Afternoon Storytime: New(ish) Books again

Today's afternoon storytime was sparsely attended.  Many people are out of town because school is starting next week, so they're having a last hurrah.

When I started storytime, there was only one little girl and her mother.  We decided to skip the Hello Song and just go straight into the books.  It was kind of a loosey goosey storytime.

We Read



Queen on Wednesday by Gabi Swiatkowska
  A little girl is bored so she proclaims herself queen and ultimately finds that being queen is more trouble than it's worth.  More people came while I was reading the book, so it was hard to judge the reaction of the audience on this one.  If I were going to go with my gut, I'd say it wasn't a huge hit.  I think this is probably better for a child to read one on one with an adult, even though there aren't many words on each page.


The Runaway Hug by Nick Bland
   What a cute book.  Lucy asks her mom for a hug before she goes to bed, and her mom responds that she has only one hug left, so Lucy will have to give it back to her.  Lucy then takes the hug around the house to her family members.  The children especially loved that when Lucy hugged her baby sister it had a peanut butter smell.


Books Always Everywhere by Jane Blatt
    Extremely simple text with nice big pictures.  It was great for storytime.  Surprisingly, even the older kids liked it.  (Older as in maybe 6 years old.)


The Diggers are Coming! by Susan Steggall

  This is a hard book to read as a storytime lady.  The words are all over the page in different sizes and configurations.  Usually, I'd be alright with that, but today it found me tongue-tied.  It didn't really matter, the kids liked it anyway.  It's hard to find a book about construction that kids don't like.

Let's Stretch!

We stretched up to the sky, down to the ground, to the left and to the right.  It's really always nice to take a big stretch in the middle of storytime.

A couple of the boys were getting restless, so I said, "Let's shake our sillies out."  I don't remember the song very well (I know, I know, what kind of storytime lady are you, Miss Stella?)  So we improvised.    We ended up shaking our sillies out, jumping our sillies out, hopping our sillies out, and running our sillies out.  And then all the girls sat down ready for more stories and the two boys ran off - much to the consternation of their mothers.  While the mothers were wrangling up the boys, we continued reading.

More Books!


The Monkey Goes Bananas by C.P. Bloom
     While this is not a wordless book, I kind of read it like one.  I read the words on the page "The Monkey."  "The Bananas."  etc.  Wonderfully, the group was small so we could all get close to look at the pictures and discuss what's going on.  I'm not sure it would work in a large group.


The Hueys in It Wasn't Me by Oliver Jeffers
  This was another book that you need to pay attention to the pictures for.  I'm slowly becoming an Oliver Jeffers fan.


Pardon Me! by Daniel Miyares
    I wish I made good burp noises when I read books that have burps in them.  Mostly, I think that I'm just making weird sounds.  I'm sure that's fine, the kids always seem to know what I'm doing.  This book surprised the parents - which I loved!

Goodbye!

I don't remember where I found my closing song.

To the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain"
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye
Wave a hand and wink an eye
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)

Then I let them check out any of the books they wanted to.  Which means that I actually do not have a comprehensive list for this blog.  But a good time was had by all.

Storytime: Getting Dressed

I put this together for another storytime that no one came to.  :(  But that means that I was able to keep it for when I needed a storytime.

Hello!
As always, we sang our hello song first.  I always use the same hello song, it's my own version of the Dragon Tales Hello Song found here.

We read:

Naked! by Michael Ian Black
  This was a lot of fun to do in storytime.  We talked about where it's appropriate to be naked and where it's not.  We also talked about what it would be like to wear your clothes in the bathtub.  Most of the kids agreed it would be kind of icky.  Personally, I love the progression of this book, it's funny and eventually the little boy does get dressed.  Just the right amount of words per page for a storytime book - especially a funny one.


Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems
   Mo Willems is a genius.  Seriously.  What's fun about this book is yelling out, "Proclamation!" It's a great place to start talking about how clothing can express your individuality.  And that it's perfectly fine to be different - both for you to be different and for someone else to be different.   


Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
   There are some mornings when I feel like Ella Sarah.  I just want to do what I want to do but no one wants me to.  In both storytimes, there were children who very obviously dressed themselves (my favorite being the girl wearing pretty pink underwear on top of her black velvety pants - awesome!) and while I didn't point them out or anything, I could tell they really loved this book.

Song Time!

Hat, Shirt, Pants and Shoes stands in for Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Children need repetition, and so that's why my storytimes have a basic outline.  But, they also learn when you use a well known tune but put in different words. It also encourages them to experiment with the world around them and try new things, even if it's in a safe way.  A co-worker suggested that I should change Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to clothing we wear on those parts of anatomy.  What a great idea!

When it was time (after we had done our stretching), I said something like, "Let's try something new," and asked them, "Where would you wear a hat?"  The children pointed to their heads.  "And where would you wear a shirt?"  Most of the children pointed to their tummies or chests, but a few touched their shoulders.  "Where do you wear your pants?"  They pointed to their legs or knees.  "Where do you wear your shoes?"  They pointed to their ears.  Nah...just kidding, they pointed to their feet.

Some of the kids had trouble with the concept of using clothing words instead - most of them had to do with not wearing that particular piece of clothing.  This was a great opportunity to pretend, and I grabbed it.  Frankly, it was a lot of fun, and I hope I'll figure out how to change the words more often.


I Went to Bed and I Tried to Sleep (magnet board)

Pretty much as soon as we were done with Hat, Shirt, Pants and Shoes everyone sat down - both days - even though I said, "I have another game we can play."  The first day, I asked them to stand back up...but they didn't!  So, I poked my lower lip out and said, "No one wants to play?"  They all kind of giggled and stood back up.  The second day, I said, "Oh, we're going to need our standing feet for this one."  There wasn't as much giggling for that one.

For the magnet board, I found different types of shoes, printed them out, laminated them and put a magnet on the back.

The rhyme is:
I went to bed and I tried to sleep
but someone put _____ shoes on my feet!  (and then you do the action that goes with the shoes)

The shoes I have are:
running shoes
skis
ballet shoes
tap shoes
roller skates

I saw a lot of smiles on faces as they played along.

More Reading!


Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino
   I love this book.  I really do.  I love that someone wrote a book about a normal boy who likes to wear a dress.  There is no shame in boys wearing dresses.  Before I read this book (in both storytimes) I asked, "Is there any clothing that's only for boys?"  Both times, I got a lot of "no!"  Then I asked, "Is there any clothing that's only for girls?"  Both times, I got a lot of "no!" again, but in both instances 1 child said, "dresses."  Since we'd already been talking about clothing as an expression of individuality, it made it easier for me to be able to read this book with an open minded audience.  

I'm afraid that I might have gotten a little "preachy"  and I really try not to.  

By the end of the book, however, everyone wants Morris to be able to wear what he wants, so it was alright. 



Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Sims Taback
  Joseph is the ultimate re-user.  The kids really liked watching the overcoat shrink and shrink.  Both days I had to explain what a handkerchief is.  They all thought it was super gross, and perhaps the way I said it made it sound that way.  "You blow your nose in it and then put it in your pocket to use later."  Hmmm...I'm not sure how I could have explained it without it sounding gross.


Zorro Gets an Outfit by Carter Goodrich
  I did this book on Tuesday but not Wednesday.  Wednesday, I let them choose between Zorro Gets an Outfit and Dinosaurs Love Underpants.  I'm sure you could have already guessed what they'd pick.  Zorro is a nice story about a dog who is embarrassed to be wearing an outfit until he meets a super cool dog wearing an outfit.  I like Zorro and Mister Bud.


Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
  Seriously.  

  I had to ask to purchase this book for storytime.  We don't have it in our collection!  It's so much fun to read.  The kids love it because it makes an adult say "undies" or "underwear" a lot.  We laughed quite a bit at this book.

Goodbye!

I don't remember where I found my closing song.

