Happy Tuesday! CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP! It's a Gator/Croc Storytime!

Happy Tuesday! Today we read stories all about some of the biggest, baddest reptiles in the world! We had a great time reading stories with Gators and Crocs.

Books:
The Watermelon Seed by: Greg Pizzoli
Open Very Carefully, A Book with Bite by: Nick Bromley/Nicola O'Byrne
Two Tough Crocs by: David Bedford

What We Did:
1.) Greeting song: The Storytime Train is coming!
(to the tune of "She'll be comin round the mountain)
Well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming, yes the storytime train is coming, well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Let's say hello to _____________. How are you? (Choo! Choo!)
Repeat this for each child in attendance.

2.) Get our bodies ready to read! This is the way...This is the way we clap our hands, clap our hands, clap our hands.
This is the way we clap our hands, when we're at storytime!
Repeat this tune with different actions (Stomp feet, jump up and down, tap your head, whisper voice, and always end with sit in my spot)

3.) Flannelboard Story- Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree
I used clip art monkeys, a gator, and a palm tree. The rhyme goes like this
Five little monkeys swinging in a tree
teasing Mr. Crocodile. Can't catch me! 
Along comes the crocodile, slowly as can be
and SNAP! Only four little monkeys left in the tree.
Repeat until done.

4.) www.gonoodle.com
At this website, you can start your storytime/classroom with a subscription to free brain breaks. There are many options such as Zumba, my favorite Koo Koo Kangaroo, and others. The website keeps track of how often you use it and awards your group points when they do something fun. Today, ours was Ninja Training. Click the link to see!

5.) Scarf Songs- I don't go much for scarf movement all the time, but I found a couple of delightful short ones at www.jbrary.com that the kids had a great time with.
Popcorn-
Popcorn, popcorn
cooking in a pot (wad up the scarf into your hands)
Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it (Shake hands with scarf inside)
Until it POPS! (Jump and throw scarf into the air with POPS!)
Toast in the Toaster
Toast in the toaster
Getting really hot (Crouch way down)
Wait a few minutes and 
Up it pops! ( Jump and toss scarf on pops!)

6.) Playtime: Today our three stations were Pla-doh, block play, and glue/salt paintings.

a.) Glue/salt paintings. Glue/Salt/Food Coloring. That's all you need. Draw a design on cardstock with Elmer's glue. Sprinkle salt all over the cardstock until all of the glue is covered. Shake the excess salt off. Have the kiddo squeeze the food coloring out onto the glue in droplets. The salt will absorb the color. They turn out cute and textured too! We had a great time with this project! The squeezing of glue and food coloring is so good for their little hand muscles! It always amuses me to see the different levels of involvement with process art crafts. Some are SO careful about it, and some are so free and messy!

b.) Pla-doh. It's a fine motor skill day at the library! Squeezing, shaping, squishing, flattening!

c. Block play- Cooperation, creativity, more motor control, manners, and respect. Those are the themes of block play. Most importantly, it's fun!

Thanks for checking me out! I appreciate the hits I get each and every week! See you next time!

Happy Tuesday! A Super spooky, silly storytime!

Happy Tuesday! Friday is a very big day in a child's life. We celebrated today by wearing our costumes together, passing out treats, and reading some Halloween favorites!

Books:
The Book With No Pictures: B.J. Novak (Yeah, I know It's not a Halloween book)
Crankenstein:  Samantha Berger/Dan Santat
Room On the Broom: Julia Donaldson/Alex Scheffler

What We Did:
1.) Greeting song: The Storytime Train is coming!
(to the tune of "She'll be comin round the mountain)
Well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming, yes the storytime train is coming, well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Let's say hello to _____________. How are you? (Choo! Choo!)
Repeat this for each child in attendance.

2.) Get our bodies ready to read! This is the way...
This is the way we clap our hands, clap our hands, clap our hands.
This is the way we clap our hands, when we're at storytime!
Repeat this tune with different actions (Stomp feet, jump up and down, tap your head, whisper voice, and always end with sit in my spot)

3.) Flannelboard Story- Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed
I've done a number of flannelboard stories during my tenure as youth librarian. This one stands out because the kids wanted to play with it and re-tell the rhyme after storytime was over! You can see that the pieces are colorful and have a lot of character!

