Summer Reading comes to an end in my library system tomorrow, and school starts on Monday. This seems like a good time to announce some upcoming changes in my personal and professional life that will have an impact on this blog.
As many of my readers may have figured out from my guest post at What to Expect back in July, I am expecting a baby at the end of November. In anticipation of the baby's arrival, and of my upcoming new job as a stay-at-home mom, I have resigned from my position at the library effective Friday, October 4. I have already started cutting back on some of my programs, and when the Fall schedule goes into effect next week, I will be down to just two - Drop-in Story Time on Friday mornings, and Preschool Story Time, which is moving back to Friday afternoons at 4:00. My last day of story time will be one week before I leave, Friday, September 27.
As my time at the library dwindles down, my posts will become somewhat less frequent, but I do plan to continue blogging about picture books, early literacy, and story time, even after the baby arrives. Details on the types of posts I will be sharing will be announced in October. Until then, expect the usual story time outlines, and occasional Flannel Friday contributions, right up until my last day of story time!
Friday, August 23, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Four Seasons Preschool Story Time, 8/22/13
Four Seasons Preschool Story Time, 8/22/13
Song with ukulele: Seasons of the Year
As I did when I performed this song at Drop-In Story Time, I wrote the words on the wall, and this time I also drew my own little pictures to illustrate each season. The few kids in the group who can read got really excited when they could pick out the words they knew.
Book: When it Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator
As shown by the photo above, I planned to read Lemonade in Winter as my Winter book, but when I looked at the group and saw how many three-year-olds and toddler siblings there were, I decided it would be smarter to read just one longer story, so I swapped Lemonade in Winter for this animal-centric, repetitive tale about where animals go in the snow. All the kids - even the oldest who was probably six - seemed into it.
Book: Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
The illustrations in this book always win kids over, and I love the rhythm of the text when I read it aloud. The kids were into the animals, and they were eager to tell me why a bunny could not live in a nest (too high) or the water (too wet.)
Action Rhyme: We Skate on the Lake
I don't really have a good title for this rhyme yet, but it's one I wrote with the specific intention of encouraging the kids to move around. I didn't have a lot of prescribed movements selected ahead of time. Instead, I asked the kids to show me how they would do a particular motion. We did the entire thing once through, and they were so into it, we ended up repeating it a second time.
We skate on the lake
We shovel the snow
We warm up by the fire
We drink hot cocoa
In Winter
In Winter
We hear the raindrops
We stomp in the mud
We water the plants
We watch for the buds
In Spring
In Spring
We run on the beach
We melt in the heat
We eat ice cream cones
We wipe sand from our feet
In Summer
In Summer
We stir apple sauce
We watch the leaves fall
We jump in the leaves
We kick soccer balls
In Fall
In Fall
Book: Water in the Park by Emily Jenkins
This was the longest book I read, and I know it was weird to read it third instead of first, but it worked well. The younger kids were a bit restless, but the older ones - mainly the five-year-olds - were really into the illustrations. I'm going to review this one in the near future because I feel like I have a lot to say about it.
Book: Fall is Not Easy by Marty Kelley
I have always loved this book, and it was the perfect follow-up to the longer story preceding it. It was also the inspiration for our coloring page, and the only book to be checked out.
Coloring Page: Color a Tree
I gave the kids a blank tree and some crayons and let them design their own silly leaves. Two girls copied from the book; everybody else went their own artistic way.
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.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Daycare Outreach Round-Up, August 7 and 21
Week Five (Wednesday, August 7)
Group 1 @ 10:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Maisy Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, In the Camp All Night Long, Moon Moon Moon, These Are My Glasses, The More We Read Together
Rhyme: Two Little Fireflies
Notes: This theme is really tough, because there are so few good read-alouds about camping for any age group, and even fewer in my library's collection. Into the Outdoors was the best book, but the kids also loved Tiny Goes Camping. Seeing that big dog crammed into that small tent made everyone laugh! I had to write two of my own songs, both of which went over much better than I expected.
Group 2 @ 10:30 a.m. (Ages 4-5)
Books: A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee, Stella and Roy Go Camping, Curious George Goes Camping
Songs: Visor, Tee-shirt, Shorts and Shoes
Notes: It's easier to find books for big kids, and both Mr. Magee and Stella and Roy were great successes, sparking lots of conversation and making the kids giggle. The Curious George book was a bit lengthy, and they seemed bored with it, but in the interest of cooperating with their theme, I went with it. The kids begged for another story when I was done, so it couldn't have been that bad.
Group 3 @ 11:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Maisy Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in my Little Red Tent, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Moon Moon Moon, The More We Read Together
Rhyme: Two Little Fireflies
Notes: These books were just the right length for this group, which skews quite a bit younger (or at least less mature) than the others. They also loved singing Twinkle Twinkle.
