Imagination Saturday Family Story Time, 7/27/13

 

This story time has not been a success this summer. As in the past, our families are not interested in organized activities on Saturdays, especially when school is not in session. We did manage to round up a few recruits for this session, but then we made the decision not to offer the story time in August. Three kids came to this one - a girl of about twelve, her sister of about six, and a toddler. I am not going to bother with commentary, because no one paid attention at all the entire session.

Book: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood and Don Wood

Book: Bark George by Jules Feiffer

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Book: Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty

Song: One Little Monster

Song: ABCs

Song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: George Shrinks by William Joyce
(Note: I would never read this aloud at a story time like this, except that the toddler brought it to me and asked me to read it.)

Song: These Are My Glasses


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.

Dig Into Reading (Reading): Family Story Time, 6/15/13

Dig Into Reading (Reading): Family Story Time, 6/15/13

*No photo this time - it's too hard to predict what I'll read when all ages are invited! Credit for the image above goes to mycutegraphics.com.

 
Today was the first session of my library's new Saturday afternoon story time. We are offering this every week until school starts, because so many families have asked us to do Saturday programming. Only two kids joined me today, but I asked them to bring their friends in the future, and one dad promised to let his son's playgroup friends know about it. I think attendance will grow as summer gets in full swing.

Because there were only two kids and neither seemed to love singing, we just sang the hello song, goodbye song, and one other song, and read four books, then colored for a few minutes.

Book: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
The kids were so quiet, it was hard to tell whether they enjoyed this book or not, but they seemed interested. 

Book: We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems
This was definitely the book they loved most. Neither of the two boys who came to story time had ever seen it before, so it was great to see  them laugh at the jokes for the first time.

Book: Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson
This book didn't get much of a reaction during the reading itself, but the kids clapped when it was over.

At this point, I asked if we should read one more. The younger of the two boys - who was three - told me he wanted three more! (One was enough, as I knew it would be.)

Book: Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library by Don Freeman
The younger boy liked this book a lot. The older one seemed to be kind of over me at this point, and I definitely felt the "you're a lame librarian" vibe coming from him when I then said we would sing before we left. 


Song: These Are My Glasses

Coloring Page: I re-used my bookshelf coloring activity from my book-themed Read-Along story time back in April.  Both boys liked it and spent a good amount of time coloring. The younger boy also took a break to show me his "out of control superhero moves" and his dinosaur stomping.


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.

WinterFest Story Time #3, 12/8/12

The third and final WinterFest story time took place in the afternoon, and it was a small preschool group. 

Book: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr 

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: The Snow Globe Family by Jane O'Connor
The kids loved this one in particular. They liked imagining what it would be like inside a snow globe.

Song: Skate on the Frozen Pond
This is a perfect song for getting the wiggles out of fidgety preschool boys.

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski 

Song: Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes

Book: The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming

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.

WinterFest Story Time #2, 12/8/12

This second WinterFest story time took place at 11:30, and it was the most popularly attended session of the day, with about a dozen kids. The crowd ranged in age from babies to early elementary school, so it was a bit tricky to keep everyone's interest, but we did our best. One challenge that made it especially hard was that one little boy - probably a kindergartener - decided he would say no to every question I asked and immediately say the opposite of anything I had to say. By keeping the tone light, I managed to get him to stop being so silly, and that the end he came up and chatted with me about books, so it wound up being a nice experience.

Flannel Board: Little Snowball, Little Snowball Are You Under the ____ Mitten?
I have never done any variation of this flannel board before, but I know so many of my Flannel Friday colleagues love it. Now I see why. It took them four guesses to find the snowball - and the child who finally found it was so proud!

Flannel Board Song: One Red Mitten
This was a dud with this group. The older kids lost interest quickly, and not even the adults were responsive.

Book: The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming
The older kids complained about the repetition in this book, but they helped me out anyway, repeating "a red cap with a gold snap" each time through. 

Rhyme: Frozen is the Lake
This is my winterized rewrite of Blue is the Lake.

Book: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, illustrated by John Schoenherr
This was a hit with the older boys. A lot of  the little kids left the  room at this point and came back later for the singing.

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski
The kids loved singing this - it was very cute. 

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

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.

WinterFest Story Time #1, 12/8/12

On Saturday, December 8, my library branch participated in our neighborhood WinterFest. As part of  the festivities, I performed three story times at three different points throughout the day. Since all three were completely different, I'll make three separate posts.

