Storytime @ Whole Foods: Let's Eat Together!

A few months ago, I contacted our local Whole Foods, which had just opened at the end of May, asking about partnership opportunities. I was pleasantly surprised by the response I got from the store's Marketing Coordinator. We came to an agreement that we would host 2 storytimes a month at Whole Foods (for ages 0-5, drop-in, no registration required), in exchange for them to send staff and supplies for a few food-related programs here at the library in the fall & winter. Although we're still in the first few months of our new partnership, it has been going well and I have a good feeling it will continue to prosper as we move forward.

For my first storytime at Whole Foods, I decided to kick things off with a food-related theme. I called it "Let's Eat Together!" The original idea was to move through breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but that got to be too much, so we just loosely focused on breakfast, lunch, dessert, and a few table manners. The entire storytime timed out perfectly, at 30 minutes.

The storytime took place at one end of their cafe/eating area, in a little nook. They had some mini-kitchen cabinets/toys set up, which we had to block off with a table, and I picked up some of the toys that were out and but them in the little cabinets. But this still didn't do enough to deter kids, a few were quite distracted by it being right behind me. Next time, Whole Foods has agreed to put up some kind of partition between me and the toys, to minimize distraction. They set out a rug in front of me, which kids sat on, and chairs behind that for the grown-ups. Overall, it's a great little set-up, and I was surprised at how much noise it really blocked out (although I still had to project my voice more than normal). At the end, Whole Foods had free snacks set up on a table in their cafe area for the families to munch on.

Let's Eat Together - Storytime Outline

Hello song: Bread, Butter, Marmalade & Jam
I ended up borrowing most of my songs from Jbrary. Frankly, singing songs makes me a little nervous (I'm always afraid I'll forget the lyrics, even if I have them right there next to me), but Jbrary usually has very simple and interactive songs for this age group (0-5). Plus, the lyrics are always easy to learn for both me and parents/children who want to sing along.

Book: Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle 
I used the "reader" version of this book, which is abridged. The regular version just has too many words to keep the 0-5 attention span going. The only downside to this version of the book is that it is smaller, so you have to really pause to make sure every one can see the pictures. In general, the book doesn't get great reviews, but I think if you add your own voices and emotions to the story, and make a comment about how they're doing things "old fashioned" in this book (like churning their own butter, for example) - you'll enjoy it a bit more.

Song: Bananas Unite!
Yet another Jbrary tune...

Book: PB & J Hooray by Janet Nolan
This one ended up being a little long for my group's attention spans. Next time, I'd omit it and add in my alternative choice that I should have gone with, Hooray for Bread. However, I really do like this book and felt like in theory, it was the perfect book to read at a grocery store. Nolan goes through the whole process of how your food gets to your kitchen, from the delivery trucks docking and unloading at your grocery store, to the grapes and peanuts growing on farms. Maybe better for grades 1+, possibly kindergartners too.

Book/Song: Peanut Butter and Jelly illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
This book was based on the song, so I "sang" the book to them. I tried to get them to sing along, but the song has kind of an awkward tune (IMHO). They did the hand movements pretty well though (crush the peanuts, smooth the peanut butter on the bread, etc).

Wiggle release / Stretcher: Fry the Eggs (with shakers)
I saw a storytime video posted by the New York Public Library in which the librarian did a little wiggle release that goes "wiggle your hands way up high / wiggle them way down low / wiggle them side to side / wiggle them on your shoulders / wiggle them on your head / wiggle them on your belly / and then put them all to bed" - but for this food-related storytime, I had everyone take two shaker eggs and "fry" their eggs way up high, way down low, etc. It worked well. We did the exercise twice. It's a great stretcher.

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen
A good book for talking about table manners.

Song: Table Manners
We followed up our table manners book with this repeat-after-me song (to the tune of Frère Jacques) also from Jbrary.

Book: If You Give A Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff 
I read the giant version of this book, to mix things up a bit. Always a fun classic, and the grown-ups always enjoy it, too!

Song/Book: Who Took the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? by David A. Carter 
I had everyone clap / pat their knees to give me the classic rhythm for this song. I had to pause once in the middle of singing/reading the book (it was a pop-up version) to encourage everyone to keep the rhythm going. I was thinking about using puppets of different animals during this song, but the book just seemed easier to sing along with, and it was, so I'm glad I made that decision.



Goodbye Song: Bread, Butter, Marmalade & Jam
Instead of "hello" we simply substituted "goodbye". Because they were familiar with the song from the opener, I definitely had more kids sing along and participate this time!

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Handouts:
- flyer
- plan & song lyrics