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It’s hard for me to pick a favorite topic for storytime. I love going over letter sounds and numbers with my youngest patrons. Storytimes about pets always lead to fun conversations and audience participation. But above all, my favorite storytime topic is colors. Especially when we can get very, very messy with colored powder.

What is Color Powder?

If you’ve never heard of it, colored powder is what it sounds like: vibrantly colored powders. They are often sold in variety packs, so you can have many different colors at the same event. They are often used in outdoor color runs, where different colors are thrown at runners in a 5K or 10K race. You toss them in either a paper bathroom cup or out of a squeeze bottle. There are many different companies to choose from, but I went with Chameleon Colors.

Hosting an Outdoor Storytime

Since the color powder is so messy, I knew this program had to be outdoors. My library has a place called The Green Space Project, which is an offsite community garden next to a local elementary school that the library oversees. If your library doesn’t have an outdoor space, consider reaching out to your local park district and see if they are interested in collaborating.

I had never hosted an outdoor storytime before, so I was a little nervous, as well as very excited! Cassie Chenoweth has a great checklist of things you need to make sure you have with you for your event. I would also recommend having a portable speaker. If your program features music or has a large attendance, it can help make sure everyone can hear. If your library has a lot of outdoor storytimes, you may also want to make an outdoor storytime kit like the Suffolk Cooperative Library System (NY) does.

Planning the Colorful Storytime

The main focus of the program was the color powder, so I selected books and songs that featured many different colors. As we read the books and listened to the songs, I tossed the color powders at the kids that matched the books and songs. I wanted the kids to get many different colors, so I selected materials based on how many different colors they featured. Immediately, I decided to include Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd. I also knew I wanted to have materials that included the names of colors in different languages, not just English. I love the song “¡A Encontrar Colores!” by 123 Andrés, so I added that to a Spotify playlist of color songs.

To make the event easier, I put all of the color powders into squeeze bottles. I also labeled each bottle with the color. When I arrived at the Green Space Project, I set up a folding table with the books, the color powders, and the portable speaker.

How It Went

The outdoor color storytime was just as fun as it was messy! As we read books and danced to color songs, I sprinkled and gently tossed the color powder at the preschoolers. They loved it! While one child kept hiding behind his mom in a quest to stay clean, the others all wanted to get as messy as possible. Sometimes, the wind would blow the color powder back at me, so I got messy, too. My manager had a great idea to advise patrons to bring sun glasses or googles for their eyes and towels for their car seats. Those were definitely needed, as they were covered from head to toe by the end of the program. I also needed a towel for the inside of my car.

I would recommend having either volunteers or another staff member to help distribute the color. Especially when singing and dancing to color songs, the songs change between colors rather quickly. Having more hands helps the kids get covered with more colors, which means more fun!

Have you ever used color powder in an outdoor storytime? How did it go?

Ann Baillie (she/her/hers) is the Youth Services Assistant Manager at the Alsip-Merrionette Park Public Library in Alsip, Illinois. She serves on the Illinois Youth Services Institute Planning Committee. Her main interests are the connection between Readers’ Advisory and technology, and how libraries can use technology to better reach patrons.

This post addresses the ALSC Core Competency III. Programming Skills.

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