Daycare Outreach Round-Up, August 7 and 21

Week Five (Wednesday, August 7)

Group 1 @ 10:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Maisy Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, In the Camp All Night Long, Moon Moon Moon, These Are My Glasses, The More We Read Together
Rhyme: Two Little Fireflies 
Notes:  This theme is really tough, because there are so few good read-alouds about camping for any age group, and even fewer in my library's collection. Into the Outdoors was the best book, but the kids also loved Tiny Goes Camping. Seeing that big dog crammed into that small tent made everyone laugh! I had to write two of my own songs, both of which went over much better than I expected.


Group 2 @ 10:30 a.m. (Ages 4-5)
Books:  A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Stella and Roy Go Camping, Curious George Goes Camping
Songs: Visor, Tee-shirt, Shorts and Shoes
Notes: It's easier to find books for big kids, and both Mr. Magee and Stella and Roy were great successes, sparking lots of conversation and making the kids giggle. The Curious George book was a bit lengthy, and they seemed bored with it, but in the interest of cooperating with their theme, I went with it. The kids begged for another story when I was done, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Group 3 @ 11:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Maisy Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in my Little Red Tent, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Moon Moon Moon, The More We Read Together
Rhyme: Two Little Fireflies 
Notes: These books were just the right length for this group, which skews quite a bit younger (or at least less mature) than the others. They also loved singing Twinkle Twinkle.

Group 4 @ 11:30 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Bailey Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, In the Camp All Night Long
Notes: This is the most engaged group, and they were great at calling out colors of the different tents, and acting out the motions of the trees, owls, etc. in the camp. Their favorite book was Tiny Goes Camping.

Week Six (Wednesday, August 21)

Group 1 @ 10:00 a.m.  (Ages 2-3)
Books: Duck Tents, Camping Day, Bailey Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, Aikendrum (with ukulele), ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep (with ukulele), The More We Read Together, These Are My Glasses 
Notes: Duck Tents was not as well-received as I expected. I think they were confused by the illustrations. Bailey Goes Camping was boring, and I had forgotten about an unfortunate fart joke in Camping Day that (thankfully) only half the kids got. I didn't read the book again at any subsequent session because of the fart joke, as I make it a point not to include things like that in my story times.

Group 2 @ 10:30 a.m. (Ages 4-5)
Books: Jerome Camps Out, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Amelia Bedelia Hits the Trail 
Songs: Aikendrum, Visor Tee Shirt Shorts and Shoes
Notes: Jerome Camps Out was too advanced, but Henry and Mudge was just right. Some of the word play in Amelia Bedelia lost the kids, but they loved hearing her story anyway. This group enjoyed the ukulele, and I had them help me remember what each of Aikendrum's facial features was made of as we added more verses. In the future, I'd like to come up with more foods for the other parts of Aikendrum's body, as this group was disappointed when the song ended.

Group 3 @ 11:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Turtle and Snake Go Camping, Gus Gets Scared, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night
Songs: Row Row Row Your Boat, Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Moon Moon Moon 
Notes: This group loves to sing, so that's mostly what we did. I didn't have a third book that was a great length for them, so we did a quick version of Henry and Mudge where I just paraphrased a lot of the text.

Group 4 @ 11:30 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Duck Tents, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Turtle and Snake Go Camping
Songs: Five Little Ducks, These Are My Glasses
Notes: This group got so into counting the ducks and their tents that we sang Five Little Ducks to give them a chance to count and quack some more. They loved Henry and Mudge, and when story time was over, they wanted even more stories!

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Feedback and Reflections

I have done a fair amount of outreach in this job, but few organizations have been so welcoming or accommodating as this day care center. I would have preferred not to be so limited by the pre-selected themes, as some of them were downright difficult, but even with those restrictions I was able to put together programs that engaged the kids, excited their teachers, and entertained me.

To thank me for coming, each class presented me with a card. Some of the teachers asked the kids to tell them what they liked about my story times, and they included those in the card as well. The responses were so sweet, I will share them below (with names removed, of course.)

"The sloth book." "I liked her songs." "Her voice." "The music." "The stories." "Sing with Ms. Kathleen."  "The books." "Her voice." "And I read read read, and I look look look." "I like books." "I don't know."  "Sing songs." "Her books." "The books." "I like her cause she reads stories to me." "The songs." "Songs and claps." "Reading books."

"Singing songs." "Sing and clap." "I like a song." "Sing songs." "Her reading stories." "Reading stories." "Reading stories."  "The books and songs are what I like."  "I liked the songs." "I like how she reads."  "I like at the end of her songs she said some silly things."  "I like the different books." "I like her songs."  "I like the book about the butterfly." "I like the tug boat story."  "I like the fish book." "I like the books."  "I like the silly books."

There is something really rewarding about knowing how much the kids enjoyed and appreciated my visits. I know it's not always possible for busy librarians to get out of the branch and visit the local childcare centers as I often as I did this past three months, but when it is possible, it is totally worth it.