Let's Get Physical - in Kids Programming

Recently, Alison Loewen at Sheboygan's Mead Library shared a blog post with me from her collaborative partner Kris Fritz. Alison and Kris, a retired health and physical educator in the school district, partnered to bring physical activity and literacy together in storytimes. Alison wrote that "this collabation with PE teachers has been great and I think easy model to implement in any library." I agree.

Kris writes: "Although I have retired from my career as a health and physical educator, I continue to advocate about the importance of physical literacy and physical activity...Physical educators — retired or not — can collaborate with school librarians or public librarians to “bring books to life” by incorporating related physical activities into their storytime programming. These activities engage children, enhance their understanding of the material, and inspire them to read more."

Image - Kris Fritz

To read about Kris and Alison's collaboration and the descriptions of these storytimess and the results, please stop here. [Adding Physical Activity During Library Storytime Helps Kids. Fritz, Kris. Shape America Blog. February 13, 2025]

Thanks for sharing with us Alison

Encouraging Movement in the Children's Room

Image by press 👍 and ⭐ from Pixabay

A recent ALSC blog post by Erika Hogan addressed ways to incorporate movement in the range of your youth services. Erika writes: " 'Don’t sit down!' That might not be a sentence you’ve used with children at the library outside of often, but the value of movement-based activities in children’s services isn’t restricted to storytime. 

What follows is a brief intro to how movement can make a difference in children’s services. Recent research suggests that whole body engagement is great for stress management, encouraging physical awareness, and mindfulness. Like play, movement can make a meaningful impact when working with a variety of age groups."

To read her suggestions, please stop here.

Movement in Storytime Resource

Looking for a title to use with your storytime group to get moving and get physical? Try this curated resource - Read and Reach - featuring over 70 children's books.

"Read & Reach is your online resource for incorporating physical activity into storytimes and reading! Childhood obesity is a growing problem in the US, and library/classroom storytimes are a great opportunity for health promotion and to teach children the importance of healthy lifestyle practices." - from the website.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

Have you ever finished a program and thought I needed that as much as the kids?   That was my feeling after our dance party yesterday.  Dancing for 30 minutes was a great stress relief!

Now I'm thinking I need to add dance parties to the regular schedule and not as a special storytime break activity.  They are easy to plan.  There's lots of fantastic librarian curated playlists to get you started.  And they help promote your music collection!

Playlist 
"Hello Hello" by Miss Nina 1:26
       
"Dance, dance, dance" by The Beach Boys - (lyrics) 2:11

"I Really Love To Dance" by The Laurie Berkner Band 2:28

"Happy" (from Despicable Me 2) [Ballroom Version] by Pharrell   Williams 3:55   

"Jump, Jump" by Joanie Leeds and The Nightlights 1:44

Get out the shakers

"Let's Shake" by Dan Zanes 2:46

"The Freeze" by Greg and Steve 2:13
           
"The Airplane Song" by The Laurie Berkner Band3:16

Get out the scarves
       
"Shake Your Scarves" by Johnette Downing 1:54

"Goodbye, Goodbye" by Joanie Leeds and The Nightlights 2:00

Life-Size Hungry Hungry Hippos

If you're like me you love anything life size, whether it be Giant Jenga or enormous outdoor checkers.  So, when I discovered Life-Sized Hungry Hungry Hippos, I was a little bit excited.  It involves three major components: buckets/baskets, plastic balls, and scooters.  And also, SPACE.  This is a large game (life-sized!) and thus needs a fairly large amount of space.  Life-Sized Hungry Hungry Hippos is a great tween event, with or without competitive elements/prizes.  It is also an awesome way to incorporate movement and activity in the library.  For more info on Life-Sized Hungry Hungry Hippos, click HERE.

Music and Movement

The Association for Library Service to Children had a guest post about Music and Movement at the Library by Stephanie Prato of the Fayetteville Free Library in New York. It spelled out a few good reasons to keep including music and movement in our storytimes, as well as programming around music even if we aren't specifically music educators.


What types of music and movement programs or unprograms are you doing at your library?

Stephanie's suggested these resources for Music and Movement Education:

1. Pica, R., & Pica, R. (2010). Experiences in movement & music: Birth to age 8. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
2. Early Childhood Music and Movement Association
3. LetsMove.gov
4. National Association for Music Education