This first session was at 10:00 a.m., and only three kids attended  - a little girl in Pre-K, her toddler sister, and another toddler boy.

Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara
The pre-K girl told me, "Jack Frost is real. I know because when we go in the car, the window has frost."

Book: White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
This book is probably too long for a toddler audience, but since there were only three kids, I was able to keep them engaged pretty easily by moving to where they wanted  to be in the room and giving them lots of chances to talk to me about the pictures. The toddler boy came running up to the book at one point to tell me he saw a truck.

Flannel Board Song: One Red Mitten
Since the pre-K girl knew her colors, she was my unofficial helper for this song. The little ones just liked seeing the mittens.

Flannel Board Rhyme: Five Little Snowmen
For this I used a set of paper snowmen I made more than two years ago and have never used with kids. All three of the kids gathered closely around the flannel board and helped me take the snowmen off one by one as they each melted.

Book: Jingle Bells by Maryann Kovalski
We were too wiggly to make it to the end of  this book. They were so excited by the flannel board that we just did another colorful song with it.

Flannel Board Song: Mary Wore Her Red Scarf
The kids loved helping me put the pieces on the flannel board. This story time has inspired me to rethink some of my toddler lap time activities so that every child has a hands-on opportunity.

Song: These Are My Glasses

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.

Saturday Story Time, 11/19 (Thanksgiving Theme)

I woke up unexpectedly sick on Thursday morning and didn't make it in for my scheduled Thanksgiving story time, but thankfully, I had another opportunity on Saturday to do all those songs and rhymes I've been planning for weeks. Attendance was low as it usually is on a Saturday - just four kids, and five adults - but it was a nice, low-key story time, which was nice for someone who hasn't been feeling well in a few days. It was also my birthday, so it was nice to have the gift of a calm, relaxed story time!

Here is what we did:


Opening Song: Hello, how are you? 

Song: Hello, Mr. Turkey

Song: Did You Ever See a Turkey?
A million thanks to Sarah at Read It Again! for sharing this song on Flannel Friday! I made my own adaptation based on the materials I had available for making feathers. I have yet to find time to take a picture, but hopefully, I'll get that done before Thursday.

Book: Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson (2005)
I loved this song as a kid, and had originally thought to sing this book. I have so many other songs, though, that I wound up reading it like a poem instead. And while the text is nice to listen to, it's so disconnected from what's happening in the illustrations, I don't think it made a very good read-aloud. I felt an urge to constantly stop and try to sort out the drama in the pictures while also keeping my place in the text and it didn't work for me at all.

Rhyme: Mr. Turkey
This is a pretty easy action rhyme for preschool, even if it's not the most exciting. 

Flannel Board Song: We Eat Turkey
Everyone who commented on my Flannel Friday post about this song was 100% right - what a great crowd-pleaser! We did the first verse twice to make sure all the adults had it, and once they did they sang the entire thing right along with me. I'm already considering ways to change it up for Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, cultural feasts... and on and on and on.

Song: This is the Way We... (Thanksgiving version)
The kids at this session were all very young, so though I told them we'd pretend to prepare for the first Thanksgiving, they had no idea  what I meant. The moms did the motions with me, though, and again, because of the familiar tune, they sang right out loud. 

Book:  This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed, illustrated by Mark Buehner (2001)
I love this interpretation of the first Thanksgiving. It focuses on a specific Native American group, instead of lumping every tribe in together, and it mainly deals with how the meal would have been prepared on that first Thanksgiving. And bonus - it's a counting book!

Flannel Board Song: Thanks a Lot
This worked so amazingly well, I'm going to repeat it for the other two story times I have before Thanksgiving. I did sing it without the recording, and to my surprise, even folks who didn't know the song at first joined in as soon as they caught on. One thing that made it easier to sing  - I repeated the phrase "Thanks a lot" twice in each verse, singing where Raffi plays the guitar. That helped me keep the rhythm and made it a nice, calming song for the kids as well.  

Book: Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim (2003)
This is another one where the illustrations contain plot that the text doesn't discuss, but the simple text is just right for babies and toddlers, and the message works well for the holiday.

Rhyme: We Are Thankful
I like this rhyme because it could be used as a grace before meals, but works just as well as a generic form of thanks, without bringing any sort of religious belief into it. 

Rhyme: My Hands Say Thank You
This is the goodbye rhyme I learned from a children's librarian at my last job, who was also my librarian when I was growing up. We repeated it three times - once at normal volume, once soft, and once in a loud voice. 

