National Library Week 2015

We had to take a break from the alphabet to celebrate National Library Week.  Despite an unattended extra evening session, this storytime went fabulously.

BOOKS:

We read A Library Book for Bear by Bonnie Becker and The Midnight Library by Kazuno Kohara.

Both of these books are just darling and perfect for the topic and for reading aloud.  I love Becker’s Bear series.  I love to give Bear a low distinguished voice and Mouse a high squeaky one.  Bear is a good read for children who don’t want to get out of their comfort zone.  The Midnight Library is a charming story about the little librarian and her owl assistants.  I hope she makes another appearance in a Kohara story.  The illustrations are bold lined, clean, and adorable.  I think the color blocking that’s used is genius.  Both of these went over well in storytime.

ACTION RHYME:

We did “If You’re a Reader and You Know It” – modified from “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”  Our verses were clap your hands, stomp your feet, shout hooray and read a book.  Borrowed from Storytime Katie.

SONG:

I had the great pleasure of weeding our board book collection a few weeks ago and I stumbled onto this gem.

Not only is this an awesome board book about the library, it’s also a song.  There’s a note in the front that says that this can be sung to the tune of “The Muffin Man.”  As I am a resourceful library, I looked up the ukulele chords to “The Muffin Man” and typed out the lyrics with the chords.  This was our song for the week.  If you want a copy of song with chords, comment here with your email or you can send me an email and ask: ascherer@egflibrary.org.

CRAFT:

I knew I wanted to do paperbag books, but it took me a little while to figure out what to put inside of them.  I spontaneously came up with some drawing prompts and a few pictures.  Here’s my book.

The kids really enjoyed making their books and they liked the combo of drawing with markers plus gluing.  That seems to be a thing with them.  I don’t mind.  I like drawing with markers and gluing.  I think this is a cute craft that could be used with other topics too.  Easily adaptable.

Lunar New Year

My new calendar this year has all kinds of holidays in it, including Waitangi Day, Mothering Sunday, and Chinese New Year.  With the great push for more diverse books, I thought that Chinese New Year was a holiday theme that I wanted to try out this year.  I do have mixed feelings about it – having taken several classes dealing with diversity and multiculturalism, I realize that it isn’t fair or accurately representative to only talk about multicultural holidays: “The Heroes and Holidays approach trivializes the overall experiences, contributions, struggles, and voices of non-dominant groups, consistent with a Eurocentric, male-centric curriculum” from EdChange.org.  But at the same time, in storytime, we have to start somewhere.  I have been adding books both to our collection and to my storytime repetoire that feature multicultural characters and multicultural experiences.

I did do some research on the topic so I could educate parents and give some background on the stories.  I found out through my research that many Asian countries celebrate their new year at this time so it is more appropriately called the Lunar New Year, rather than the Chinese New Year.  2015 is the year of the sheep.

BOOKS: 

We read Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin and A New Year’s Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong and Zhu Cheng-Liang.

Both books were a little long for my mostly toddler storytime, but they dealt with many of the same aspects of the Lunar New Year without being repetitive or being the same story.  It was a good reinforcer.  I personally like A New Year’s Reunion a little more because I love the painted illustrations and the story of a young girl enjoying her dad’s brief visit.  Bringing in the New Year is bright and colorful and informative.

FINGERPLAY:

We learned how to say hello in Mandarin for our fingerplay.

Let’s wave and say “Ni hao (nee how),”
Let’s wave and say “Ni hao.”
Let’s say “hello” to all our friends,
Let’s wave and say “ni hao.”

From Talk Story, a joint project of the American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific Librarians Association.

SONG:

I absolutely love Nancy Stewart’s music.  Clapping in the Castle is instantly stuck in my head whenever I think about it.  She has a version of Gung Hay Fat Choy that we listened to and did the accompanying actions.

CRAFT:

We made dragon masks to bring luck into the new year.  The craft was very easy, but time consuming to prep.  I maybe would do the masks again, but make the mask one piece or just have fewer pieces.

