Storytime From the Liberry: Good Sports

A storytime about sports in the dead of winter? Yep!

A sports storytime has been on my bucket list for a while since its a great opportunity to include movement and action in our learning. I drafted up an idea for a sports storytime about three years ago and got inspired to put it into action after reading Sunflower Storytime's post about a football story time. It was their idea for having a football storytime this time of the year because of the Super Bowl.

Disclaimer: I really do not care about football. However we live in a big football town and saying to you don't care about the local college team tantamount to treason. I try to remain neutral and accept that some people really just love football and I'm just a person who prefers an opera house to a football stadium)

Out Ready to Read skill was talking so we talked about all the excited sports things than have been happening in our city recently (We hosted the NHL All Star game and our college football team just won the national championship, guess where I am?)

Books: 

Goodnight Football by Michael Dahl

Peanut and Fifi have a Ball by Randall de Seve- This book touched on several concepts at once. Sharing and when it's hard to share. Playing together and using your imagination.

Spot Loves Spots by Eric Hill

Last week I had a hard time choosing books because there were so many good choices to pick from. This time there where still many good choices, but many were too wordy. For a preschool or family storytime, yes. But not for toddlers. We did extra activities in place of the usual 4th story book.

Instead of focusing on traditional sports, you can also use storybooks about balls.

Songs and Activities:

This is the Way we Bounce the Ball and Flannel Board came from Sunflower Storytime

We did a counting rhyme
A little ball (make ball with fingers)
A bigger ball (make ball with hands)
A great big ball I see (make ball with arms)
Let's count them, one two three.

Storytime from the Liberry: Make Mine Music

Why pay big bucks to sign up your toddler for fancy drum circle sessions when you can come to my music story time and do it for free?
I have never understood the phenomenon behind music classes for babies and toddlers and why people shell out major bills just sing to their kiddo. Probably because I already do that stuff at home. Half my conversations with my daughter are some sort of music. I don't need to fork over 100 bucks to have some person tell me its good for her development to bang on some pots and pans.

So I'm inviting all parents to a "free preview class" of my toddler storytime were we sing together, read stories and have fun. As a bonus, if you enjoy your first session you can continue to come to our storytimes for free! As many as you want! No cost to you! Act now!

(Maybe I'm in the wrong business, I should start charging for this)

The title for this story time comes from the overlooked Disney film of the same name.

Books:
I had a really hard time deciding on what books to read because their are some many to choose from!
I narrowed my selection down to five but still was only able to read four at each storytime.

Baby's Got the Blues by Carol Diggory Shields- This book is hilarious. Very appealing for the grown ups in the crowd.
Can you Dance to the Boogaloo by Alice Lickens
Boom Bah by Phil Cummings- This book as great opportunities for movement and audience participation.
Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig
The Orchestra Pit by Johanna Wright

Songs and Activities:
Our ready to read skill this week was singing (duh!) so we did lots of songs and dancing on top of our usual stuff.

Old MacDonald Had a Band -Classic Piggyback method. I do have to warn my group ahead of time but sometime "farm" slips in there a couple times as we sung. Raffi has a version on CD

The Grand Old Duke of York - Can You Dance to the Boogaloo ended with the line "Just don't you dare sit still" so it was a great transition to get the kids up on their feet.

We Wave Our Scarves Together- This song comes from the gals at jbrary
Our baby storytime librarian ordered these rainbow dancing scarves (similar to these) which helped out with the dreaded "I want this color!" whining that usually happens. I happily passed these out exclaiming, "They are all the same color. We will all have rainbows!!" I also feel this could be a simple DIY craft for libraries on a budget.

We ended our session with music instrument free play time. I sat back and smiled watching the kids go nuts and just wanting to take on any old fart who dared complained about children making too much noise in the library.

Calamity Day Programing

Some of you are preparing out there for Snowmageddon 2015. Maybe you will have so much snow that your library will be closed for the day. In that case I wish you luck, safety and plenty of hot tea and long books to keep you company on your day off.

If not and you are facing a snow day for everyone else except the library, well take comfort. We are both in the same boat.

