Jan Thomas Story Time

I was pressed for time and found this week's theme from what was on the bookshelf in my office. Jan Thomas is an author I revisit a lot for fun story time reads. I grabbed the books I had, made up a quick craft using the activities available on her website and I was ready for story time!  

The Books: 

Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas

Let's Count Goats! by Jan Thomas & Mem Fox

What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas

 Favorite: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? was the favorite by a landslide. I actually had this on my bookshelf to make it into a flannel board story when I had the chance. 

What was in the Memory Box? 
I was going to hide a couch from my childhood dollhouse, but I forgot to bring it in on story time day and used a felt cow instead. The kids always think it is going to be whatever they saw last week!


Craft:  
I used the activity "Draw Some Faces" on Jan Thomas's website and made it into a book. The parents liked the craft because they all agreed with disgust and laughter that their kids would totally eat ice cream that was covered in hair/licked by a dog.  

 

Story Time: Driving my Race car

Since it isn't really feeling like winter yet in New Jersey, I decided to put off those winter themed story times another week and went with a theme from one of my very first story times... 6 years ago? OMG. The craft is the same, I just changed the books.

The Books:

Let's Go for a Drive! by Mo Willems

Who Is Driving? by Leo Timmers

In the Driver's Seat by Max Haynes

Favorite: Who is Driving? by Leo Timmers. Matching up the vehicle to the driver = mayhem. I wish there were more to this book... which means I will probably add more later or make it into a flannelboard story the next time around. The kids really like guessing who was driving (or flying in one case) and they started getting really silly by claiming the LEAST OBVIOUS animal must be the driver. Hilarious time.

What was in the Memory Box? 
I hid a green felt tractor in the Memory Box this time, just to throw them off since my last few weeks of objects were easy. One of the vehicles someone is driving in Who Is Driving? is a green tractor and it really stumped the kids. Besides insisting that I had the egg in there again, I got everything from a firetruck, elephant, barn, until I gave the hint that a pig was driving this in one of the stories. Then of course, they all had to pass the tractor around and marvel at how they just saw the same one in the book! 

Activity: Surprise! I'm usually so lazy, but I actually prepared this in advance to have an activity. I remembered seeing paper plate steering wheels used with In the Driver's Seat on one of my favorite librarian blogs Storytiming and I knew I had to do it with my group! 

I made 30 since I figured the kids would want to keep them. I'm now left with 9 steering wheels since the rest went home with kids, but they were easy enough to make for when I might need them in the future.

Craft: 
Construction paper race cars with moveable wheels!

To make the shiny hubcaps, I cut circles from foil. The kids were really confused by the foil circles and were very fascinated by being able to glue this to their car to look like "real wheels". These race cars were a big hit since the wheels spin and the kids were zooming off to show off their race cars  around the library when they checked out their books.

Story Time: Happy Birthday!

For the first story time of the year, I wanted to do something different. Instead of jumping right into snow, snowmen, and the usual winter themes, I thought we should say a "Happy Birthday" to 2013!

The Books:

Happy Birthday, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff

A Birthday for Cow! by Jan Thomas

Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr

Favorite: Don't Spill the Beans! by Ian Schoenherr. The kids really enjoyed the "secret" being kept in the book because the animals were talking to the reader! I read this book second for both Toddler Time & Preschool Story Time and got the same reactions in both sessions, which is great since they are too different age groups. 

What was in that Memory Box? 
I hid a tiny balloon in the Memory box for this story since there were a lot of balloons in the stories. The first time I did the Memory Box, the hidden item was a plastic egg and every week, the kids think it will still be an EGG! They can't get over the egg for some reason. Its been 8 weeks of story times since I hid the egg! 
The balloon was a big hit because I had blown it up a little so it would still fit in the box, so there were many questions about how I fit a balloon in there. They thought it was magic.


Craft: 
I didn't expect more than a few kids, if any at all, because I scheduled it for January 2nd. I just planned to have them color an easy birthday cake coloring page.  Simple coloring goes over big around here.

Early Literacy Reading Log

In my library system, there isn't anything in place for promoting early literacy during the summer reading program. This is usually left up to the branch libraries to customize since we just have an "all ages" summer reading program. Since I've started the baby story times, in addition to my regular toddler and preschool story times, I wanted to focus more on those babies this summer.

I read the Early Literacy Manual available through the Collaborative Summer Library Program website and wanted to create an activity/reading log similar to the examples given in the manual. I took what I liked best from all the examples listed and made my own!

Pemberton Library's Early Literacy Summer Activity Log

It prints both sides & is only half sheets! I love saving paper. :) 

My favorite part about the reading log was from the Wee Readers Log from Boone County Public Library in Kentucky because if all activities were completed, the log would be entered into a drawing to win a dinner for two! I added this to mine because it is a nice incentive for parents. I also used their "What Makes a good book for Wee Readers" part of their activity log. Its simple to understand and right to the point, which is helpful for parents. I changed a few things to fit my library, but I kept it the same. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

I also really liked the Ready Reader Gameboard (no library mentioned) and how it was color-coded based on literacy skill, so I added that. It really helps with the "why" parents should do the activity log. 

There aren't that many examples of early literacy activity logs, so I thought I'd share what I've come up with!