National Library Week 2014

I learned a BIG lesson with this one.  We do not have interesting books about libraries in our easy fiction collection.  I tried three different books in the two storytimes I had this week and they all kind of flopped.  Part of it might have been that the Wednesday group was a lot younger and they were super distracted by the baby who had just learned to walk and needed to stand all through storytime. So yeah, I would say that this storytime wasn’t a success, but I’m going to blog about it anyway.

BOOKS:

Mighty Mike Builds a Library by Kelly Lynch, The Library by Sarah Stewart, and I Don’t Like to Readby Nancy Carlson

I chose Mighty Mike because, duh, heavy equipment.  But nothing really exciting happens in the story.  Mike decides to build a library and he does it.  There needs to be some kind of twist where it doesn’t look like the library is actually going to happen.  I picked up I Don’t Like to Read because I love Nancy Carlson and it looked shorter for the toddler audience.  But toddlers can’t read and they don’t get why it’s a thing and the baby was walking around and around and around so this one didn’t catch that much attention.  I really like The Library.  The pictures are beautiful, and the story is near and dear to my heart.  I think I probably would buy books until I couldn’t move around any more if left to my own devices.  Kids don’t care.  They want their action and adventure and this just doesn’t have it.  *SIGH* I’m going to root around and find some books that will work.  I’m not ready to give up on good books about libraries yet.

SONG:

I was super excited about this one.  We sang “These Are My Glasses” by Laurie Berkner.  We did the practice actions at the beginning of the song like she does on the CD and then sang the song all the way through twice.  It was good.   I do think that we could’ve done something with even bigger actions and that would’ve helped them get some of their wiggles out.

CRAFT:

We made…….bookmarks! Of course!  I set out markers and foam stickers and the bookmarks and the kids went to town.  They used more stickers than markers, but that’s okay.  My Wednesday group was still so crazy that half of them didn’t even make bookmarks because they were distracted and wanted to build blocks or walk around or something.

My big takeaway from this week was just let it go.  If they don’t want to make bookmarks, just let them play.  No big deal.  Also I need to get braver and just interrupt a story and start a song.  It goes against my VERY NATURE to do this, but I have to.  It’ll be better for everyone in storytime.  NEXT WEEK is bears so it should be a better time had by all.

Librarian's Choice 1

I like to do these periodically, usually when we’re nearing a holiday and I think that attendance will be low.  I just pick a few stories that I like that might not fit in a theme and that’s what we read.  I didn’t feel up to the Fourth of July since I’d had some holiday related storytimes already this year that I thought fell kind of flat.  (Best one was Thanksgiving because of the turkey puppet craft).

BOOKS:

We read The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems.

I started with The Napping House because I’ve found that I have a tendency to start with the narrative-heavy stories first and then go to the shorter, rhyme-y books.  Gotta shake it up!  But really, with its rhythmic text and nice flow, The Napping House would have been the best book to end with.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  Moving on.  Knuffle Bunny is great.  Mo Willems writes FABULOUS read-aloud books, in my humble opinion.

SONG:

We listened to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.  Since this was an open day, I wanted to do some contemporary music, with the thought that it’s okay to listen and sing to “normal” non-child oriented music.  The kids recognized the song from Despicable Me 2, but I don’t mind.  WE ALSO USED SHAKERS because nothing gets kids up and moving around like a shaker.

CRAFT:

We used an old stand-by for this week: noodle necklaces.  I think this one was more fun for me than for anyone else because I got to dye the noodles.  I had some baby tube noodles left over from a failed Christmas craft and boxes of penne.  I dyed them using rubbing alcohol and food coloring.  I will say this: BUY THE NEON FOOD COLORING.  It is fabulous.  You get REALLY bright colors.

For Tuesday’s storytime, I used liquid starch to make a pointy end of the yarn.  I thought it would be perfect.  NO.  Kids are not always delicate ladies when it comes to threading and stringing so the ends quickly got smashed and frayed and we had to resort to makeshifting ends out of scotch tape.  For Wednesday’s storytime, I wrapped all the yarn ends in a little bit of masking tape.

This worked SOOOOO much better.  I highly recommend the masking tape over the scotch tape and preparing it ahead of time.  Anyway, here is my noodle necklace which I made today to match my outfit.  Yes, I will probably wear it all day.  Even during summer reading program.

