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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