To the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain"
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye
Wave a hand and wink an eye
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)

Handouts

I hemmed and hawed over what to handout.  Finally, I figured that I should give them paper dolls!  I found a spiderman paper doll and a beautiful little girl paper doll.  I don't have many left!

Craft Story Club: Glass Marble Magnets

I can't remember why I thought it would be a great idea to buy 5 lbs of clear flat marbles.  I ended up using a total of 10 for the project I was doing, which left me with about 4.9999 lbs of clear flat marbles.  Space is tight in our library, so I try not to buy too far ahead for crafting, and the manager is strict about clutter.  Storage space is at a premium.

Thus, Glass Marble Magnet Craft Story Club was born.

I was so excited about the magnets that I forgot that Craft Story Club starts with 2 to 3 stories.  What in the world was I going to read about Glass Marble Magnets???????  For a moment, I felt like I had painted myself into a corner.  Then, I looked over at the fridge in the staff room and saw the one lone little magnet on the front and storytime was saved.

Refrigerators!

Yes, of course, magnets and refrigerators go together like peas and carrots or Forrest and Jenny.  Marvelous.  Let's get books about refrigerators!

....

Did you know there aren't that many books about refrigerators?  I was shocked.  Shocked, I tell you.  Actually, no, I wasn't.  I figured there wouldn't be many, but I also figured there would be more picture books about refrigerators than there were about magnets.  I looked at the non-fiction books about magnets, but they were so wordy and had experiments that I wasn't prepared (read: willing) to do in a storytime setting.  So, the 5 or 6 books I found would have to do.

Being the marvelous procrastinator that I am, I didn't read any of the books until 2 hours before the program. All I can say about that is, "at least it was a full 2."  Going through my scant pile, I was kind of sad.  There were books about heroic cheese and bananas (Missy Swiss by David Michael Slater), imaginary monkeys that live in the fridge (Maggie's Monkeys by Linda Sanders-Wells), animals conspiring to open the fridge to eat all the food (Heave Ho! by Heinz Janisch), and a very cold family in the fridge who all get taken away one by one by the monsters who create earthquakes (The Shivers in the Fridge by Fran Manushkin).  The last one was the only one that seemed to deal with what I wanted since it turns out the entire family is a bunch of magnets that got lost in the fridge.  

Then I picked up The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan

Inside this innocuous looking book is a marvelous story.  I would almost say a modern fairy tale.  The main character is living a life of monotony and routine.  One day as Desmond is looking through the junkyard for stuff for his Thrift store, he sees a pink refrigerator with a brass magnet on it.  He tries to get the magnet off, but it's stuck - even when he uses a crowbar.  Finally, he notices the note that the magnet is holding on the fridge that says "Paint more."  Opening the fridge, Desmond finds a beautiful red sketchbook and all sorts of paints.  He takes them back to his store, thinking to sell them, and finds he can't bring himself to do it.

I really don't want to tell the entire story here, but I will tell you that it is absolutely marvelous.  The children were extremely involved as I read it to them.  If you ever do storytimes and you haven't heard of this book, I would highly recommend it.


Because I do need to read at least 2 books, I also read The Shivers in the Fridge by Fran Manushkin

The story goes on too long for the punchline at the end, but it was about magnets and refrigerators, so it was the book that won the getting read contest.  The children were not as interested in this story.  Which was fine, because it was time to go craft anyway.

I was worried that this craft was too little and not involved enough.  Boy, was I wrong!

Added to my 4.9999 lbs of flat glass marbles, I threw in scraps of scrapbook paper, white paper for them to make their own designs and markers.  (and glue and magnets)

This is a pretty simple craft with few steps.  What takes the most time is choosing your decoration and waiting for the glue to dry.  Here are the steps:

1. Choose your decoration and cut it to size for your marble (ususally this involves tracing around the marble).
2. Put one drop of glue (we used Elmer's School Glue) on the flat part of the marble.  Brush the drop until it is spread evenly on the glass.
3. Put your decoration decoration-side down on the flat gluey glass
4. Put one drop of glue on the back of your decoration and brush the drop until it is spread evenly on the paper.
5. Put one last drop of glue on the back of everything and stick your magnet on.

