Summer Camp Story Time, 7/1/16

I visited my parents in New York for the Fourth of July, and, as I did last year, presented a story time for my mom's summer camp while I was there. Though this isn't likely to be useful to anyone else until next year, it was a great story time and worth writing up!

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?
I had started using a new hello song for the story times I was doing for my Moms Club, but for this group, where the kids were ages 4 to 6, I went back to my original song. In this situation, the hello song was really just a means to an end rather than activity unto itself, so I wasn't that worried about it. 

Book: Wow! America! by Robert Neubecker
This book follows two sisters as they run across a map of the United States, discovering different landmarks and customs associated with each state. Because each page is so simple, with just one sentence about each state followed by an exclamation of "Wow, lobster!" or "Wow, canyon!" I knew I would have to make it super interactive if I wanted to use it. So I came up a motion for each "wow" and had the kids repeat after me on each page. It worked really well. It also helped that my mom was on hand to hold the book for me because it's a huge picture book, and I could not have held it and done the motions. 

Song: The Irrational Anthem by Jim Gill
I had never done this song before without or without the recording, and I was skeptical about whether I could pull it off. I practiced it for a week or so at home and finally decided it was doable. It functions in a story time similarly to Taba Naba, which I did for this group last year, but whereas Taba Naba proved difficult for them, the Irrational Anthem was just right. I did it a cappella so I could take it at my own pace, and I think that's the way I would always do it.  

Book: Crankee Doodle by Tom Angleberger and Cece Bell
I debated a lot about using this book because while I remembered it being hilarious, I wasn't sure the kids would find it that funny. Going against my usual story time style, I decided to assign voices to the two characters, Crankee Doodle and his horse. The kids were silent through the whole thing, so I had no idea in the moment whether this was a hit or a flop, but when my mom got home from work later in the day, she informed me that when she asked the kids their favorite part of camp at the end of the day, several named this book as a highlight. So I guess it was worth the risk. 

Song with Ukulele: Yankee Doodle
The last page of this book is told in the voice of the horse, who sings the song, so we sang it twice through just for the fun of it. (I asked my mom ahead of time if she could sing the song with them during the week before I came. I have had bad luck using this song with groups that don't know it.)

Song: Visor, T-Shirt, Shorts, and Shoes
This worked just as well as it always does. It is truly a secret weapon. 

Book: Song for A Summer Night: A Lullaby by Robert Heidbreder and Qin Leng
I checked this book out of the library on a whim and my first thought was that it would be perfect for a story time because all of the repetition. I assigned a motion to each sound that makes up the summer lullaby and had the kids repeat each one each time the sound was made. I doubt this book would have gone as well with a group in a less structured environment, especially since there are a lot of quiet moments between repeats of the refrain, but it worked really nicely in this situation. 

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This
I used the goodbye song to put a period at the end of the sentence, so to speak, but I and my husband and kids actually stuck around to sing Down by the Bay with the campers after the story time, which was really fun, especially for Little Miss Muffet, who has recently discovered that song. 

Summer Camp Story Time, 7/10/15

When I was visiting my family recently, I volunteered to do a story time for my mom's summer camp kids. This audience included 20-25 "pee wees", all between the ages of 4 and 6, and my theme was nature. I haven't done a story time for this age group since I left the library, so this was a special treat, and the kids were one of the best groups I've ever had! Here is what I shared with them. 

Opening Song with Ukulele: Hello, how are you? 

I spent the morning before this performance playing every hello song I know on the ukulele and trying to choose one other than my usual. And then  I went with the usual. As basic as it is, it really works, and the kids happily participated.

Book: Who Was Here? by Mia Posada 

I received a digital ARC of this book when it came out last year, and it was the first book I chose for this story time. It is a guessing game which shows animal footprints, provides some rhyming clues, and then asks the reader, "Who was here?" The only issue I had was that some of the pages provided clues for two animals, and I had to manage guesses for both at the same time. (It helped that the kids just naturally raised their hands instead of just calling out, which is not something I usually enforce.) Otherwise, this book was a much better choice than either How to Be a Nature Detective or Around the Pond: Who's Been Here? which I used when I did this theme three years ago. 