Crochet Along Project

101 programs have been planned for this year's summer reading program at my library and I'm exhausted already. In addition to those 101 programs, I'm also going to offer a Crochet-Along program for adults during August (after the summer reading program when I won't be going crazy preparing so many things for kids & teens). 

I found this pattern for a pillow on Red Heart's website called the Copenhagen Pillow and I really love the colors! I happened to have some very similar colors in small amounts so I just had to purchase a skein of white and I got started.

I'm almost finished and I can't wait to figure out how it makes a pillow.

 

No Preparation Necessary

My big plan for Summer Reading 2011 is to create programs that can run themselves with little work during the actual program. With staff shortages and budget cuts, it has been very difficult to offer the same type of programs as often as I used to and it is very hard for me to accept. I don't think the time to cut back on programs is now. If libraries are to stay alive, programs are going to be a big reason they do.  

In an effort to keep the programs running without cutting the amount we offer, I've come up with a few that can be offered with minimal effort. Too much planning, preparing and how much staff time is used on program day is the reason we're told we have to cut some programs. The more time spent on them, the less time is spent working on a desk. Speaking as someone that does the desk schedules for the entire staff, I know how hard it is to get the desks covered. Obviously, covering the desk, no matter which one it is, is the most important part of a library staff's job. 

I started Knit/Crochet Club, Parachute Play and Beat the Librarian last year as a way to keep me on the desk, but still offer special programs. Parachute Play is for ages 2-4 years and only lasts 30-45 minutes. Everything I need for the program is contained in a bucket. No preparation necessary after that initial "buy everything you need for the program." 

Same goes for Beat the Librarian. I have this program right at the Children's Desk. Kids of all ages can drop in and try their best to beat me in whatever the game is that day. If they beat me, they get a small prize. I don't know if the prize is even necessary since bragging rights to  "beating a librarian" seems to be enough, but I like giving prizes, especially when they aren't expensive. We play games like Guess Who, Battleship, Connect Four, Cooking Mama on the Wii, Mancala, Scopa, etc. Some of the kids have played the games before, but a surprising amount had not played so I was exposing them to some new things. My favorite games to play with them are games from other countries, which I'm relying heavily on this summer since it fits the theme so well. 

Knit/Crochet Club is my favorite program. I host it every Monday night (library hours, my schedule permitting) and its very popular. Its drop in and I consistently have 12 or more kids and adults every week. And its not always the same people! This program consists of skeins of yarn that I separated into balls of yarn for practice and they have to bring their own crochet hook or knitting needles. I teach the basics, how to read a pattern and get started on making projects. I run this from the Children's Desk so I'm doing a program WHILE working the desk. 

This summer I plan to host puppet shows. I have always wanted to have puppet shows, but we never had a good puppet theater or good puppets (the puppets were old and creepy). I got a design together of what I wanted my puppet theater to be and asked my dad to help me build it. It is built and ready to be painted, which I will get to once it gets warmer. I've started working on puppets.


I am going to do Cinderella stories around the world this summer and will put on a Cinderella puppet show! During the summer, we have teen volunteers so finding extra hands to do this won't be hard! Teen volunteers are a good reason why we can have so many things going on to promote summer reading. I wish we were allowed to have them all year! I have been working on these puppets while I'm working on a desk or at home, so it isn't taking EXTRA time, which is awesome. I did the same with the flannel board stories I make and the public don't seem to mind the felt spread across the Check Out Desk when they want to check out their materials. :)


So these are Cinderella and Prince Charming in progress:

 I also have outfits for the 2 stepsisters and the stepmother ready to be sewed. I'm just nervous about their faces. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about them. I'm deciding between google eyes or just sewing the features on... I'm sure I'll have a bunch of faceless puppets before I decide what to do.

I have a few store bought puppets that I plan to use with different puppet shows, so hopefully by summer I'll have quite a collection to choose from and I can put on puppet shows all year.

Flannel Board Stories & American Girl Craft

I started doing Mother Goose on the Loose story time for babies one Saturday a month, which means that I needed to develop props from scratch since we really don't have anything like that at the library. The few sad musical instruments that we have are from when I attended story time a million years ago. They're just gross.

So I started my own collection of flannel board stories. I am still in the process of making a bunch, but these are the characters I made for the very first Mother Goose on the Loose program in January.

These are for the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle, Diddle...

spoon, dish, fiddle, cow & a random mouse

dish & spoon

fiddle!

 

 

cow

 

 

 

pig

cat

moon... or banana!

dog after my very own dachshund

bunny in progress

I have plenty more planned-I'm doing a bug theme this month and a food theme in March, so I'll have more to post! I'm alternating between felt and paper with velcro to stick to the flannel board. I don't want to get overwhelmed with all the sewing. 

I had a really easy craft for February's American Girl Love Tea program! I love the American Girl aisle in Michaels because they have all these ready-to-go crafts with the American Girl theme. Some of them are pretty pricey, but I get great ideas since I can just come up with similar things for cheaper. I couldn't resist getting this pack of patterned paper though for chain bracelets. One pack was less than $5 and it made 10 bracelets, so it was perfect for me!









The bracelets were really easy to make, but they did take up the whole 1.5 hours of the program (which is a plus! I always have kids that take their time and kids that rush to get it done) and the girls had a little trouble with getting the paper chains to slide into each other. Eventually they got it and some even made more than one.

These are the best crafts.  No real planning or preparing, they're simple and a big hit. I even have enough paper left over that I could do it again next year!