Family Storytime – Dr. Seuss

Posted on March 5, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

To celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday on March 2, we held a special version of our preschool storytime honoring his works. My supervisor and I worked on this program together, so we tagged-teamed on the storytime.

MOVEMENT: “Shake My Sillies Out” from More Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi

PROP READING:
We started off with a prop-filled presentation of:

Green Eggs and Ham.

I portrayed Sam-I-Am, and my supervisor was the friend unwilling to try the titular treat. We had a table set up with all the props we needed for the story including:

Green Eggs and Ham (Color photo-copy laminated)
Here or There (Color photo-copy laminated, found via Google Image Search)
A House (made from Lego)
A Mouse (Puppet)

A Box
A Fox (he looks a little tired, I know, but it’s a fox from our puppet collection)
A Car
A Tree (Also from the library’s puppet collection)

This next row is a bit more… creative…

A Train (train whistle, I made the noise each time the book said “train”)
Dark (a black piece of construction paper with the word “dark” on it)
The Rain (a squirt bottle filled with water, that I misted every time the word “rain” was said. This got a good laugh, and was a great idea from my supervisor)

A Goat
A Boat

Since Sam-I-Am is the one who introduces the different props, I would hold up the item in question as I mentioned it. Then, my supervisor read off the answers of where the green eggs and ham would not be enjoyed, I held the item in question up again so that the audience could say it aloud. She also showed the illustrations of the book as well so those could be seen by the audience.

FLANNELBOARD:
Colorful Eggs (No Ham)

I stole this brilliant idea from this post at Mel’s Desk.

I took her suggestion of making it into a game, so on one side the eggs are a nice and normal yellow. On the other, wild colors! I started with all the yellow yolks up, then turned each one over at the appropriate time as I recited:

I-am-Sam.
Sam-I-am.
I do so like ____
eggs and ham.

(filling in the blank with the audience of the color of the egg). From this activity I learned that my pink egg (second from the left on the top row) really looks like an orange egg from afar and not like the hot pink it looks up close.

BOOK:

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss

My supervisor just read an except of this one, up until the “goodnight” part. It worked really well shortened like that.

MOVEMENT: “If You’re Happy and You Know It – PS Version”
My supervisor does this one a little differently, so check out my A Capella Movements page for the PS version.

VIDEO:

“Zax” from Seuss Celebration: 9 Favorite Televised Classics

Many of the Seuss videos are 25 minutes long or so — “Zax” worked well for storytime since it was only 3 minutes or so.

TREATS:
What would a birthday celebration be without a sweet treat? After the movie, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to Dr. Seuss, and then it was time to let them eat cake!

(I forgot to take a photo of the cake before it was devoured! But as you can see, at least we had a lot of interest!)

ATTENDANCE: 38 people

HOW IT WENT: I think this was a really fun unique storytime. Other than joining in on storytimes as an intern, I’d never done a joint storytime before. I think it went really well, and that we both were able to highlight the places where we shine in storytime to make it a success. I think if I were going to do this program again, I might have a larger table on which to place the props — since Seuss changes the patter of the objects in Green Eggs and Ham that might make it easier to do. Another Idea I had for that would just be to used laminated images for all the objects like I did for the green eggs and ham. Then I could just have a stack put together and go through the stack in order as the items were mentioned.

How did you celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday or Read Across America?

3rd Grade Storytime – Folktales and Food

Posted on March 2, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while — things have been rather busy here at work as the whole staff has shifted their work areas. That, and I haven’t done a lot of storytimes in recent weeks. But here I am, back with a recent class visit.

I do programming more frequently for the preschool and under set, and while I love working with school-aged children, I still find myself rather intimidated by them. I’ve found that folktales are the perfect way to connect with these kids — and a great way to highlight what a great folktale collection we have!

BOOK:

Love and Roast Chicken by Barbara Knutson

FLANNELBOARD:
The Three Wishes

Patterns and Story from The Flannel Board Storytelling Book by Judy Sierra.
Patterns can be found on page 97 of Sierra’s Pattern eBook.

This is a great story about a woodcutter who is granted three wishes, and the way he and his wife foolishly use them. It’s a good one to use to spark discussion.