Happy Halloween!

My mom has this tiny little stuffed witch that giggles demonically and then screams, “Happy Halloweeeeen!”  It scares the crap out of her cat and it makes me laugh every single time.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (it’s not my ultimate favorite holiday – that’s Thanksgiving).  So, of course, I had my costume ready early and I picked out my books early and I was ready and raring to go with this one.

BOOKS:

We read The Hallowiener by Dav Pilkey and Sheep Trick or Treat by Nancy Shaw.

Sheep Trick or Treat was okay.  The Hallowiener was FABULOUS though.  Next year (unless I find something else that’s pure awesome) I’ll probably read The Hallowiener and Room on the Broom.  Both of those stories are well illustrated, funny, and just good stories.

FINGERPLAY:

With my trusty black velcro glove, we went through Five Little Pumpkins.

“Five Little Pumpkins”

Five little pumpkins were sitting on a gate
The first one said, “Oh my, it’s getting late!”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
The third one said, “But we don’t care!”?
The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.”
The fifth one said, “We are ready for some fun!”
And the wind went OOOOOOHHHHH
And out went the lights
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

 SONG:

We listened to the Monster Mash while we paraded around the library.  GOSH, small kids in costumes are so so SOO cute!

I had to include that one of me so you can fully appreciate my unicorn costume.

CRAFT:

For our craft, we made masking tape mummies.  I pinned this what feels like a million years ago and was psyched to finally get to use it.  Tape + kids = awesome.  Kids love tape.  Tape and glue.  Anything that’s sticky really.

This is one that was sadly left behind.  Not of my own making, but you can see the basic elements.  GREAT craft.

Grow Grow Grow

Our theme for the beginning of May was Gardening!  The beginning of May is usually all flowers and tulips and grass (and if you’re like me, ALLERGIES!), but for us Minnesotans, it was raaaaaaaaaainnnnny!

BOOKS:

My Garden by Kevin Henkes, Muncha Muncha Muncha by Candace Fleming, and Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres

We didn’t read three books – sorry for the false advertising.  One day I read Up, Down and Around and the other day I read  My Garden.  The clear favorite was Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! The kids like the sound effects of the rabbits and hearing about what Mr. McGreely was going to do to solve the problem.

FINGERPLAY:

I found via Sur La Lune Storytime the fingerplay/rhyme “There’s Something in my Garden.”  This was awesome.  I bought a pack of seven (I think…) fingerpuppets at IKEA the last time I was there and there happened to be a frog, a mouse, and a rabbit in there, so I used those for this (no crow though).

There’s something in my garden,
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can’t really see.
Hear its funny sound….
RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK.
A FROG/RABBIT/MOUSE is what I found!
RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK –RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK – RIBBIT/THUMP/SQUEAK.

CRAFT:

The craft was my favorite of the year.  We got clear plastic cups and put some stickers on them to fancy them up, and then put in dirt (old dry potting soil) and grass seeds!  It really smelled good in the storytime room – like fresh earth and the kids LOVE getting messy so everyone was excited for this one.  I am happy to admit that I have ONE blade of grass so far growing in my cup – I checked this morning.  I will definitely repeat some sort of planting craft.  It was a lot of fun and not as messy as I thought it would be.

My Five Senses

My storytimes have been primarily populated with toddlers lately.  I am not complaining.  In fact, I’m trying to pick some more toddler friendly books and themes.  The five senses was my first major toddler focused theme.  It seemed to work out okay.

BOOKS:

We read My Five Senses by Aliki and Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.

My Five Senses is short, repetitive and informative.  Unfortunately for a read-aloud, it’s also a little boring.  I hope it wasn’t me.  I tried to liven it up by asking questions, having kids point out their sensing bodily parts.  But there were lots of little bodies squirming at the end.  We jumped right into Seven Blind Mice which I think was a mistake.  I think I really need to restructure storytime a bit and add a stretching/physical activity or a song in between the stories.  (When I started here, the kids only read one book and did a craft – no songs, no activities, nada – so storytime has been a work in progress.  We now sing an opening song, read two books, sing a song or do a fingerplay or flannelboard, and a craft).  Seven Blind Mice went better.  The kids were guessing what the “Something” was.