I've found that it dries best if you lay the whole thing magnet side down.  The glass doesn't slip around as much.

And that's it.  That's the whole thing.  Honestly, once you have your decoration, the whole thing takes about a minute.

I am so amazed by how these turned out, and the kids and caregivers all had a wonderful time making them!

This one is a hybrid - a child drew on scrapbook paper. 

Look at mine!!

The snowflake was made from scrapbooking paper, the other was drawn by a child.

One girl and her mom made 5 magnets.  This is 3 of them.

We even used stickers (non-glossy) as decorations in our magnets.

I covered the tables with newspapers in order to keep them cleaner....I didn't see the picture of the wine bottles there until much later.

Making the magnets - tracing around the shape of the glass marble

Most of the magnets together!  (Some were made after the picture, some were taken home in various states of not done-ness)

For a craft that I thought would be too small and too quick, it turned out to be marvelous.

And I still have 4 lbs of glass marbles left.

Musical Storytime with PowerPoint

Every Wednesday, we either have Lego Club or Craft Club.  On those rare occasions that there is a 5th Wednesday in the month - we do a Musical Storytime.  This is so that we can keep Lego and Craft on schedule.

This also means that I really have to bring it for Musical Storytime because Lego and Crafts are so hands on and exciting.

I did my first Musical Storytime as more of a singalong. Considering everyone is singing "Let It Go" and "Happy" lately, I jumped on the band wagon. But I wanted to make sure that everyone sang with me. Musical Storytime is really fun...as long as I'm not the only one singing.  And since I was in the room that has the projector, I put together a PowerPoint slideshow and blam!  Singalong Storytime.



It was 40 minutes of sweaty insane fun.

And I was exhausted after.  I felt like I'd just lead a Zumba class for kids.  As they were all leaving, the moms and caregivers were asking if we were doing it again next Wednesday and how often do we do this?  and Can we have this instead of Crafts and Legos?  It was hard to smile at them and say, "Oh the next one is in October," when really, I just wanted to die on the carpet for a moment.

Our Set List:
   Sunshine On My Shoulders
   Puff the Magic Dragon
   What Does the Fox Say?
   Play with musical instruments
   Happy
   Sing
   Let It Go
   Gitchee Gitchee Goo

The Play with musical instruments was so much fun.  I let them choose their instruments and gave them a little time to play with them.  Then, we played Echo.  This is where I would hit out a beat and they would copy it.  This turned into cacophony after a while, but that was just fine.  Then we played "Conductor."  I had a long skinny stick and they would play fast or slow depending on how fast or slow I moved my stick.  Both games were well received.

For "Happy" I handed out some scarves and we flung them and waved them and played with them all over.  We kept the scarves and brought them back out for "Let It Go."  Honestly, you can never go wrong with scarves.

For Sing, we played Cooperative Musical Mats.  This is a lot like Musical Chairs...but no one is eliminated and we used mats.  We started with 6 mats on the floor and when the music stopped, everyone had to put a foot on a mat.  Then I took one mat away and we continued.  When we got down to the 1 remaining mat, it was so much fun, the kids were helping adults make sure they got their foot on, and there was a baby being passed around to get her foot on the mat.  24 people trying to get their foot on a mat was a great time.  And since this was Storytime, most of the people participating didn't know each other.  We had a blast.  This might have been the best part of storytime.

I threw in "Gitchee Gitchee Goo" even though I knew that people wouldn't know the song.  It's from the cartoon Phineas and Ferb and is really popular in our house.  My 6 year old boy often wanders around singing Gitchee Gitchee Goo, and it's such a fun song that I couldn't resist finishing with it.

This storytime was a huge hit, and I'm glad we didn't have our normally large crowd for it so that everyone could spread out and dance.

Storytime: Frogs

Okay.  Blogger was down for me when I tried to do this post before.  Now it's back up, but I think I've forgotten most of what happened in Storytime.  I'm hoping it comes back as I type.


