Summer Reading Storytimes

I'm emerging from the fog that is summer reading. I think my mind still hasn't registered that it's over.

We've had an awesome summer at my library with great programs, storytimes and activities. I will say the odd raining and cool weather might have played a part in driving people into the building.

We did the Collaborative Summer Reading program "Every Hero has a Story" and I created 5 toddlers storytimes for "Super Toddlers" I kept my same format, but in the summer time my group is a lot smaller and I can usually rely on my regulars, so I added a craft to every storytime.

Super Toddlers- Superheroes

I took inspiration from Literary Hoots' Ninja Storytime . Not all superheroes wear capes!

Books Read : Do Superheroes have Teddy Bears (Coyle), Ninja Ninja Never Stop (Tuell) Hoot Owl Master of Disguise (Taylor) and Hero Mom (Hardin)

For our craft, we decorated blank superheroes with markers and scrap paper. I ordered some per-made craft sticks from Oriental Trader that were really too small for toddlers. So I made up something else on card stock and let them decorate both of them.

Super Toddlers- American Heroes

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. So when I get a chance to do a storytime about it, I go for! While it's not a great choice for a read aloud at this age group- John, Paul, George and Ben by Lane Smith is a must read at this time of year. Books about parades and summer picnics are also good choice to round out a Fourth of July storytime.

I reused a firework  flannel from Chinese New Year storytime

Books Read: Yankee Doddle (Hoberman), Fourth of July Mice (Roberts) Red White and Blue (Wardlaw)

Firework painting was our craft. It was very impressive! Most of kids were very focused on creating the fireworks while only a few treated it as a finger painting craft. I created firework stampers out of pipe cleaners and let them dip them in red, blue and silver paint. You can make a fire work shaped brush out of forks, straws or q-tips. Defiantly doing this again!

Super Toddlers- Construction Heroes 

Construction always seems a crowd pleaser regardless of age or gender.  You should do a mud/dirt/sand sensory bin. However you can also be like me who did enough of those already this summer and make a three little pigs sensory bin out of craft sticks, red LEGO bricks, and straw. 

Early literacy tip for parents: Most of these construction story often involve building something. Clues are hidden in the text so see if you and your child can guess was the "surprise" building at the end of the story. (A park, pool, roller coast etc.)

Books Read: B is for Bulldozer (Sobel) Huff and Puff (Rueda) Tip Tip Dig Dig (Garcia) Machines at Work (Barton)

Including playing with the story/sensory bin, I also let the kids doddle with white chalk on blue construction paper to create their own "blue prints"

Super Toddlers- Community Heroes

Can't forget our firefighters, mail carriers and sanitation workers! As an activity, I played Oscar the Grouch's "I love Trash" and literally scattered trash on the floor for the kids to pick up. Surprise, they love it! So I made them promise to their homes and pick up all the trash all the time.

Books Read: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do (Heling)*, Smash! Mash! There Goes the Trash (Odanaka) Shhh! Everyone is Sleeping (Markes) This is the Firefighter (Goodwin)

Reading tips: With the book Shhh! Everyone is Sleeping- all the community helpers are sleeping in their work places. Ask you group if a librarian sleeps/lives in the library, etc. Most people do not, but some do (firefighters, the president etc.)

For our craft we made a community hero belt. Each kid got several coloring pieces of hammers, toothbrushes, police badge and brown construction paper to make a belt. I knew this was a bigger and more time consuming craft than others. I offered the craft as a take home for anyone who wanted it. 

(P.S. This author has a similar formatted book about sports. Planning ahead for SRP 2016! )

Super Toddlers- Storybook Heroes

This is a general theme less storytime. I used a selection of fairy tale, nursery rhyme books as well as some classic favorites. Chose what ever books, rhymes and fingerplays that suite you!

For our craft, we made simple paper plate crowns and covered them with loads of stickers, foam pieces and stick on jewels

We like many other libraries take a break in the month of August. So now I face with the awkwardness of parents asking me why I don't have story times and activities this month. What is the most efficient way of tell them we are on break without making the staff seem like we are lazy?

Storytime from the Liberry: Colors

Still catching up on posting my storytime outline from summer and it's almost Labor Day!

Fizz Boom Pop! A Color Storytime for Toddlers.

I love color storytimes. They are my favorite. I always repeat them, and I always look for something new to do or read at each one. This year, I'm going to do individual color storytimes to spread out my love of colors through the year. I'm a amateur artist so I enjoy anything about colors, coloring or art and sharing my passion with others

BOOKS:

Wow Said the Old by Tom Hopgood
Freight Train by Donald Crewes

Other favorite color books I like to read aloud are...
Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler
I Spy with My Little Eye by Edward Gibbs
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Suess
I dream of an Elephant by Ami Rubinger

Everyone seems to have a love affair with Brown Bear, Brown Bear. My opinion is meh. Even if it's not the most "engaging piece of literature", my kids and grown ups love it and they repeat all the words so if it gets them involved, so much the better.

