Month: June 2015

Discovery!: Process vs. Product Art

discovery

This was my simplest Discovery! program for good reason: it was the end of the session and I had two presentations during the month of November to prepare for. I purposely planned the most intense programming towards the beginning when my energy would be up.

The Plan

Brief Art Storytime

discovery-art

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle
A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch
Monsters Love Colors by Mike Austin

Flannelboard: “Mouse Paint”

Free Art

I made sure to explain to parents and caregivers what a product art is and what process art is. Today, the group was going to concentrate on the process of creating and not making a product. I had different craft supplies out — paper, paper bag, paper plates, crayons, feathers, buttons, glue, scissors, markers, felt scraps, etc. The important point of today’s program was to have the kids enjoy doing their art. Furthermore, this was about letting them touch the supplies without saying “No, do it this way.” (Obviously, if it was a safety I did ask them to intervene.)

Here’s just a few pictures of the day:

  

How It Went

The kids loved the book selections. A few of my boys were excellent at color identification and color mixing. During “Mouse Paint”, they proclaimed loudly, “Those are the PRIMARY colors and those are the SECONDARY colors.” (Librarian pride!) I had several parents and caregivers compliment me on giving the kids the freedom to explore these materials without providing a sample. Overall, while this was a shorter program (about forty-five minutes instead of an hour), this was also a huge success in my book.

June 15, 2015 0 Comments Short URLPreschool Storytime

Flannel Friday: Zoo Puppets

Another gorgeous, GORGEOUS set of finger puppets from Widia’s Etsy shop FloralBlossom.

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I am adding these for the song “You Can Hear” as I did with the first set.

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Bridget is hosting the round-up today! You can also check out our website, Pinterest, or Facebook!

June 12, 2015 0 Comments Short URLFlannels

Families: Farm

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-farm

Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield and Ant Parker*
Clip-Clop by Nicola Smee*
Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Jane Cabrera
Say Hello Like This! by Mary Murphy

Early Literacy Tip

Children love being able to identify animals and imitate the sounds they make. Identifying animals, matching each sound with an animal picture, and imitating animals sounds build children’s knowledge of the world around them.

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Putumayo’s “Sing Along With Putumayo”*

Featured Track: #4 Old MacDonald Had a Farm*

Flannelboard: “B-I-N-G-O”*

Flannelboard: “Open Up the Barn Door”*

Puppets: “When Animals Get Up in the Morning”*
When animals get up in the morning, they always say hello
When animals get up in the morning, they always say hello
And what do they say? [Animal noise]
And that is what they say.
Credit: Jbrary

Fingerplay: “Ten Galloping Horses”
“Ten Galloping Horses”
Ten galloping horses came through the town
Five were white and five were brown
They galloped up and galloped down
Ten galloping horses came through town
Credit: Perry Public Library

Repeating Extension Activities

I had four back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I rarely used them, but here they are:

  • Dance Your Fingers Up*
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
  • Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Thumbkin*

How It Went

I had the grown-ups bounce the kids or have the kids bounce themselves while we read “Clip Clop” and that was hugely successful. “Charlie Chick” is mesmerizing to everyone, adults and kids. Today featured some excellent “B-I-N-G-Oing and some great “Old MacDonald” dancing!

June 11, 2015 0 Comments Short URLFamily Storytime

Animals Around the World!

The Plan

Books

animalsaroundtheworld

From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Hooray for Hat! by Brian Won
It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle
My Heart Is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall
Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera

Extension Activities

Flannelboard: “One Elephant Went Out to Play”

Flannelboard: “Seals on the Bus”

Action Rhyme: “Little Monkeys Swinging In the Tree”
Little monkeys swinging in the tree
All hold hands and swing with me
Swing up high and swing down low
Swing in the tree, now don’t let go!
Swing, swing like I do
Swing like the monkeys in the zoo
Credit: Step By Step — Rainforest Theme

Song & Puppets: “You Can Hear” (Tune: She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain)
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo, ROAR! ROAR!
You can hear the lions roaring, you can hear the lions roaring
You can hear the lions roaring at the zoo! ROAR! ROAR!
(Elephants trumpeting, zebra braying, monkey eeking)
Credit: Perpetual Preschool

How It Went

Site Information
At this location, I visit four classrooms total, reading to five classrooms total. The first classroom is a combined two-year-olds classroom. Then I visit two three-year-old classrooms and finally a four-year-old & five-year old classroom. I’m at the facility for about two hours, and my voice is definitely feeling it by the end of the visit!

