Drop-In Story Time, 8/31/12

I have been looking at these drop-in story times from every angle for months now, trying to figure out how to fix them. I was frustrated because adults were telling me what a great job I was doing, but then consistently talking loudly through entire sessions, with obviously not an ounce of respect for what I was trying to do. I also felt like the kids were really getting the short end of the stick because of the adult behavior. Some sessions, we barely got through a book before I just resorted to singing because at least I could drown out the chit-chat with the ukulele and some loud animal sounds. I was not happy.

For Friday's session, I decided to really crack down on some of the bad habits that I think were partially to blame for the adult restlessness during story time. As I mentioned on Tuesday, we only offer one session of each story time now, rather than two, so that has dealt with the issue of people staying for multiple sessions, but on Friday, I also took the following steps:

• I put away all the chairs our closet would hold. The ones I left out were hooked together and pushed all the way to the back of  the room. I guessed (rightly) that the adults wouldn't want to unhook the chairs in order to sit in them, and that they would either sit on the floor closer to the front, where I actually want them to sit, or they would sit in the back and leave room on the floor for people more interested in participating. As it turned out, the most notoriously noisy nannies used the chairs, and the others sat on the floor. Not even every chair was full.
• I kept the meeting room locked until 10 minutes before story time. This prevented people from sitting in there bored and restless for 30 to 45 minutes prior to story time.  This also ensured that every person had the same chance of getting a chair or a seat near the front. A few nannies were not pleased with me when I said I was trying to make things more fair, but they were the biggest offenders so I didn't feel guilty standing my ground.
• I made sure to use highly interactive books that would force the adults to participate. I'm going to run out of books like this eventually, at which point I'm not sure what I will do, but if I can teach them to behave better in the meantime, maybe it will be okay.

Opening Song: Hello, how are you?

Flannel Board: Let's Make a Noise 

 

Book: Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia (2008)


Song: Drive, Drive, Drive Your Car 
We drove safely, then slowly and quickly. 

Rhyme: Wiggle Fingers 

Book: What Shall We Do with the Boo-Hoo Baby? by Cressida Cowell, illustrated by Ingrid Godon

Letter of the Day: Letter B
I forgot completely to show the kids how to make the letter B in sign language. I just realized it now writing this. I'll have to try to remember from now on!  I did have a capital and lowercase B for the flannel board, and then we sang the following "B" songs.

• Baseball Player
• Flutter, Flutter, Butterfly
• The Wheels on the Bus 
• Buzzing Buzzing Bumblebee

 Songs (with ukulele): ABCs / Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / Baa Baa Black Sheep

Song: Sing a Happy Song 
This song is fantastic. It's perfect for big groups, and will work just as well in our smaller Toddler sessions later this Fall!

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Song: Monkeys on the Bed

Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

At the end of story time, an unprecedented thing happened. A huge number of kids came up to me to talk about my puppets. I really think this is directly related to the fact that for the first time ever the grown-ups responsible for them were quiet enough that they could actually see and hear what happened at story time. If this story time is a sign of things to come, we're going to have a very happy Fall.

Pajama Story Time, 8/29/12

Pajama Story Time started catching on toward the end of the summer, so we're going to keep it going this Fall. We changed our time slot from 6:30 to 7 which has made it even easier for a lot of our families to come, and I think we can count on seeing a good group every week. This week was a bit trying, as we had a couple of three-year-olds who were very disruptive and parents who decided they didn't want to do anything about it, but I got them moving around and involved and that seemed to help enough to get us through to the end. In any case, here is the  run-down of activities, all of which matched a pets theme.

Opening Song (with ukulele): Hello, how are you?

Book: Teeny Weeny Bop by Margaret Read MacDonald, illustrated by Diane Greenseid (2006)
This was probably the best received book of the story time. Adults and kids alike thought the silliness was funny, and they joined on the very refrains, all of which were modeled after the nursery rhyme that begins "To market, to market." I'll be using this with preschoolers again for sure. 

Rhyme with Puppets: Two Little Kittens 
I had a much older girl in the audience - she was maybe 6 or 7, versus the others who were 3 and under. I thought it would be nice to let her help me out by holding the puppets, but the other kids immediately started crying and screaming and demanding to hold the puppets. *sigh* The pair of misbehaving three-year-olds never really calmed down after that, and the older girl, too, began to fool around and disrupt story time.

Book:  Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1928)
Well, this was too long. Wayyyy too long. I could have pulled it off with our normally quiet pajama story time group, but this week it was just not a good idea. I'll save it for class visits where behavior is not an issue.

Song: Shake My Sillies Out 

Song: Here We Go Up, Up, Up

Flannel Board Song: Mary Had a Little Lamb
I changed the colors of Mary's lamb and sang about fleece that was "red as a rose," "green as the grass," and "black as night." Everyone sang along, which was great because at my morning story times, adults normally don't!

