Row Your Boat with Puppets May 11, 2012

This is an activity I do a LOT in toddler storytime. They always love it and its easy to adjust the length by adding animals if they’re begging for more or leaving some out if they’ve had enough.

The credit for this idea goes to Steven E over at Beyond the Book Storytimes, although I’m not sure it’s actually on his blog. I was lucky enough to go to his presentation about puppets in storytime at the Oregon Library Association conference in 2008 and this was a simple puppet activity he talked about. Since I was just getting in to using props that weren’t flannels this was just my speed.

Here’s the rhyme (on the rhyme page and I’ve mentioned it in other posts, too):

Row, row, row your boat

Row it all around

If you see a ______

Make a ______ sound

Now, you can’t just have these puppets sitting on your lap or the floor, or even the table, because we all know toddlers are quite grabby. I use finger puppets and keep them in this bin like so:

The bin is small enough to hold standing up so the puppets are out of arms reach (these toddlers are REALLY grabby) while I pull out the puppets as we get to that third line. with bigger puppets I use a black garbage bag (so glamorous, I know!) and leave it on the table while I pull out the animals. One of these days I’ll get myself a really cool, big sturdy bag, but this works great for now.

This activity can be used for any animal theme (or when you’re not doing a theme, of course). I like to include an animal in the bin which also occurs in the story I just read.  Then when I pull that animal out I might say “Wow, it’s a bear! Just like the one in the story!”

My friends all ready for their show:

The more I think about this activity, the more appropriate it seems for a flannel board! Just die cut some random felt animals and put them up on the flannel board as you get to the third line instead of pulling puppets out of a bag or bin. Maybe I’ll make that adaptation and post it next time…

Ok! Short and sweet, just the way I (and toddlers) like it.

Sharon has the round-up this week at Rain Makes Applesauce. Also check out the new Flannel Friday website! Woo hoo! Lots of great info there so you should bookmark it for quick access! And of course you can connect with other Flannel Friday-ers on twitter by searching #flannelfriday.

Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all you fabulous moms (and expecting moms) out there (including mine-love you, Mom)!

Storytime: Entertainment or Education? April 23, 2012

In the spirit of full disclosure and in the hopes that we can all learn from each other’s mistakes as well as victories, this post is about two patron complaints against me in reference to storytime. After getting over the initial shock, I reflected about the incidents surrounding these complaints to figure out what I might have done differently or could/should do differently in the future. And this got me thinking about the whole idea of storytime and it’s purpose in the world.

But before I get in to that… the complaints:

1) She made us stop talking during baby storytime but we were just excited that her (friend of complaint issuer) son took his first steps. She was condescending (this part I’ll work on!)

Response: this is true. Although my memory is that when this kid took those steps we were in between activities and everyone actually clapped for him. Then later, while I was attempting to share a book and they were talking more, I paused to say “Could you please wait until after storytime to continue your conversation?” It’s very possible that my tone was not that great as I was pretty frustrated at that point and I hate ever having to do this, even when I feel it is necessary. Especially when you cannot continue with your story or activity because the talking is so loud. An addition to this the mother of the walker also said loudly “Oh sh*t, I can’t believe he’s doing this.” That was the kicker for me to decide to quiet them. I’d rather have one mom upset with me for asking her to be quiet than 20 because I didn’t shush her, letting the language and disruption continue. It’s a pretty conservative community and judging by the faces of the other adults in the room the outburst was not appreciated.

Okay, so that one was easy. Sorry you are mad I made you stop talking, but frankly, TOUGH! It’s storytime. Be respectful of the presenter and of the time you have with your child and only open your mouth to sign along.

2) Kendra is rude and makes us clap and sing and do things with her (this is not verbatim as I don’t have the comment sheet, but the words, rude, clap and sing were used in the same sentence.)

Response: This is the one that really got me. All the training I have says “Get those parents participating!” For both baby and toddler storytime our advertisements say “participating adult”. At the beginning of every storytime I say “This is ____ ST and my name is Kendra. There are only 2 rules for storytime. You have to have fun and participate and play with your child. And please hold any conversations until after storytime because it can be really distracting for the children.” So, ok, I can change “have to participate” but anyone who knows me would see the smile on my face and know I’m not saying this like a boot camp leader. But, it’s easy to change so fine.