Topic
This particular facility selects themes for me to do ahead of time to tie into their curriculum.

Two-Year-Olds (Combined classes)
This group was definitely most involved in “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” — I think it more than helped that I encouraged all the toddlers to rock slowly with me. There’s a definite benefit to asking toddlers to do a kinetic motion along with their listening. You get a lot better results! The kids loved the finger puppets that I brought for the song “You Can Hear” and I had nearly every animal that they called out!

Three-Year-Olds (First classroom)
My most enthusiastic participants during “Hooray for Hat!”. “Hooray for Hat” was a wonderful treasure that I ordered and a co-worker pulled off the new books shelf to read aloud to all of us in the department one day. It had fast become the book that we read to each other on particularly difficult days. I was so pleased that the kids seemed to love it as much (if not more) than we librarians do.

Three-Year-Olds (Second classroom)
These kids asked once I finished “It’s a Tiger!” if I could read it again. One of their teachers copied down the book’s information and promised them that she’d buy a classroom copy. Now if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is! They also really enjoyed “From Head to Toe” and following along with the movements in the book. (I still paper-clip the donkey page!)

Four-Year-Olds & Five-Year-Olds (Single classroom)
Another set of kids that really loved “Hooray for Hat!” and “It’s a Tiger!”. This group really appreciated the interactive reads this summer and I will definitely keep that in mind if I’m asked to return next summer. They were also really happy to see the “Seals on the Bus” flannelboard again; they had last seen it at the beginning on June and this was the middle of August at this point. More than enough time to repeat a favorite!

June 10, 2015 0 Comments Short URLOutreach Storytime

Toddlers: Hugs and Kisses

For more information on how I plan and prepare my toddler storytimes, check out this introduction post. And for a complete list of the repeating extension activities, visit this post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one session.

The Plan

Books

t-kisses

All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri***
A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy*
Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein*

Early Literacy Tip

When you give your children positive reinforcement by clapping or telling them that they did a great job, you are encouraging them to act both independently and cooperatively.

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: Under the Shady Tree by Laurie Berkner

Featured Track: “Blow a Kiss”***

Flannelboard: “H-E-A-R-T”***

Flannelboard: “Matching Hearts”**

Prop: Foam Hearts (With bonus song “All You Need Is Love” by Caspar Babypants)***

Repeating Extension Activities

  • A Wiggle Wiggle Here*
  • Elevator Song**
  • Slowly, Slowly*
  • These Are My Glasses**
  • This Is Big, Big, Big***
  • Thumbkin**

How It Went

Tuesday morning
I have the most wonderful storytime parents ever — I had one come to storytime WHILE IN LABOR. (She was at two centimeters with her second child coming. But I am still in awe!) Today was just a wonderful storytime dancing with a couple of my kiddos. But for whatever reason, this group always has trouble settling down.

Thursday morning (9:30)
My parents and caregivers loved “my jams” this morning. (Their words, not mine!) Apparently, we have a lot of Beatles fans still, which is awesome. All of the kids in this class practiced really good sharing with their foam hearts. They traded them back and forth and turned them in when we were done without any tears! I made sure to tell parents/caregivers that we’re working on sharing because it’s an essential school readiness skill.

Thursday morning (10:30)
One of my little boys ran straight in my arms for a big hug upon arrival! One of my little girls stood with me at the door greeting everyone because she was worried I would “forget to come in”, which is adorable and precious. The book “Dinosaur Kisses” was great interactive fun for this group!

June 9, 2015 1 Comment Short URLToddler Storytime

Interactive Play Space: Garden Shop Update!

interactiveplayspaces

Two weeks ago I posted about how the Garden Shop was created and what it looked like in its pristine condition. Here’s what changed after a month of hard play (nearly 300 hours of play!):

1. Our flowers suffered the most out of anything. Some of the leaves started to fray from constant use. I didn’t do anything to pre-treat the flowers this year, but I might next year. Maybe a coat of fabric spray will help them hold together.

