Music Heroes: Keith Richards

While Ms. Sarah was away at ALA, I got to do my very first story time all by myself for ages 4-8.

It was a story time tribute to the Rolling Stones legend Keith Richards.




To set the mood for this rockin' story time, I  opened with the song.

The song is called: Rock and Roll Rhythm Band by Greg and Steve. 

These are not my kids. It is just a YouTube video, but it is a nice representation of how the song goes, and how much fun it is! It was a wonderful opener & perfect to get even the youngest child's attention. I would highly recommend it for your story time needs. 

As I collected the instruments, I started to introduce who Keith Richards was. The biggest point I wanted to make was that he is not from the United States, and instead he is from Dartford, England. I wanted to make this point to explain why the book was a little different. I then talked about how even though Keith was not from the United States, he loved to listen to Jazz and Blues music. The week before we discussed Jazz & Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. So I wanted to make this point to have this series build on each other & show the progression of music. 

We then listened to a portion of the song Rolllin' Stone by Muddy Waters. 

If you don't know much about Rolling Stone history, this is the song that inspired Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to name the band the Rolling Stones. 

 I had the kids try to wiggle and sway to the beat of the music. They had a lot of fun with this, but I think we need to go over blues music on a later day. They did not know what to think about it. 

Finally, it was time to settle in to read our story of the day.  

I read the book Gus & Me by Keith Richards. 

If you haven't read this book, it is about how Keith's grandfather inspired him to play the guitar.

As I read the story, I looked out at my story time crowd and realized that my audience was all grandparents and grandkids.  I watched as they swayed together as I read the story, and I took in that moment when the grandparents got hugs at the end of the story.

It is a moment I think that will stay with me the rest of my life.

It was like a song in itself.

....& that is how my story time become an unintentional intergenerational story time.

This story was a wonderful way to bring these generations together in music. In fact, this might be one to repeat on grandparents day.

To end this music hero series, I invited my participants to do some activities.




Our first activity was to make paper plate guitars. I think the kids most enjoyed this activity.

I also had a station out for the kids to make thank you cards or pictures for a loved one. There were a lot of happy loved ones in the room.



It was very sweet. My favorite part was one of  participants said his middle name is Gus so he is going to become the next Keith Richards. He proceeded to rock out on his paper plate guitar & his grandmother joined in by singing the song "Paint it Black."

So look for them to go on tour in the future.

Overall it was a fantastic experience. In the words of the Rolling Stones, "

"You can't always get what you want, 
But if you try, sometimes well you just might find,
 You get what you need. "

This story time did not go as planned, but it turned out to be so much more. 

Until Next Time, 

Pamela