Read-Along Story Time for Beginning Readers, 2/21/13

Read-Along Story Time for Beginning Readers, 2/21/13

This story time is such a rollercoaster. Some weeks it's just perfect, and I can't believe how wonderful it is. Other weeks - like this past one - it is just a disaster. Here's what happened this week. 

Welcome Message 

I got an idea about what kind of session this was going to be when I finished reading the message and a five-year-old girl told me, "You're not my friend." Rather than engage the comment as unfriendly or obnoxious or whatever she was trying to be, I used it as an opportunity to explain that there are lots of ways to close letters. Then I moved on to what I thought was going to be the most exciting part of story time. 

Read-Along 

I really wanted to use I Like Stars by Margaret Wise Brown, but we don't have enough copies in our system for every child to hold one in his or her hand. So I used our overhead projector to show the pages from the book on the wall. I really thought the kids would love this concept, and I expected it to combat the problem we normally have of kids reading ahead of me during the read-along. But in all my predictions about how things would go, I did not expect the kids to change the word "stars" to "farts." Early elementary school is my favorite age to work with, but I don't like the toilet humor. Furthermore, I don't think the parents like it when their kids come to story time and talk about farts the entire time. I did my best to remain calm. I said things like, "Oh, you're picking up on the "AR" sound. Are there other words that have that sound, too?" But they didn't care to indulge me and kept right on making poop jokes. I eventually just read the rest of the book to them quickly, then shut off the projector and took out my picture book. 

Picture Book Read-Aloud 

I was excited to read Stars, which is one of my favorite picture books, and I thought this group was old enough to actually understand it. Sadly, they were too silly to sit and listen to more than a page at a time. I try not to turn this into a highly academic environment, but I did eventually have to say that if we didn't stop talking about bathroom things, we'd have to go sit with our grown-ups out in the library instead of finishing story time. Thankfully, the next activity was interactive and we were able to get back on track - mostly.

Making a List 

I asked the kids to think of what they would wish for if they could wish upon a star. This is their list. (Answers related to poop were ignored, and they stopped making those comments eventually.)

I think making lists and word clouds is going to work really well with this story time going forward. They seem to focus the best when there is a discussion going on, and not as well when we're sitting and reading. I also had three more kids come in during this activity who were much more engaged and ready to participate than the kids who sat through the stories at the beginning. Perhaps it would be a better idea to do this brainstorming and chatting at the start of story time, and then read to them later when they've settled down. Typically, I start story times right away with a book because the kids' attention spans are short, but this group might need a different approach.

Craft 

I had the kids write their names on construction paper, then gave them some stars to turn their names into constellations. We had several kids try to write "poopy" as their name, but they got over it when I didn't react.  Some of the kids spent more than 30 minutes on their projects. The only issue was that parents kept asking me if their kids could leave. They didn't understand that story time was over, and when the kids weren't done with their crafts and didn't want to leave, the parents were asking me to close the room so they could get their kids to leave willingly. I'll have to work on setting better limits on exactly when we will be "finished." 

I love this story time so much, and I look forward to it as the highlight of  each week. It's been a great challenge for me so far, and it's giving me opportunities to stretch my story time muscles beyond the usual, mostly predictable crowds that attend the other ones. It keeps me on my toes if nothing else, and I can only imagine it will get better the more I do it. Now it's time to head back to the drawing board and figure out what this coming week's will look like!

Outreach Round-Up 2/7/13 - 2/22/13

Catholic School 5th Grade: Thursday, 2/7/13; Thursday 2/14/13; Thursday, 2/21/13
Book: No Talking 
Notes: We're still working our way through this novel, and they're still loving it.

Catholic School Kindergarten & First Grade: Friday, 2/8/13 (Two Separate Sessions)
Book: Eggs 1-2-3, Who Will the Babies Be?
Song: Over in the Meadow 
Notes: This book-song combination was perfect. The kids loved guessing who would hatch from the eggs, and they loved singing along to Over in the Meadow. By the end, some of them were grunting the verses rather than singing, but it was still fun.

Catholic School 3rd Grade: Friday 2/8/13
Book: I Feel Better with a Frog in my Throat 
Notes: The kids liked this book, but claimed it made them nauseous. I would complain, but they are still talking about the book two weeks later, which I think is a positive sign.

Psychiatric Institute School: Monday, 2/11/13
Books: Princess Hyacinth, Owl Moon, Chrysanthemum
Notes: The psychiatric hospital is a new partner for my library, and this was my first visit. I read to a group of about 10 school-age kids. The book that got the biggest applause was Owl Moon, but Chrysanthemum was a close second. These kids were reluctant to respond to me at the beginning, but by the end, they were begging me to stay. They were among the most engaged and attentive group I've ever read to, and I can't wait to go back in March~

Catholic School 3rd Grade: Friday, 2/15/13
Book: The Day-Glo Brothers 
Notes: The class had a lot of questions about day-glo and the girls were interested in being told on every page which brother was which. 

Rec. Center Cooperative Play Program: Wednesday, 2/20/13
Books: Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, The Red Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
Songs: A Hat Goes on My Head, Sing a Happy Song, If You're Happy and You Know It
Notes: This group is so great. The Red Shoes is a quiet, poetic story, but they were completely into it! The kids are also coming out of their shells more in this second half of the year. They actually let me lead a little bit of a discussion about things we wear, and where on our bodies they belong. 

Public School Pre-K:  Wednesday, 2/20/13 (Two Classes)
Books: Birdsongs, A Home For Bird 
Songs: Chickadee, Hat, Coat, Pants, and Shoes, These Are My Glasses
Notes: Birdsongs got them a little wound up, especially in the first class, but they absolutely loved both books and wanted more even when we were out of time!

