Win Some/Lose Some: Library Programming for All?

This will be my 4th year doing a summer reading program in my current position. My director and head librarian seem to be on the same page of how they want to the reading program to go and what we want our library to be represented as to the public. For summer, we go big. We spend a good chunk of our budget on professional performers (magicians, bands, animals programs etc.). We have these family programs/performances twice a week. We are given more money for storytimes and make a point of providing more programs for school age kids (Grades K-5)

Why? Because those kids are out of school! They have time to come to the library! We only have the chance to so a school age programs once a month during the school year, and most of our attendees are homeschool kids to begin with. We want to have several opportunities for kids of this age group to participate in activities of varying interests.

From September through May we have three separate storytime classes for three separate age groups which results in nine chances to visit the library in one week to hear a storytime! Versus the 1 or 2 school age programs we have a month during the school year. In summer, we scale back and offer two sessions for preschool during the week, one for babies, and one for toddlers.

And boy....does that tick people off.

Every summer, I seem to give the same speech to try to explain that because of the extra programing we offer for families and older kids, we don't have the schedule to provide the same storytime presentation we offer during the school year. I always strive to presents a pro over a con. "I'm sorry that we are not offering storytime at our normal time for summer. I can show you our schedule of great performers and programs for you and your child will enjoy!"

Our biggest grief come from our stay at home parents who are understandably our largest crowd of storytime participants. We offer storytime for babies and toddlers in the evenings. I think we are the only library in the large metro area that offers programs at the time for that age and with a good reason. It allows working moms and dads to attend storytime with their little ones. So I'm biased when patrons try to plead their case that the only storytime session should be in the morning instead of the evening because I'm a working mom. Currently, I'm unable to take my kid to baby story time anywhere because of my schedule and the times they are offered (and I live in an area with 30 plus libraries!) So if we eliminated the evening option of storytime, we eliminate the chance for any working parents to attend after their 9-5 day. Sorry, but this strikes me as grossly unfair. (Even before I became a parent I knew that this option was not a good one) Not everyone has the luxury of being able to stay home with their kids all day (and engage in their learning and literacy at home) but stay at home moms are able to attend a family program or storytime in the evening.

While libraries usually pull out all the stops for summer, we are still limited in some regards. Recently a patron complained to me that we don't have enough activities for babies. Her child was the same age as my daughter and the most of the programs were geared towards older kids. I was at a lost for words for a second (besides exclaiming "Duuhhh!") We mostly cater to books and readers, not necessarily a entertainment center for little kids. If you walked into a Toy R' Us, and found out they only sold one toy for babies, I could understand being annoyed. But a library? What did you think we would have? (okay I'm biased her because I work at a library and I'm the mother of baby who besides crawling and making messes, can't do anything without my help)

I do think after each encounter because I do hate turning people away or the thought of discouraging them from the library. I think, look at the calendar and try to see if there is any possible way we could offer more to our under 3 crowd. But alas, we can't add something without removing something else! To add morning storytimes would mean one of the family programs would have to leave and I think there would be more of an uproar if we canceled popular family events to cater to a handful of patrons.

Lesson of the day....

Storytime from the Liberry: The Five Senses

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to do storytime about the five senses. How easy. I'll find a book about each sense! Eyes, Ears, Tasting, Touch, Smelling.

For kids who are 2 and 3......*tire screech*

That was my plan long ago when I first thought of doing a storytime about the 5 senses. Doing five activities for each of the sense would work great for older kids, but not toddlers so much. But wouldn't any book as long as it motivates them and has them use actions and their senses to experience it work? Yes I think so!

So on that thought I present Fizz Boom Bang! A storytime about the 5 Senses!

Books:

The Bear Went over the Mountain by Iza Trapani- The only book that truley covered the 5 senses. A great book to sing to!

The Ear Book by Al Perkins

Press Here by Herve Tullet- I asked kids if they wanted to help press the buttons but I only had two enthusiastic helpers! This interactive book is great for all ages really.

Yummy Yucky !  By Leslie Patricelli- I love this book even though it might be more for babies. It was great to ask the kids what they thought was yummy and yucky. It was an easy book to interact with.

Songs:
Head Shoulder Knees and Toes
Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Where is Your Finger- (Tune of "In an Out the  Window")
Where is your Finger?
Where is your finger?
Where is your finger?
Show me if you can? (Repeat with other body parts)

Walking Walking (Tune of "Frere Jacques")
Walking, walking, walking, walking
Hop hop hop! Hop hop hop!
Jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping.
Now we stop! Now we stop!
(Repeat with other movements. First time I used this song and it was great to get the wiggles out before we got to our big dance song)

For our after storytime activity we had a bin of rainbow rice and sensory bottles on the tarp. I was hoping they would play with half and half but they all seemed to crowd around the sensory bin and had a great time burying each others hands!

The last time the colors of the rice would ever be separated!

Toddler Storytime-The Times they are a-changin'...

*Big Breath* This is my first move in changing the format of my toddler storytimes. I'm going to a more repetitive format that isn't so theme heavy in the fall so I'm using the summer as a transition period. I'll be doing some of the same things, but introducing some new things that might shock my co-workers and annoy the parents.

My motto 

 

 

1. I'm doing away with story time sheets! I using large pieces of poster board to write down our song for all to see so they don't have to fumble. Also to help the kids relate to the practice of reading and singing by noticing that everyone is looking and singing the same words. And now parents, you have no excuse not to sing along.

2. I'm repeating songs more frequently. I want to have a repertoire of 15-20 standard songs as fillers for our storytimes along with a new song that relate to our theme. Hopefully by establishing this routine I can be ready to introduce a opening/closing by fall.