2. I was, however, DELIGHTED that the corks & duct tape stayed on the whole time!

3. And of course, some of the flower bunches lost individual flowers either from use or from a child who needed to take it home. (Which I’m okay with.) This set with the tiny flowers was the one that lost the most. I could hot glue each one to the stem next year, but the cost of the product (I paid $1.19-$1.79 for each bunch) was probably not worth the time taken to glue each flower.

4. The dollar store pots. I lost half of them to crunching and cracking. Given their ability to be destroyed in a child’s hand, I’ll stock up on some extra Menards pots at the end of springtime.

5. I only “lost” one of the Velcro labels due to crunching. I barely even consider this a loss because I wound up not keeping any of the Velcro labels because they were sticky enough after the Velcro dots to not be able to be stored without getting the other labels sticky.

6. Some of the tied labels started to go very early in the process. A co-worker suggested hot-gluing the knots and the problem was resolved after that. So make sure to glue the knots if you’re tying!

All in all, one soil bag was missing (likely thrown out by a helpful patron who saw an empty plastic bag). I threw out the flowers and decided to start again new the next time. And I did print off new labels and laminated them so they are ready for the next time the center comes out.

So moving right along: storage!

1. Get a bin that works for you and your space. Ours are from The Container Store and we have both the medium and large sizes. (These used to store old circulating kits that I’m updating.) I used the large size for the Garden Shop.

2. Store all the flat pieces in a single envelope so that you’re not struggling to find a label the next time you unpack the center.

3. If a large item doesn’t fit, that’s okay. Just store it on the side of the container so you can find it for next time.

4. Label everything!! You want to know the contents before digging through a box. I’ll be making outside labels for each box once we have more than three of them. (Right now it’s easy to tell which box is which, but once I have twelve of these centers, that won’t be the case.)

5. Clean and disinfect everything before storing. I wiped down all the plastic items and let them dry. The brown felt pieces were sprayed with disinfectant and allowed to dry.

Disassembling the play space and preparing everything for storage took an entire morning of work. (Although, I was putting up the Bakery at the same time.) Speaking of the Bakery, I’ll have a post up in two weeks detailing all of the different items in that play space!

June 8, 2015 0 Comments Short URLInteractive Play

Flannel Friday: If You’re Going to the Pool…

This clip art flannelboard should be perfect for the weather! (At least I hope so. I’m scheduling this and Chicago is expecting another minor snow storm tomorrow — 4 to 6 inches….in MARCH.)

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“If You’re Going” (Tune: If You’re Happy and You Know It)
If you’re going to the pool, wear your suit,
If you’re going to the pool, wear your suit,
If you’re going to the pool, then a suit will keep you cool
If you’re going to the pool, wear your suit.
(Additional verses: hat, flip flops, sunglasses)

I used this way back a long, long time ago in summer storytime. I have the credit listed at Melissa from Mel’s Desk in the write-up, but the link no longer shows this song on Melissa’s plan. So I might have goofed! [Edited: Katie from Storytime Secrets found it!!]

The clip art was from Microsoft, which I cannot believe how badly I miss!

—
Anne is hosting the round-up today! You can also check out our website, Pinterest, or Facebook!

June 5, 2015 4 Comments Short URLFlannels

Families: Cake

For more information on how I plan and prepare my family storytimes, check out this introduction post. I starred the materials used in the plan. Some activities go unstarred because I only do this program once a week.

The Plan

Books

families-cake

Eight Animals Bake a Cake by Susan Middleton Elya
The Red Hen by Rebecca and Ed Emberley*
Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa*

Early Literacy Tip

Children can help you measuring things in all kinds of ways — in deciding whether something will fit in a certain space, in cooking, and in making things. Understanding the concept of measuring begins to develop one of the mathematical skills children will need in school.