I'm going to reference back to my post about holiday break planning, because its basically the same thing. Kids are stuck inside and need something to do! It's Monday and I'm sure many parents not wanting to face a now 3 day weekend with their kids cooped up need some place to bring them. I had the weekend off and I still brought my kid to the library just to get us out of the house!

Schools have calamity day plans; so should you! Have some impromptu programs for your patrons on snow days. After a discussion in an email around our staff, we had someone in our department make up several folders with coloring sheets, activities, scavengers hunts, a simple craft and other passive materials to put out.  Maybe today is the day for life size puzzles or board games.

We had passives as well as a movie. If your collection of family movies is large, you're in luck. But if its popular and often checked out you might want to form your own "little library" of popular kids movies your co-workers can bring from home. I brought my Donald Duck binder full of Disney movies today ;)

I got to pick which one and at what time. (Wreck it Ralph) because everything was on the fly. I picked a point in the afternoon when we had a couple of families in the kids area and announced that I would be showing the movie soon and had a couple of kids show up. It gave their parents a much needed break. Also develop an emergency "snack bar". Jugs of punch don't expire quickly and popcorn and Twinkies last for an eternity.

If you made about themes here are a few I cam up with to match with a movie.

Wreck-it-Ralph- Building blocks and/or LEGO play, coloring sheets of video game characters, Pokemon scavenger hunt, Minecraft on the public computers
The Jungle Book- Animals masks
Happy Feet- Some sort of penguin craft (perfect for cold weather)
My Little Pony Movie -(Your Pick) -A Sensory Bin of Rainbow rice.

Stay warm out there fellow "liberrians."

Storytime From the Liberry: Polar Pals

This week's theme is penguins, polar bears and other cold weather creatures. Because it's still below freezing where I am and it's okay to discuss these things. An added bonus was that my storytime puppet Tickles is a penguin so this was a special storytime for him and "he" was very excited to talk to the kids about it.

Even though map skills are probably way beyond a toddler's understanding, I posted our big world map on the wall and took time to discuss different animals and where they lived. We pointed out where we lived first, (USA) than I placed pictures of polar bears, walrus, beluga whales etc. on the top in the map in the Arctic circle or "In the North" to make it simpler. I asked then if penguins lived up north and than place one penguin on Antarctica ("in the south") But I also had more penguins which I placed on the map in South Africa, the South American coast, and New Zealand.

My map is not crocked, its on its axis!

Will these kids remember this stuff after storytime? Probably not! But they were very focused when we talked about the map and the different animal friends. Therefore they were then excited to hear the stories.

Books

Some how all my books this session were short and cute, not that I'm complaining.

Polar Bear Morning By Lauren Thompson
I read the companion book Polar Bear Night during my PM storytime

Baby Penguins Everywhere by Melissa Guion
A charming book with cute illustrations by a debut author; this short story captures the essence in becoming a new parent. A lonely penguin suddenly becomes a surrogate mother to a multitude of baby penguins. Cute for the kiddos and strikes a note with parents.

I am Small by Emma Dodd
This is one of my favorite books. It's just so sweet, especially the last few pages. Now that I'm a mom, this book hits me right in the feels! If you can get a copy without the dust jacket, all the better because this story starts and ends on the end papers.

Breathe by Scott Magoon
Sometime there is a book that just appears at the right time and it's just perfect! This was that book for me. I reserved it after seeing it on a recommended read lists from jbrary.com. It was a great "calming down" story as I encourage the kids and grown ups to take a big deep breathe with me whenever I said the word "breathe" We did this right after Shake Our Sillies Out. Also it's about beluga whales one of my favorite animals!

Songs and Activities

One Two Buckle My Shoe

Snow Songs: Have the kids wave their arms and fingers like snowflakes falling. Funny dancing is highly encouraged

Tune: Twinkle Twinkle

Snowflakes, snowflakes dance around

Snowflakes, snowflakes, touch the ground

Snowflakes, snowflakes, in the air

Snowflakes, snowflakes, everywhere

Snowflakes, snowflakes dance around

Snowflakes, snowflakes, touch the ground

Way up high in the winter sky
Two little snowflakes caught my eye
Down to the ground they fell without a sound
And before long it was snowing all around.

