Sensory-Friendly Storytime: Sneezing

We’ve been on a pretty long break from our story times, here at the library.  Don’t get me wrong, there has been plenty of story times for the holidays and a lot of special guests will be coming to visit in the next couple of weeks, but I’ve had a break since November and today I jumped back into it with what is now one of my new-favorite story times!

I work with the local intermediate Unit, visiting 2 classrooms once a month for a storytime visit from the library.  The children are usually 3 and 4 year olds with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder and/or other developmental disabilities or delays.  I have so much fun visiting these classrooms and the teachers and aides enjoy the time being able to interact with the kids without having to plan something specifically for the 1/2 hour that I see them.

Storytime Plan

This month’s theme is somewhat winter/snow related, but it’s also close to 50 degrees today without a snowflake in sight, so these stories work really well for the cold/flu season!  You could also teach children about the importance of washing their hands, how to blow their noses, and cough/sneeze into their arm rather than their hands – all useful tools!

I read the kids 3 stories that all had sneezes in them.  The first was called Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright.  The kids absolutely loved this cute story about a snowman who is too cold, but keeps melting when trying to warm up!  And there was plenty of sneezing to do together.

The second story I read was a classic – The Mitten by Jan Brett.  I created a mitten out of cardstock and printed out animals that I colored in and put into my mitten as I told the story.  I have found this story a little too long for the kids to sit and listen through so I tend to ad-lib it when I use it in storytime.

The final story we did was written by one of my favorite authors – Karma Wilson, Bear Snores On.  Along with sneezing at the end of this tale, the kids got to help me with a lot of snoring sound effects.

I also shared a great song (not related to my sneezing theme) that teaches kids the difference between fast and slow.  The song is performed by The Laurie Berkner Band and can be found on the Rocketship Run CD as well as The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band CD.  I handed out shaker eggs and scarves and we used both to imitate the fast and slow parts of the song – the kids did a great job and we had a lot of fun!