MOVEMENT: Aroostacha*

BOOK:

Ananse’s Feast: An Ashanti Tale retold by Tololwa M. Mollel

VIDEO:

“Strega Nona” from Strega Nona …and More Stories About Magic

OTHER MATERIALS TO USE:

Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile by Won-Ldy Paye (one of my favorite folktales, but I read it to them last year)
Sausages by Jessica Souhami (This is a book version of The Three Wishes)
Fat Cat: A Danish Folktale by Margaret Read MacDonald
Pancakes for Supper by Anne Isaacs
Gator Gumbo by Candace Fleming

HOW IT WENT:
Pretty well! This third grade class is really wonderful, and always such fun to read stories to, mostly because the teacher is really involved with her class and you can see she enjoys it as well. I think, since Love and Roast Chicken is so long, I might have done another movement, then the flannelboard, then Aroostacha, and then the movie.

ATTENDANCE: 21 people

*To see the words to these movements and activities I use frequently, please visit my A-capella Movements Section on my Storytime Movements and Music Page

1st Grade Storytime – Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 6, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

One of the measurements I use to judge how successful my Valentine’s Day storytime is with an elementary school group is how many “ewwww”s it evokes. ‘Cause there is nothing early elementary kids like better than romance. Judging on that criteria, this storytime seemed like a hit.

MOVEMENT: My Wiggles

BOOK:

Froggy’s First Kiss by Jonathan London

FLANNELBOARD:
Vincent’s Valentine Animals

Patterns and Story from A Storytime Year, by Susan M. Dailey.
For the story, see this blog post.

MOVEMENT: We Work With One Hammer*

BOOK:

The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever by Brenda A. Ferber

VIDEO:

“Valentine’s Day” from Little Bear: Little Bear’s Band

OTHER DVD IDEA:

“One Zillion Valentine’s” from The Valentine’s Collection DVD

HOW IT WENT:
This was a pretty fun storytime. It’s always great to hear the reaction of the kids when you read Froggy’s First Kiss and get to the kissing scene. Since The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever is a new book, this was my first time trying it out with a group, and I really thought it worked great. I think I can use it as a second grade pick as well. I need more Valentine’s stories for the older groups – a lot of what I’m familiar with is for the young ones. In hindsight I think I should have shown One Zillion Valentines as the movie, because Little Bear was a little too young for this group.

ATTENDANCE: 20 people

Librarian Organizing – Books

Posted on February 5, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

I don’t know about the rest of the Children’s Librarians out there, but I seem to accumulate a lot of stuff. Books, flannelboards I’ve created, flannelboard ideas I want to create, DVDs for programs, fingerplays, puppets, realia, the list goes on… All of it is important to my programming, but all of it has to GO somewhere. And more importantly, I’ve got to be able to find it when I need it! With this in mind, I thought I would share a little bit about how I organize my materials.

It probably goes without saying, but I love children’s books. I enjoy purchasing some of my favorites to have them on hand at all times for storytimes or other programs. I do this for a few reasons:

I like knowing I have something there at all times to use (in case of a last-minute program!)
I don’t have to check-out a library book and keep others from it.
I like that the book I have on hand will be clean, with all of its pages intact.
Books go out of print so quickly that if I really love a book I want to know I can have it for all time.

However, when I had purchased a book I already had – on at least two separate occasions – I realized I might need a better method of keeping track of what I already owned.

I already kept a spreadsheet of my titles at work, but I wanted something portable I could take with me and check when I was at the bookstore. I tried Goodreads for a while, because I used that anyway to keep track of what I’ve been reading, but it wasn’t a perfect fit. So, I decided to explore the world of apps. And I found one that I’m pretty happy with:

My Library

I like that this not only helps me keep track of my books, but my DVDs as well. (It also works with music albums, but I haven’t used that part yet). The app allows you to add books to your library either manually or by scanning the barcode.

Using the barcode scanning option, you can even scan multiple titles. (Sometimes the scanning isn’t always 100% accurate, and you’ll have to go back and correct some of the data). The app gives you a few different options of how to display your books including by author, title, series, genre and more. I usually default to author:

I like that this app shows cover photos as well, a feature that wasn’t always available on the couple apps I tried.