Hello!
As always, we sang our hello song first.  I always use the same hello song, it's my own version of the Dragon Tales Hello Song found here.

We read:

Where Do Frogs Come From? by Alex Vern

    I really wanted to talk about real frogs - what they are and their lifecycle.  The kids LOVED it!  We talked about tadpoles and froglets and frogs and how they all look different, but are all the same things.  This was a great book to read in storytime because it doesn't go too much into detail, and has places to elaborate if you feel like it.  

999 Tadpoles by Ken Kimura

   This is a great book.  It wasn't until a little girl burst out crying that I realized it's a bit scary.  Oops.  If I'd have realized that, I would have prepared the kids a little better.  I reassured everyone that the frogs would be alright.  The kids really loved the ending, and the parents/caregivers liked the part where the frogs are falling from the sky.  One caregiver even exclaimed, "It's raining frogs!"  

The Wide-Mouthed Frog: a pop-up book by Keith Faulkner

   Our library doesn't have this for check-out because it's a pop-up book, but it's in my storytime collection - so I use it.  The caregivers understand when I tell them it can't be checked out - and since I "perform" this book, I think the caregivers don't want to try.  I give the frog a kind of Kermit the Frog voice and the other animals all have their own voices as well.  There are always gasps and giggles when I read this book, so I love to pull it out.

Song time!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
  I find this provides great movement for the kids.  This time, we did it once, then did it faster and then did super fast.  They love that - especially for super fast we get our bodies ready by shaking all our different parts, like this:
         Let's get our hands ready!
         Let's get our heads ready!
         Let's get our shoulders ready!
         Let's get our knees ready!
         Let's get our toes ready!
         Let's get our ... EVERYTHING ready!  (hilarity ensues for a moment.)

A Little Frog...and a life lesson

  I get a lot of my fingerplays and such from around the web.  One of my favorite places is Storytime Katie.  I got this from her, and it was a hit. We did it several times.

            A little frog in a pond am I
            Hippity hippity hop  (we did little hops here)
            And I can bounce in the air so high
            Hippity hippity hop  (huge big hops here)

I learned something today doing this poem...

  ****When crouching down to the floor and then leaping as high as you possibly can, hold on to the bottom of your dress.***  

I really apologize to my storytime moms, dads and caregivers...at least I was wearing nice red underwear.

More reading!

Poison Dart Frog! by Willow Clark

   Even though we already talked about the life-cycle, I thought that we'd do a non-fiction book about Poison Dart Frogs because they are so fascinating.  Everyone - children and caregivers - really liked learning about these interesting frogs.

Ribbit!  by Rodrigo Folgueira

  This was such a great read.  We all enjoyed saying "Ribbit" together and guessing why the pig is saying "Ribbit."  I would definitely do this again - and encourage the kids to "Ribbit" with me.

Stick by Steve Breen

  What a great story about a little frog who travels. It was a little hard to do for storytime because the pictures are small and my audience was a little too large to be able to see the detail in the middle to back of the crowd.

Kiss Me! (I’m a Prince!) by Heather McLeod

  Far more popular than I thought it would be.  Some of the girls came up after and wanted to talk about frogs becoming Princes.  I read it by opening the cover and showing the art at the very front and reading the "Once upon a time" then skipping all the title pages etc. and getting right to the story.  Then at the end, I show the end pages and read the "and they lived Happily Ever After."  I love when books have art and story on the end papers.

Goodbye!

I don't remember where I found my closing song. 

To the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain"
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye
Wave a hand and wink an eye
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)

Handout

I had a hand out to encourage cutting (fine motor skills) and coloring (fine motor skills and writing) as well as imagination.  I used images from around the web.  The first is from Chuck Does Art 

and the other side, I found a pattern to cut and color for the kids...but I don't know the source (I have lost it because I'm kind of disorganized). So, I'm not going to include it now.


I forgot to include the magnet board I made!