ACTIVITY:

We did The Five Senses Storytime Stretch, which I borrowed from Ryan the Librarian.  It goes a little something like this:

Rub your hands to get some feeling
Stretch your ears to make sure you’re hearing
Sniff, sniff to test your smell
Sniff, sniff to test your smell
Blink, blink to test your sight
How many figures am I holding up?
Blink, blink to test your sight
NOW how many fingers am I holding up?
Lastly, it’s time for some tongue push-ups!
Ready…
Stick your tongue out!  Up down—up down!
Now left right—left right!
Round and round!

The kids LOVED sticking out their tongues and moving them all around.  This would have been PERFECT in between stories.  Sigh, next time.

CRAFT:

We made five senses bears.  I really liked the idea of a five senses face or bear, but all of the ones I found online had nose as a button (because they have two holes like our nose – we don’t have enough buttons nor money for buttons right now) or perfume sprayed cotton balls.  Gross.  I am a bit of a nose sensitive person (my husband more so) so the idea of spraying perfume on something and unleashing it into a small enclosed space was more than I could bear.  SO.  I was just going to use the cotton balls as is, but when I found a picture of someone else’s five senses bear, they had a piece of big red gum as the tongue.  PERFECT.  The gum works as a taster AND makes things smelly.  PERFECT.  Here’s my bear.

Speeding! Spraying! Saving!

I have been running out of steam on science storytimes here at the end of summer reading program.  (I always feel like summer reading program should be capitalized to show how big and important it is – Summer Reading Program – see?!)  So I went with an old standby: Firefighters.

BOOKS:

We read Firehouse by Mark Teague and Firefighters! Speeding! Spraying! Saving! by Patricia Hubbell.

Both books were great.  No complaints here.  Firehouse had a little bit of a storyline which kept the kids interested and Firefighters had the noises and speed.  (I guess, now that I’m thinking about it, Firehouse did have a rather abrupt ending.)

FINGERPLAY:

We did “Five Little Fireman.”  The kids liked the SHOUT and jump.  

Five Little Firemen

Five little firemen standing in a row, 
1 2 3 4 5 lets go. 
Jump on the engine with a SHOUT, 
As quick as a wink the fire is out.

Four little firemen standing in a row, 
1 2 3 4 shhh lets go. 
Jump on the engine with a Shout 
As quick as a wink the fire is out.

(maintain the same pattern for the rest of the fingerplay)

CRAFT:

We made our own firetrucks, complete with a ladder that goes up and down.  I love crafts that end with a product that is interactive – puppets or moving parts or masks.  Here’s mine:

My big regret with this storytime is that I didn’t call the firehouse (which is literally across the street) and have a firefighter come over.  I will definitely plan on doing this again next year and having the firefighters be our special guests.

I feel sooooo..........

This week we read books about FEELINGS!  I thought this was a very successful storytime.  The kids who have been coming in for storytime have been more like toddlers than preschoolers so I’ve been trying to gear my books to match the participants.  This was the first week that I felt like I really hit it out of the park.

BOOKS:

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard and My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

Both of these books were relatively short, but still lent themselves to an expressive retelling.  Grumpy Bird gets to say some GREAT lines and My Many Colored Days is lyrical in only the way a Dr. Seuss book can be.

SONG (AND STUFF):

Before we sang a song (obviously we sang and listened to “If You’re Happy and You Know It”), we took some time to think about how different things make us feel.  I saw this idea on Falling Flannelboards and knew it would be perfect for this storyime.

I put up the Happy and Sad flannels and then we sorted each item into a category (Saraj Ghoting told me that sorting was MATH at a PLA session so yeah, WE DID MATH IN STORYTIME).  I tried very hard not to do vocal cues when describing the items so the kids could decide on their own and they did really well.  And after that we clapped our hands, stomped our feet, wiggled our ears, and shouted HOORAY because we were so happy.

CRAFT:

This one wasn’t too inspired, but kids ALWAYS like things that they can play with or turn around or put their hands into.  So we made these feelings half-masks.  They can use them to show that they are happy or sad.  Not too original, but lots of gluing (which seems to be a thing with kids – me, personally, I’d rather color or paint or something, but they really like using glue sticks).

