Moon-Themed "On the Road" Story Time #1, 7/12/12

This summer, as part of our summer reading program, children's librarians in my system are traveling to each other's branches to perform story times. My theme is the moon, and today was my first of the four visits I have scheduled. I went to the library where Lucy from In the Children's Room works, and had a wonderful time with her story time crowd!

Here is what I shared with the kids:

Opening Song (with ukulele): Hello, how are you?
I played the hello song in C instead of A! This might not sound like an accomplishment, but for me it was.

Book: The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Tracey Pearson Campbell (2006)
What a delightful surprise it was to see everyone enjoy this book so much. On pages where I thought the poetry was confusing, I used the illustrations to keep the kids interested, pointing out the shape of the moon and the clock face, for example, and showing them the raccoons stealing veggies on the garden wall. I will definitely be using this book again at my own story times, and when I go "on the road" again later in the month.

Song: Moon Moon Moon 

Song (with flannel board and ukulele): Aikendrum
I redid my Aikendrum flannel board for two reasons: the pieces were too small, and none of the kids or nannies could identify spaghetti or meatballs when I held them up individually. For this set, I didn't bother making a ladel, but I made broccoli for the hair, two cookies for the eyes, a cheese nose and a banana mouth. They were all instantly recognizable foods, and the kids knew them all. I also managed to play the entire song without the chords in front of me, and I only made one mistake.  (I played this one in A - which is why the hello song was in C.)

Song: Here We Go Up, Up, Up

Book: Higher, Higher by Leslie Patricelli (2009)
I used to fear this book's small number of words. Now I embrace the lovely refrain and have so much fun building up the "high five" at the book's climax.

Song: Five Little Martians 

Remember One Little Finger? Remember One Little Monster? Well, Five Little Martians is yet another piggyback song on the same tune.

Five little martians
Five little martians

Five little martians

Beep! Beep! Beep!

One little martian
went home to bed
Now that martian's

fast asleep!

Book: Moonlight by Helen V. Griffith (2012)
This book is beautiful and poetic and flopped terribly at my own story time. This group seemed to enjoy it, however, especially because it had a bunny.

Song (with pop stick puppets): Stars Shining Bright
I love this song, and the kids loved it too. It was great to have some preschoolers who could name their colors without adult help. 

Song: Head and Shoulders, Baby 
I added in an additional verse this time - do the twist. I wasn't crazy about it, but it was nice to have some variety. 

Book: I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton (1988)
This is another one that flopped with my group but was successful today. I think it worked well in this case because it had the context of the specific moon-centric theme. I also think it helps when the group is smaller and the kids can really see the pictures.

Song (with flannel board): Five Astronauts Went Up in Space 

Song (with ukulele): Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

We did a craft at the end of story time - rocket launchers, inspired by this post on Pinterest. I'll make a separate post about the craft itself, once I've been to all four libraries.