We sang Five Green and Speckled Frogs, and I used this magnet board:

Afternoon Storytime: New(ish) books

Thursday afternoon storytime is one that I'm a little more loose about planning.  I kind of like that flying by the seat of your pants kind of ease that not planning until an hour before gives me.  I am so lucky to have the ability to do it both ways - super planned storytime and not planned at all.

Today, instead of having a theme, I just grabbed books that I knew I liked to read.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my Birthday.  Before I knew what was happening, the Branch Manager had told everyone waiting for storytime and as soon as I stepped in the storytime room - they sang "Happy Birthday" to me.  Honestly...there aren't many better feelings than being sung "Happy Birthday" by your storytime group.  I'd highly recommend it.

Hello!
We sang our hello song first.  I always use the same hello song, it's my own version of the Dragon Tales Hello Song found here.

We read:

Tap Tap Boom Boom  by Elizabeth Bluemle
     While this story takes place in a large city with a subway, it's still a good story to read even if you're in a small city with no public transportation because the themes are universal.  Running to get out of the rain - strangers make friends because they're all stuck in the same place.  A woman sees that a young boy is going up into the rain without an umbrella and she gives him hers.  There are so many great things to discuss when you read this book.  Considering we just had about 2 straight days of rain - and here in Colorado that makes us a little gloomy - I thought it would be fun to read this book and celebrate that the rain had finally stopped - just like in the book.  It went over well.


Peep and Ducky by David Martin
     I read this book in storytime because in the middle, Peep and Ducky need to go potty - and they go in side-by-side pottys.   Yeah, I do it for the laugh.  I do like the friendship in this book.  And as a storytime group we get to talk about friendship and playing in the park together.


The Things I Can Do by Jeff Mack
      Since this was the first time I've done this book, I didn't really see it's potential until after I did it.  This would be great do do in a craft storytime - making our own collage books about things we can do.  In this storytime we enjoyed reading the book and talking about all the things he could do - and all the things it looked like he needed more practice doing.

Song time!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
  I find this provides great movement for the kids.  This time, we did it once, then did backwards, then faster backwards and then super fast backwards.  For super fast we get our bodies ready by shaking all our different parts, like this:
         Let's get our hands ready!
         Let's get our heads ready!
         Let's get our shoulders ready!
         Let's get our knees ready!
         Let's get our toes ready!
         Let's get our ... EVERYTHING ready!  (hilarity ensues for a moment.)
Once I figured out how to do the Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose part backwards, I've kept the backwards variation in for variety.

Back to reading:


Cat Napped! by Leeza Hernandez
     This book had unintended consequences.  At the end, one of the children was really upset, thinking that the cat never got back to his person.  We had to talk about how his person did find him and take him home.  And then there was concern because the cat had really hurt his leg - and we talked about why it isn't a good idea to jump out of a moving car.  All in all - while I did enjoy reading this book to myself, I think I won't be doing it in storytime again.  It was a bit traumatic for everyone involved.  (Do read the book, it is cute)


Matilda's Cat by Emily Gravett
       I think that the parents might have enjoyed this book even more than the children.  Matilda's cat really doesn't like to do anything that Matilda likes to do.  The children appreciated that in the end, even though the cat didn't seem to like anything at all, the cat really liked Matilda.  One boy was so excited that the cat liked Matilda that he jumped up and said, "The cat likes Matilda!"  He also said it a little later in storytime after we sang the "Lady With the Alligator Purse."

Song - "The Lady With the Alligator Purse"

It's been a while since I've done this song.  Partly because my storytime props were in such disarray that if I couldn't see it or didn't have it on my mind, I wasn't using it.  I made these props over a year ago by using the printable Lady With the Alligator Purse on the Arkansas Department of Human Services website; printable here.  It's large and barely fits on my lap-sized magnet board - but it does, so I use it.  To make it, I printed out the characters, colored them in with colored pencils, cut them out and put them together and then laminated them.  I used our small laminator that does 8 1/2 by 11 paper by overlapping laminating pouches on the bigger pieces.  You could also laminate all the pieces after you color them but before you put them together.