Catholic School Pre-K: Thursday, 2/21/13
Books: Duck and Goose, What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?, Meet Wild Boars
Songs: Five Little Ducks, Shake My Sillies Out,  These Are My Glasses 
Notes: Duck and Goose was kind of a flop, but the Mr. Wolf book was a surprise hit. They loved laughing at the wild boars and assured me they would never let one come to their house.

Catholic School Kindergarten : Friday, 2/22/13
Books: Birdsongs
Songs: Chickadee, Hat, Coat, Pants and Shoes

Notes: Though their teacher didn't think so and kept interrupting me to yell at the kids, this group was very good this week. They loved guessing the names of the bids and making the sounds, and they followed directions much better than the Pre-K classes earlier in the week.

Catholic School First Grade: Friday, 2/22/13
Book: Yum! Yuck! 
Activity: I gave each child a popsicle stick sign with two sides. One side had a smiley face and said yum; the other said yuck and showed a frown. I asked each kid one at a time to name a food they love, and the kids had to show the correct sign to demonstrate whether they did or did not like that food. The kids got a little crazy, and whenever I tried to rein them back in, the teacher - who is also the one who brought kindergarten - just lost it and started yelling. She was very sarcastic, and that just confused the kids even more. I wish she understood that I have control over the room, even if the kids aren't sitting silently like little robots.
Song: Hat, Coat, Pants, and Shoes
Notes: We did this book as a guessing game. I said one of the foreign phrases, then asked the kids to repeat it. Then we looked at the visual clues to find out what the English phrase might be. After a few guesses, we opened the flap to find out. The kids really liked it,.

The Very Talented Eric Carle Preschool Story Time, 2/22/13

 The Very Talented Eric Carle Preschool Story Time, 2/22/13

I had a busy afternoon yesterday, so I ran out of time and forgot to take a photo of my set-up for this story time. I also brought my very hungry caterpillar (shown above), which I bought at the Eric Carle Museum, to work with me, and then forgot to actually bring him to story time.So that was kind of a disappointment. However, despite my forgetfulness, this was one of the best preschool story times ever. The audience for this story time has evolved a lot since September. It used to be a lot of four year olds, but now we're getting a wider age range. Because we used beads this week, I really discouraged folks from bringing in babies who might try to swallow them, so some of the toddlers and babies didn't join us, but we did have a couple of two year olds. The average age was probably three and a half.


Book: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
The kids all knew this book, so it was easy to get them to call out the names of the animals and make their sounds. One older sibling, who is a first grader, seemed really annoyed with being asked what a cow says, but a kindergarten big sister got really into it, so that was nice.

Flannel Board: Four Colorful Spiders
This is a flannel board rhyme I wrote to use at the spider-themed story time I did on Halloween. I was looking forward to using it again because it's simple and kids are intrigued by bugs. In the past, my preschoolers have not liked flannel boards, but I'm going to start trying to incorporate them more, because this was a huge hit. Even after story time was over, kids were still interested in using the pieces to retell the story.

Book: The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
This book is long and repetitive, but the kids loved guessing what might be bigger than each creature the ladybug refuses to fight. I kind of liked doing my longer book in the middle of the story time. By then, everyone was settled into story time and fully focused, and all the stragglers were finished wandering in.

Song with ukulele: Bugs Around the Town (Tune: The Wheels on the Bus)
I found this song here, then added my own verses, shown below. I asked the kids to do the motions while I played the ukulele. Some of them did. Some of them just listened instead. This group was especially intrigued by the ukulele, and a few of  the kids came up to me afterward for a turn to strum the strings. One little boy also suggested that if a string ever gets broken, I can use yarn to fix it! Too cute.

The ladybug with spots goes wiggle, wiggle wiggle
The firefly at night goes blink blink blink
The bees in the flowers go buzz buzz buzz....
The ants in the grass go march march march...
The spiders on their webs crawl up and down...
The grasshopper’s legs go jump, jump, jump...
The caterpillar in the field goes creep creep creep....
Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
I had big plans for this story earlier in the week, but ran out of time to implement them. I wanted to create a clothesline of the different foods and hang them across the room, but I didn't think it would be as fun to throw it together at the last minute, so I skipped it and decided on a simple craft instead.

Craft: Beaded Pipe Cleaner Caterpillars 
I saw this idea on Pinterest when I was searching for activities related to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I had some dark green pipe cleaner and some pony beads, and the kids got very excited about making patterns. Most kids did make caterpillars, but one little boy made a snake, and a couple of girls made bracelets. Only one mom became overly concerned with doing things the "right" way and I responded to her question by saying, "I make it up as I go along." Once I said that, she was content to do the same thing. I really hate the way some of our customers treat our craft supplies, but this group has done a wonderful job of cleaning up and following  the rules the last few times we have done crafts that I might start incorporating more of these simple activities.

For more ideas to use with a caterpillar theme, check out of my Caterpillars and Butterflies board on Pinterest. I also have a board for Bugs and Spiders.   

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.

The Very Talented Eric Carle Toddler Lap Time, 2/22/13

The Very Talented Eric Carle Toddler Lap Time, 2/22/13

Song: Way Up in the Sky

Book: Above Us in the Sky by Eric Carle

Song with Puppets: Did You Ever See?

Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun

Song: Moon Moon Moon

Book: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

Song: Here We Go Up, Up, Up

Song: Sing a Happy Song

Song: Head and Shoulders

Song: Ring a Round a Rosie

Book: Below Us, Under the Earth and Sea by Eric Carle

Songs with Foam Stars:

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• One Little, Two Little, Three Little Stars
• There's a Star Upon My Head

Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Song: Five Little Monkeys 

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It

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.