Once Upon a Time...

That’s right!  I’m only a little over a year into this storytime THANG and we just got to fairy tales.  I have super mixed feeling about this storytime, as you will see, and I think I would do a lot of it differently.  How do you handle fairy tales in your storytime?

BOOKS:

I borrowed The Sunflower Sword by Mark Sperring and Miriam Latimer and King Jack and the Dragon by Peter Bently and Helen Oxenbury from the local public library across town.

Both of the stories are fun.  I really liked King Jack and the Dragon better than The Sunflower Sword, but both were appropriate for storytime.  They were a little lacking in the feel of fairy tales, if you know what I mean.  There were knights and dragons and even some danger, but there’s a certain something to a fairy tale.  I think if I were to do this storytime again I would choose one book that was a traditional fairy tale and tell another.  I didn’t take storytelling in grad school for nothing!  I would also make this a folk/fairy tales.  I like folk tales and sometimes they’re more tellable or more interesting than fairy tales.  Also I’m not sure how many of my young attendees actually knew the mainstream fairy tales.

FOLDER STORY:

This was something new to me that I discovered via Falling Flannelboards.  I’d never done a folder story before, but I would do it again.  I like the mix of storytelling plus prop.  This one was Cinderella’s Rat.  The full story can be found on Falling Flannelboards.

This was successful.  I incorporated some actions for the kids to help me with and the story told very easily.  I might cut the number of colors down to only a few or add some more narrative, but what I had worked.

SONG:

I really really really really like this song: Clapping in the Castle.  It is SOOOOOO perfect for storytime.  The words are simple and there are easy actions and the tune is damn catchy.  I can’t tell you how many times i was walking around the library or around the house humming this.  You can download the MP3 from the linked website (just right click the MP3 link and “Save Target As”).

CRAFT:

We made DRAGONS!  I am super excited about this craft.  We used green paper cups that I cut a hole in the bottom, green pompoms, googly eyes, and red and yellow crepe paper streamers.  Super super super easy craft.  The kids loved blowing in the cup and seeing their dragon “breathe fire.”

Drawing

In my random wanderings through our easy fiction books, I found The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg.  I just loved it – the creation and destruction and whimsy and thought, “Man, I should do a storytime about drawing.”  Easier said than done.  But here is my valiant effort.

BOOKS:

We read Go to Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing and The Pencil by Allan Ahlberg.

I really like The Pencil.  The kids liked guessing what was going to happen next and all the different (silly) names of the characters.  I did have a few babies my second day who really were talking up a storm until halfway through this book.  I need to work on my getting everybody’s attention stuff and waiting and doing other things to make sure everyone is attentive during the stories.  It isn’t a skill that I’ve honed yet (or really even practiced to tell you the truth).  Go to Bed, Monster is fun.  It’s quick and has action and I could definitely see moms who were sympathizing with Lucy as she tried to get Monster to go to bed.

SONG:

I lucked out on this one.  I had Sing and Read with Greg and Steve on my iPad and played Rainbow of Colors.  I also made BIG THINGS that were different colors and hung them around the room so when Greg and Steve sang, “Do you see something blue now?” the kids had to go stand by the something blue.  Here are my BIG THINGS:

Oh and we have green frogs on our bulletin board right now (one with each kid’s name for a unique count) and that’s the green thing they had to see.

CRAFT:

Our craft was a process craft.  I gave them crayons and a piece of white paper and had them draw their “masterpiece.”  Once they were all done, we framed them in fancy yellow construction paper frames so they could hang them up at home.  I did have one little girl who tried to glue hers to the wall…..luckily mom and I caught that one in time.

Here's my "masterpiece."

To the Dogs!

I have puppy fever BAD.  My husband and I are buying a house (only a few more days until closing!) and all I can think about is getting a dog.  Which is ridiculous because we already have two cats (one of whom is extremely opinionated and bossy and active).  But still.  It’s there.  So this week for storytime, I had to indulge myself.

BOOKS: 

We read Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazee and Zorro Gets an Outfit by Carter Goodrich.

