Coretta Scott King Award - A Storytime Outline

February is African American History Month! My library system generally will incorporate cultural storytimes a few times a year, and this is one of them. With the inspiration from a coworker I decided to read books that were awarded and honored for the Coretta Scott King Book Award. Surprisingly, it went quite well! The toddlers had a bunch of wiggles during the book sharing, but they loved our special activity. The preschoolers enjoyed the books more, but it really was down to the special activity that had the most fun.

T = Toddler Storytime
P = Preschool Storytime

BOOKS

My People written by Langston Hughes and photography by Charles R. Smith Jr. - 2010 CSK Illustrator Award book (T)
This was a great simple poem. As an attempt to get most of the toddlers into the book I had them look at the people's smiles and smile just as big, find their eyes, and etc.

Rap a Tap Tap: Here's Bojangles - Think of That! written and illus. by Leo and Diane Dillon - 2003 CSK Illustrator Honor book (T)
One girl thought he was silly as he kept on dancing down the street, but she still liked the book.

Black Cat written and illus. by Christopher Myers - 2000 CSK Illustrator Honor book (P)
The kids liked seeing the black cat go everywhere.

Uptown written and illus by Bryan Collier - 2001 CSK Illustrator Award book (P)

SONGS & RHYMES

Opening Rhyme: Open, Shut Them (T, P)
(follow actions)
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Closing Rhyme: Touch Your Nose (T, P)
(follow actions)
Touch your nose
Touch your chin
That's the way this game begins
Touch your eyes
Touch your knees
Now pretend you're going to sneeze!
Aaachooooo!
Touch your hair
Touch one ear
Touch your two red lips right here
Touch your elbow where it ends
And that's the way this touch game ends.

CRAFT

Exploring Cat Collages (T, P)
Inspired by Christipher Myers' Black Cat, the children got to make collages complete with a cat. I clipped out pictures of flowers, gardens, books, kitchens, food, ocean and much more from magazines, and matched pictures so that each craft back had a theme : flower garden (picket fence, watering can, flowers), beach (waves, surfer, sea shells), open range (buffalo, fields of grain, and mountains), and etc. This could be a lot of work, especially prepping for thirty children or so, but it was soooo worth it!

SPECIAL ACTIVITY

Jazz Appreciation (T, P)
Since there were no true songs or rhymes, I opted for Jazz dancing. Children got to listen to Louis Armstrong's classic What a Wonderful World and Ella Fritzgerald's A Tisket, A Tasket. For What a Wonderful World they got to dance a round with colorful silk scarves, which beautifully matched the lyrics to the point it almost got tearful! For A Tisket, A Tasket they got to play with the egg shakers. It was great! The preschoolers had a lot of fun with it!

PICTURE

Here is what my own craft picture looks like. The children loved doing this craft!