Book: Mary Had a Little Lamp by Jack Lechner, illustrated by Bob Staake
I really wasn't sure how this would go over, but it was surprisingly good. The parents laughed, and the kids seemed to like the illustrations.

Song with Puppets: Goodnight by the Laurie Berkner Band (sung a cappella)
Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Drop-In Story Time, 8/28/12

Summer is over, and before I've even had a chance to catch my breath, we've moved right onto our Fall schedule. Due to some changes in staffing and some other factors, my branch has made some changes to the way we're doing story time. Starting this week, we've cut it down to one session on Tuesday and one session on Friday for ages birth to 5. We were a bit more crowded than we would have liked this week, because some other nearby branches are on a break from story time, and our bigger kids haven't all gone back to school yet, but I think the numbers will be more manageable in September.

In any case, based on the fact that our groups are now larger, and knowing how difficult it was to keep their attention all summer, I've changed the structure of my story times a little bit. I've sort of divided the half-hour session into three parts - actual story time, a lesson about a letter of the alphabet, and a sing-along. (I feel much less guilty about simply singing for the whole second half of story time when there is an obvious early literacy component.) This Tuesday morning session was the first one with the new format, and it was very successful, so I hope this is a sign of good things to come. Here is what story time looked like yesterday:

Opening Song (with ukulele): Hello, how are you?

Book: Faster! Faster!  by Leslie Patricelli (2012) 

Song: Roll Your Hands

Rhyme: Hop Your Bunny
We did this rhyme with one bunny at first, then repeated it with two bunnies.

Rhyme: Blue is the Lake

Book: The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle (2011)

Flannel Board Song: The Artist’s Crayons 

Letter of the Week: Letter A 
I placed two felt letters on the board - a capital A and a lower case a - then showed everyone how to make the letter A in American Sign Language. Then I showed them a picture of an ant and put that on the flannel board.

• Song: The Ants Go Marching
  We only counted up to five ants, because I secretly despise this song.
  
• Rhyme: Alligator Rap
  I showed a picture of an alligator, asked the kids to identify it, then put it on the flannel board. We did the rhyme twice.
  
• Rhyme: Way up High in the Apple Tree 
  I showed the kids two apples, again asked them what they were, then put them on the board. We did this rhyme twice as well.
  
• Song: Five Astronauts Went Up in Space

Song: ABCs

Song: If You're Happy and You Know It

Song: The Wheels on the Bus

 Song: Chickadee

Goodbye Song: We Wave Goodbye Like This

Flannel Friday: Harold's Other Crayons

On Wednesday, when I shared Harold and the Purple Crayon with a preschool group, I also created a flannel board song to sing. I used a tune that is usually reserved for my toddler songs about clothes - Mary Wore Her Red Dress - and took a different approach. Here is the end result:

Harold was working on a picture. He used his purple crayon. 

Harold used his purple crayon,

purple crayon, purple crayon. 

Harold used his purple crayon 

all day long. 

The next day, Harold was still working on his picture, but he was tired of purple, so he used.... blue! 

Harold used his blue crayon,

blue crayon, blue crayon. 

Harold used his blue crayon 

all day long.  

The next day, Harold was still working on his picture, but he was tired of blue, so he used.... green! 

Harold used his green crayon,

green crayon, green crayon. 

Harold used his green crayon 

all day long.  

The next day, Harold was still working on his picture, but he was tired of green, so he used.... yellow!

  

Harold used his yellow crayon,

yellow crayon, yellow crayon. 

Harold used his yellow crayon 

all day long.

The next day, Harold was still working on his picture, but he was tired of yellow, so he used.... orange!

 

Harold used his orange crayon,

orange crayon, orange crayon. 

Harold used his orange crayon 

all day long.

The next day, Harold was still working on his picture, but he was tired of orange, so he used.... red!

Harold used his red crayon,

red crayon, red crayon. 

Harold used his red crayon 

all day long.

Wow, look at all of Harold's crayons. Let's say their colors one more time. 

Do you know why Harold used these colors? 

Because... he was drawing a.... 

 RAINBOW!  

Though I created this flannel to be used with a specific book, I think it could be adapted in a number of ways:

• Change Harold to "The artist" for an art-themed story time (and maybe pair it with The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse)
• Change Harold to "The leprechaun" for a St. Patrick's Day Theme, and add a pot of gold to the end of the story. 
•  Change what Harold / the artist draws - maybe have him draw something for each color, and put those items on the flannel board as well.
• Change Harold's medium - Harold used his purple marker, purple paint, purple glitter, etc. 
• Change  the song to a chant and get the kids to clap, snap, or tap to the beat. 

 This week's Flannel Friday host is Lisa, who blogs at Libraryland. Everything else you could ever want to know about Flannel Friday can be found at the official site.