Monday, January 28, 2013

Outreach Round-Up, 1/16/13 - 1/25/13

Rec. Center Cooperative Play Program: Wednesday, 1/16/13
Books: A Little Bit of Winter, The Hat, Help!
Songs: Good morning, Mr. Hedgehog, how are you?, Five Little Hedgehogs Brown, Sing a Happy Song
Notes: I debuted my hedgehog puppet at this story time and read three hedgehog themed books, all of which were well received despite being somewhat longer than what I normally share with this group.

Catholic School Pre-K: Thursday, 1/17/13 
Books: Happy Hector, The Happy Lion, Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes
Songs: If You’re Happy and You Know It, I’ve Got Something In My Pocket, Sing a Happy Song, You Are My Sunshine
Notes: I decided to do a story time about being happy, and that worked really well. They loved all three books, but Pete the Cat was the biggest hit by far.

Catholic School 5th Grade: Thursday, 1/17/13
For this visit, I asked the kids to create an acrostic poem with their names, listing things they like. Then I gave them a quick handout about the Dewey Decimal System and had them explore the shelves looking for a book about one of the things they listed. Their teacher made things a little confusing by also requiring them to choose a book that would be appropriate for  their kindergarten reading buddies, but even with that added stress, the kids did a great job. (Credit for this activity goes to the other children's librarian at my branch who saved the day when I couldn't get inspired.)

Public School Pre-K: Wednesday, 1/23/13 (Two Classes)
Books: Possum Magic, Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef 
Songs: Hat, Coat, Pants, and Shoes, These Are My Glasses, Taba Naba (first class only)
Notes: Both groups were so involved with these books that we barely had time for any singing. We talked about what we'd do if we were invisible, and made lots of great observations about sea creatures.

Catholic School 5th Grade: Thursday, 1/24/13
I decided I wanted this group to be a bit more invested when they come each week, so I've started reading them a novel: No Talking by Andrew Clements. They were skeptical at first, but I could see them getting more interested as they realized how good it is. The dialogue in particular got the girls all excited, and one of them even told me she thinks I should read audiobooks for a living. (I take no credit for this. Clements writes killer dialogue that makes it is easy to read aloud.) I'm hoping to get some good discussions out of them as  the weeks go on. I expect we'll finish the book by the end of March.

Catholic School Kindergarten: Friday, 1/25/13
Books: Guess Again!, Six Dinner Sid 
Song: Aikendrum
Notes: This group was a little off because they had a substitute teacher and she was not really with it. They did help me come up with a new way to sing Aikendrum, though - let the kids name the foods and body parts, and then I just sing them.

Here We Go! Preschool Story Time, 1/25/13

 Here We Go! Preschool Story Time, 1/25/13
Book: Fast Food by Saxton Freymann, illustrated by Joost Elffers


Song: Shake My Sillies Out 
We had a little argument going on in the front row between a three-year-old boy who refused to sit down and a little girl who is very aware of rules and the importance of following them. The boy's mom basically told him it was fine to stand in the little girl's way, even after I asked that we all sit on our bottoms, so I did this song to get everyone moving while I thought it over. By the end of the song, he was tired enough that he sat. 

Book: The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon
This is a wonderful retelling of the Three Little Pigs using trucks. This was my favorite of the four, and I think it was the kids' favorite too.

Song with Ukulele: Little Red Caboose
This wasn't a huge hit with this group, but they were mesmerized by the ukulele.

Book: Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
I will never stop loving the image of all those animals staring at the kids' bikes right before they get on and ride them. The little girl who loves to enforce rules also raised her hand to tell me it wasn't nice to steal bicycles from the kids without asking. She reminds me a lot of myself as a four year old.

Book: Mitchell's License by Hallie Durand, illustrated by Tony Fucile
I love Tony Fucile's artwork, and the premise of this book so much that I use it at story time even though I think the kids miss most of the humor. It works well for story times where the whole family attends, and there were some moms and grandmas this week that got a kick out of it.

This was a nice, calm story time to end the week. I'd love another session like this - soon!

I use the same hello and goodbye songs at almost every session. Click here for the tunes and words. For descriptions of each of my story times, click here.
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