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This 

Saturday Family Story Time, 9/10

Oh, Saturday story time. I keep saying I'm not going to keep doing it, but they're always such nice experiences! Today's crowd (of 6) was totally different from the last Saturday one we did - it was mostly babies then; this time it was all preschool. Only one Grandma actually joined us, though it was billed as a Grandparents' Day story time, but it was so much fun, and everyone was really relaxed and engaged.

This is what we did:

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: Grandma Comes to Stay by Ifeoma Onyefulu (2010)
Three-year-old Stephanie helps her mum and sister prepare for an overnight visit from Grandma. A nice slice-of-life story with photographs. It was especially nice to have two kids who actually were three in my group today!


Rhyme: Grandma's Glasses
I was shocked by how much they liked this rhyme. I am not such a fan!

Book: The Grandpa Book by Todd Parr
I have never read a Todd Parr book in story time before, and honestly, I had never even heard of him until I started working here! His books are wonderful, though, especially in terms of diversity and sending positive messages about love and friendship. 

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head and ShouldersSomething I'm still figuring out is when I do and do not need to include songs. I include them in the baby/toddler story times because the variety keeps their attention, but when I ask the older kids to get up and move around, they seem to wish I wouldn't. I'm still working on it. 

Flannel Board Song: Grandpa's Ties / Grandma's Scarves 
This was so good! They loved the wild and crazy rainbow tie and scarf. 

Flannel Board Song: Down on Grandpa's Farm by Raffi
Our flannel board farm animals are not at all the right colors for this song, but we persevered.  I don't always have a lot of luck with Raffi songs, but this one caught on quick!

Book: I'm Going to Grandma's by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke
A sweet story about a girl who visits her grandparents' house and learns about her grandmother's own visits to her own grandma long ago. 

Song: ABCD Medley
A family left right before this song. I think it was time to be done. It seems like I can do more books and flannel boards with these older groups and cut out most of my songs.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Saturday Family Story Time, 7/30

When I get kids to actually show up for Saturday story time, it's always a lesson in improvisation. Today, I planned for mostly toddlers and had only one toddler, along with three babies, and four preschoolers. Go figure.

Thankfully, I took a big pile of books in there with me, and had some choices so that I could adjust as  the crowd grew. And it was really nice. I love my big groups and actually feel most comfortable with those, but it's also nice to be able to get to know the kids a little bit in the small groups. Before today, I thought I'd cancel monthly Saturday story times, but now I'm wondering if it's worth having one now and then, even during the school year...

Opening Song: Clap Along With Me

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big (twice)

Rhyme: Dance Your Fingers (twice)

Book: Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham (1970)
Everyone loves Mr. Gumpy. This book does go on, with Mr. Gumpy's various restrictions about how the animals and children are to behave in the boat, but it's a lot of fun building up to the moment when they all do exactly that which they were asked to avoid doing, and splash! into the water they go! Even babies like this book.

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider (a cappella; sung twice)

Book: My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall (2009)
I usually remember to read this book around Valentine's Day, but it seemed like a good one for an all-ages group as well. The older kids laughed over the silly rhymes and enjoyed dissecting the images to see how the hearts fit together. The babies were drawn to the bright colors, and the moms oohed and aahed. I'll definitely want to remember this book for future family story times!

Song: ABCD Medley
I think my days with this song are numbered. Time to find a replacement for the Fall! 

Song: One, Two, I Love You (Numbers Are Our Friends)


Song: Old MacDonald (a cappella with puppets)

Song: You Are My Sunshine (sung twice a cappella, with puppet)

Book: The Queen's Feet  by Sarah Ellis, illustrated by Dusan Petricic (2006)
I learned of this book just this morning, but quickly fell in love! Queen Daisy's feet have a mind of their own, and they get her into all kinds of trouble in situations where she's supposed to be on her best royal behavior! This story has the same sense of humor as Princess Hyacinth, which is my favorite read-aloud for school-age kids, but it's less wordy and worked for everyone in my audience, except one little baby, whose attention span made it only 7/8 of the way through. (These babies were amazingly attentive, I've never seen anything like it!)


Song: The Wheels on the Bus 

Song: Chickadee
It warmed my little heart when a three-year-old announced after the first verse - "This is my favorite song!"

Song: Skinnamarink

Saturday Family Story Time, 6/25

Though the groups are always very small, I really do love these Saturday story times. Today we had 7 kids and their parents, and it was a nice, calm, and intimate experience. 