Also, I have kind of a dry, snarky sense of humor. Most parents appreciate (at least in my past experience) my terrible jokes and this has really helped with building a good rapport with them. So I’m thinking this complaint could have been compounded by the fact that in storytime last week a dad answered his phone and took a call right after our opening song. He has a booming dad voice so it wasn’t possible for me to continue storytime while he was talking and he’d slipped behind the post in the story room so eye contact to get him to stop was not an option. So, to stop the crickets in the room I jokingly said “Oh and one more rule: no cell phones in storytime!” Ha. Ha. Ha. There were lots of chuckles. But maybe that was too harsh. So hard to tell these days! The VERY embarrassed dad got off the phone, I did NOT feel the need to say anything to him and I continued with storytime.

Now on to the big picture of this complaint: why do we do storytime? And why is it important (if it is) for parents to participate when they clearly don’t want to? These might be the only formal complaints we’ve had, but I know it’s hard getting parents to participate because after all this time mine are still awfully lackluster in their participation. They just want to sit there and watch me entertain their babies and toddlers.

So, my question to you: what is the purpose of storytime? Do we just want to get these people in the library and give them a positive experience? In that case, can we just stop with all the early literacy message stuff? Just do a dog and pony show and say see ya later? Or, do we want to educate parents? Impart our knowledge of children, early literacy, books, music, playing, etc. and hammer in how important it all is? Is it too overwhelming? Do we even know for sure? We aren’t teachers, we’re librarians. While I have a degree in psychology with lots of early child development credits, it’s been a while and it’s not what I practice 40 hours a week. So, are we really the experts? Should we be giving them tips or leaving that to educators who are trained in that kind of thing?

I’m reserving how I feel about this topic for now because I’m really interested to see what all of you have to say (maybe you’ll change my mind about things!). It’s a topic that comes up fairly often in libraries, but it hasn’t come across my desk for a long while. So let’s hear what you have to say!

List of Dances Prop April 20, 2012

Way back in 2006 when I first started doing storytimes regularly, my good friend Nik (of Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime) had the idea to print out the words to a favorite preschool storytime song, laminate them, and using velcro, hang them on the wall during storytime. It was SO cool! She was then and is now, one of the most creative people I know. I’m more a “why re-invent the wheel” kind of person so… I STOLE that idea. Mwuahahahahaha! Ok, so not that devious as all you storytimers know collaboration and sharing is a BIG part of our jobs and, let’s face it, one of the most fun parts.

Now on to the dang prop already! Oh, but first… hey Nik, is it ok if I steal this idea and blog about it? Ok, great thanks!

List of Dances by Jim Gill is an AWESOME song. If you have not used it in storytime go get the CD right now and work it into your next session. Seriously. Do it. Bonus tip: during the part where Jim isn’t giving you any lyrics just have the kids roll their arms or tap their heads or stick out their tongues or something equally as goofy. Got that idea from the Move ‘n Groove workshop at PLA 2010 (Nik and Eliza remember, right?).

Since we have a magnetic wall, which many of you have already drooled over, I decided to skip the velcro and just stick magnets on the back of my words. Here’s what it looks like:

Could I have put those columns closer together so the picture looked better? Sure. But that’s no fun. The font I used is Gill Sans Ultra Bold and just printed two words per page on different colored paper so that each rhyme pair was on the same color.

Here’s their close up:

Check out other storytime props and flannel ideas in the Flannel Friday Archives at Anne’s blog so tomorrow or on Pinterest. Today’s roundup is over on Cate’s blog Storytiming.

Toddlers: Water, Parachute and Shaving Cream April 17, 2012

We just received these really cool washable fitted table covers for the storytime tables so I just had to use them today. My original plan was to do a zoo theme, but changed at the last minute to water/bathtime to allow the activity to be finger painting in shaving cream.

The books I read:

Animal Baths by Bob Barner

Splish, Splash by Nicola Smee

Little White Duck by Walt Whippo

 

Songs and Rhymes:

In between books we did a new rhyme (found it on KCLS Tell Me a Story) in addition to rowing our boats, of course.

Bubbly Bubbly Bubble Bath (wiggle fingers)

Filled up to the top (hands above head)

Listen to those bubble bubbles (cup ears)

Pop! Pop! Pop! (clap hands)

Thanks to Anna (see her blog here) being in the twitterverse just when I needed her we had an awesome parachute session. How could I not use the parachute for a water theme. It’s just so perfect!

With everyone in a circle and grown ups (and some toddlers) holding on to the parachute we chanted:

Row boat, row boat go so fast (shake the chute fast)

Row boat, row boat go so slow (wave the chute slowly)

Row boat, row boat the waves are getting worse (shake fast again)

Row boat, row boar put it in reverse (stop the chute by pulling towards you)

We repeated a couple of times accompanied by VERY loud squeals of delight from all the kids.

Then we sang These are the Colors Over You (on my Rhymes page) to calm everyone down again before blowing bubbles and getting messy.