It also has the option for sorting your items into different collections. This allows the user to filter your items into different collections, or look at everything at once. I have a few different ones as you can see here.

I haven’t had this app very long, but so far I’m very pleased with it. And hopefully, I won’t ever buy duplicate books by accident again!

Have you ever had problems keeping straight the books in your collection? How do you organize your professional book collection?

Flannel Friday: I Saw a Giraffe Drive By

Posted on February 1, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

When I was in library school, we had an assginment to make a booklist centered around a theme — any theme we wanted. My theme was “Animals and Their Vehicles”. Ever since that booklist, I’ve had a soft spot for animals taking a spin, and I’ve used it as a storytime theme a few times. Here’s a great flannelboard that goes with it.

I Saw a Giraffe Drive By
May be sung to the tune of “Down by the Bay”

Poem and Patterns from Toddler Storytime Programs by Diane Briggs

One sunny day I saw a giraffe drive by,
In a shiny car and a big bow tie.
Then I saw a sheep,
Riding in a jeep.
Then I saw a duck,
Driving a truck.
One sunny day.

One sunny day I saw a platypus,
He was going for a ride on a little orange school bus.
Then I saw a goat,
She was rowing a boat.
Then I saw a bear,
Flying through the air,
One sunny day.

Oh, me, oh, my,
What a lot of funny animals went by!

I’ve mentioned before that I got a lot of flannelboards from my mom when she retired. This is another one of those, and I think it’s among my favorite. My mom somehow cajoled my dad into making her flannelboards for her, so when I use them it’s like using a small piece of family history as well.

Today’s Flannel Friday roundup is hosted by Anne at so tomorrow. For more information on Flannel Friday, visit the Flannel Friday blog or Pinterest page.

Flannel Friday Valentine’s Special: Vincent’s Valentine Animals

Posted on January 25, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

This week at Flannel Friday we’re spreading the love of Valentine’s Day! I’m sharing a story I use often around this time of year, Vincent’s Valentine Animals. It’s not too mushy, and the kids can make fun animal noises with it.

This is another flannelboard story that I got from my mother after her retirement from librarianship, so I’m not 100% sure on the original source. It’s on page 28 of A Storytime Year, and while I haven’t verified to make sure this is the correct book (we don’t have a copy in my system) I think it is by Susan M. Dailey.

Vincent’s Valentine Animals
One day, Vincent the toymaker received word from the King that he was to create a special toy for the Princess for Valentine’s Day. Vincent knew a lot about making toys, but he had never made a Valentine toy before. So he thought long and hard and finally had an idea!

He cut out hearts from wood, glued and painted them. He made a Valentine cat, dog, mouse, pig and snake.

And to make them extra special, he gave them each a sound. The cat said, “Meow”. The dog said, “Arf”, the mouse said, “Squeak”, the pig said, “Oink” and the snake said, “Hiss”.

Vincent was very proud of his animals, and couldn’t wait to give them to the Princess. But he was in such a hurry to get to the castle, he stumbled and all the heads and body’s became separated.

“Oh no!” said Vincent. “Now I need to put them back together. Let’s see.. here’s a mouse head. Does this head go with this body?” Place the animal head on top of the wrong body. Now here comes the fun part of the story – you place the head of one animal on the body of the other and make the new sound that results. For example, with the mouse you would have it say:

The toy said “Sque-arf!” Oh no, that can’t be right! What about the next body. The toy said “Sque-Oink!” No no no. Let’s try this one… “Sque-Eow!”… Continue doing this with the various pieces until you match the cat, dog, pig and mouse correctly. Then continue the story.

But Vincent heard the King impatiently calling for him. He couldn’t keep the King waiting! In a hurry, Vincent gathered up all his Valentine animals (take all the animals down from the board and put them up momentarily as you name them one by one) and brought them to show the Princess and the King. And they were both very pleased. The Princess loved her Valentine Cat. She loved her Valentine Dog. She loved her Valentine mouse. But here favorites were the Valentine pig-snake who said, “oin-hiss” and the Valentine snake-pig who said “hi-oink”. When she heard those noises, she laughed and laughed.