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: Fortune Cookies by Albert Bitterman, illustrated by Chris Raschka (2011)
This is the story of a little girl who receives a box of fortune cookies. She eats one each day and  watches as her fortunes come to life. I chose this over Grace Lin's Fortune Cookie Fortunes because the fortunes were a bit less cryptic, and they came in and out of the cookie by the pull of a tab. The big reveal at the end - that the girl's lost cat has 7 kittens -  got an especially big laugh out of the parents.

Song: Rum Sum Sum

Book: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
There is nothing more satisfying than shaking one's fist and calling out, "You monkeys, you!"

Song: Monkeys on the Bed

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Book: Dancing Matilda by Sarah Hager, illustrated by Kelly Murphy (2005)
This is a very repetitive story with a great rhythm.  Every time I said the word "DANCE," I could just picture a dancer twirling around in my mind. That said, I think this was a pretty terrible read-aloud. It would be such a good one for little girls who love to dance, though! 

Song: ABCD Medley

Song: Chickadee

Closing Song: Skinnamarink

Saturday Story Time: Chicks & Bunnies, 4/9

Saturday Story Time is not a regular occurrence in my library branch, since we are often so short-staffed, but we have a lot of demand for it, so I'm trying to commit to doing one a month. This was our first one, with a theme of Chicks & Bunnies. I planned two sessions, thinking that this would be a really popular program, but I had two small groups: eight kids in session one at 10:00am, and ten kids in session two at 11:00am.

Opening song: Hello song
For the verses, we clapped our hands and made bunny ears with our fingers.

Rhyme: Flowers Tall and Small

Rhyme: Here is the Beehive

I'm getting tired of these two; it might be time for some new five-finger rhymes.

Song: Monkeys on the Bed

Song: If You'd Like to Read a Book (session 2 only - session 1 was mostly babies, and they seemed restless, so I skipped it)

Book: Wee Little Chick by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by John Butler

This book is adorable. I know it's lame to say books are cute and not say anything more constructive about them, but this one really is absolutely adorable. The wee little chick is the littlest chick in his family, but that doesn't stop him from walking tall, peeping loudly, and finding the biggest seed in the farm yard. I chose this book not only because it went with the theme, but because of the warm and gentle depictions of the various farm animals - especially the pig. Illustrator John Butler manages to humanize the animals without making them look like people, which seems like a really impressive feat to me. If you like this one, also try Wee Little Lamb and Wee Little Bunny by the same author.

Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Flannel Board Rhyme: I went to visit the farm one day...

My cow for the flannel board mysteriously disappeared between sessions, so I was sans cow for session two. I hope she resurfaces, as she is the first animal mentioned on our CD's version of Old MacDonald!

Book: Whose Chick Are You? by Nancy Tafuri



I really like Nancy Tafuri's books because she draws from a really neat perspective, making me feel like I'm right inside whatever setting she depicts right along with the animals. In this book, an unidentified egg hatches and neither the chicken nor the duck nor the goose nor the bird can figure out who the gray little chick inside belongs to. But the swan mother knows, because it's her baby! This is a toddler-friendly version of The Ugly Duckling, with a theme similar to P.D. Eastman's classic Are You My Mother?

Song: One, Two, I Love You (Numbers Are Our Friends)

Song: Where is Thumbkin?

Rhyme: Hop Your Bunny
I adapted this from a rhyme called Dance Your Fingers.  I first heard it on Wee Sing for Baby.

Hop your bunny up, 

Hop your bunny down,

Hop your bunny to the side,

Hop him all around.

Hop him on your shoulder,

Hop him on your head,

Hop him on your tummy,

And then put him to bed.
(Make bunny ears with two fingers, then follow the rhyme's directions. For "put him to bed" I just lay the "bunny" down on the palm of my opposite hand.)

Book: The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard




I couldn't resist this oldie but goodie. I loved the Golden books as a kid, and once I found out this book didn't mention Easter, I realized it was perfect to share in a public library story time. It's a bit on the long side for babies and toddlers, but they seemed to like it anyway. A rabbit finds an egg and just knows there is something inside it. All attempts to make it come out are unsuccessful, so the bunny falls asleep. Then the egg hatches, and the duck who pops out wonders why this bunny won't wake up. A sweet story of friendship, which got an "awww" from a couple of moms. This would have been perfect with a preschool audience. It also reminded me somewhat of The Poky Little Puppy.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Closing song: Skinnamarink