Because the pieces are so big and the magnet board is so small, the song becomes a bit of a production and the children laugh and point at things that fall off the board, and really ends up being a lot of fun.  So much fun, in fact, that they asked me to do it again.  Which I did.

One More Book


Shhh! by Valerie Gorbachev
     Lately, I've been trying to keep books that have "shhh" in them in my back pocket.  Parents and caregivers have been getting a little loud, and rather than embarrassing everyone, I've found that pulling out a book that says "shhh" is quite effective.  I've tried stopping storytime, I've tried saying something, I've tried starting storytime by asking them to be quiet.  Those make me feel icky.  This way works well for me.
     I didn't need to use it in that way today.  I just wanted to do one more book.  And this one is so cute, and a nice way to end storytime on a quiet note.

Goodbye!
I don't remember where I found my closing song. 

To the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain"
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)
Now it's time to say goodbye
Wave a hand and wink an eye
Now it's time to say goodbye to all our friends (goodbye!)

I didn't have any handouts today.

However, a few of the mothers asked me about the sensory bottles I've recently placed in the Children's Area.  They wanted to know how I made them, and I happily told them all about the calm down jar, the oil and water jars, the hide and seek jar and the feather jar.  All but the feather jar, I got from Pinterest.  The feather jar, I just made that one up because I felt like I needed more jars and all I had were used water bottles and feathers.  I'm planning on making smaller ones with things from specific colors soon.

Storytime: Dogs

Hello!
We sang our hello song first.  I always use the same hello song, it's my own version of the Dragon Tales Hello Song found here.

We read: 

Dogs by Emily Gravett
    I love Emily Gravett.  Any chance I can get, I read her books in storytime.  This was absolutely perfect for Dog storytime.  I love that it has opposites in it, and the kids love all the funny pictures of dogs.  I always point out at the end who the narrator was who loves dogs.


I Want a Pet!  by Cathy Morrison
   What a cute book.  As we read it, I asked the children what each animal was, and if they thought it would make a good pet.  Considering the child in the book goes to the zoo to pick out a pet, there really aren't any appropriate animals.  Sadly, Meerkat Manor is no longer popular, so the kids don't immediately know what the meerkats are anymore.


Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
       Right now, I'm doing my regular storytime twice a week, once on Tuesdays and once on Wednesdays in another location.  I was hesitant to do this book the second time because of one little girl on Tuesday.  She found the book to be boring.  She also seemed rather annoyed that we were talking about colors and counting.  Her attitude toward the book soured all the other kids on Tuesday morning.  Happily, I went ahead with it anyway and it was the hit on Wednesday.  That just reminded me that each audience is going to be different.

Song time!

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
  I find this provides great movement for the kids.  This time, we did it once, then did it faster and then did super fast.  They love that - especially for super fast we get our bodies ready by shaking all our different parts, like this:
         Let's get our hands ready!
         Let's get our heads ready!
         Let's get our shoulders ready!
         Let's get our knees ready!
         Let's get our toes ready!
         Let's get our ... EVERYTHING ready!  (hilarity ensues for a moment.)

How Much Is That Doggy In the Window?
  On Tuesday morning, the most perfect thing happened right when I was ready to do a song with the group...a woman tied her dog up to the tree outside the story room windows!  So, we sang "How Much Is That Doggy In the Window?" to the dog.  I really couldn't have asked for a more perfect storytime moment.
B-I-N-G-O
Then, well, this was all about dogs, so we sang B-I-N-G-O.
      I've been noticing lately that more and more children are just sitting watching instead of participating.  While I do tend to make a spectacle of myself, I also hope that the children will jump on in and sing and dance with me.

More reading!



Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee
    This is really the main reason I wanted to do a dog storytime.  I <3 this book.  The first time I read it, I didn't realize that Boot and Shoe were dogs until late in the book, and the kids also mistake them for cats.  We usually spend a few moments talking about how dogs don't all look the same - just like people.  And then we get into the wonderfulness of this book.