Today’s Flannel Friday roundup is sponsored by Sarah at Read it Again. For more information on Flannel Friday, visit the Flannel Friday blog or Pinterest page.

Alligators & Crocodiles – Preschool Storytime

Posted on January 22, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song

MOVEMENT: “Can’t Wait to Celebrate” from Jim Gill’s Irrational Anthem by Jim Gill

BOOK:

Egad Alligator! by Harriet Ziefert

FLANNELBOARD:
Counting Crocodiles

Pattern and Story from Judy Sierra (it’s called “A Bridge of Crocodiles” in the Second Edition of The Flannel Board Storytelling Book. I inherited this flannelboard set from my mom, who was a librarian until she retired. She had my dad make all her flannelboard sets, so it’s steeped in family history. I think it came from the 1987 version of Sierra’s book…)

THEMED MOVEMENT:
“The Alligator”
The alligator likes to swim (two hands flat, one on top of the other)
And he opens his mouth wide (hands open and shut)
But when he sees me on the shore (turn hands towards self)
Down under the water he’ll hide (hands go between legs on lap)

BOOK:

Solomon Crocodile by Catherine Rayner

MOVEMENT: “Shake My Sillies Out” from More Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi

BOOK:

For Pete’s Sake by Ellen Stoll Walsh

VIDEO:

“Cornelius” from Swimmy …and More Classic Leo Lionni Stories

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:

Book: Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen
Book: An Extraordinary Egg by Lio Lionni

THOUGHTS ON THIS STORYTIME:
I had a lot of infants and toddlers in the group today, so that changed my plan a little. I was originally planning on reading Guji Guji, since I really enjoy it, but thought that it might be a bit too long with little ones there. I switched and chose Egad Alligator instead. I really must say “Egad!” more when surprised is what I think every time I read this book. Then, because Guji Guji is a long book, I had some unaccounted for time at the end and decided to use For Pete’s Sake.

ATTENDANCE: 30 (adults and children)

Let’s Seek! – Kindergarten Storytime

Posted on January 19, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

I tweaked my Infant/Toddler Hide and Seek storytime a bit to use it with a Kindergarten class visit I had the day after.

MOVEMENT: My Wiggles*

BOOK:

Little Owl Lost by Chris Haughton

BOOK:

No Bed Without Ted by Nicola Smee

MOVEMENT: “Shake My Sillies Out” from More Singable Songs for the Very Young by Raffi

FLANNELBOARD:
Little Mouse Little Mouse

Pattern & Rhyme from Felt Board Fingerplays by Liz & Dick Wilmes

Little mouse, little mouse
Are you in the (insert color) house?

We played this through twice. The first time, I put up the houses with the animals underneath them and we went house by house. After that, I took the house and animals down, mixed them up, and then put them up again. This time around I asked the kids which house we should start with.

BOOK:

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

VIDEO:

“Hide and Seek” from Peppa Pig: Muddy Puddles

HOW IT WENT: This storytime is probably a little younger than I would normally do with a kindergarten group, but it surprisingly went pretty well.

ATTENDANCE: 1st group: 38 2nd group: 35

Hide & Seek – Toddler Storytime

Posted on January 19, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

I used a lot of lift-the-flap books in this storytime, so I decided since we were looking for things it made sense as a hide and seek storytime.

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song*

MOVEMENT:“Clap Everybody and Say Hello” from Sally Go Round the Sun by Kathy Reid-Naiman.

MOVEMENT: Open Shut Them*

BOOK:

Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill

MOVEMENT: “I’m a Little Teapot” from Walt Disney’s Children’s Favorite Songs Volume 4

MOVEMENT: Itsy Bitsy Spider*

COUNTING SONG:*

Children (since they are fun to play hide and seek with). These are from ArtFelt.

FLANNELBOARD:
Little Mouse, Little Mouse

Pattern & Rhyme from Felt Board Fingerplays by Liz & Dick Wilmes

This is a fun game to play with storytime. You start off with different colored houses on the board, the say the following rhyme before uncovering who is under the house.

Little mouse, little mouse
Are you in the (insert color here) house?

