Storytelling @ Miriam Child Study Center

I got back to where I started. In preschool education, I mean.

I was at the Child Study Center of Miriam College yesterday. After a day's house arrest for colds and fever, I was back on my feet for storytelling to preschool children. It was like wearing an old skin that fits so comfortably. Only a few know that I began a career in preschool before plunging into the librarianship. I was a Nursery teacher until 1995 when I started organizing Xavier School's Early Education library. The rest, as they say, is history.

The "gig" I did for Miriam preschoolers was in line with their first library visit. The librarian, Teacher Portia, was very warm and welcoming. She's a one-man librarian in the preschool department catering to six hundred, more or less, preschoolers in Miriam College. The library was spacious and child friendly. It's one of the better preschool libraries I have seen. Will post photos soon!

So, for this event, I did a bit of library orientation for preschoolers.

Apart from the staple read aloud, I introduced to the preschoolers their library. And of course, a majority of the kids know what goes on in the library. Though it caught me by surprise to hear one preschooler say that a library is found at the mall. How can you differentiate a library from a bookstore now? Books in the library are borrowed, of course, while books in the store are bought. Interesting contexts, see?

After this brief introduction, I showed the kids my first library card and memories of my first library visit as a grade one student of Pateros Catholic School. From there I injected the library rules and expectations I "learned" from my teacher-librarian. Soft Voices; Quite movements; Reading books and returning them in their proper place; Greeting the teacher-librarian using polite words. These are but a few of the things I shared with the preschoolers. Of course, my years as preschool librarian helped a lot in crafting these library rules for preschool users. I kept to the basics. Too much information will clutter the concept of library use. Besides, these kids are first timers in the use of the library.

Once done with the basics, I proceeded to the story of the "hour". I read aloud Margaret Read MacDonald's Mabela the Clever. This book is precious to me a sit was given by a dear friend, Dianne De Las Casas! What's more, it's autographed! I ended the session with two handmade tales. The Handkerchief Man and The Great Enormous Turnip using a string to tell it. Again, thanks to Dianne for these wonderful storytelling ideas and strategies! The whole event ended successfully.

Miriam College's Child Study Center gave me a call back on another storytelling session for their Kinder students in August.