 What are your favorite books about polar animals? There are so many great penguin books I haven't featured here.

Get FROZEN @ your Library!

(sing it with me)

Do you wanna do a program?

The time has come for my library to embrace the smash Disney hit "Frozen" and do a program entirely dedicated to it.  I of course carried the torch on this one and ran it in a similar fashion to my Star Wars program last summer.
Key points being-
1) Open it to all ages and do not have registration. I know this might make some of your heart rates jump at this thought; but for me it is more important to make my programs as welcoming as possible. This is especially true in winter when our attendance drops and just in general to make families want to come to the library. I couldn't stand having a kid wander in during a regular visit, see a cool program in progress and have to be turned away because they "didn't sign up".
2) Have passive activities that can appeal to all ages. Sometimes the concept of lines, waiting and switching stations can be trying on kids (and librarians!) Having no set time limits relieves that pressure and while chaotic at times, takes away pressure to finish activities in a certain time and in a certain way. Pressure is no fun for kids or me :(
3)Sticking to my Resolve to Rock goals

We kicked off our program with activities followed by a sing a long version of the movie. I know that some might look at my line-up with a critical eye and say these were pretty basic and simple activities (I did think that plenty of times). However I was planning on kids as young as 2 coming with their families so I needed something that was simple and flexible. Also I had no idea on the number of people showing up and when you have to plan for upwards of 100 kid, you have to factor in complexity of a craft and how much it cost to make...(Do you wanna raise your blood pressure? You don't have to raise your blood pressure!) So KISS keep it simple stupid.

Crown making stations
Everyone got a chance to make some marvelous headgear for our Frozen party. I found the template for the crowns and reindeer antlers here  and used construction paper instead of foam. We had snowflakes, stickers and markers for decoration. To cut down on the chaos, yes I cut out each crown/piece ahead of time, punched the holes and even found some clear reinforcement holes to make them stronger.

Our Ice Princesses getting some help with their crowns

Indoor Snowman Building
I created some snowman shapes and laminated them. I also drew several designs and accessories (pieces of coal, hats, sticks) and laminated them. Add some double stick tape and the kids had a whole gallery of snowmen with interchangeable parts to play with. This was a big hit at the party.

Crafts
Snowflake making, scissors and paper and you're done. There is a template for fancy Frozen snowflakes. I cut several of these out and they were quite a pain. :| I let the participants know they could take a template sheet home to try them out but they would defiantly need sharper scissors or an craft knife(which I was not going to provide in a room swarming with young kids) We also had a coloring station and a couple of puzzles out in different parts of the library.

Games
I did a similar version of this game and I also had a decorative little sleigh that kids could throw "snowballs" in. We used ping pong balls. I'm pretty sure the same kids just played with this game all afternoon prompting me to quote "the game is made up and the points don't matter"

Olaf's Scavenger Hunt
I'm a sucker for this activity. I was proactive and I made two sets of items to find in case kids once again started taking the clues off the walls and out of their hiding spaces. For simplicity sake I had a set of snowmen in different colors to spell out Olaf's special message. Any guesses on what it was.

Photobooth
Since I didn't have the budget to spring for some princesses to come to the library, nor do I have the build or hair to dress up as either of the lead characters, I put up a photo booth opportunity instead. Works for me!

Snacks and Movie Time!

I did make Gluten Free snacks! We have carrot sticks (Sven's Reindeer Bites) and Elsa' Snowball (and yes more than one of my co-workers giggled childishly at this name!) They were suppose to be powdered doughnut holes but I had to bake them in mini muffin tins. I used gluten free flour with was pricier than the regular stuff, but not nearly as costly as trying to contact a bakery and special order several dozen treats. We also had "Frozen" hot chocolate (chocolate milk) because the complication of making hot chocolate with that many kids makes my head spin.