 

Activity:

For the activity I had the tables covered with our new table cloths and parents were told they could use a smock for their child if they wanted to. Then I squirted piles of shaving cream on the tables and let the kids go after it. They absolutely loved squishing and wiping and drawing on the table and many had to be dragged away. The great thing about shaving cream is that it’s clean. So clean up is pretty easy-just wipe everyone down with a wet cloth (they have access to a bathroom and our kitchen sink for these kinds of activities as well) and they are good to go.

And now I’m ready for a nap (and maybe a nice, hot bath, too!).

 

Whoa Babies! And the importance of music April 12, 2012

Today’s baby storytimes were awesome! We’ve been on break for 2 weeks so I wasn’t sure how attendance and participation would be. The first one was pretty small compared to usual, but a very happy group with a couple newcomers and some great friendships made. The second one was smaller than normal but felt WAY bigger as they were so loud and rowdy (in a good way). And the second one came with a great discussion about music.

Before that, I had struggled with a couple chatty moms, tried out a great new rhyme (Cuckoo Clock-it’s on the Rhymes page), had fun with scarves and the parachute (they are now sitting in a circle when they come in the room, I think in anticipation of parachute time-yay!) and given two literacy tips about sharing books at home. One I stole from Mel over at Mel’s Desk  about babies playing with books and the other I’m sure we all say a lot: “While your baby is playing by themselves, picking up a book or magazine to read is a great way to show them that reading is enjoyable for everyone. If they see you do it, they’ll want to do it, too.”

Then, after storytime a regular mom came up to thank me for giving her a list of the songs on my storytime mix CD. She wanted to find them and play them for her son’s 1st birthday party. She said all the moms in attendance loved the music and wanted copies of the songs themselves. She thought maybe we had them in the library. As many of ou know, we do not carry music CD’s in my library system. They never have. The only way for patrons to get access to music is to go to a neighboring library system (not really fair to them or that library system), buy the music, or download the small amount of stuff we have available on Freegal (Laurie Berkner, Dan Zanes and the Wiggles are the only real worthwhile ones on there in my opinion). When I’m asked this question I give them their options and then suggest they fill out a comment form requesting the system to purchase children’s music for the collection. Dozens have taken the form. No idea how may have returned it. They’re moms, dad, and grandparents. They get busy and the form probably ends up in the recycle bin. And the board is not as interested in my comments, no surprise there. They want to hear from patrons (I am one, but I digress).

Anyway, this started a whole conversation about how much all the kids in the room love music and they are always looking for new stuff to play at home but it’s so expensive to buy if you don’t know it’s really good. Totally agreed. Kind of the whole point of having it in the library. That and we encourage them to sing and listen to music with their children as part of early literacy and getting ready to read so should probably give them the tools to do that.  What I did was give them a list of my favorite storytime artists, plus mentioned other artists and albums I love for kids. So, while I work on this predicament with our library system at least I’ve got something to give them. And hope they can afford the gas to get across the river to check them out from the other library.

It’s always nice to have the whole room engaged in a conversation about early literacy so this storytime was totally invigorating for me! And I hope for the parents in attendance, too.

For your enjoyment here is a short list of some of my favorite kids musicians and here is a list of my Favorite ST artists that I handed out today, along with a Rhyme Sheet I also handed out.

My Favs:

Barenaked Ladies- Snacktime

They Might Be Giants

Rock-a-Bye Baby: lullaby renditions of songs by The Beatles, U2, Green Day and more-awesome for background music!

Putamayo Kids

Lisa Loeb

 There are tons more out there, but these are the first that come to mind when talking with parents. I also encourage them to play and dance to the music they love as adults.

Whick artists and albums do YOU recommend to patrons?

Parent/Child Book Group March 23, 2012

I have recently taken over Book Talk, our book discussion group for 6-9 year olds and their parents and am working to make it my own. Last night was our third meeting and between having several newbies and getting to know the old-timers I think things are finally settled.

 This month we discussed How Oliver Olson Changed the World by Claudia Mills. It’s a short, simple, straightforward book about a boy whose over-protective parents won’t let him do anything normal boys get to do, including his homework. They do everything for him and do their best to shelter him from the rest of the world, all because he was very sick as a small child. Of course, in the end, Oliver (with the help of his new friend, Crystal) is able to prove to his parents that he is capable of doing his own homework and that since he is no longer sick he should be allowed to participate in activities like the school’s science sleepover. 

