Neighbors | Zack Shively .Librarian Allison Graf read the story "Hop Jump" to the children at Austintown library during the Gotta Move Story Time event on Aug. 17. The event gives the children a workout while learning literacy, listening and counting skills.
Neighbors | Zack Shively .Austintown librarian Allison Graf got the children to dance and sing-along to "Five Little Monkeys" at the library's Gotta Move Story Time on Aug. 17.
Neighbors | Zack Shively .Librarian Allison Graf stamped her feet during the song "Can't Wait to Celebrate" at Austintown library's Gotta Move Story Time designed to get children up and moving.
By ZACK SHIVELY zshively@vindy.com
Austintown library hosted a Gotta Move story time event on Aug. 17 to get children active while teaching learning skills.
Librarian Allison Graf greeted the children as they walked into the main meeting room and sat on the floor. Many children came to the event, as it is one of the more popular events the library does. The group danced, sang and read throughout the event, but they never stopped focusing on learning.
The children first ran freely in an exercise similar to the Red Light/Green Light game where children run until instructed to freeze by Graf. The game works on the children’s listening skills as they await for Graf to tell them to freeze. Similarly, the first song played, “Can’t Wait to Celebrate,“ asks the children to dance and follow the directions the song gave them, such as stamping their feet or clapping. They also listened to “Bop Til You Drop.“ The dance that follows the song requires the children to dance and fall on command.
The children also worked on their number and reading skills. The group counted all the children in the room and then counted all the adults separately. Later, Graf rolled a dice with a different workout on each side. Then, Graf rolled two bigger number dice to see how many repetitions of that exercise they will do. After she rolled the dice, she had the children add the dice amounts together to work on their addition skills. They did nine pushups and six jumping jacks.
The children also read two books with Graf. The first book kept everyone active through yoga. Each page of the book showed a different bug along with a yoga pose. The children performed these poses. The second book, “Hop Jump,“ described the jumping techniques of animals.
Austintown library has a Gotta Move Story Time every Thursday morning and it has become somewhat popular. Each session is designed to combine movement activities and workouts to literary skills. The books read and CDs listened to are all available to check out at the library.