Wandering Oaken's Trading post and Snack Bar

Surprisingly I lost about half of the group when it came to movie time, and almost all of them left half way during the film. I guess once the singing stopped, kids lost interest.

I had of course so many other ideas to try but I just didn't have the space. Since it was on a weekend, I only had myself and my boss on hand to help out. We had over 80 people show up which is not too shabby :)

As for my other goal of presenting general neutral programming, I would say it was almost half girls and boys doing all the activities. However I did have a care giver show up with three teenage boys saying they were here for the program. Huh? Okay I was open and certainly wasn't going to turn anyone away because of age. When I pointed out the activities available and that they were welcomed to join in, they looked disgusted and said they didn't want to do any of them. The boys left to go read but the caregiver was peeved that this was all I was offering. I apologized that I didn't consider teenage boys as my target audience when planning this program. So I guess I failed on this point. But seriously teen age boys who looked like they did not care on bit about Frozen!


Frozen Sensory Bins: Snowflake Soup, Arctic Slime, Play Snow
Anything ice, or ice colored would work. Or grab some real snow from outside it available


Here a quick blog roll call of other libraries' Frozen programs
Frozen Movie Party - The Loudmouth Librarian
Portland District Library Program
Frozen@ Your Library- Fat Girl Reading
Frozen Sing Along- Green Bean Teen Queen
Frozen Storytime -Literary Hoots
Super Cute Frozen Display- From the Short Stacks

If you have a Frozen program you've done and blogged about, add it in the comments and I'll add it here!

Basically, if it's something kids love, build it and they will come.  

Your winter programing might be already scheduled but you can still plan to get Frozen "in summer" Also if you are a library that will always be open, even when the schools are closed for winter weather,  you can do an impromptu calamity day program. This is something we are working on because we've had two snow days already this season.

Storytime From the Liberry: Mittens & Kittens

I tend not to do storytimes that rely too much on seasonal or holiday themes. Not everyone celebrates Christmas or Thanksgiving in the typical way. Not everyone goes out apple picking in fall. So it was with trepidation I planned on a winter themed storytime to kick off the next storytime session. I focused on books that involved dressing and warm clothes so I wouldn't hype anyone up about snow, and not have any actual snow outside.

Well...yeah, we had 5 inches of snow followed by arctic temperatures this week making it the perfect setting for winter themed storytime.

This was also an exercise for me in adapting your storytime for your audience. We had low attendance this week because of the weather and other factors. One of my co-workers would not deviate from her schedule of what she was going to do in storytime, even when she had only one kid show up and started begging for them to participate in every single activity. It was pretty awkward to watch.

For my first storytime I had two little girls and their moms. My storytime is for 2 and 3 years and they is a huge diffrence from a child who has just turned two to one that is 3 and a half. These girls were new, and on the younger end of the spectrum. They wanted to huddle up close to their mom and suck their thumbs. They weren't very chatty. It was very clear that they weren't going to be the bunch singing "Wheels on the Bus" with all the motion or lasting 2 and half minutes of direction in "Shake your Sillies Out"

So instead of playing the fool and singing these songs all the way through by myself and possibly making my group uncomfortable, I adapted. I sat on the floor with them, introduced myself and my puppet. I said we would be doing some song and stories and they can let me know what they would like to do the most. It was easy to read to them since they wanted to stay in their mom's laps. When they go antsy we distracted them with something else ( a nursery rhyme or song that was not on my list of planned things to do) I didn't pressure them to do activities with too many directions or that were too noisy. Therefore this also made me feel more at ease.

But for the regularly scheduled program, this is what we did...

Opening Song: The Wheels on the Bust

Book: Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonahtan London 
I'm kinda of kicking myself for not reading this book before. I'm skimmed through this series and dismissed them as too long for my storytime. Yep I'm an idiot. This book in particular is excellent for this age. It's full of great onomatopoeia for the little ones and gets the grown ups to laugh too.