Zorro was a little better received than Boot and Shoe, but I think that’s because Boot and Shoe was a little too long and little too repetitive (you know, those things you don’t necessarily notice when you’re reading silently to yourself and are enthralled with the pictures).  I think for next time I will choose a different book – something maybe rhyme-y or adventure-like.  

SONG: 

We sang the very delightful My Dog Rags which I found and learned from the lovely ladies at Jbrary.

CRAFT: 

Slinky Accordion Puppies!  I free-handed and printed off puppy fronts and puppy backs and puppy ears.  The kids went to town coloring their puppy fronts and backs.  I was a little disappointed that most of the parents folded the accordion part themselves instead of letting the kids at least try.  I think if the model that I had created had had bigger folds maybe it would have looked easier to mom and dad and they would have let the kids do it themselves.

Cookie Cookie Cookie starts with C

Since I started here, I’ve been dying to do a cookie storytime.  Two of my all-time favorite authors have books about cookies (Mo Willems and Karma Wilson) but I was stumped for the longest time on what kind of a craft to do.  Just making a big cookie out of a paper plate is so unsatisfying.  BUT! Pinterest to the rescue!  I found something else.

BOOKS:

The Duckling Gets a Cookie by Mo Willems and The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson

These books are both fabulous storytime reads.  The Cow Loves Cookies works on multiple levels – it’s a bit rhymey and we get our fix of barnyard animals.  I love the colorful illustrations and the last page, of course.  The Duckling Gets a Cookie might not work for everyone, but I LOOOOOOOVE to do voices.  Most of the kids get the references to the other books (“I ask to drive a bus!”) and the Pigeon is so silly.  Overall, two thumbs up to two great books.

SONG:

We were extremely fortunate this week to have received our new sound system (WHAT? YES! A NEW SOUND SYSTEM!) and been able to have it installed before storytime.  So we HAD to listen to a song this week.  I chose (as any respectable children’s librarian would) C is for Cookie.  We got out the shakers and the scarves and had a little dance party.  It was AWESOME.

CRAFT:

We made cookie bakers!  This is a little more rigorous than my usual craft – lots and lots of pieces and lots of gluing.  The kids don’t mind all the gluing – they really like to use the glue sticks.  I think they turned out adorably.  (I did have one mom who saw the blue construction paper and said making cookie monster would really make her little girl’s day – I was sorry to disappoint).

Community Helpers

I read about this theme on SLC Book Boy’s blog and I just HAD to do it.  I like the idea of kids knowing who the helpers are in the community and knowing the idea that contributing to the community is a good thing.  Also Mr. Rogers.  FTW.

BOOKS:

We read Mr. Griggs’ Work by Cynthia Rylant and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.

The pigeon was by far the favorite of the two stories.  I picked Mr. Griggs’ Work because it was cute and relatively short and I love the post office.  But it isn’t action packed and actually very little happens in the story, so it was hard to keep the kids’ attention.  I would definitely pick a different book the next time this theme comes around – maybe Gloria and Officer Buckle.

FLANNELBOARD:

I borrowed this from SLC Book Boy because it went with the pigeon book and I love love loved the little felt vehicles.  I put up a bunch of different felt vehicles and one had a tiny felt pigeon behind it.  We went through and talked quickly about each vehicle and then the kids had to guess which one the pigeon wanted to drive.  HUGE hit.

CRAFT:

I was super duper stumped for this one.  What kind of craft can you create that encompasses the gist of community helpers?  We ended up making a doctor’s kit, but it wasn’t really what I was aiming for.  I’ll keep the theme in my brain and try to shake out a better idea later.

Chicken? Nobody Calls Me Chicken

I have a whole host of completely random storytime themes for August and September and I could not be more pumped for them.  First up CHICKENS!  There are so many cute chicken books!  Also a bunch of my friends have recently decided to get chickens for eggs and meat, and it has been completely fascinating to watch the little chicks grow up into full blown chickens.  Through Facebook.  Not in the flesh because after Jurassic Park, they look like little velociraptors to me.

BOOKS:

We have a three-fer!  On Tuesday, I read Wings by James Marshall and Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke.  On Wednesday, I only had three toddlers and read Ed’s Egg by David Bedford and Karen Sapp and Minerva Louise.