Book: Birdsongs by Betsy Franco and Steve Jenkins 

I love this book, which focuses on birds and their calls. The text counts down from ten to one by asking the reader to make the sound of the first bird mentioned ten times, the next one nine times, and so on. It can sometimes be difficult to get the kids to count all the calls together, but this group was amazing. I think there was only one time where we had an extra "tweet" or "chirp" after the count was finished. Otherwise, they were perfect. (Incidentally, I read this book to Little Miss Muffet so many times in preparation for the story time, that any time we mention a chickadee now, she pretends to count six "dees" on her fingers.) 

Song: Visor, Tee Shirt, Shorts and Shoes 

This song (which is one of my favorite extension activities for school-age kids) continues to be my secret weapon. I used the summer version, since this is a summer camp, and the kids laughed on cue when I introduced each silly element. I could probably have done more verses, but kids were starting to call out suggestions and I didn't want us to run out of time, so we just did moose antlers, bat wings, squirrel tail, and tiger claws. 

Book with Ukulele: Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes 

I have never been able to do this book with the ukulele because I don't usually have help. This time, though, I enlisted my mom to do the hand motions, and a camp counselor to hold the book, and we turned it into a multimedia presentation. We were not that well-rehearsed, but the kids were into it anyway, and they enjoyed seeing some of their fish friends from Finding Nemo. 

Song: Taba Naba 

It has been a long time since I did this song with a group, and I had a harder time modeling the motions than I thought I would. The kids didn't mind at all, and seemed to enjoy the challenge, but I know I could have explained it a lot more clearly. I will work on the presentation if I ever have an opportunity like this again. 

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This
I didn't even bother trying to come up with a different goodbye song. This one worked fine, as always. 

Camp Story Time, Ages 4-11, 7/2/12

We don't have as many camps this summer as last, but we do have a few, and this one asked me to do a story time for their group, which ranges in age from 4 to 11. Last summer, this sort of request sent me into a panic - this year, thanks to all the time I spent visiting schools, I was more than ready to meet the challenge. I overplanned, which is normal for me, because I always worry about running short, but I wound up filling 25 minutes with just two books and one song.

Here's the rundown:

Book: Stella Louella's Runaway Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst (1998)
As I did during my second grade class visit for National Library Week, I introduced this book by telling the kids to look for the clues and figure out which book it was that Stella has lost. They all did a great job of not telling the answer until the very end, and even the littlest ones had figured it out by the time I asked them to call out the name of the story.

Book: The Little Old LadyWho Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd (1986)
I have read this book many times, usually to preschoolers, but I knew I needed something more to make it appeal to this wide age range. So, I made the story interactive by having the kids act out each motion. The movements we used are as follows:

CLOMP CLOMP = Stomp your feet
WIGGLE WIGGLE = Do a twist motion with your hips
SHAKE SHAKE = Shake your hands
CLAP CLAP = Clap your hands
NOD NOD = Nod your head
BOO BOO = Open and close hands next to face

The kids got really into this, and they clapped and cheered when we finished. The camp counselors also did an awesome job of joining in and encouraging the kids to participate. I will never read this book sitting down again. (And I also learned that it never hurts to raid the holiday books for stories - this is shelved with our Halloween books, but it's really something that could be read any time, and especially with our nighttime theme this year!)

Dance: Taba Naba (A video I found on YouTube that shows the song and motions is here. The lyrics and origin of the song are on Wikipedia.)
Last summer, I introduced this song is as part of the One World, Many Stories summer reading theme, and used it with the Wiggles recording from their Wiggly Wiggly World album (pictured above). During the past year, I have learned the words and can now sing the entire thing without the music. The advantage of this is that I can now introduce the words and movements separately first, and then sing the song as slowly or as quickly as I would like. I also wrote the words on our dry-erase wall so the older kids could attempt to sound them out with me. I had them read through the words with me, practice the motions a couple of times, and then we put it all together. The kids caught on really fast, and we had a great time doing our sit-down dance.

