Voting & Women's Suffrage Storytime

Back in November 2020, I was so excited to create a storytime that mixed the importance of voting with the history of women’s suffrage because it was the centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment!

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Now. This storytime was supposed to be for little ones, aged about 6 or so years old and under, so there definitely needed to be some simplification of information to make sure it was accessible and understandable for the little ones.

I chose a few voting vocabulary words to focus on and to make sure that I appropriately explained them during the video. I am a big script person for recording my storytimes because I like to make sure that I have explanations for everything, that the words I’ve chosen make sense, and that the flow works for the storytime. So while I was writing my script, I made sure to explain those few vocabulary words as well as I could for little ones. Plus, since I wrote a script, now I have the outline to share with you!

P.S. Umm, I just added my script and wow, it’s long; sorry! The voting and women’s suffrage storytime video was only about 20 minutes, and the book recommendation section was about an extra 5 minutes.

Ballot and Picture Books - Voting and Women's Suffrage Storytime | Sincerely Yasmin

Intro

Welcome families to storytime and introduce myself.

Transition

Today is a very special day because it’s Election Day! This year is also the centennial – that means 100 – celebration of Women’s Suffrage. So, during today’s storytime, we are going to talk about voting and why it’s so important!

First, let’s get started with our welcome song!

Welcome Song

“The More We Get Together”
With sign language

The more we get together, together, together
The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.
‘Cause your friends are my friends
And my friends are your friends
The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.

Action / Rhyme

You might have heard some big words during today’s storytime introduction. Words like: Election Day, Women’s Suffrage, and Voting.

But what do these words mean? And why are they important?

Let’s start with “Voting”. Voting is the action people take to let others know what they want. For example, have you ever been asked what you would like for dinner? There are so many options out there, but let’s focus on two: pizza and tacos!

Let’s see what some of our children’s librarians have to say about what they would like for dinner…

Now, it’s your turn! Out of these two, which one is your favorite? Can you either point to the one you like or say it out loud? Look at you! You just voted!

Did you notice that the librarians held up a piece of paper where they marked what they wanted for dinner? That’s called a ballot! If you want to create your own ballot, you can pause this video and write your dinner choice down on an index card!

Transition

Congratulations on voting for the first time!
Why don’t we celebrate your first vote with a song?!
Pssst, if you made a ballot during our dinner vote, you can use it during our song!

Song

There was a person with a ballot,
And Voter was their name-o.
V-O-T-E-R
V-O-T-E-R
V-O-T-E-R
And Voter was their name-o!
There was a person with a ballot,
And Voter was their name-o.
(clap)-O-T-E-R
(clap)-O-T-E-R
(clap)-O-T-E-R
And Voter was their name-o!

Transition

I hope you guys enjoyed that song! I had so much fun spelling “voter” with you!

Now it’s time to … READ OUR BOOK!

Book

“Around America to win the vote”
Written by Mara Rockliff, Illustrated by Hadley Hooper
Publisher: Candlewick Press

Transition

Wow! Nell and Alice traveled to a WHOLE lot of places! Do you remember what they kept repeating? That’s right! “Votes for Women”!

Nowadays, women can vote…but, as the book shows us, that was not always the case. The reason we are reading this picture book is because this year is the centennial celebration of Women’s Suffrage! What does that mean? It means that one hundred years have passed since women were first allowed to vote!

Action / Rhyme

Hmmm…one hundred is a big number…
What if we counted to one hundred with a song?!?
Now, counting by one would take forever, but let’s count by five!

[I put the numbers on the screen as I counted]

Goodbye Song

“The More We Get Together”

Outro

Thank families for watching and participating in today’s storytime and remind them to join us for the next storytime.

Additional Book Recommendations

“A Lady Has the Floor” – Belva Lockwood worked hard to make sure women and men were given equal opportunity at school, and before the law. She fought for the right to be a lawyer, she helped with the women’s suffrage movement, and she even ran for president!

“Lillian’s Right to Vote” – Celebrating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, this book takes the reader on a walk with Lillian, as she remembers pivotal moments in history on her way to cast her ballot.

“Vote for Our Future” – A great picture to introduce young kids to voting! This book provides definitions and examples of many parts of voting. Most importantly, it lets kids know that their opinion counts, even if they can’t vote yet!

Okay, that was a long script and outline but the voting and women’s suffrage storytime was so much fun to record and share with families! Plus, I was so happy to be able to share extra picture books that provided a more rounded view of voting and the history of women’s suffrage.

I think this is such an important topic to discuss with little ones, no matter how small they are, because all that information about the voting system will affect them at some point. If having these conversations feels hard, no worries, an imperfect conversation is better than no conversation at all. Plus, the above picture books will be a helpful starting point if you’re having a hard time starting.

This was a storytime post about a
Voting and Women’s Suffrage Storytime.