4.) Action Rhyme: What Do Monsters Do?
This is a simple and quiet way to give your kiddos a break in between books. I just prepare them by telling them that we're going to act like monsters.
What do monsters do?
They stretch and touch their toes.
What do monsters do?
They comb their purple hair
What do monsters do?
They stick out their green tongues.
What do monsters do?
They brush their teeth with a broom.
What do monsters do?
They rub their yellow eyes.
What do monsters do?
They wiggle their orange ears.
Boy, am I glad that I'm not a monster!

5.) Goodbye song: We Wave Goodbye Like this
(The Farmer in the Dell)
Oh we wave goodbye like this! We wave goodbye like this! We clap our hands for all our friends, we wave goodbye like this!
(Choose a few silly ways to wave and do the song three or four times)

6.) Playtime- I set up three stations for play time today.
a.) Silly Brush Painting- I went back to total process art. I put the materials out and the kids painted. They're getting so used to it by now that they just go into our painting room and get started.

b.) Play-Doh- The kids get so excited for Play-Doh. I could put it out every week and they would love it.

c.) Pin the face on the pumpkin- I bought three medium sized pumpkins. I had our desk staff cut out many different shapes of eyes, noses and mouths. I set the pumpkins in the hallway on small chairs and let the kiddos design their own crazy faces.

Thanks for checking this blog out. I always appreciate feedback. By the way, our ArtPrize competition has started! You may come to the library anytime and vote for your favorites. You may vote ONCE in each category (k-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12) ONCE per visit. Please be sure to take your time and stop to appreciate all the work that all 51 contestants put into their pieces. Every one of them shows a unique talent and they deserve to be noticed.
Finally, I hope to see you all here next Monday night for Family movie night. We'll be showing the unappreciated classic:

Happy Tuesday! We're a great big storytime family!

Happy Tuesday! Everyone has a family and everyone's family is a little bit different. No matter who you are or where you come from. You have a mom and a dad. They also have a mom and a dad. So to celebrate those in our family we love so much, we had a family storytime today!

Books:
The Mommy Book: Todd Parr
When Dads Don't Grow Up: Marjorie Blain Parker/R.W. Alley
Thundercake: Patricia Polacco
What We Did:


1.) Greeting song: The Storytime Train is coming!
(to the tune of "She'll be comin round the mountain)
Well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Oh the storytime train is coming, yes the storytime train is coming, well the storytime train is coming. How are you? (all: Choo Choo!)
Let's say hello to _____________. How are you? (Choo! Choo!)
Repeat this for each child in attendance.

2.) Get our bodies ready to read! This is the way...
This is the way we clap our hands, clap our hands, clap our hands.
This is the way we clap our hands, when we're at storytime!
Repeat this tune with different actions (Stomp feet, jump up and down, tap your head, whisper voice, and always end with sit in my spot)

3.) The Goldfish Song: Laurie Berkner
Click the link to see the song and hear the dance.

4.) Mommy's scarves and Daddy's ties
Click the link to see the template I used to print the scarves and ties. The only difference is that I used a younger mommy and daddy instead of Grandma and Grandpa. I also changed the song, singing:
Mommy wants her blue scarf, blue scarf, blue scarf.
Mommy wants her blue scarf. Do you see it?
Then I would pick a child who could raise their hand to come up and put mommy's scarf on her or Daddy's tie on him.

5.) Goodbye song: We Wave Goodbye Like this
(The Farmer in the Dell)
Oh we wave goodbye like this! We wave goodbye like this! We clap our hands for all our friends, we wave goodbye like this!
(Choose a few silly ways to wave and do the song three or four times)

6.) Playtime: I had three stations set up for today. I turned my normal process art in a more crafty direction with some elmer's glue suncatchers.

a.) Suncatcher: You need glue, a plastic lid such as one you'd find on sour cream or cream cheese, food coloring, and toothpicks.
First, pour some glue into one of the lids, but don't overfill it.  Next, place about 3-4 drops of food coloring around the glue. Don't add too much or your colors will run together into a brown mess. Finally, take a toothpick and scribble it around in the glue. The colors will morph and blend, and become something very beautiful. When the glue dries you can use a hole puncher and some string and hang them in a window.

b.) Pla-Doh- Nothing much to say here except that I have yet to meet the kiddo who doesn't like Pla-Doh. It's so good for their little muscles and building fine motor skills. It give them the chance to be creative and build those pre-writing skills as well.

c.) Blocks- To encourage my storytime kiddos to play together more and work on a  project together, I poured out a big tub of foam/wooden blocks.

