Baby Lap Time, 2/22/12 and 2/23/12

Today marks the end of Baby Lap Time for the Winter. Here's what we did during our final session.

Opening Song: Say Hello

Rhyme: Cheek Chin

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Bounce: All the Little Babies

Book: A Good Day by Kevin Henkes (2007)

This is more of a story than I might usually read to babies, but they loved the animal illustrations. 

Song with Puppet:  How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

Rhymes and Songs with Shaker Eggs: 

• Jack and Jill
• Humpty Dumpty
• Shake My Sillies Out
• London Bridge

Song: Tony Chestnut

Song: Head and Shoulders

Book: Blue Sea by Robert Kalan, illustrated by Donald Crews (1979)
Despite the illustrations and minimal text, this book doesn't work with babies.

Song: Row Your Boat

Bounce: Mother and Father and Uncle John 

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

• ...clap your hands
• ...beep your nose
• ...tickle your tummy
• ...shout hooray

Song: Where is Big Toe? 

Song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
I skipped this song today, because I have a sore throat, but we sang it yesterday - mostly because one of the moms told me her son had started doing the motions at home.

Goodbye Song: Open, Shut Them Goodbye Song

8 Novels About Kids On Their Own

	Losing Joe's Place by Gordon Korman Jason moves into his brother Joe's apartment in Toronto for the summer, along with two friends. The freedom is great at first, but as the summer goes on, it becomes harder and harder to avoid losing the apartment.
	The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner Orphans Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny set up home in a boxcar, trying to avoid being sent to live with Grandfather Alden, whom they have never met.
	Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker spend their summer on Wild Cat Island, their home away from home in the Lake District of North West England, hiding from natives and battling with pirates Nancy and Peggy Blackett.
	Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan When their grandmother dies, Amy and Dan Cahill discover they are part of a huge and powerful network of Cahills. Now they must compete with other members of the family to track down 39 clues that will lead them to the power and fortune their grandmother left behind.
	The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright The four Melendy children pool their allowances so that each sibling might have on Saturday on his or her own in New York City.
	Homecoming by Cynthia Rylant After their mother abandons them in a grocery store parking lot, Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy Tillerman travel alone on the road to their aunt's house.
	From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg Claudia Kincaid and her little brother Jamie run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where they become wrapped in a mystery surrounding a beautiful statue.
	Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis Convinced that concert flyers kept by his mother, advertising performances by Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!! are clues that will lead him to his true father, Bud sets out for Grand Rapids, looking for home and family.

Gettin' Crafty Post #16: Printable Friendship Wristbands

I have had a very busy Winter season, so on the days that I do crafts - Monday and Thursday - I have been keeping things very simple. I was so glad to  find this fun printable from kidscanhavefun.com. I knew friendship bracelets were popular with girls in the middle grades but did not expect the number of nine- and ten-year-old girls who got into this craft!

I. Supplies

• Friendship Wristbands printable
• Crayons or Markers
• Glue or Tape (to fasten the bracelets)

II. Prep

There was no prep beyond printing out the templates, but if I did this craft again, I think I might like to make my own templates to suit a particular occasion, such as National Library Week, or National Poetry Month, or to allow the kids more room to write their own messages. I also think they'd work well as an activity for a summer program I'm planning for beginning readers, which is focused on the alphabet. 

III. Process

I didn't get to see too many of the final products, but the participants were mostly girls, and they did a lot of giggling and chatting while they colored. Some smaller kids did the project, too, but it was the biggest hit with the 8-10 year old set.

Baby/Toddler Story Time, 2/21/12

I've been building up to this for months, but finally, this morning I actually had the courage to forgo recorded music and do all my own singing at my most crowded story time of the week. I wasn't sure what would happen, honestly, or if people would go for it,  but at the end of the day, after three amazing sessions during which hardly anyone chatted with their neighbors, texted, or just simply ignored me, I have to say it was the best decision I've ever made.

Recorded music, for my groups, has always been the signal for the adults to stop paying attention and start just hanging out. Somehow, by eliminating the sound that drowns out their talking, I got them to stop talking at all. I will continue to promote the recordings from which I take my songs, and I'm sure I'll still throw in the occasional recorded song, but I'd really like that to become the exception rather than the rule. And since my library is not ordering anymore music, it seems like a good time to focus more on the music we can provide on our own. It's a lot easier to provide the words and tune for families to take home with them than to track down the one or two copies of a CD we have left. This also makes a good segue into when I will eventually bring my ukulele to story time - hopefully this summer.

So... here is my very first a cappella Baby/Toddler Story Time:

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Book: Hello, Goodbye by David Lloyd, illustrated by Louise Voce (1998)
I wanted to read some new books this week - and by new, it turns out, I meant old. This 1998 title is a simple story of a single tree, whose inhabitants and visitors say hello, and then goodbye when it starts to rain. I got everyone involved by having them buzz like bees and chirp like birds, and by the end of the story, each group was so into it, they were saying hello and goodbye unprompted.

Rhyme: Wiggle Fingers

Rhyme: This is Big, Big, Big

Book: Hoot, Howl, Hiss by Michelle Koch (1991)
This was a great animal sounds book. The animals are divided into categories according to habitat, and all of them have some sound associated with them. I don't really have a monkey noise that I use, but the adults did their own for me, and when it came to whistling like a marmot, we just tried to whistle. The ending was kind of abrupt and strange, but it didn't matter. This book got tons of participation and tons of applause.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out 

Song: I'm a Little Teapot

Flannel Board Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Book: Knick Knack Paddy Whack by Steve Songs, illustrated by Christiane Engel (2009)
It killed my voice to sing this much three sessions in a row, but this book demands to be sung! It got a little old around the number five - there's only so many times an old man should play knick knack, honestly! - but the kids seemed to like the novelty of singing instead of reading a book.

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

• ...clap your hands
• ...pat your knees
• ...stomp your feet
• ...beep your nose
• ...tickle your tummy
• ...shout hooray!

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

• ...doors...open and shut
• ...wipers...swish swish swish
• ...driver...move on back
• ...horn...beep beep beep
• ...babies...waa waa waa
• ...grown-ups...shh shh shh

 Song: Chickadee
I said last week that the calypso beat was essential for this song, but this group did very well without the recording. I think it's all in how well I sell them on it. It also helped that most of the caregivers were regulars and could sing all the words from memory.

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This