Shoe Dog  by Megan McDonald
     If you don't read this book as if you are an audiobook narrator, it doesn't quite work.  I've tried it many different ways - the best is over the top acting.  And then - well, the kids go crazy.

Flannel Board

I made my own puppies in about 20 minutes.  I didn't put as much effort into it as normal because I didn't have much time, so I just have the puppies.  The black one gets lost on my flannel board...but the kids don't mind.

The rhyme for the flannel is:

Five little puppy dogs, in a kennel door,
One didn't like the crowd, then there were four.
Four little puppy dogs running around the tree.
Mother calls one puppy home, Then there were three.
Three little puppy dogs playing with a shoe,
Foxy ran to chase a cat, then there were two.
Two little puppy dogs, having so much fun,
Rover went to find a bone.
Then there was one.
One little puppy dog sitting in the sun.
He went to the kennel, then there were none!
    from Canton Public Library


One more book!


One Pup's Up by Marsha Wilson Chall
    A fun book to read - it's a counting book that goes to ten and then back to none.  I worry that I do tell the kids what "piddle" is, as one of the lines is "8 pups piddle in a puddle."  I'm always surprised at how many of them don't know what it is.  I really hope the parents don't mind....

Goodbye

Storytime must end.  And this was no exception.  We sang our Goodbye Song.  Most of the kids said thank you! Two polite audiences.

Dog storytime was a hit.

Craft Story Club: Fish Suncatchers with CDs

This week in Craft Story Club, we made fish suncatchers with old cds.  Luckily for us, the librarian in charge of the adult collection recently weeded in the Audiobook section - which gave Craft Story Club a boon of no  longer usable cds.

I found a great tutorial on the Oklahoma Health Care Authority's website.  They call it CD Fish activity page and you can download it here.

To start Craft Story Club, we always read books about what we're going to build.  Today, we read:


The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist
    This book is always a hit.  The kids love the different take on the three little pigs and I did ask them if this story was reminding them of anything - a few of them called out, "The Three Little Pigs!"  One girl yelled out, "The three little pigs and the big bad shark!"  We all had a great time talking about sharks versus wolves and saying one thing but meaning another.



Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet by Kelly DiPucchio
    Another hit.  The children loved the idea of a pet wanting a pet.  The end was a little scary for a few of them until the big reveal and then not only were they relieved, but they were also laughing.  (I don't want to ruin the ending for those of you who haven't read it.)  This always goes well in any storytime.

And we finished our reading portion with:

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
    Oh, how I do not like this book.  I really don't.  But it does so well in storytime, so I read it.  And I read it with as much enthusiasm as the ones I love...so the kids never know I can't stand it.  What I can't stand is that in order for the other fish to like him, he has to give away everything that makes him unique.  But I did it because it ties so well into the craft - we were going to make fish that sparkled like the Rainbow Fish.  This book was another hit, and by this time, the kids were so wound up and ready to craft.

Before Craft Story Club, I had some of my Summer Reading Volunteers cut out and trace the different pattern pieces from the tutorial onto different construction paper.  (I use the fadeless construction paper, it's a little more expensive, but also a lot better quality and the colors won't go away as quickly.)

I set up the room with 2 cds and a length of yarn at each chair, and scissors, pattern pieces, glue and wiggly eyes on every table.  We started by cutting out our pattern pieces and gluing them to the printed side of one cd.  Then we glued our string on the top fin and glued another top fin on it.

The only problem with this craft is not everyone was proficient with the scissors, so we had some frustration.  Once we got to the glue, everyone was having a good time again.

I had the idea to draw on the CDs with normal Prang markers.  Unfortunately, this didn't really work and ended up getting marker ink mostly on the kids.  This is one craft where you actually need to use Sharpies.

Since the markers weren't working well, I pulled out some feathers, and some of the kids glued feathers onto their CD fish - they really loved this.  One girl was putting glue on the CD and dropping the feathers onto the glue.

Here are some of our finished projects:

This was definitely one I'd do again.