Since I had a feeling there wouldn’t be too terribly much to discuss with this book I came prepared with an activity. Sure enough, after about 20 minutes everyone was discussed out (there’s no mystery with this one and everyone in the group was in agreement about, well, everything) so I whipped out the activity. Since one of Oliver’s assignments was to come up with an idea to change the world (his was that parents should not be allowed to do their child’s homework) I wanted the kids and their parents to do the same thing. I gave each child a slip of paper and each parent. They got a third piece of paper as well. The kids were instructed to come up with an idea on their own and write it down. The same for the parents. After they had their ideas they were to share them with each other and then together come up with an idea. It could be a combination of their individual ideas, or something brand new.

They had a lot of fun with this and there were some really great ideas! Here are some of my favorites (not verbatim):

From kids:

On vacation, every family should go fishing together.

Parents should have to play with their kids whenever their kids want to and for as long as their kids want to.

I would invent a bathroom for pets with a place to flush and for the pets to clean up. (ha ha ha! Don’t we all wish for that!?)

No one is allowed to get places with things that have gas. Only electric cars, bicycles, and walking. (that would certainly change the world!)

From parents:

Everyone should be required to visit another country for an extended time to learn about other cultures. (she thinks the government should pay for it, too. Hey, I’m all for that!)

People should smile at each other all the time.

You must treat each other with kindness.

All soccer locker rooms should have heated floors and hot showers. (she figured she’d start at the ground level)

All their ideas were fabulous and they were still talking about them as they were leaving for the night. That’s what I call a successful program.

For next month: Flight of the Phoenix by R.L. LaFevers  We just might play around with some compasses and maps. Anything is possible!

How do you run your book clubs? Are parents invited? Do you do activities, or just talk?

Tours in the Library March 21, 2012

Since opening the new library in July we have been giving a LOT of tours, not surprisingly. Every group in the area wants to visit the library for a storytime and playtime in the Early Learning Center. I really like tours because I think you get a chance to really welcome people to the library ad make them feel comfortable right off the bat. You get to lay down the ground rules before they go play and explore and they get to see your face and think of you as a friendly, helpful person, not as the one who just yelled at you for jumping on the ice cave. I imagine every library handles tours a little differently, but I thought I’d share specifically how I handle tour groups I’m assigned to.

First, I welcome them and take them straight to the spot where the storytime will be taking place. In today’s case (a very large group of 5 and 6 year olds) it was on our hopscotch rug in our picture book section since the program room was being used for preschool storytime.  After the kids are seated I introduce myself as Miss Kendra and ask them to put their hands on their heads (I put mine on my shoulder). Then I ask them to touch their nose (I put my hand on my head) and so on until they are finally laughing and telling me I’m wrong. I also find this silent kind of game effective in getting their attention.

Then we do “Now its Time for Storytime” (Camptown Races tune-see Rhymes page for words) while clapping our laps. Then on our heads. Then on our tummies really, really fast.

Now that they have been sufficiently silly-fied we go for a book. Today I read Stuck by Oliver Jeffers and used the magnetic “un-flannel” set from a previous post. Since the program room with the magnetic wall was being used I improvised and used the end of a metal book cart as my “wall”. It worked really well, especially since the magnets stick better to metal than the magnetic wall.

Well, now they are too quiet. So up again for an increasingly speedy Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes (all ages love this one and it’s easy in a crowded space). Super Sonic Speed is my favorite!

Now I pull out my secret weapon. The book no 5 or 6 year old can resist. The book that had one parent telling me how gifted a storyteller I was (Thanks, but it’s just the magical book). There Is A Bird On Your Head! by Mo Willems (but you already knew that). Elephant and Piggy have never failed me. NEVER. While reading this time a boy piped up with “Are you allowed to scream in the library?” Well, yes, when you are reading a book which requires it. You should definitely have one of these books in your arsenal for school visits, tours, kindergarten storytimes, and for days when you just need cheering up.

And now for the best closing song ever! Tooty Ta by Dr. Jean. Any Henderson Library folk will have a special fondness for this song as many colleagues have performed it, some of which not in children’s services, sometimes on top of circulation desks. Maybe that happened. Maybe not. Anyway, it’s excellent and the words are on the rhyme page. You don’t need Dr. Jean’s music-you can just chant it. But the music is cheesily wonderful so you might want to have a listen anyway. In my opinion, any song that ends with children sticking their tongues out with their butts in the air and knees stuck together is a winner. If you do try this, be prepared to sing “a tooty ta, a tooty ta, a tooty ta ta” all day long in your head. And you’re definitely going to need that “performer” trait Mel talks about in a recent Storytime Essentials blog post. Your butt is going to be in the air and all those parents are going to be laughing. At you. But in a good way so don’t worry, just have fun!

