Austintown library hosts Gotta Move event

Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Austintown library juvenile librarian Kathe Orr got the children up and clapping during the Gotta Move Storytime event.

Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.After each child said their name, Austintown library juvenile librarian Kathe Orr rang a bell as the other children clapped their hands during the Gotta Move Storytime event.

Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A young boy watched intently during a song at the Gotta Move Storytime event at the Austintown library.

Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.With the encouragement of juvenile librarian Kathe Orr, the children stomped their feet during the Gotta Move Storytime event at the Austintown library.

Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Austintown library juvenile librarian Kathe Orr read the book "Big Bug" during the Gotta Move Storytime event.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Instead of doing a normal story time, in which the children sit and listen to stories, the Austintown library for several years has been hosting a weekly Gotta Move story time, during which the children get up and move around.
The latest was Aug. 28 in the library’s meeting room. Each Gotta Move story time lasts 20-30 minutes.
“We try to show the kids some literacy, tips, skills, in the framework of movement and music,” juvenile librarian Kathe Orr said. “We’ve been doing this for several years. You know, there’s a lot of kids from ages 2-5, so some don’t like the framework of a traditional story time. It’s too hard to sit still. So that’s what this all about. It gives them a chance to move around, dance, sing, jump around. Today, there’ll be some opposites. Then I’m going to do some transportation things. A lot of rhymes, a lot of songs. They love it and they have fun. Most of the other libraries are starting to do this also.”
The event had a crowd of seven children and six adults. Orr began by having the children clap their hands and then stomp their feet before playing various songs for them to sing along with. She moved on to reading the books “Big Bug,” “Who is Driving?,” “A Kiss Like This” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
Orr said the children who attend the Gotta Move story times can not only gain literacy skills but they can also meet other children and make new friends.
“There’s a lot of rhyming and that kind of thing,” she said. “The concepts, like I’m doing with the big and the little. What they get out of it is the enjoyment when they come to the library, they want to come back, and they make friends. It’s just good interactions for them. Some of them don’t have siblings, so they’ve never really played with anybody before so this gives them a chance to do that too.”