When I first started doing this rhyme, I only hid the mouse in one of the houses. Then I realized it would be a whole lot more fun to uncover other animals. I just take some friends from my other flannelboard stories to add in there. The ones picture above are from some of my ArtFelt sets. I also like to leave one house empty with “nobody home”.

MOVEMENT: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” from Songs for Wiggleworms by the Old Town School of Folk Music

BOOK:

Flappy Waggy Wiggly by Amanda Leslie

MOVEMENT: “Two Little Blackbirds” from Fingerplays and Footplays by Rosemary Hallum and Henry “Buzz” Glass

VIDEO:

“Whose’s Hiding in the House?” from Baby’s First Word Stories: House

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over*

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS IDEAS:

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Peek-A-Moo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti
City Animals by Simms Taback
Hoot! Hoot! by Richard Powell

HOW IT WENT:
I tried using “I’m a Little Teapot” for the first time ever with this group, and I don’t think it was quite the right fit. Since I was just filling in for the storyteller who had lost her voice this week, it was a nice chance to try out things like that without having to add it to a ten week rotation. I think I would like to use it again, but maybe with older children.

ATTENDANCE: 10 am: 38 people 11 am: 39 people

* For these songs, please see my Storytime Movements & Music page

Hide & Seek – Infant Storytime

Posted on January 19, 2013 by jeninthelibrary

My coworker lost her voice, so I took on her storytimes for her this week. Since I didn’t have a lot of time to prep, I thought about what would be a quick storytime I could put together with what I had on hand and came up with this hide & seek theme. Most of the stories that I used had lift-the-flaps that created that “seeking” element.

MOVEMENT: Welcome Song*

MOVEMENT: “Baby’s Little Self” from Here I Am by Caspar Babypants

BOUNCE: Ride a Little Pony*

BOOK:

Peek-a-Baby by Karen Katz

MOVEMENT: “Clap, Tap and Bend” from It’s Toddler Time by Carol Hammett and Elaine Bueffel

FLANNELBOARD:
Little Mouse, Little Mouse

Pattern & Rhyme from Felt Board Fingerplays by Liz & Dick Wilmes

This is a fun game to play with storytime. You start off with different colored houses on the board, the say the following rhyme before uncovering who is under the house.

Little mouse, little mouse
Are you in the (insert color here) house?

BOUNCE: “Smooth Road to London Town” from A Smooth Road to London Town: Songs from the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program by Kathy Reid-Naiman

BOOK:

City Animals by Simms Taback

TICKLE: Here are Baby’s Fingers*

NURSERY RHYME:
Little Miss Muffet

Flannelboard from Little Folk Visuals

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away!

MOVEMENT: “Itsy Bitsy Spider” from Children’s Favorite Songs Volume 3 from Walt Disney

MOVEMENT: “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” from Songs for Wiggleworms by the Old Town School of Folk Music

MOVEMENT: Storytime’s Over*

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL IDEAS:

Peek-a-Moo by Marie Torres Cimarusti
Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill

HOW IT WENT:
It was nice to just to one storytime without doing the whole series, because it allowed me to try out a couple of new things and not have to worry about changing the storytime routine if it didn’t work well. For this storytime, I wanted to see if “Babies Little Self” would work as an activity for the parents to do together with their children. I think it is such a sweet song, and it did seem to work fairly well. I don’t know if I would use it every time, but it was a nice change of pace. I also chose to use that since we were doing a lot of “peek-a-boo” during the stories themselves, so I didn’t want that as my intro movement as well.

ATTENDANCE: 40 people

* For these songs, please see my page Storytime Movements & Music

Jen in the Library

Storytimes, Programs and Library Thoughts

Yearly Archives: 2013

Family Storytime – Dr. Seuss

3rd Grade Storytime – Folktales and Food

1st Grade Storytime – Valentine’s Day

Librarian Organizing – Books

Flannel Friday: I Saw a Giraffe Drive By

Flannel Friday Valentine’s Special: Vincent’s Valentine Animals

Alligators & Crocodiles – Preschool Storytime

Let’s Seek! – Kindergarten Storytime

Hide & Seek – Toddler Storytime

Hide & Seek – Infant Storytime