Group 4 @ 11:30 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Into the Outdoors, Tiny Goes Camping, Bailey Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, In the Camp All Night Long
Notes: This is the most engaged group, and they were great at calling out colors of the different tents, and acting out the motions of the trees, owls, etc. in the camp. Their favorite book was Tiny Goes Camping.
Week Six (Wednesday, August 21)
Group 1 @ 10:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Duck Tents, Camping Day, Bailey Goes Camping
Songs: Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, Aikendrum (with ukulele), ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep (with ukulele), The More We Read Together, These Are My Glasses
Notes: Duck Tents was not as well-received as I expected. I think they were confused by the illustrations. Bailey Goes Camping was boring, and I had forgotten about an unfortunate fart joke in Camping Day that (thankfully) only half the kids got. I didn't read the book again at any subsequent session because of the fart joke, as I make it a point not to include things like that in my story times.
Group 2 @ 10:30 a.m. (Ages 4-5)
Books: Jerome Camps Out, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Amelia Bedelia Hits the Trail
Songs: Aikendrum, Visor Tee Shirt Shorts and Shoes
Notes: Jerome Camps Out was too advanced, but Henry and Mudge was just right. Some of the word play in Amelia Bedelia lost the kids, but they loved hearing her story anyway. This group enjoyed the ukulele, and I had them help me remember what each of Aikendrum's facial features was made of as we added more verses. In the future, I'd like to come up with more foods for the other parts of Aikendrum's body, as this group was disappointed when the song ended.
Group 3 @ 11:00 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Turtle and Snake Go Camping, Gus Gets Scared, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night
Songs: Row Row Row Your Boat, Sleeping in the Woods in My Little Red Tent, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Moon Moon Moon
Notes: This group loves to sing, so that's mostly what we did. I didn't have a third book that was a great length for them, so we did a quick version of Henry and Mudge where I just paraphrased a lot of the text.
Group 4 @ 11:30 a.m. (Ages 2-3)
Books: Duck Tents, Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night, Turtle and Snake Go Camping
Songs: Five Little Ducks, These Are My Glasses
Notes: This group got so into counting the ducks and their tents that we sang Five Little Ducks to give them a chance to count and quack some more. They loved Henry and Mudge, and when story time was over, they wanted even more stories!
Feedback and Reflections
I have done a fair amount of outreach in this job, but few organizations have been so welcoming or accommodating as this day care center. I would have preferred not to be so limited by the pre-selected themes, as some of them were downright difficult, but even with those restrictions I was able to put together programs that engaged the kids, excited their teachers, and entertained me.
To thank me for coming, each class presented me with a card. Some of the teachers asked the kids to tell them what they liked about my story times, and they included those in the card as well. The responses were so sweet, I will share them below (with names removed, of course.)
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Friday, August 9, 2013
Four Seasons Drop-In Story Time, 8/9/13
Four Seasons Drop-In Story Time, 8/9/13
I thought last week's successful drop-in story time may have been a fluke, but I decided to assume it wasn't and went ahead and planned another in a similar format. This time, I focused on the four seasons. Instead of trying to make everyone look at our one tiny flannel board, I used the entire whiteboard to introduce the theme. I put up clipart images representing each of the four seasons (which I found free on this website) then wrote the verses to a seasons song by Meish Goldish (which I found here) so the adults, at least, could read them.
Song with ukulele: Seasons of the Year
To kick things off, we sang the song that was written on the board. Most of the adults at least tried to sing along, though I think may have played just a bit too fast. In any case, the song got everyone's attention and introduced the overall story time plan.
Book: Summer is Summer by Phillis and David Gershator, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
The text of this book is more like a poem than a story, but they did pretty well sticking with it. I wished that the adults would have picked up on the refrain and repeated it with me, but it was enough for me that they didn't carry on their own conversations while I was reading.
Song with Puppet: Mr. Sun
Book: Kitten's Autumn by Eugenie Fernandes
This is the book they paid the least attention to, possibly because of the smaller illustrations.
Song: Brown Squirrel
Book: Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara
I have used this book with better results in the past, but some of the kids were really glued to it and it got a lot of applause at the end.
Song: Five Little Snowmen Riding on the Sled
I had something else planned, but remembered this song at the last minute and used it instead.
Book: My Spring Robin by Anne Rockwell
They seemed to like this book, though the kids were getting restless by this point. I was glad to follow the story with an old favorite song.
Song: Chickadee
Songs with Ukulele: ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep
I truly think these past two drop-in story times have gone so well because I have put my foot down about the purpose of story time. It's about books. I have taken away a lot of the puppets and flannel boards and focused more on books, and I think that has minimized everyone's distractions - both kids' and adults'. I am also more engaged with the material now that I have tried a new structure. I think I was tired of repeating the same old things, and maybe me weariness was rubbing off on the nannies. I'll be off next Friday, but I'm looking forward to trying another new idea in a couple of weeks!
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.
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