Wings is so cute and so funny, but it’s also pretty long.  It would be the perfect kindergarten read-aloud.  The interesting thing about both Minerva Louise and Ed’s Egg is that they definitely need one to read the pictures.  Ed slowly loses his egg and Minerva Louise picks all the silliest places to sit.  Both are a great length for toddlers, but almost require a preschooler’s reading skills.

SONG:

Obviously, we did the chicken dance.  What kind of chicken storytime would it be if we didn’t do the chicken dance?  Thank goodness for Amazon Prime Music.  They had lots of chicken dance songs to pick from.

CRAFT:

We made paper plate chickens who peck!  This was an easy craft that had some nice tactile elements, since we used crepe paper as “feathers.”

I vined it so you could see how cute it was.  :D

https://vine.co/v/M9YvtUH3BJx 

Caterpillars

Still more science!  We read caterpillar books this week and talked about the changes that caterpillars go through to become butterflies.

BOOKS:

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle because of course, what kind of children’s librarian would I be if I didn’t read this one?  And Bob and Otto by Nick Bruel.

Both of these books were fantastic for storytime.  Many of the children had already heard The Very Hungry Caterpillar and one even came up to me before I started reading and told me (in a whisper, of course) that it was her FAVORITE book.  Bob and Otto touches on familiar storytime themes – friendship, conflict and resolution – but it also brings up some important science facts – like metamorphosis and the role earthworms play in the growth of plants.  Two thumbs up for both books.

SONG:

We sang “The Life of a Butterfly” which I borrowed from Storytime Katie’s blog.  I think that we should have sang it through two times –I need to get in the habit of doing that, but the kids did the actions and the parents sang along.

"The Life of a Butterfly" (Tune: Skip to My Lou)

I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with  me
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with  me
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with  me
What will I be my darlin'?

(A chrysalis, now sleep with me / A butterfly, come fly with me)

CRAFT:

We made our very own Very Hungry Caterpillars.  I love this craft.  It is adorable.  If we had more time with storytime, I would have had the kids punch their own holes in the leaves (I don’t have enough hole punchers either though now that I think about it) and talk about how the caterpillar makes the holes.  Anyway.  I love mine.  It’s hanging out on my desk with some of my other favorite craft projects.

Blankies!

As it’s getting colder, my husband and I have pulled out our favorite blankets from their respective hiding spots.  I don’t think there is anything better than snuggling up in a blanket with a good book or movie.  With the weather turning and school getting into full swing, the time is just right for a blanket storytime.

BOOKS:

We read Small Bunny’s Blue Blanket by Tatyana Feeney and Flora’s Blanket by Debi Gliori.

These were both really good titles.  I didn’t make the connection until I started reading on Tuesday that both books were about bunnies and blankies.  So when I did figure it out we talked about the letter B and the sound that it makes.

FLANNELBOARD:

I’m a little sad I didn’t take any pictures of this one, but I borrowed this idea from Ms. Anna at Future Librarian Superhero: She took some animals and made really cute felt blankets and had the children guess who was under which blanket.  My blankets weren’t so cute and I reused animals from other flannelboard stories, but the kids really liked guessing.  (I was so happy with this that I did a little more gamification in the Socks and Shoes storytime too).

CRAFT:

This has been one of my favorite crafts.  I borrowed it from Storytime Katie.  We had a white sheet with a bear on it and we had to make Bear his very own blanket.  We used cut up origami sheets because I had some sitting around.  Some had quilts that were all different colors and some were only one color (We have one of the cutest little boys whose favorite color is pink).  Super fun, super easy, toddler approved.

Bicycles and Safety

I knew that May was Bicycle Safety month and I wanted to do a bike safety event.  I didn’t know that the organization that usually does such events goes to all of the elementary schools in the region before the end of school.  BUT the ladies were all fired up about coming to storytime and selling VERY discounted bicycle helmets to attendees.