Thanks for reading. I hope to see you again really soon!

The 14th Goldfish: A book review by Pixelbeard the Librarian

The Fourteenth Goldfish by:
Jennifer L. Holm
190 pg.
Book level- 4.1
Ages 8-12
Jennifer L. Holm is a critically acclaimed author and three-time Newbery Honoree for her books Our Only May Amelia (1999), Penny from Heaven (2007), and Turtle in Paradise (2010). Her most popular series, and the one that your kiddo has probably checked out from the library more times than you can count is the Babymouse series of graphic novels.
The word that I think most aptly fits this novel is natural. The plot and prose just flow along comfortably and swiftly like a strong river current, steady and consistent until the end. It's funny, heartwarming, and real. The characters are all very easy to relate to. They work very well together. You believe that these people are family.
The plot begins when Ellie's mom calls her from the county jail. It appears that her Grandpa has been arrested. That night Ellie's mom returns with what appears to be a 13-14 year old boy. That teenage boy is Melvin and it turns out that Melvin is Ellie's Grandpa. Melvin is a highly respected scientist who has discovered a way to reverse the aging process. He has tested it on himself and now is physically a teenager. Ellie finds a kindred spirit in her grandpa and begins to find a passion for observation and science because of their interactions. Outside of the funny scientific premise, the scenes that have Ellie and Melvin bonding are the sweetest moments in the book. They interact like old friends who are rediscovering each other after a long absence.
I honestly can't recommend this book enough. Kids should find it funny and easy to read. Teachers should enjoy this book because it opens up a flood of conversation topics. Themes include topics such as scientific ethics. The idea that just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. Holm compares and contrasts Robert Oppenheimer and Jonas Salk. Both had scientific achievements that changed the course of history. Salk being famous for the Polio vaccine and Oppenheimer for the atomic bomb. While both saved millions of lives, Oppenheimer is just as often cursed for his creation as he is recognized for it. Sure, millions of lives were saved, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Japanese, and afterwards the nuclear arms race has never ceased. So, while Melvin's discovery of an age reversing miracle vaccine, the question of SHOULD he release it looms over the giddiness that he and Ellie feel.
This book is also about finding your passion in life. Ellie has lost her best friend Brianna to a volleyball obsession. As the girls enter middle school, their life long friendship seeming comes to a halt as Brianna is constantly involved with Volleyball and Ellie simply doesn't feel it. There is a similar divide between Ellie and her mother. Both her parents are theater professionals, but Ellie doesn't feel the love or passion for drama that they do.
Finally, this book is about moving forward. Life always moves forward, it's up to you to move along with it. Ellie, Melvin, and Ellie's mom all have situations in their life that have become stagnant. Ellie has a hard time making new friends in middle school. Melvin constantly complains about things today and hasn't changed anything in his apartment since the mid 1970's and still hasn't moved anything his deceased wife has left. Ellie's mom has hesitated from marrying her boyfriend Ben (She and Ellie's dad are divorced, but friendly) because she's afraid of making another mistake.
Watch for this one on the 2014 Newbery list. I strongly encourage you all to pick up this book, recommend it to your children or a teacher. You won't regret it.

Happy Tuesday! It's a cool, crisp, Autumn Storytime!

Happy Tuesday! It was a perfect Autumn day today. Cool, crisp air, I got an apple cider from Sozo's coffee and of course, my favorite people came to see me! We had a huge crowd today and we almost overfilled the library. I got to see some face I hadn't seen since springtime and of course, seeing my regular peanuts is just the best feeling. Today we talked about the changes in the season, weather, and trees. We read, sang, and played all about fall.

Books:
Fall Mixed Up by: Bob Razcka
Mouse's First Fall by: Lauren Thompson
There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed Some Leaves by: Lucille Colandro

What We Did:
Greeting Song:
1.) Greeting Song- The storytime train is coming (She'll be coming round the mountain)
Oh the storytime train is coming! How are you? (everyone yells CHOO CHOO!)
Yes, the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Now the storytime train is coming! Oh the storytime train is coming! Yes the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)

Let's say hello to _____. How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Repeat for all kids in attendance

2.) Get our bodies ready to read song: This is the way

This is the way I clap my hands, clap my hands, clap my hands.
This is the way I clap my hands when I'm at storytime.
Repeat with other motions, i.e. stomp feet, jump up and down, tap my head, wiggle my nose. Always end with 
This is the way I sit in my spot, sit in my spot, sit in my spot. This is the way I sit in my spot when I'm at storytime.