Song: Snowman Song
Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
Once there was a snowman tall tall tall
(Stretch your arms up tall)
Then the sun it melted melted melted
(Shrink down and do you best Wicked Witch of the West impersonation)
Then the sun it melted it small small small




Book: One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George

Song: Winter Hokey Pokey- Piggy back using items like mittens, boots and hats. Ask they kids where they would wear these items on their body before each verse to give them direction

Book: Under my Hood I Have a Hat By Karen Kuskin

Dancing Song: Shake Your Sillies Out

Book: Three Little Kittens by Paul Galadone

Activity: I really wanted to do a mitten matching activity and I saw many great ideas on the Flannel Friday Pinterest page but some felt a little too advanced for my group. I was also worried about size because I usually have a day care group come in and double or triple the number of kids, so they can't all be rushing towards the flannel board at once! For a simple version, I cut out mittens on the Ellison die in different colors. I put some on the table with a sign directing each kid to pick up one for storytime and I hid the others in the picture book stacks.

We talked about how one mitten wouldn't be very useful on a cold day like today (-6) and that  you have two hand you need two mittens. The kids "found" their mittens like the kittens in the book and brought them back in exchange for a sticker.

Closing Song: Wheels on the Bus

Despite the lower attendance and freezing cold, I'm glad to be back doing storytime for our patrons. Thanks to the parents who made the effort to bundle up their kids and make a trip to the library for some storytime fun.

New Year's Resolutions- for programming

No this is not my annual resolution (ie. lie) that I will loss that belly fat, exercise more, give up soda etc.

This is my resolution for my programs in 2015. The gang over at Storytime Underground have challenged youth services librarians and staff to "Resolve to Rock" in 2015. I've actually never set a professional New Years resolution or goal. I have grand ideas and lofty visions that often get lost in the fog of my work. So the start of the new year is the ideal time to write our my goals.

1) Gluten Free Programming!! Huh? I did do this a few summers ago. I was really concerned about exposing young children with gluten sensitivity or allergies while using items in my programs. One kid couldn't eat the hard tack we made for our Civil War program (which is no lost there, it wasn't made to be desirable or delicious) I made a play dough recipe out of baking soda instead of flour. I was being real good.
Then I wanted to do more and more and my allergy free agenda fell to the wayside. I had cloud dough with flour and play dough with flour. I usually don't make snacks a crucial part of my programs, but some other staff members use food all them time.
Then for our Elf Training program this December, we of course had cookies to decorate. One of my favorite regulars came up to ask me "Are these gluten free? And my heart sank. For the hundreds of kids who had played in flour and munched on cookies, there was now one that was who couldn't. No one should feel left out on the fun.

So I resolve that all program snack when I have them should be gluten free. And really there are many options out there that would appeal to all young taste buds. I'm doing a Frozen program in January so I'll be offering carrot sticks and doughnut hole treats, made with gluten free flour because it truly is that easy. I'm also resolved to steer away from fruit snacks, marshmallows or other food that contain gelatin to respect my Muslim patrons' needs.

2) Gender Neutral Programing- I was cutting out crafts for the upcoming Frozen program when some one was asking me what I was doing. "I'm cutting up crowns for the girls to make and reindeer antlers for the boys....or the boys can make a crown too. I don't care let them do what they want."  Yes I was struck mid sentence about how dumb I was sounding. Who did care if the little boys want to make crowns or the girls would rather be reindeer?

I actually think we do a great job at presenting gender neutral programs at our library. We have only a handful of programs geared more to girls than boys (like American Girl program or spa crafts) I think we need to do a better job letting our patrons know about them.  For example we have a fairy tale program that is based on common core practices, but I let parents know it is not just about princesses! My co-worker made an effort to not have only princess story and have it appeal to all genders. At the same time, boys like princesses to. Believe me I worked in the Disney Store for several years and I've seen boy and girls equally excited about princesses.

I did have a parent complain because their two year old son got a Candyland sticker with a fairy on it at my storytime, and that "his father will freak if he brings that home"  I didn't roll my eyes (well not when they were looking) but it's just another example of just eliminating "gender specific" items so children don't feel intimidated and parents don't have anything to complain about. 

Good luck to all fellow librarians and library staff out there in 2015!
(You only have 365 days to get it right...again)