3. I'm using a Puppet! I have cute penguin puppet from Folkmains that I'm using to introduce books and activities. Also as suggestion from other librarians, as a "good cop bad cop". My puppet will go over expected story time behaviors when I announce them to the group. It's time for this because I have had too many parents and caregiver treat storytime as social hour. *Start rant* I have had instances were I could hear every detail about a lunch meeting or a church function while I'm trying to read a story. If you are talking loud enough that I can make out every word over the sound of my voice and the sounds of antsy toddlers, you are talking too loud. One grandmother tried to call in reservation to a restaurant as we are "Shaking our Sillies Out" while rolling her eyes because they we where too loud. (I turned up the volume when I saw her pull out her phone, BTW) *end rant*

This is no doubt the issue I'm going to get flack about from caregivers. But it's not fair to the kids and parents who are trying to pay attention. I'm tired of being talked over by adult who should know better and also seeing other parents upset at conversations interrupting us. This is my warning. I just don't want to call out for people to be quiet like a teacher in school.

But I will have "social hour" right after storytime. I have different activities like crafts, imaginative play or sensory bins for each week.

Wish me luck!?

Toddler Sensory Lab- Touch

We are experimenting with new idea at our library in the spirit of our summer reading program;
Fizz Boom Read!

One new idea is having open play center we call our "Toddler Sensory Lab"  Each week we are filling our sensory bins/tubs with sensory materials. Each week focuses on one of the five senses.

After carefully planning and a good amount of stressing(What if kids throw sand in each other eyes? What if they carry off playdough to the reference computer and smash it in the keyboards? What if my cranky co-workers complain about the mess and the noise?)-we started our first lab on Friday. So far it's been really popular!

Our first week focuses on Touch. I have bins of Moon Sand and Cloud Dough available to dig in as well cups,buckets and digging tools.We geared activities for age groups 2-4 years old, but I figure it can be open to everyone as long as they all "played nice in the sandbox"  (Figuratively and literally as they we actually had a sandbox!)

Our basic rules were that children were not to be unattended at the table (especially our really young ones) and that if parents and caregivers could help us keep the rest of the library clean by keeping all the materials in the bins. We are also on the watch out for rough play.

We have a sheet of prompts on the tables encouraging our caregivers to get their hands dirty and talk about different textures. We've had a great response from kids trying to guess what our cloud dough was made of. (Sand? Soap?) We have an activity sheet with a song, book list and seven activities to try at home (one for each day of the week). Also the kids can take home a little portion cup of moon sand to play with at home.

Moon Sand - Or bargain basement Kinetic Sand as I call it. 4 cups Play Sand, 2 Cups cornstarch, and 1 cup water. Gritty, course, slightly damp, Great for molding and sculpting.

Cloud Dough- 8 cups Flour, 1 cup Baby Oil (which makes it smell oh so nice) Mold-able and firm but at the same time can crumple in your hands. Fascinating to kids.

Also fascinating to librarians. I loved making hand prints in this stuff!

Looking for other sensory activities for your library? Have you accepted Pinterest as your savior?
Search for"Sensory Activities" or "Sensory Play" and you'll have oodles to choose from!

Also we are growing butterflies at the library. "Did you want to help us make a butterfly? A real one!? Not one made of paper and glue!" I called out from the desk trying to get kids interested. Our head librarian bought a grow your own butterfly kit and so we will be raising caterpillars to become painted lady butterflies over the next month. I had to disappoint one patron who wanted to take two of them home for her kids (Sorry they stay at the library) Also we are trying to devise a way to keep them on display but safe from curious hands. Our caterpillars do not like to be shaken! We decided a Tupperware container with "Please do not touch" sign should work (I hope).

EDIT: We have over 100 kids visit our sensory lab over the weekend! Woohooo!

Who? What? Summer?

Those sees to be my thoughts. I have been so busy with summer reading I have to keep reminding myself that it actually started! Our library decided to do its own program this year instead of working with the large city library like we have in the past.

Along with new storytimes for toddlers, programs for teens and tweens, I’ve also been responsible for publications, calendars, making reading records and all our display material. No joke, I can’t put into words how exhausted I am after putting this all up because my quality of speech has decreased since Thursday. My speech is scattered and slurred not from drinking, but because my brain power has been sucked out of me with every new issue I’ve had to face!

But the time has come! We has our kick off party this morning with way over 300 people in attendance. When one of my non-children's coworker asked me how our kick off party went my relpy was "Well no one died, so that's a good thing?"

We are using the collaborative theme Fizz Boom Read!

 

"Power Up!" with our picture books

My one gripe about our current library is that the entire kids section is dominated by bulletin boards and even above that lots of dead space. So when it comes to decorating we have alot of space to fill and if I had to make displays that covered every inch, we would be wasting a ton of ink and paper. Also I have to take it down in two months. We need a new library/design for many reasons but this just one of them.

 

Our "Finisher"Wall or Fill 'Er Up! Wall. This year it is beakers filled with atoms (bright colored paper circles) This wall is over 20 feet long so there are many more beakers I can't fit in the picture. I will say that every year I've done Summer Reading, we have filled our finisher wall and then some! This year, the circles are going to be blank. No names! Something new but with good reason. Our volunteers usually forget to hand out the item for the kid to put their name in, and often kids fill them out on the wrong side, upside down, and then put their whole name, phone number and school on them (yes seriously) I don't know why (bragging rights?) but we don't want to post such private information in a public space. So we'll celebrate our finishers anonymously this year.

Program Bulletin Board

 



I desperatly wanted to make this look like the Periodic Table of Elements, but then it wouldn't look like a calendar and that's really the point.

 

 

 

Only 8 more weeks of summer reading to go. We are doing some awesome new things at our library this year. I'm changing my story time format. We are doing sensory tables "labs" for the toddlers. It's going to be great and crazy! But a little crazy never hurt anyone.