BOOKS:

These are the books I picked out for storytime, but the lady who came had another safety related book she wanted to read.  I have decided that in the future if we have storytime guests, I will let them do their own thing, but I will still read the stories.  No offense to the guest.  She did just fine and her talk about the brain and keeping safe was great (just not her story reading).  In fact, I think her bike helmet demo was the kids’ favorite.  She had eggs and put one in a special egg helmet and let the kids drop an unprotected egg and the helmeted egg into a bucket.  Obviously the unprotected egg broke and the other one didn’t.

Holding a squishy fake brain

SONG:

I borrowed this from Storytime Katie.  I made a ton of different colored bikes and handed them out to all of the kids and then they brought up their bikes as we sang the song.  It was a little chaotic and some forgot which colors to put where and when, but it all ended up working out okay.

CRAFT:

We made our own bicycles with wheels that turned.  I purposefully made the craft easy because I knew that parents would be in and out with their children, getting fitted for bicycle helmets.  It was one that people could just pick up and do at their own pace.  I did print the bike frames out of cardstock, but they were still pretty flimsy.

Being Sick :(

Being sick is the pits.  And so much illness seems to go around in the winter time that this seemed like an appropriate theme for this week’s storytime.  Most kids have been sick before (and they like to talk about it – throwing up, pooping, etc.) and they can relate.

BOOKS:

We read Doctor Ted by Andrea Beaty and Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson

Bear Feels Sick is awesome – it rhymes, it’s relatable, you can do voices.  All of my favorite parts of a good storytime story.  Doctor Ted is a quite hilarious book – but it’s more for older kids.  Young kids don’t understand that what Ted is saying is nonsense – adults do and they laugh, but not so much preschoolers and toddlers.  I will use a different book if I do this one again.

SONG:

We sang a handwashing song that I had originally seen on Miss Michelle’s blog.  She says that she found the song in Songs and Games for Fours by Jean Warren, and the song is attributed to Betty Silkunas.  The song mentions washing on the left and on the right so we talked about which hand was which before we sang the song – and I, OF COURSE, forgot the first day to use my opposite hand, but remembered today.  So I washed up on my right while they washed up on their left.  :D

“I soap up on the left.
I soap up on the right.
I rub and scrub and wash my hands;
The dirt goes out of sight!

“I rinse off on the left.
I rinse off on the right.
I rinse and rinse and rinse my hands;
The dirt goes out of sight!”

CRAFT:

I also R&Ded this craft (Ripped Off and Duplicated).  Much thanks to Storytime Katie for the craft idea.  We made butterflies out of butterfly shaped construction paper and bandaids.  The kids then spent the rest of their craft time decorating and coloring their butterflies and their “sky.”  It’s hard to think of a craft for being sick – but another one that just came to mind would be to create a face and put little red circle stickers on it – like chicken pox.  Kids LOVE stickers.  

Bears are Everywhere!

After two storytime flops, I’m back this week with a hit: Bears.  Animal storytimes almost always go over well.  Storytime did get a little long this week, but it worked out.

BOOKS:

Xander’s Panda Party by Linda Sue Park and Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep by Maureen Wright.

I wish that one of these books wasn’t so rhyme-y, because they’re both kind of rhythmy, rhyme-y books.  I like to switch my books up.  One with maybe some rhymes, one straight, but I just loved both of these stories so much.   Big Bear was a hit.  The kids loved that he drove the Jeep and was scaring the scouts.  Xander appeals to the word loving adult in me – I love the different rhythms and the way that Park uses wonderful, alliterative phrasing.  “Xander sat and chewed bamboo.  He changed his plans and point of view.”  The kids liked identifying the different animals, but they were a little antsy at the end of this one.

SONG:

We didn’t actually sing a song; we did the call and response Going on a Bear Hunt (which has always seemed like more of a chant to me than a song) based on this Michael Rosen video.  The kids really enjoyed this one (and the parents did too since most of them knew the bulk of it).  I was a little worried that it would be too long (we went through grass, a river, mud, a forest and the cave), but they needed two different place repetitions before they really “got it.”  I will DEFINITELY do this again.

CRAFT:

Panda puppets!  Back a bit to product rather than process, but I like that this incorporates multiple craft/fine motor skills – the coloring, the gluing, and peeling the sticky tape on the googly eyes.  I got this idea from No Time for Flashcards