3.) More Koo Koo Kangaroo dancing! 
Today I re-used the Song Awesome Rainbows to get the kiddos moving. Then we tried a second one called What's that You say? where kids are able to move like a robot, airplane, slow runner, disco dancer, and then freeze in place. Ruby the Chicken joined us in these and we all had a great time.

4.) Leaf Color/Shape sorting- I pretended that I was going to tell the kids a story with just a bunch of paper leaves. Oops! I tripped and they went everywhere! I made sure that each child had at least one leaf. I then had Ruby talk to the kids about putting all the leaves in order. Since she is a two handed puppet, she allows enough movement to pick up, uncap, and write with a marker on the white board. Ruby would write a color (red,yellow, orange, or brown) and the kids who had that color would paste them on the board. We didn't have time to extend this into shapes, but you could also have them sort by the different leaf shapes as well. This kind of thing is great when you have a wide age group. We had everywhere from 15 months to 4 years. The big kids can do it themselves, and the little kids learn SO MUCH while watching!

5.) Playtime- Again, I had three stations set up. This week we had:

a.) Pla-Doh play! We get those fine motor skills all tuned up! We love pla-doh. It feels good in the hand, it smells good (don't eat it), and it works those little muscles while developing artistic creativity.

b.) Leaf rubs- I picked up leaves from the yard around the library and peeled some crayons for the kids to make rub impressions of them. Again, great pre-writing skills and these projects are all about HOW you make it, not how it turns out in the end.

c.) Be the wind! We used straws to blow maple leaves across a table! This is a great activity to experience some pretend play while learning a little bit about physics and science.

Happy Tuesday! Storytime Blog all about Feelings!

Happy Tuesday! It was a wonderful day for a storytime today! This storytime was all about talking about our feelings. We talked about how everyone has feelings and it's okay to feel all those things. It was easy to find good books about our feelings and the ones I did find were very much enjoyed by all my little peanuts.

Books:
Now I feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day: Jamie Lee Curtis/Laura Cornell
My Friend is Sad: Mo Willems
I'm Tired and other Body Feelings: Claire Hibbert/Simona Dimitri

What We Did:
Greeting Song:
1.) Greeting Song- The storytime train is coming (She'll be comin round the mountain)
Oh the storytime train is coming! How are you? (everyone yells CHOO CHOO!)
Yes, the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Now the storytime train is coming! Oh the storytime train is coming! Yes the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)

Let's say hello to _____. How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Repeat for all kids in attendance

2.) Get our bodies ready to read song: This is the way

This is the way I clap my hands, clap my hands, clap my hands.
This is the way I clap my hands when I'm at storytime.
Repeat with other motions, i.e. stomp feet, jump up and down, tap my head, wiggle my nose. Always end with 
This is the way I sit in my spot, sit in my spot, sit in my spot. This is the way I sit in my spot when I'm at storytime.

3.) I made two cubes out of cardboard and covered them with different colored construction paper. I wrote an emotion on each side of one cube, and an animal on each side of the other cube. Then the kids and I would pretend to be whatever animal was rolled.

4.) Ruby the Chicken- MY NEW PUPPET! Ruby played the emotional animal game with the kids. She's a great puppet because each of her wings accommodates a hand. You can do so much with two hands doing the puppetry. I love her and the kids did too! They were high-fiving her out the door!

5.) Awesome Rainbows- My son is in Kindergarten this year. I volunteer in his classroom on Monday mornings and this is where I saw the dance group Koo Koo Kangaroo doing this song as a dance video. I'm posting a link to this video on Youtube. I have to say, if you want to add some pizzazz to your storytime with some fun and physically tiring dance moves, Get into Koo Koo Kangaroo. There are lots of songs to choose from and their driving dance beats and silly song concepts will have your peanuts bouncing!

6.) Feelings Magnet board- This can be done as a flannel board, but I like Magnets better, so there. I made faces in MS Word to show one of six emotions, Sad, Happy, Mad, Confused, Surprised, and Scared. I also printed a a dialogue bubble to match the faces with one emotion inside each.

7.) Playtime- Today I had three different stations, I will label them A,B,C.

