Brrr! Winter Themed Storytime

Opening song: Good Morning/ Buenos Días (See My Storytime Set for song lyrics)

Opening fingerplay: One Little Finger 
Literacy: The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming
Song/movement break: Open Shut Them 
Literacy: Pip & Squeak by Ian Schoenherr
New song/movement break: Ten Little Snowmen (clap or bounce)
I modified the song Ten Little Indians to be politically correct and theme focused. Ten Little Fill-In-the-Blank is a great piggyback song that you can use for lots of different themes. Just change the countable object. 

One little, two little, three little snowmen  
(We counted aloud and also with our fingers)

Four little, five little, six little snowmen

Seven little, eight little, nine little snowmen

Ten little snowmen dancing!

Available at Artfelt.net

Literacy: Five Little Snowmen Felt Board. 
I used the Artfelt Five Little Snowmen kit, but its not hard at all to make your own out of whatever medium. I also took and modified  the rhyme from the Nikarella blog and her idea to make felt puddles to leave behind when the little snowmen melted.

Five little snowmen standing in a row

Each with a hat and each with a bow.

Out came the sun and it stayed all day,

And one little snowman melted away.

Four little…

Three little…

Two little…

One little snowman standing all alone,

With one little hat and one little bow.

Out came the sun and it stayed all day,

No more little snowmen, they all melted away!

 
Closing Fingerplay: Two Little Blackbirds 

Post storytime activity: Paperplate snowman art activity (photo to come)
I basically just stapled two paper plates together, gave  the kids felt and foam shapes for the nose and mouth, and giant buttons for the eyes and, well, buttons. We used tissue paper strips for the scarf. I stapled craft sticks for arms and glued mitten cutouts onto them. I also used cutouts for the hats. There are more formal instructions for paper plate snowmen if you Google it. 

Media and Children

A library advocate friend of mine sent me this TED talk about Media and Children  by pediatrician Dimitri Christakis and I'm so glad to see that the discussion of children and screen time has shifted a little.
I hear it from most of my colleagues, and I've got stacks of pamphlets I'm supposed to give out to parents that basically vilifies TV and any other electronic screen having thingee and parents who let their children watch it. I don't think that's right and I haven't been able to bring myself to hand out one pamplet against screen time because I don't agree with how they make their argument.

When I was born, my mom was given a television as a gift. I've never not had a TV in my bedroom. I watched a lot of TV as a child and am still an avid TV consumer. I know that children's programs are very different from the shows I watched growing up. As you'll see in Christakis' talk, shows 20-30 years ago were much slower paced, had less violence if any at all (Ha! Tom & Jerry non-violent? Ha!) and I doubt television producers even knew what rapid sequencing or "Nonstop Frenetic Animated Action" was except to illustrate "crazy" (Think of the Pink Elephants sequence in Dumbo).  This is what the discussion should really be about and I'm happy Christakis focuses it that way: Over-stimulation causes long-term attention and perception issues in children. Small amounts of over-stimulation can be counterbalanced by heaping doses of cognitive stimulation, or face-to-face interaction with humans, especially their loving parents or caregivers.

So, this is the Sort of a Librarian stance: TV isn't bad for your child, but over-stimulation and cognitive neglect is. Spend as much time as possible playing, singing, talking, holding, reading to and just being with your child. If you're worried about violence and other questionable content, don't let them watch those programs, or take some time to discuss it with your child. Notice that that involves more face-to-face interaction. I see a trend...

Library News: Bedbugs in Library Books

A new library patron! Bedbug Coloring Pages

A friend of mine sent me this New York Times article about bedbugs infesting books. I am absolutely disgusted and terrified of bedbugs, but this article didn't strike a note of fear in me. I guess, being a public librarian, I can say that I've handled my fair share of insect infested materials from the bookdrop or in boxes of donations, or handed directly to me from a customer. I've also seen my fair share of insect infested customers. But, still, bedbugs are pretty gross.

Cats Meow! Themed Storytime

Opening song: Good Morning/ Buenos Días (See My Storytime Set for song lyrics)

Opening fingerplay: One Little Finger 
Literacy: Who Likes Rain? by Herbert Yee
Song/movement break: Open Shut Them 
Literacy: Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle
New song/movement break: Where Oh Where Has My Little Cat Gone? (with puppet and felt pieces)
I modified this originally dog-theme song for my needs. The audience, my cat puppet and I sang the song together then, I would look for the cat somewhere: I had a big felt bed, big felt Jeep, big felt tree and big felt bathtub (They're all Artfelt felt pieces). So, it would go like this:

Sing or say with cat puppet:

Oh where, oh where has my little cat gone?

Oh where, oh where can she be?

With her pointy ears and her wiggly tail,

Oh where, oh where can she be?

Me: "Is she hiding underneath the bed?" Lift up the bed so they can see she's not in there.  

Audience: "No!"

Me: "I guess we'll have to keep looking for her."

Sing the song again.

Me: "Is she in the bathtub?..."