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: The Wiggles “Yummy Yummy”*

Featured Track: #20 Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes*

Flannelboard: “Cake Count”

Flannelboard & Puppets: “Down Around the Corner”*

Flannelboard: “Five Birthday Candles”*

Fingerplay: “Pat-a-Cake”*
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake
Baker’s man, bake me a cake as fast as you can
Roll it, pat in,
And mark it with a “B” and put it in the oven for baby and me
Credit: Childhood

Repeating Extension Activities

I had four back-up activities in case I needed them for time. I rarely used them, but here they are:

  • Dance Your Fingers Up
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes*
  • Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Thumbkin

How It Went

This was the fourth day in a row of dreary rain, so it definitely kept some of my families away which made me sad. I had a mostly preschool crowd this morning. “The Red Hen” was their favorite book, although they liked that I made “Who Made This Cake?” interactive as well. Flannelboards work SO WELL with this crowd; I love having three of them in one plan! I had the children face their caregivers during “Pat-a-Cake” and it was pretty darn adorable. Lastly, the kids did a great job of cleaning up shakers and “Crunchy Munchy Honey Cake” — everyone gave shakers back!

June 4, 2015 1 Comment Short URLFamily Storytime

Shake, Shimmy, & Dance: 7/17

For the first time in our library’s history, we ran our own summer reading program — Make Some Noise! What better opportunity to do a bi-weekly music and movement dance party? This program was advertised for ages 0-7 and their families.

shakeshimmyanddance

The Plan

igottherhythm
Book
I Got the Rhythm by Connie Schofield-Morrison
This was a new book in the library and after I read it to determine where it was going to go in our picture book collection, I knew that it was going to be a Shake, Shimmy group. Lots of opportunities to dance, beautiful illustrations, and an energetic little girl to convince all the kids it was time to dance! I wish it had worked as well as it should have.

Props
Shaker Eggs!

The Playlist

Hello & How Are You? — Old Town School of Folk Music
Jump, Jump — Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights
Clap It! — Bari Koral Family Rock Band
The Hokey Pokey — Traditional
The Milkshake Song — Old Town School of Folk Music
I Know a Chicken — Laurie Berkner Band
Shake Your Shakes Slowly — Kathy Reid-Naiman
Shake Hands With Friends — Ella Jenkins

How It Went

I had a little girl today turn on the music while I was reading “I Got the Rhythm” and it threw the whole book off which made me very sad. Then “The Hokey Pokey” was kind of a flop. The kids really didn’t know what to do and weren’t dancing like they normally do. Even when they don’t do the motions that I’m doing, they generally keep moving and they just didn’t. But! “The Milkshake Song” saved me and the program. The kids had an amazing time with it and I had three parents request the CD after the program.

(For an example of the Powerpoint and handouts that I made for each Shake, Shimmy please visit the original post.)

June 3, 2015 1 Comment Short URLMusic and Movement

Toddlers: Alphabet

For more information on how I plan and prepare my toddler storytimes, check out this introduction post. And for a complete list of the repeating extension activities, visit this post. I starred the materials used in the plan; multiple stars indicate use for more than one session.

The Plan

Books

t-alphabet

Animal ABC by Marcus Pfister***
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.***
LMNO Peas by Keith Baker*
Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst

Early Literacy Tip

Identify the shapes you see and talk about them with your children. Circles and triangles are often part of letters. Being able to see shapes will help children later recognize letters.

Theme Extension Activities

Featured CD: ABC Sing-Along (Fisher Price)

Featured Track: “We’ve Been Working On Our Letters” (with foam letter props)***

Flannelboard: “Letter A Puzzle”***

Repeating Extension Activities

  • Open, Shut Them***
  • These Are My Glasses**
  • This Is Big, Big, Big***
  • Wake Up Toes**
  • Zoom Zoom Zoom***

How It Went

Tuesday morning
This was the first time this group had ever done “Zoom Zoom Zoom” and it was awesome! “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” became a choral read (which was lovely) since so many caregivers were familiar with it. This group was my most hesitant to take a foam letter and dance with it, but they did come around once the music started.

Thursday morning (9:30)
We pushed this week to do a second book! We only made it through six pages of “Animal ABC”, but that’s more than okay at this age! This group loved dancing with the letters, so I picked a second song — “A, You’re Adorable” — and let them keep going. I also had this group trace their child’s letter on their back for a fun tactile sensory experience as I was collecting them.

Thursday morning (10:30)
The kiddos were SO INTO “Animal ABC”; they were hanging on the edges of the rug as I turned the pages to guess the next animal. We also read both “Chicka Chicka” and “LMNO Peas” — THREE BOOKS AT TODDLER TIME! This group was also the best at identifying the “a” words in our flannelboard.

June 2, 2015 0 Comments Short URLToddler Storytime

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