After Tooty Ta we have to get down to business. I want to run down the rules of the Early Learning Center (no jumping or climbing on things, no running, library voices-that one is really just to keep the screeching to a minimum) and make sure the parents know where the picture books and the help desk are. Of course, today, I totally forgot about the rules today because they all needed to sign their library cards today (we had them made up in advance for those who didn’t already have a card) and figuring out how to do that with 64 people in a crammed space distracted me! That just meant I had to walk around later and tell them individually what the expectations were. And really, that was ok, just a lot more work.

What do you do for “tours”? Do you have a special spiel or method?

 

Flannel Friday: Stuck Magnet Set March 16, 2012

Our new library has a wall painted with magnetic paint in our program room. The paint isn’t very strong so we can’t use a lot of store bought magnets. However, I’ve been dying to use the wall for a “flannel” for a tour group and figured I could make my own with magnetic tape I know works on the wall. Lucky for me, Nik at Narrating Tales of Preschool Storytime and her trusty helper Seth, just created one such board for Stuck by Oliver Jeffers. So here is my copy of that up on our wall. I ran out of time so didn’t show the boy but that’s ok- I’ll be him for the purpose of the story.

Check out the Flannel Friday roundup at Anna’s blog. See the flannels on Pinterest by clicking the button on the right side of this blog. Happy flanneling!

Toddler Storytime: Transportation (and painting with cars!) March 13, 2012

One of my fellow coworkers had the idea to have toddlers dip cars in paint and make tracks on paper with them. She left before getting to do the activity at our library but I like the idea so much I used it for today’s storytime.

Today was all about things that go so we read Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia, A Truck Goes Rattley-Bumpa by Jonathan London and closed with The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort (I didn’t do the whole book since it’s a little long and I used it at the end). We sang Wheels on the Bus (of course), Going to Kentucky (with shakers) and Alabama, Mississippi by Jim Gill (with shakers). Basically, we toured the United States in cars, trucks, and buses. And then got messy!

We headed to the craft tables which I had covered in yellow butcher paper. We have lots of plastic vehicles (pretty sure they came from Lakeshore Learning) so I put them in bins on the tables. For the first group I needed to be able to clean up quickly so I put out jumbo washable ink stamp pads for them to dip the cars on and then roll on the paper. It looked like this:

 

 For the second group I pulled out the finger paint. I just scooped a little blue and purple in to 4 trays (we use those black trays you get in microwaveable dinners-great for arts activities, free, and recycling!) and put those on the tables with the vehicles. Since I put yellow paper down and blue paint they were able to make some awesome green. No, I didn’t plan that, but sure wish I had! It was really cool to talk about, though. Here’s what the finger paint session looked like:

They really enjoyed themselves and I wished the first group could have done the finger painting, too. Next time I’ll ask a coworker for clean up/set up assistance between sessions.

Toddler Storytime: Movement March 7, 2012

Ok, really every toddler storytime theme is movement. It’s the nature of the beast. But this one was really, really focused on movement. Which means with two back to back I needed a nap afterwards.

The great thing about doing it twice is I can immediately tweak anything I didn’t like in the first one. Oh, that didn’t work as well as I hoped. I’ll change it for the next one, which is… now!

We started as usual with Clean Up, then Clap Everybody and Say Hello.

Right in to a book with Stretch by Doreen Cronin.

Then, Jump Like a Frog action rhyme followed by another book in the first storytime, but followed by Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in the second one. It was just too soon for another book for that group.

We read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. Then, inspired by Steven over at Beyond the Book Storytimes, I extended that book with puppets. He did it with Brown Bear, and I thought, why not with this one, too? It was really fun because inadvertently we were learning the difference between “say” and “do”. Yes the duck “says” quack, but what does it “do?” Fascinating stuff. For the second group I wanted to add a little song element to this activity. So, using another one of Steven’s tricks, rather than just take the animal from the bag and ask what it does, I sang “Row, row, row your boat. Row it all around. If you see a _____ make a _____ sound.” After making the sound I asked “And what does a frog do? It jumps! Yes! Let’s all jump!” 

Since that was a long-ish activity we did some more moving to Jim Gill’s “Hands are for Clapping.” I like this song because it’s slower than other movement songs so it gives toddlers enough time to do the actions instead of just standing, staring at me in wonder.

I closed with Piggies by Audrey Wood (turns out this is a favorite for some toddlers) and they were glued to the book even after all the chaos of the rest of the session.

We sang Goodbye Bubbles, and chased bubbles around while playing Splish Splash and then we played with dancing ribbons, ribbon hula hoops and some shakers. It was a blast!