At the end of story time, the kids signed up for summer reading, while I quickly dashed upstairs to set up for the school-age program, our Daytime Pajama Party, which the camp also attended. Stay tuned for the post about that, coming up next!

Camp Visit, 7/5

The challenges just keep on coming! This camp has approximately 25 children, ages 5 to 15, and what they asked me to do today was a story time for their younger kids, and a craft for their older ones. I planned my story time for ages 5-8 (with 8 being almost too old for the books I chose), but when the group arrived, they decided to keep the entire group together, since not all of the kids came to camp following the holiday. So I wound up reading the books I chose to a group ranging from age 5 to age 10 or so. We also did one song.

Book: We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems
I picked this one because I think these books are entertaining for any age, and I could tell, from the moment I held up the cover, that the kids were pretty happy with my choice. The oldest kid in the group was the most engaged, I think. He wanted to know if the book actually ended on page 57 as Piggie mentions. (And of course it does!)

Book: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
I chose this because half this group asked me for it when they were here for their own private reading time last week. And again, they were absolutely glued to the pages. The teacher says they have heard it too many times before, but I don't think you can ever have enough Seuss in your life.

Song: Taba Naba
This was a big hit. Just difficult enough that the oldest kids had to try hard to get it perfect, and easy enough that the youngest kids could do at least half of the movements.

Book: Loose Tooth by Anastasia Suen, illustrated by Allan Eitzen
This was a third book I didn't really intend to read once I saw the age range of the group, but the other two were done so quickly, I wound up throwing it in there anyway. And they liked it. Again. I think it was the basketball stuff more than the tooth stuff, but still.

At the end of this session, the teacher informed me that the books I read were not "mature" enough, or "engaging" enough. Despite the fact that the kids were dead silent, staring at me and listening not just politely, but interestedly, I would say that they were plenty engaged. Sure, easy readers aren't going to be great for ten-year-olds, but I didn't know ten-year-olds were part of this until a minute beforehand! But she said that even for the younger kids, it needed to be more interactive, and more exciting. So now I'm on a quest to find books that can be read to the entire group next week - ages 5 to 15 - that won't bore anyone. Which basically means I'm on a wild goose chase, because the interest levels are so different for a five year old and a fifteen year old.

But I'm trying anyway. I had some suggestions from Seth, Mary, and Sharon on Twitter (thanks, guys!), but I'm still working on compiling a list of longer picture books that are funny, if at all possible. This is what I've got so far:


Princess Hyacinth: The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated by Florence Parry Heide, illustrated by Lane Smith (This is my standard go-to book for mixed-age story times, and it's been successful with other groups, but I'm iffy about it for this one. This teacher has made me so paranoid!)

When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach, illustrated by David Small (I thought I had read this, but realized I have not. It seems pretty laugh-out-loud funny, but

The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean (This book is creepy, but some kids like that. If  they have nightmares, the teacher will know better than to say "mature.")

Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague (I have read this with kindergartners before, at my previous library, and the humor went over their heads. These kids are a bit older than that, so maybe they'd get it.)

Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave by Marianna Mayer, illustrated by K.Y. Craft (I read this to my wonderful fifth graders on their last visit of the school year and they loved it. But I look at the youngest ones in their group, and I know it's not going to work for them. *sigh*)

I've also considered short stories (my boyfriend's suggestion), and maybe some sort of call-and-response story, but haven't investigated those any further so far. Sharon also suggested story telling, but I have never done anything like that without a book, so I'll probably have to take longer than a week if I want to learn a story well.

What do you read to "big kids?" What would you read to this group?