Family Story Time, 4/11

We had our first real warm day today - over 80 degrees! - and I think it's because of that, that my story time crowd was hyper and distracted. I didn't help, either, by changing our routine, and introducing some new songs.

The theme was animals, and I sort of divided the session in half, with farm animals in the beginning and zoo animals at the end. I had roughly a dozen kids in attendance, and a handful of adults.

Opening song: If You're Happy and You Know It (from Where is Thumbkin?)

Direct quote from a four-year-old as the music began: "I hate this song!" Oops!


Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes


Book: Seven Little Rabbits by John Becker, illustrated by Barbara Cooney

When story time started, and for the duration of this book, I had one baby and four preschoolers in the room. Since the book is very repetitive - "Seven little rabbits / walkin' down the road / walkin' down the road / Seven little rabbits / walkin' down the road / to call on old friend toad" -  I had envisioned a kind of call and  response with the audience, but it didn't quite happen that way.  Instead, they sat perfectly silently and watched me read. One little boy really liked the way the book slowly counts down to one little rabbit walking down the road, but otherwise, I couldn't tell if they were bored or what. But the book is fantastic, and if I'd had  a larger group, with more adults to help me out, that call and  response thing would have worked and been a lot of fun. It would also be awesome to do with a flannel board, but time to work on making those is scarce at the moment.

Song: Monkeys on the Bed
The size of my audience nearly tripled during this song, which created a sense of chaos that we never fully bounced back from.

Song: Five Little Ducks

I used the flannel board for this song. Unfortunately, I don't know the song as well as I thought, and I was a bit scattered with the hand motions. and the older kids, who are usually my helpers, were laughing themselves silly over one of the toddler's dance moves. I'm determined to try this again, maybe with tomorrow's group.

Song: I Had a Rooster
I love this song, and have since childhood, but it wasn't a hit today at all. Part of it might be that kids who live in the city aren't as familiar with farms as maybe I was at age four, but it also has some loud and almost scary sounds in it, particularly when Pete starts growling like a lion. I also have an incomplete set of farm animals for  the flannelboard, so we started the song with no rooster and never really established a sense of focus. I'll do it again, but not without the  right props.


Book: I Bought a Baby Chicken by Kelly Milner Halls, illustrated by Karen Stormer Brooks

This is a silly book about a family that goes to the pet store and comes home with way too many chicks. All concentration was lost by this point, and the more I played up the humor of the story, the worse it was. But the book is very funny, and if I'd had a big toddler group, we would have done some counting, and I think I would have gotten a bigger laugh at the end when the narrator of the story says it's lucky she didn't go shopping for a cow.

Song: Going to the Zoo
This was a good one. The kids did whatever silly motions I came up with - tapping our knees, waving our arms, pretending to swim - and a couple of them had all the words to the chorus down by the time we were done.

Song:  The Keeper at the Zoo (adapted from here)
We used zoo animal puppets to show which animal we were singing about, and just repeated the verses until we ran out of animals. My puppets are apparently difficult to distinguish, because not even the adults could recognize my monkey. Oh well.

The keeper at the zoo

The keeper at the zoo

Heigh-ho the derry-oh

The keeper at the zoo

The keeper feeds the [lion]

The keeper feeds the [lion]

Heigh-ho the derry-oh

The keeper feeds the [lion]

(Substitute other zoo animals for each subsequent verse)

Book: Zoo Borns by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

 

This book is awesome - close-up photos of cute little baby animals from all around  the world with little first-person introductions giving the first name of the animal, as well as its species. I should probably have led with this one and done only one other short one, but I didn't, so this book got the short end of the stick. The older kids loved it, but the smaller ones were totally done with me by this point and the noise level in the room just rose and rose.

Song: The Wheels on the Bus
To redeem myself with the little ones who were so lost during the second half of  story time, I did one of their favorite songs. Instant calm and joy overcame us all.

Goodbye 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

Baby Lap Time, 4/8

Baby Lap Time did not have a theme this week.  I just picked some books, and basically stuck with the same songs as last week. Not too many babies actually attended, and we had a lot of preschoolers who lingered after the 10:00 preschool story time and came to this one as well. In all, there were around 15 children, each with an adult.

I'm learning that babies pay much more attention to the books than toddlers. I think I could have read three more and they'd have been just as happy.