Literacy: Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastien Braun
Closing Fingerplay: Two Little Blackbirds 

Post storytime activities:
Parachute Play: We sang Ring Around the Rosie and Fishies in the Ocean

Art activity: What can you make with a box? Collage. I don't have any pictures, but it doesn't matter because this art activity didn't really hit its mark. I expected that after reading Meeow and the Big Box parents and children might get the idea that a box is a blank slate for your imagination. So, here's  some foam shapes, dot painters, crayons and markers for you to create something with a flat piece of cardboard. Nothing happened. They treated it like it was any old piece of paper and just stuck things on it willy-nilly and spelled out their names. Me and my big ideas, again!

My Baby-Toddler Storytime Set

So every librarian does their storytime differently. This is how I structure my baby-toddler storytimes and the regular songs and fingerplays that I use. 

Opening song: Good Morning/ Buenos Días (Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Good morning! Good morning!

How are you? How are you?

Very well I thank you.

Very well I thank you.

How about you?

How about You?

¡Buenos días, buenos días!

(Bweh-noes dee-ahs)

¿Cómo está, cómo está?

(Coe-moe ehs-tah)

¡Muy bien, gracias, muy bien gracias!

(mwee bee-N grah-see-ahs) 

 ¿Y usted, y usted?

(E ou-stead E ou-stead)

Opening fingerplay: One Little Finger

One little finger, one little finger

One little finger goes

tap, tap, tap

Point to the ceiling

Point to the floor, 

And place it in your

lap, lap, lap.

Two little fingers, two little fingers…

Three little fingers, three little fingers

Four little fingers, four little fingers…

Five little fingers, five little fingers

Five little fingers go clap, clap, clap…

Literacy: Book, felt or puppet story

Song/movement break: Open Shut Them

Open, shut them

Open, shut them.

Give a little clap, clap, clap!

Open, shut them

Open, shut them.

Put them in your lap, lap, lap.

Creep them, creep them,

Creep them, creep them,

Right up to your chin, chin chin.

Open up your little mouth (AHH!)

But do not let them in!

Literacy: book, felt or puppet story

Song/movement break: I usually introduce one new or different song here

Literacy: book, felt or puppet story

Closing fingerplay: Two Little Blackbirds

Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill

One named Jack, one named Jill.

Fly away Jack. Fly away Jill

Come back Jack. Come back Jill

Two little blackbirds on the go

One named Fast, one named Slow.

Fly away Fast. Fly away Slow

Come back Fast. Come back Slow

Two little blackbirds sitting around

One named Up, one named Down.

Fly away Up. Fly away Down.

Come back Up. Come back Down.

Closing song/movement: Hokey Pokey

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out;
You put your right hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left hand in,
You put your left hand out…

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out…

You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out…

You put your whole self in,
You put your whole self out…

I see you face. You’re thinking three books? With toddlers? This girl is crazy! But it works a lot of the time. Just have to have the right combination of song and movement distractions, plus be prepared for wiggly kids. If you’ve lost your audience to the wiggles, close the book and improvise.

Food! Yum! Themed Storytime

November 29, 2012

Opening song: Good Morning/Buenos Días (See My Storytime Set for song lyrics)

Opening fingerplay: One Little Finger
Literacy: The Red Hen by Ed and Rebecca Emberley followed by a feltboard Red Hen story.

She baked a cake and iced it all by herself.

She decorated the cake all by herself.

 


With the feltboard Red Hen story, I had cue cards that had pictures of a cat, rat and frog on the front and what they say on the back. I held these up when it was time for the animals to speak and the audience said their lines along with me. I like to include a language element where ever I can and I saw this as the perfect opportunity. The cat said: "¡Yo no! Dice el gato." The rat said: "Not I!" said the rat." The frog said: "Ribbit, said the frog."

Song/movement break: Open Shut Them
Literacy: Potato Joe by Keith Baker
New song/movement break: One Potato Clap (can also be a bounce, too)

1 Potato, 2 Potato 

(Make your hands into fists and stack them on top of each other while counting.)

3 Potato, 4!

5 Potato, 6 Potato 

(Make your hands into fists and stack them on top of each other while counting.)

7 Potato, More!

8 Potato, 9 Potato 

(Make your hands into fists and stack them on top of each other while counting.)

Count them up to 10… 

(Hold up all 10 fingers)

I will count all the potatoes and I will count them all again! 

(Clap along with the words. I end up clapping 8 times.)

 
Literacy: Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
Closing fingerplay: Two Little Blackbirds
Closing song/movement: Hokey Pokey

Post storytime activity: I usually choose between an art activity or a physical activity, but this morning we did both.
Parachute play: We sang Ring Around the Rosie and Fishies in the Ocean.

Art activity: Cotton ball clouds with tissue paper streamers. I didn't take a picture of the final product, but its such an easy craft I think you can get it just from my description. This is the cloud template I used. I gave the kids glue sticks and cotton balls to glue onto the clouds, which I printed on white cardstock and passed out as is. Then I gave them some long tissue paper strips to glue on for rainbow rays. Voila!