I'm going to review the way I plan a preschool digital storytime, a little at a time. Doing so should give me the opportunity to analyze my methods and, hopefully, you'll chime in with ideas of your own. Recently, there has been a shift in the literature away from themes in storytime. I have found themes helpful when linked to the letters of the alphabet. When a letter is paired with a theme, say "A is for animals," or "B is for body," books and activities can address the theme and letter recognition is also be incorporated. Plus, I just want to bottle the glee I see on preschoolers' faces when they sing the "A,B,C's".

Step One: Theme Selection and Book Search

So, the first task on my agenda is always theme selection and book search. They go hand in hand. I find that a storytime is made or broken on the choice of books and themes follow. I use many (underscore "many," as in borderline obsessional) sources to select a theme based on the letter of the day and two to three preschool level books addressing that theme. First, I check the lists I've made over the past 2-3 years in the "My Lists" tool on my library's catalog page . When new titles are received in the Children's Library, I review them for feasibility, select the best, and organize them by subject, a great source for themes. I look for qualities that make a picture book, either fiction or informational, exemplary. These elements include: Does the book interest me? Would it be of interest to preschool children? Is it developmentally appropriate? Could preschoolers relate to the narrative and characters? Does it lend itself to reading with expression? Does it have humorous elements? Does it promote phonological awareness? Does it use a rich vocabulary? Could it be retold in alternate ways? How do the illustrations interact with the text? Are the illustrations large and bold enough to be shared in a group setting? Is the font large and bold enough for me to refer to? Is the letter of the day large and bold enough to point out?

Next, I use book sources,including Storytimes for Everyone!: Developing Young Children's Language & Literacy by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Díaz (Jun 18, 2013). I use my lecture notes from Library Materials and Services For Very Young Children, a class taught by Sue McCleaf Nespeca at Kent State School of Library and Information Science. There are a wealth of online resources available to use, including ALSC's website: http://www.ala.org/alsc/ and Reading Rockets website http://www.readingrockets.org/. One could go crazy bookmarking the myriad of quality websites and blogs written by childen's librarians and preschool teachers that address theme and book selection. I'll mention just a few of them here: The Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California's BayView's theme lists http://www.bayviews.org/storytime.html and Whatcom County Library System's Themes handbook Eighth Edition, http://elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com/file/view/WCLS+2010+Theme_Handbook.pdf . Storytime Katie's blog is always helpful and entertaining http://storytimekatie.com/ . How do you choose your preschool storytime themes, if you use them, and the books that you will read? Once I've chosen the theme and books, its time to create my digital presentation using Google Presentation.

Digilit Storytimes

Ok. So what's digilit? Digilit is a hybrid preschool story time philosophy that incorporates elements of the traditional preschool story time, elements of Every Child Ready To Read 2, and elements teaching digital literacy. I'm not convinced that using projected e-books is the way to go in conducting story times to larger groups of preschoolers. Being satisfied with that just misses the boat. In the coming posts, I will introduce you to a method of story time planning and delivery that helps prepare preschoolers to read, write, and understand that text on a computer has meaning and is fun, fun, fun!