Bedtime Story Week 27th May – 3rd June

by Irene Peachey

In conjunction with the launch of Bookstart’s Bedtime Story Week, we had some fantastic events in Heywood throughout the week.

Thursday 28th May
The week began with a joint event at The Yard, the youth and children’s centre on Darnhill, just behind Darnhill Library. The family day event was organized by Woodland Sure Start Children’s Centre. I work on many joint partnership events with Woodland CC and I was invited along to see many of the families I work with at Darnhill who I have not seen for some time due to the library’s refurbishment.

As well as taking along library and Bookstart information, which I was able to share with the families, we had a great story and singing time together.

As a link to both Bedtime Stories and Family Week we began our session with the story of Timothy Pope and his telescope going to the park with his daddy, and mistaking giving everyone a fright when he thinks he’s spotted a shark while looking through his telescope! Only to discover that in actual fact what he thought was a shark’s fin was actually a cat’s ear, a crow’s wing and eventually his daddy’s hair! This is a very interactive and imaginative story, the children and parents howled with laughter. As a continuation of the theme we shared a Story Sack of Peace at Last, linking the Bear family and bedtime, it was amazing to watch even the youngest of the children ‘snoring’ just like Mrs Bear and joining in with the repetition in the story. The story concluded with one of our favourite songs ‘Five Little Bears in a Row’ leaving the children guessing which of the bears go missing next.

Monday 1st June
We held a special twilight Bedtime Story session at Heywood Library from 6.30-7.15. The session was advertised in the library, cc’s and in the local neighbourhood, encouraging children to bring their favourite teddy bear and dress in their pyjamas. The scene was set in the Children’s Library complete with star covered blacked out windows, my ‘buddy’ puppet Ruby dressed in her pj’s with Bookstart Bear tucked in her pocket and a ‘snugly’ quilt. I even wore my slippers! The session was well attended considering it was a very warm evening. We began with a ‘Good Evening Everyone’ song and shared stories with a bedtime theme, Poppy Cat’s Dream, the children had great fun spying Poppy’s missing bear and then singing and hugging their bears at the end. Sweet Dreams Maisy and Lulu Loves the Library are always favourites with younger children, even though I have read these stories many times I never tire of watching the expression on children’s faces as they listen intently and participate so well. We rocked our teddies to sleep singing ‘Miss Polly’ and ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. The children were offered a drink of milk as a bedtime drink while listening to the last story, encouraging a positive bedtime routine. There was a ‘Top Tips for Bedtime Reading’ handout with suggested bedtime books list for parents, a Bookstart ‘Busy Bear’ book and bedtime song sheet for sharing, and each child took home their very own ‘twinkling star’. The evening finished with us all singing ‘Good night everyone it’s time to go home’.

Tuesday 2nd June
This session was held at Woodlands Children’s Centre, Heywood. Once again the ambience of the evening was set by blackening out the windows and the Early Years Worker had added to the effect by trailing rope lighting around the story time area which she had made more inviting by using soft cushions and a blanket to sit on. Unfortunately only two families attended this session, again it was a glorious evening and the CC previous evening session, which is usually very well attended, also only attracted two families. The format for this evening was similar to the previous evening at Heywood Library. This session stories included Poppy Cat’s Dream, Lulu Loves the Library and Ten Bears in a Bed, again with lots of interaction, participation and singing. The setting and ambience of the session had the desired effect as one of the children, a baby of eight months, had a lovely cuddle from his mummy during the stories and was almost asleep before it was time to go home, giving me the opportunity to promote bedtime stories as part of a good bedtime routine! Again handouts, ‘Busy Bear’ book, song sheets and stars were given out to parents and children at the end of the session.

The Early Years Worker commented on what a lovely session we had had and suggested we plan another session in the near future. It’s amazing the effect a warm sunny evening has.

Thursday 4th June
As part of my regular Rhythm and Rhyme session at Heywood Library, I held a special Bedtime Pyjama Party event, again encouraging the children to arrive dressed in their pj’s and to bring along their favourite teddy.

At this event I dressed in my pj’s, dressing gown and slippers, much to the children’s (and parent’s) amusement! With Ruby, her quilt and Bookstart Bear we began the session in our usual way with our ‘Hello’ song. Followed by the story of ‘No Bed Without Ted’ where the children had to look in the cupboard, in drawers, behind Grandad to look for the lost bear, only to discover at the end of the story that he had been in the washing machine and was hung on the line to dry! We sang and played games with our teddies before rocking them to sleep singing ‘Roch-a-bye Teddies’. My Rhythm and Rhyme sessions are always packed with short interactive activities to allow children to develop good literacy skills, this session was no different, we had monkeys jumping on the bed, bunnies sleeping and scarecrows dancing before music time when we sang ‘Wee Willie Winkie’, ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ and ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’.

The session was concluded with the children putting their teddies in a makeshift bed and bouncing them around before rocking them back to sleep, they then cuddled the bears during cool down time listening to classical music.

Bedtime reading tips, ‘Busy Bear’ book, song sheets and starts were handed out at the end of the session.