Station A- Texture painting. This was simple. I bought some fun paintbrushes and paint rollers and let the kids have at it. It's more meaningful to a preschool child to create something of their own, than a craft that you designed.

Station B- Mirrors and Dry erase Markers- To tie-in with our feelings theme I provided hand mirrors, white boards, dry erase markers, and cloth erasers. The kids made different faces into the mirrors and then drew themselves on the whiteboards. Most of it was scribbling and making silly faces in the mirrors, but that still worked their fine motor and grasp in a fun way.

Station C- Funny Faces magnet books- I've had these books for while sitting in the toy area and thought that today would be a great time to incorporate them into a storytime. 

Well, that's All we did today. Busy busy busy! Just like preschoolers ought to be. Visit me again next week for more storytime fun!

-Pixelbeard

I have returned! Storytime is back in session and boy are we having fun!

Good afternoon! We're nearing the end of September and my Storytimes have started to buzz, crackle, and spark with energy! My attendance has increased steadily since the first week after Labor Day. I'm feeling very encouraged, because the changes that I've made to storytime have been very well received and I can see a huge difference in my confidence as a storyteller. But anyway, none of you want to hear about that, you want to know what I've been doing during storytime, well fine. I guess I can stop talking about myself for a few sentences and let you know some of my tricks.

So far, I've done storytimes on imaginary play, magic, and the weather. Today was a more traditional autumn storytime all about apples.

Books:
Apples, Apples, Everywhere- Robin Michal Koontz
The Biggest Apple Ever- Steven Kroll
An Apple selection from Fancy Nancy's Fabulous Fall Storytime Collection-

What We did:
1.) I sliced red, green, and yellow apples for the kids to sample. Then we used flannel apples to make a graph of our favorite kind. We talked about which choice had the most and the least. There I go again...teaching with food!

2.) Greeting Song- The storytime train is coming (She'll be comin round the mountain)
Oh the storytime train is coming! How are you? (everyone yells CHOO CHOO!)
Yes, the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Now the storytime train is coming! Oh the storytime train is coming! Yes the storytime train is coming! How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)

Let's say hello to _____. How are you? (CHOO CHOO!)
Repeat for all kids in attendance.

3.) Get our bodies ready to read song: This is the way
This is the way I clap my hands, clap my hands, clap my hands.
This is the way I clap my hands when I'm at storytime.
Repeat with other motions, i.e. stomp feet, jump up and down, tap my head, wiggle my nose. Always end with 
This is the way I sit in my spot, sit in my spot, sit in my spot. This is the way I sit in my spot when I'm at storytime.

4.) A-P-P-L-E (BINGO)
We sing the song to the tune bingo. Instead of clapping when you omit a letter, say CRUNCH!
I had a visual aid for this song as well. I put the letters A-P-P-L-E on separate pieces of paper. On the reverse side is a picture of an apple I found. Each subsequent letter, the apple appears to have another bit taken out of it. Behind the E, the apple is just a core. As we sing, we turn the pictures over from letters to apples. The kids are always eager to see what the next apple will look like. I ham it up and act like I'm totally upset that someone is eating my apple. I had lots of belly laughs this morning.

6.) Goodbye rap:

Wave high, Wave low.
I think it's time we've got to go!
Wave your elbows, wave your toes
Wave your tongue, and wave your nose.
Wave your knees, wave your lips,
Blow a kiss with your fingertips.
Wave your ears, wave your hair,
Wave your belly, and your derriere.
Wave your chin, wave your eye,
Wave your hand and say goodbye.

5.) Activity Stations: The BIGGEST change that I've made to storytime this year is that I don't end on one craft. I attended a workshop that suggested having different activity stations to reach the interests of all kids in attendance and allowing you to work on a multitude of preschool skills. So, today we had three separate stations.
1.) Play-Doh play
2.) Apple suncatcher craft
3.) Apple tossing game

The Play-Doh play is pretty self explanatory. put out some pla-doh and have some toys for them to roll, smush, cut, and build with the pla-doh. It's really good for working on their fine motor skills and building the muscles in their hand/fingers.

The suncatcher craft required children to glue colored tissue paper to the back of a wax paper lined apple shape.

The apple tossing game is great for gross motor development and coordination. You take some beanbags, call them apples, and toss them in a basket. I put a line of tape across the floor and the kids tossed it into a picnic basket. They had lots of fun, as you would expect.

Well, that's pretty much it! Thanks for checking me out and I hope you come back to read next week!

Until then!