Storytime Activities and Video Recordings
Welcome to the Storytime Archives. Starting in the Spring of 2020, the ASP has been offering Live Storytime via Zoom for young children with their families or caregivers. Each Live Storytime book is listed below with a link to the video recording, if available, as well as any links to activities or materials that go with the reading. Select books and materials are also available to purchase at the ASP's online AstroShop.
Many of our favorite video readings are expiring soon due to the publisher requirements. Be sure to share them with a little one before they disappear. Book titles and all of the activities we shared on the Live Storytime episodes will continue to be available.
Send us your questions, drawings, and activities! We will share and post as permitted.
Breakfast Moon
Updated Recording of Live Storytime - Breakfast Moon (YouTube) as read at the Virtual Bay Area Science Festival October 21, 2020
Moon Journal Activity (PDF)
Extra Journal Pages to download (PDF)
Shop the AstroShop for the ASP's exclusive edition of Breakfast Moon
More about Breakfast Moon
Moonbear's Shadow
Recording of Live Storytime - Moonbear's Shadow (YouTube)
More about Bear's Shadow from the ASP's My Sky Tonight program.
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
Please note that this video was only available through August 31, 2020.
If you choose to purchase this book through Amazon, please use smile.amazon and select the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to donate towards.
There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars
Recording of Live Storytime - There Once Was a Sky Full of Stars (YouTube)
If you choose to purchase this book through Amazon, please use smile.amazon and select the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to donate towards.
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot
Note: Due to publisher restrictions, this reading was not recorded.
Build your own space explorer activity. Materials to find and use: a small piece of cardboard (roughly 4”x4” but exact size and shape can vary!), tape and/or glues stick, scissors, and a collection of small odds and ends and doodads from around the house, for example: wooden chopsticks, drinking straws, bottle caps, cotton balls, party favors, bits of foil, paper clips. Activity Video on Vimeo
If you choose to purchase this book through Amazon, please use smile.amazon and select the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to donate towards.
Laika the Astronaut
Note: Due to publisher restrictions, this reading was not recorded.
If you choose to purchase this book through Amazon, please use smile.amazon and select the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to donate towards.
On the Moon
Recording of Live Storytime - On the Moon (YouTube).
Lunar Landscape Activity: Children created their own space helmets out of paper bags and decorated them. Join in on this simple and creative activity!
If you choose to purchase this book through Amazon, please use smile.amazon and select the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to donate towards.
IMANI's Moon
Written by JaNay Brown-Wood and illustrated by Hazel Mitchell, Imani's Moon an illustrated children’s storybook, tells the story of Imani a Maasai girl who wants to touch the Moon. Despite teasing, she works hard to reach her goal.
While we were not granted permission to video tape our recording, we are able to share with you a reading of Imani's Moon by the Author, JaNay Brown-Wood.
Drawing the Moon Activity: Draw observations of the Moon from photographs or actual observations. You only need some paper and drawing tools then look for the Moon in the sky, and draw what you see! View our recorded activity session of Drawing the Moon.
Moon Rope/Un lazo a la luna
Digital Storytime - Moon Rope / Un lazo a la luna (YouTube)
Our reading in July offered an English & Spanish reading of the illustrated children’s storybook, Moon Rope / Un lazo a la luna, by Lois Ehlert. Fox and Mole set off on an adventure to the Moon, with help from a rope of grass and their friends the birds.
After reading the book, the children shared their own drawings of the moon using a blank sheet of paper or our Moon Story Sheet, Kids can do this at any time - they just need paper and some markers or other drawing tools.
Ada Twist, Scientist
Digital Storytime: Ada Twist, Scientist (YouTube)
Our August reading featured the illustrated children’s storybook, Ada Twist, Scientist, written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts. Ada is a very curious child, always asking, “Why?” and trying to find the answer, even when her investigations make a big mess and frustrate the adults around her. But that doesn’t stop Ada, who is driven to think like a scientist.
After reading the book, the children got to think like scientists, too, by trying a simple experiment.
Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations
Digital Storytime - Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations (YouTube)
Jacqueline Mitton, author of the illustrated children’s storybook, Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations, joined our listeners for a reading of her book for our September Live Storytime. Beautifully illustrated by Christina Balit exploring a sky full of bears, dogs, dragons, and other animals! Enjoy the reading in our YouTube recording to hear their exciting stories, accompanied by beautiful glittering illustrations of these starry animals.
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After reading the book, we created our own constellation stories. Please print the “Create Your Own Constellation” drawing sheet to create your own!
Sarla in the Sky
Digital Storytime: Sarla in the Sky (YouTube)
In October, Live Storytime told the story of Sarla, inspired by the real life adventures of India’s first female pilot.
If You Look Up to the Sky
Digital Storytime: If You Look Up to the Sky
Author, Angela Dalton, joined us for our December 15 Live Storytime to read her illustrated children’s storybook, If You Look Up to the Sky, illustrated by Margarita Sikorskaia. Told by a grandmother to her grandchild, this is a story about the power of everlasting love and the ways the sky connects us through good times and bad.
Moustronaut
Digital Storytime: Mousetronaut, (YouTube)
Mousetronaut, written by U.S Senator and retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, and illustrated by C.F. Payne, tells the story of a small mouse that wants nothing more than to travel to outer space. The little mouse works as hard as the bigger mice to show readiness for the mission and is chosen for the flight! While in space, the astronauts are busy with their mission when disaster strikes, and only the smallest member of the crew can save the day.
Ron's Big Mission
Digital Storytime: (YouTube Video)
Ron's Big Mission, written by Rose Blue & Corrinne Naden and illustrated by Don Tate, tells the story of nine-year-old Ron, who loves going to the Lake City Public Library to look through all the books on airplanes and flight. Today, Ron is ready to take out books by himself. But in the segregated world of South Carolina in the 1950s, Ron's obtaining his own library card is not just a small rite of passage—it is a young man's first courageous mission. Here is an inspiring story, based on Ron McNair's life, of how a little boy, future scientist, and Challenger astronaut desegregated his library through peaceful resistance.
What Miss Mitchell Saw
Digital Storytime - YouTube Channel
What Miss Mitchell Saw, written by Hayley Barrett and illustrated by Diana Sudyka. Every evening, from the time she was a child, Maria Mitchell stood on her rooftop with her telescope and swept the sky. And then one night she saw something unusual—a comet no one had ever seen before! Miss Mitchell’s extraordinary discovery made her famous the world over and paved the way for her to become America’s first professional female astronomer.
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After the Storytime, we created simple comets with this creative activity.
Margaret and the Moon: How Margaret Hamilton Saved the First Lunar Landing, written by Dean Robbins and illustrated by Lucy Knisely
Digital Storytime - YouTube Channel
Margaret Hamilton loved numbers as a young girl. She knew how many miles it was to the Moon (and how many back). She loved studying math and using it to solve problems. Soon math led her to MIT and then to helping NASA put a person on the Moon! She wrote code that would allow the spacecraft’s computer to solve any problems it might encounter. Apollo 8. Apollo 9. Apollo 10. Apollo 11. Without her code, none of those missions could have been completed.
Follw the Moon Home - written by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson, and illustrated by Meilo So
Digital Storytime - YouTube Channel
Follow the Moon Home: A Tale of One Idea, Twenty Kids, and a Hundred Sea Turtles, written by Philippe Cousteau and Deborah Hopkinson, and illustrated by Meilo So. Viv has a new home and a new school by the sea. Follow her as she finds her way in a new place and helps bring together a whole community to save the sea turtles of the South Carolina coast.
Mae Among the Stars, written by Roda Ahmed and illustrated by Stasia Burrington
Digital Storytime - YouTube Channel
Mae Among the Stars is a children's storybook inspired by the life of the first African American woman to travel in space, Mae Jemison.
Activity after Storytime: We created drawings of astronauts together! Paper and drawing tools such as markers or crayons are all you need.
How to Draw an Astronaut (YouTube video)
Round Like a Ball, Round Like a Ball, written and illustrated by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Digital Storytime - YouTube
This book offers a gentle tribute to our planet and a timely reminder that we all need to take care of it.
The post-reading activity included a show-and-tell of natural objects, collected from outside to share with the group after the reading.
