Stuffy Sleepover

Tonight is our stuffed animal sleepover for children ages 3 – 6 and their stuffies!  We’ve done events like this before and we’ve gotten fairly good at making the plans and being ready for every possible scenario.  I’m going to go through each step of our process, in case you haven’t offered a program like this.  And they are totally worth it, the kids love it!
In our marketing materials for this program we ask parents to arrive about 15 minutes prior to start of our storytime.  This allows us to fill out the child’s information and take their photograph with their stuffy.  We’ve created this simple form to keep us organized!  Each child gets a nametags with their name and their stuffy’s name, while the stuffy’s get a nametags with the same information, plus some additional information on the back, again to keep us organized.  We also tell parents they might think about bringing two stuffies for their child as leaving your favorite stuff overnight can be difficult for some children.
Here’s our storytime plan for tonight.  We’re mixing up fast-paced music at the beginning of the storytime with quiet, sleepy stories to get everyone sleepy.  Hugs and kisses are a must at the end of storytime and all stuffies are left on a blanket in our storytime room.
Opening: “Clap Your Hands” No! ~ They Might Be Giants
Puppet Meet & Greet: Meet Woolly (monkey puppet)
ASL Sign: Sleep (open hand in front of face and lower your hand while touching your fingers to thumb below chin)
Early Literacy Tip: Create your own bedtime stories with your little ones as the main characters; use their favorite stuffies in the stories as well!
Book 1: SHHHHH! Everybody’s Sleeping by Julie Markes
Transition: “Rock and Roll Freeze Dance” So Big Hap Palmer
Wiggles: “Bananas Unite”  (http://jbrary.com/toddler-storytime-songs-get-wiggles/)
Bananas unite! Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas (2x) Chop bananas, chop chop bananas (2x) Mash bananas, mash mash bananas (2x) Eat bananas, eat, eat bananas (2x) Go Bananas!
Book 2: The Stuffed Animals Get Ready for Bed by Alison Inches
Transition: “10 in the Bed”
Wiggles: “See the Little Bunnies Sleeping” (http://jbrary.com/toddler-storytime-songs-get-wiggles/)
See the little bunnies sleeping til it’s nearly noon Come and let us gently wake them with a merry tune Oh, how still. Are they ill? Wake up soon! Hop little bunnies, hop, hop, hop (repeat 4x)
Book 3: Someone’s Sleepy by Deborah Lee Rose
Closing: “Rock-a-bye Your Bear” The Wiggles
When our storytime is over we hand out a reminder for parents that their child can pick up their stuffy after 12:00 pm, noon the next day.  When the families come in the next day we have cute frames they can decorate with crayons and attach one of their stuffy’s photographs to.  Each stuffy gets three photographs taken, one of them with their human child, a second with a group of stuffy’s doing something fun in the library, and a third of just themselves reading a story or making some mischief at the sleepover.  The stuffy’s nametags have checkmarks on the back to ensure all stuffies get their photos taken.  The children come back to the library, pick up their stuffy, their three photographs and have a chance to decorate a frame in the library or when they get home to show off their stuffy’s adventures.
Overall, it can be a rather labor intensive project to remember who got photographs taken, which animal belongs to which child and that everything goes off without a hitch.  But this kids love coming back the next day to see what their stuffy has done all night long!