Youth Department

Storytimes

During storytime, we read fun stories, utilize fingerplays, rhyme, and sing songs that will help your child begin the journey of being a lifelong reader as well as develop pre-literacy skills. Pre-literacy skills are the things children know about reading and words before they can read, such as letter shapes and sounds.  Scholastic explains it well in this articleWe also have crafts!

QUICK LINKS

Schedule
Storytime Sessions
Seed Storytime
Steam Storytime
Taking Home Storytime 
Storytime Online 
Every Child Ready to Read Initiative
Storytime Expectations

SCHEDULE*

DAYTIMESTORYTIME INFORMATION
Monday10:30 a.m.Sprout (Baby) Storytime, 0-18 months
Tuesday10:30 a.m.Sapling (Preschool) Storytime, 3-5 years
Wednesday10:30 a.m.Seedling (Toddler Time), 2 & 3 years
Thursday
Friday10 :30 a.m.Music & Movement, 2-5 years
Saturday 10:30 a.m.Grove (Family) Storytime, 2-5 years

 *Ages listed are for intended audience. Children of other ages may attend with appropriate supervision.

*STORYTIME SESSIONS:

January through April (winter/spring)
June-July (summer)
September through mid-December (fall)
No storytimes are held during the months of May, August, and the two weeks of late December so that we can plan for the next storytime session.

SEED (PRENATAL) STORYTIME

This storytime is a pre-birth early literacy program designed to help families start a reading ritual before the baby arrives! Read to your bump, learn about early literacy, listen to a guest speaker, and ask all your baby and pregnancy questions to an expert.

If you’d like us to do this storytime for a group, please contact Rebekah, the youth librarian, at rhosford@cedarfallslibrary.org.

STEAM STORYTIME

We will be presenting special STEAM Storytimes geared toward Preschool-aged children the second week of every month:

  • Dates TBA

TAKING HOME STORYTIME:

Did you miss storytime? Click on any of the links below to learn about some of our past Preschool & Toddler Storytimes. You can see what we read, rhymed, and sang. We also provide some helpful literacy tips to try at home.

Preschool Storytime

Toddler Storytime

Create Your Own Storytime!

STORYTIME ONLINE

Reading and interacting with your child is always the best practice, but occasionally utilizing digital resources can help entertain your child as well as develop skills.

Brightly Storytime:
Brightly Storyime brings you full-length picture books read out loud by our storyteller, Ms. Linda. Brightly is a resource to help parents raise lifelong readers. Launched in partnership with Penguin Random House, Brightly features book recommendations for every age and stage, reading tips and insights, seasonal inspirations, author essays, contests, gift guides, and more. Visit them at > http://readbrightly.com.

Harper Kids Storytime Read Aloud Playlist
 Enjoy storytime with HarperCollins Children’s books.

KidLit TV
KidLit TV is a winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Norton Juster Award for Devotion to Literacy, and one of the American Library Association’s Great Websites For Kids. KLTV is available in over 600,000 schools worldwide via our website and video distribution partners. We’re a diverse group of parents, educators, librarians, kid lit creators, and award-winning filmmakers working together to create fun new ways to reinforce an appreciation of reading that children will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Kids Stories in ASL
Watch American Sign Langauge (ASL) Storytimes!

#OperationASLStorytime
During the pandemic, a lot of deaf kids were isolated at home without linguistic access. This hashtag was created on Twitter to find ASL resources being shared. It is still a great resource for ASL Storytimes. 

#SavewithStories
Welcome to #SaveWithStories —a spot to watch your favorite celebrities read your favorite children’s books! As COVID-19 hit the U.S., millions of kids need our help to learn & eat, which is why Jennifer Garner started the charity #savewithstories.

The Spanish Experiment
Well-known children’s stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker. Great for kids… and adults too! Read along in Spanish or English.

Storyline Online: The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.

Storytime from Space: 
Story Time from Space is a project of the Global Space Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education foundation. While in space, astronauts are videotaping themselves reading these books to the children of Earth. These videos are being edited and placed on this Story Time From Space website- look under the heading of ” Video Library”.

Storytime with Bill:
Join Little, Brown Young Readers for storytime.

Tell Me a Story
Come back each day M-F for a new story at 10AM – we hope these stories provide your child an engaging activity that may give you just a few minutes to yourself or time to finish the task at hand. Thanks for connecting with us at COVID Recovery Iowa – we are here to help.

TumbleBooks
TumbleBooks are animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they’ll love. TumbleBooks are created by taking existing picture books, adding animation, sound, music and narration to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you. TBL also includes National Geographic videos and games. You can find a little more information >here.

Unite for Literacy
Unite For Literacy has many stories read aloud in multiple languages.

EVERY CHILD READY TO READ INITIATIVE

Every Child Ready to Read 2 is a “research-based series of practices that can help young children develop essential literacy skills that will help them get ready to read and on the right path to school readiness and student success” (>ECRR2). Learning to read starts at birth, so it is never too early to start reading to your child. Studies have shown that children who are read to at an early age have success in more areas than those who have not:

  • Larger Vocabulary
  • Advanced Language Skills
  • Greater Interest in Books
  • More Likely to Want to Learn to Read
  • Better Memory
  • More Creativity
  • More Logical Thinking Skills
  • Greater General Knowledge

Parents and caregivers are a child’s first and best teacher, and it’s important for them to be involved in helping children develop these early skills. In the chart below, we’ve broken down the five best practices that will give children a firm foundation in early literacy, and it also shows what pre-literacy/early literacy skills on which those five practices build.

Learn more about Every Child Ready to Read. 

Why is play important? Learn more about it >here and >here.

STORYTIME EXPECTATIONS

Library storytimes are often a child’s first “live performance” experience. Attending a storytime is different than watching TV, or going to a movie, as the behavior of the audience can positively or negatively impact the program. A good audience enables the storyteller to give the best presentation possible.

Parents and caregivers should follow these guidelines:

  • Use your listening ears, follow directions, & be mindful of others trying to enjoy storytime too.
  • Families sit and participate together; grown ups sing and dance with us too! Adults model good audience behavior for the children by being attentive and participating.
  • Please remember to turn your imagination on, and your cell phones off.
  • Have FUN! You don't have to stick around for all of storytime if you're not feeling it. You can always take a break and come back.

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