Activities:

Flannel Board- Dog's Colorful Day This worked so well as a flannel story. This book is one I might have passed on because of it's length for the toddlers. Bonus-It is really easy to make, even for the artistically challenged.

Monsters Love Colors- This came from one of my favorite blogs, Storytime with Miss Tara
I created my own coloring sheet and ordered a set of crayons for each kid. While some followed the directions, most kids just colored which calmed them down while the listened to the story. Even when my voice got loud and I wanted them to get excited, they just kept on calmly coloring.

Sidewalk Chalk- This is one of my favorite activities to do at the library. But for some reason every summer, the weather always spoils our plans. It's either raining or the hottest day of the year! So I was stoked that I actually had a mild evening to go out and let the toddlers be creative. (It was during that "polar vortex" this summer)

Not only did we have traditional chalk, I also made sidewalk chalk paint and fizzy ice chalk.
Some lessons learned.

1) I used muffin tins as paint trays and mixed my paint in cleaned out Gatorade bottles before hand  and poured them in; which saved the hassle and long process of mixing each individual color in the tins

2) The paint will look beautiful with all the vibrant colors for about 1 minute after you let the kids loose to paint. The constant dipping and mixing colors left it looking rather grey towards the end of our playing and the kids seemed to loose interest once the colors lost their luster.

3) Make.Ice.Chalk. It is the easiest thing to make, perfect for summer play and the kids LOVED it! If you live in warmer climate weather, it perfect for hot days year round. I made it following a recipe from Growing a Jeweled Rose which mixed in baking soda. So when the kids got to spray it with vinegar, it fizzled adding a bit of science to our artsy fun. The kids found this mesmerizing, It was the most popular thing they played with and we had to make sure everyone got a turn. We had lots more left over so we used it at  another program and our wrap up party where it was another huge success with older kids. Buy a lot of vinegar to use  (and ignore the complaints from your co-workers :P) I went through a whole gallon and I still ran out on the last day at our party. Thankfully, vinegar is cheap and since the rest of the items to make this are common household ingredients, it's budget savy for your kids' programming fund. If you have Liquid Watercolors, use them over food coloring, since they are washable and while they stain fingers, they will wash off hands with soap and water easily. Good news for kids and grown-up.

Warning for Parents: This activity will make it very difficult to get your strong willed toddler to want to leave the library. They will want to stay! Sorry for the grief, but I won't apologize for fun!

Afterschool Programs- The Art of Japan

I will be the first to admit that these types of programs aren’t my forte. I work with teens as well as doing toddler storytime so I seemed to work the polar opposites of the youth services spectrum (but you are more than welcome to comment that teens often act like toddlers) I feel kinda of “flubby” when I have to meet in the middle and do programs for kids in Grade K-5. I came back from maternity leave and got put on the spot to do a program to fill our “Book A Trip” after school programs. I wanted to do a more arts oriented program because trying to teach…well makes me feel like a teacher. And I’m not a teacher! (Nothing against teachers but I wasn’t train to be one. They do a great job at their job. I do not)

I was nervous about making the kids draw and anticipating the usually frustrations that comes with art projects. I once had a 10 year old yell at me that “He can’t use a paintbrush”

And….it was an amazing program! I had a blast and so did the kids. I also had a full house which was impressive because it was subzero temperature that day.

I did a quick slide show about different art forms from Japan. I did some that were new and unfamiliar like ink wash painting and woodblock printing, but I also included familiar stuff like origami and anime.

Then came out main craft were the kids drew they own Koi fish. I found the instructions for the project here from an art teacher. I figured there would be apprehensions when I showed them my painting of the fish and told them we were going to make one just like it. There were whispers of doubt, but once they started, they were completely focused and made beautiful creations.

We used watercolor paper and sharpies for the drawing. For the water color effects, the kids scribbled on the paper with washable markers and then used paint brushes with water to spread the colors around. It worked just like watercolors with half the mess and double the control.

My last activity was Bento boxes. I did bento boxes as my first teen activity the first summer reading I was hired and it bombed. Hard. I had teens tell me they were throwing away their food because they hated it. This time however it was great. I made hot dog octopus, rice balls, olive and cream cheese penguins and rice crackers with cheese cut out. Not only did the kids gobble up everything without complaint, they even took up my dare to eat nori (dried seaweed) and some of them even liked it!

The kids got to take home their own bento box to decorate at home. Since we are no longer ordering VHS tapes, we had plenty of clear VHS boxes available for crafting and they are most useful.

Ah if only all my programs could go this well…