Music for Storytimes
In my experience in libraries, there are generally two types of staff who do storytimes – those who make lesson plans months in advance, and those who pull things together just days, if not hours (hopefully not minutes) before storytime begins. As the fall sessions of storytimes and classroom visits begin, no matter your planning style, here are some songs that should find their way into your rotation.
Our first album today comes all the way from New Zealand. Kath Bee brings over 20 years experience writing and performing children’s music. Her latest album, Simple Action Songs for Babies to 2 Yrs for Learning & Fun is exactly what you need for your baby and toddler storytimes. The collection fittingly opens with a hello song and closes with a goodbye song. In between are tracks that each focus on one simple action including clapping, wiggling toes, standing up, jumping, and spinning around. Running times of 30-60 seconds and clear, simple lyrics that feature plenty of repetition and a pace that is easy for parents and children to follow, make these tunes great additions to any storytime.
Next up is Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta SEASONS: Songs to Celebrate All Four Seasons, the latest album from veteran songwriter and performer Katherine Dines. All 12 of the tracks were written during the pandemic and tested with live audiences in the last year. The album opens with songs about spring before moving to summer, autumn, and winter. With the exception of “Five Little Jack O’Lanterns,” none of the songs is directly connected to a holiday, making them accessible for all audiences. Dines knows exactly what appeals to children with songs about things like birds, bugs, snowflakes, and leaves. While it’s easy to imagine how you might use songs like “Baby Birds Sing ‘Cheep Cheep,'” and “Tickle It Away” in storytimes or “Sleigh Ride” in a lapsit, Dines makes it even easier with an array of videos and tips for using several of the songs with young audiences.
The final album is Talk Read Sing Play from educators and performers John Keenan and Jo-Anne Wilson-Keenan, known as the musical duo Bay Song. The Keenans are the founders of Keenan Literacy & Learning and believe that “Everything we do supports human rights, literacy, and learning for children and their families. We view literacy and learning as human rights that lead to other human rights.” Their latest collection of songs definitely supports that belief as their lyrics celebrate reading and singing and the joy of words. The album features several songs that would work well in storytime including the lapsit tune “Baby-Bop,” the shaker song “Shake Your Rattle Baby,” and the movement song “Put on Your Dancing Shoes,”
As New Zealand Music Month wraps up, I’d like to turn our attention to the southern hemisphere and the latest outing from Levity Beet. Levity Beet and the Aotearoa All Stars, the first album from Levity’s new label “Wildbeet Records,” is chock full of New Zealand notables and features collaborations with 12 different writers/performers/producers from New Zealand’s rich family music industry. Special guests include familiar names like Itty Bitty Beats, Music with Michal, and Claudia Robin Gunn as well as names that might be new to American audiences such as Suzy Cato, Craig Smith, fleaBITE, Kath Bee, Judy Cranston, Chris Sanders, Mr. Roberelli, MLO, and Loopy Tunes.