices and song lyrics. Many include literacy tips to emphasize, too.

stepbystepcc.com/themes2.html Step by Step Theme Pages

Run by a daycare provider named Jana, this is very similar to how most libraries compile their storytime themes. Under each theme, she lists picture books first (yeah!), then craft ideas. It appears that she regularly updates this site.

www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/storytimes.htm Best Kids Book Site

Hundreds of themes, listing picture books, crafts, and games. Like Step by Step above, this seems very well suited to library preschool storytimes.

www.growupreading.org West Bloomfield Township Public Library

A great place to start, to learn why we need to have storytimes, advice for parents, booklists, information on child development, phonemic and print awareness, and other factors important for emergent readers and how we help them.

www.everythingpreschool.com Everything Preschool

Arranged by themes, these lesson plans include books! In fact, the book jackets are shown so you can see which picture books you might have and which may carry well to a group. Under each theme there are also songs, coloring pages, art ideas, recipes, games, and science ideas.

www.preschoolrainbow.org Gayle's Preschool Rainbow

Look at the tabs on the left, and click on Book Themes, Rhymes, and other sections with lots of ideas you can use at storytimes.

Arts and Crafts

www.123child.com The Activity Idea Place: An Early Childhood Educator's Resource

Hundreds of themes, with ideas for crafts, games, recipes, songs, and fingerplays, this is a great secondary source for ideas.

www.enchantedlearning.com Enchanted Learning

When you need a craft idea (NOW!), this is the site, with thousands of printable craft ideas. There are several themes around science, which is too often left out of the preschooler's curriculum. This is a site to bookmark; I can always find something here when I run out of ideas.

www.hummingbirded.com Hummingbird Educational Resources

A site run by teacher Peggy Drake, this offers books, songs, snacks, crafts, math games, and other activities for preschoolers arranged by theme.

www.preschoolexpress.com/theme_station.shtml Preschool Express

Thousands of ideas to enliven your storytime, but no books listed. Go to the "Theme Station" for crafts and activities by theme, the "Story Station" for rhymes and stories to tell, the "Toddler Station" for active movement ideas, the "Pattern Station" for craft printables, and more!

www.dltk-kids.com DLTK's Sites: Growing Together

Like Enchanted Learning, the DLTK site always has something on your theme, or if you are in a hurry. Most are simple paper crafts, and there are many multicultural crafts here.

www.first-school.ws/theme/places.htm Multicultural Preschool Ideas

Lots of easy craft ideas, with printable pages, for preschool storytimes.

belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow Crafty Crow

Look for the menu on the left, where you can choose age groups, including 18 months to 2 years of age, and ages 3 to 5, which are perfect for preschool storytime craft ideas.

Songs and Fingerplays

www.kididdles.com/lyrics/allsongs.htm Kididdles

A great resource for song lyrics to popular preschool schools; some of the lyric pages let you hear the music, too.

www.bussongs.com Bussongs

Both popular songs that kids like, as well as standard nursery and preschool songs, are listed here.

www.songsforteaching.com/fingerplays/index.htm

www.songsforteaching.com/movement.htm Songs for Teaching

The Fingerplays area has a great list of commonly used fingerplays, many come with an audio clip so you can learn the melody. There are also photos of a person doing the fingerplay, so you can copy the movement. There is also an area for action songs; many of these also include an audio clip.

www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems.html CanTeach

Poems and songs listed by theme, this is intended for teachers but does list links for school librarians that can be helpful.

wiki.kcls.org/tellmeastory/index.php/Category:Rhymes_%26_Songs King County Library System - Rhymes & Songs

Over 200 song lyrics are available on this site, many with a Youtube video showing a librarian demonstrating the fingerplay movements and singing the song. An excellent resource for those who like to add new songs and fingerplays to each storytime, fitting with the chosen theme.

Penny Peck,
May, 2012