Pairing Story With Song

BookTrust's Writer in Residence Michelle Robinson suggests ways to add singing to storytime.  

There is a reason why Rhymetime is such a popular event with both youngsters and grown ups: singing and making music is joyous! 

I love including songs and rhymes when I read with children. It doesn’t matter that I’m not the world’s best singer. I don’t need to be — I’m just trying to make story time more engaging. Young children can remember and join in with songs very quickly, because a catchy tune makes everything joyful and memorable. 

You can sing together before, after or even during story time. It helps warm up our voices and gives everyone the signal that story time is fun, and that everyone is welcome to speak up and be heard. Here are a few simple tips and tricks for adding a musical note to your story times… 

There’s always a relevant nursery rhyme that works with the theme of the book you’re sharing. For instance, if I were reading Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry, I might sing a nursery rhyme about colours, such as I Can Sing a Rainbow, or one about dogs, like B-I-N-G-O, or one about vehicles, such as, The Wheels on The Bus. I might even sing Old MacDonald, because the book features a farm. BookTrust has a wonderful list of books based on Nursery Rhymes. 

There’s no reason you can’t pair songs from your favourite artists with story times, especially if there’s a link between the lyrics and the story. Again, using Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry as an example, we might sing along with Taylor Swift’s Red, to Coldplay’s Yellow, or the Baha Men’s Who Let The Dog’s Out? I’d just make sure I picked child-friendly versions, not least because kids pick up and repeat lyrics very quickly. 

Like nursery rhymes, camp songs are a rich source of fun. They often include actions, which make for an active and energetic story time. They are designed to be super-easy to learn, perfect for story times. If you don’t know many, Google them. There are tons! They’re so simple and repetitive that you can easily adapt them to serve your own purposes. I use Let’s Go Bananas when I read, The Day The Banana Went Bad. It helps kids get the wriggles out before sitting down, and helps me cue up the themes and characters in the book.  

4. Do it the Rex Harrison way