Opening Song: If You're Happy And You Know It

Song:  Clap Along With Me

Book: I Love Trucks by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Shari Halpern (2001, Harper Collins)

A little boy playing with toy trucks in a sandbox sings the praises of every kind of truck imaginable. His favorite truck? The ice cream truck, of course! Bold colors against a  white background make this book a really appealing thing for babies to look at. And of course, the toddlers in the group can't  resist trucks, especially after many of them attended my transportation-themed Baby/Toddler story time on Tuesday.

Song: Open, Shut Them

Wee Sing for Baby has a version of this, but it's a little bit different than the one I know, so I just sing it on on my own. 

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Another sing-along. The moms and nannies know this one well, so I use it to really get them involved.

Rhyme: Here is the Beehive

Book: Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker (1999, Sandpiper)

I have become such a fan of 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe lately. I love Anna Grossnickle Hines's version, but it was checked out, so I went hunting for another one, and now I think I love Big Fat Hen even more. The illustrations are huge and inviting, which is great for baby eyes, and there is actually a lot going on in the pictures that would also make it a good title for one-on-one reading with slightly older kids. The numbers in the rhyme correspond to the number of various insects, as  well as the number of eggs waiting to hatch on each page. And at the end, we get to see a big fat hen, all of her friends, and their many, many chicks. A great twist on the original nursery time, and definitely my favorite of the three books we did today. And I remembered to linger over each page, and let the babies take everything in, which is something I've been working on, so that made me feel good.

Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

We have a recording that I use on Tuesdays, but for this one I just sang and used puppets. We sang about the cow, horse, chicken, cat, and dog.)

Song: Where is Thumbkin?

Book: Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett (2008, Simon & Schuster)

I am new to Emily Gravett's books, but they're growing on me. Despite the grammar issue in this book (it should really be Monkey and I!), the repetitive story of a girl and her stuffed monkey going to see various other wild animals, such as penguins, kangaroos, and elephants, is very sweet. I especially love the subtle way the illustrations set us up for the animals - in every other illustration, the little girl mimics the behavior of  the animal that is then shown on the next page. Perfect for babies - and toddlers, too.

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

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Song: Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

6 Diary Books for Kids

 

I used to keep a pretty detailed journal, from age 13 to about 21. I've always been fascinated by what people write in a diary, and there are so many children's and YA books written in that format. Here are some of my favorites:
  

• A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal 1830-32
  (Middle Grade)
  by Joan W. Blos
  Fourteen-year-old Catherine Cabot Hill relates the events of a pivotal year in her life, when her father remarries and her best friend dies. I remember very few of the details of this book, since I read it only once, when I was 12, but I'm including it today because I remember it as one of the most readable historical fiction novels, and the one that got me interested in the genre, when previously I wouldn't touch them. 
• Dear Dumb Diary: Let's Pretend This Never Happened
  (Middle Grade)
  by Jim Benton
  This is the first volume in a series about middle schooler Jamie Kelly. She uses sarcasm and a sense of humor to battle the usual dramas of preteenhood. It's hard to find funny books for girls, but this series fits the bill. 
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
  (Young Adult)
  by Sherman Alexie
  Junior, a 14-year-old Spokane Indian who was born with water on the brain explores his cultural identity after he is given the opportunity to attend a white school off the reservation where he has grown up. This book is funny and heartbreaking at the same time. Great little drawings illustrate Junior's sense of humor as he relates the events of his life. Sherman Alexie is a brilliant writer, and I recommend this semi-autobiographical book very highly. 
• Kindergarten Diary
  (Picture Book)
  by Antoinette Portis
  Five-year-old Annalina, who is nervous about starting "Big School," keeps a diary during the month of September that shows how she slowly gets used to her new routine in kindergarten. Her class's mantra is "We are room 2K. We are fine!" This is a really good book for playing up the positive side of going to school and calming the nerves of nervous newbies. 
• Diary of a Fly
  (Picture Book)
  by Doreen Cronin; pictures by Harry Bliss
  Written from a fly's point of view, this book gives us an idea of what it might be like to be an insect. It's laugh-out-loud funny, even for adults! 
• Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-Up
  (Chapter Book)
  by Melissa Thomson
  After Keena accidentally leaves her journal at Tiffany Harris's house, she is forced to switch over to a notebook borrowed from her teacher. Tiffany refuses to give back the journal and instead blackmails Keena into doing favors for her by threatening to share Keena's secrets with their classmates. A good one for readers just starting to get into chapter books.