Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Lap Sit Week of 5/2/2016

And just like that, this session of storytime is over. I know we only have 5 weeks off before our summer session starts, but it's always sad when storytime ends- especially when you realize how many kids are moving up to the next age group! This week was our "Baby's Choice" storytime, so we had a combination of kid's favorites, adult's favorites, and my favorites. Here's what we were up to:

If You're Ready For a Story
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story wave hello
If you're ready for a story wave hello
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story wave hello

Big Big Big
This is big big big, this is small small small
This is short short short, this is tall tall tall
This is fast fast fast, this is slow slow slow
This is yes yes yes, this is no no no

ABCs

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 crawl them, creep them crawl them
Right up to your chinny chin chin
Open wide your little mouth-
But do not let them in!

Book #1: I Kissed the Baby by Mary Murphy (group reading)

Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the paper out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again

Elevator Song
The city is great and the city is grand
There's a whole lot of people on a little piece of land
And we live way up on the 57th floor
So here's what we do when we go out the door
We take the elevator up, take the elevator down
Take the elevator up, take the elevator down
Take the elevator up, take the elevator down
And we turn around

Bouncing, Bouncing
Bouncing, bouncing, baby on my knee
Bouncing, bouncing, 1 2 3
Clapping, clapping, baby on my knee
Clapping, clapping, 1 2 3
Rocking, rocking, baby on my knee
Rocking, rocking, 1 2 3

Book #2: Whose Ears?

Roly Poly
Roly poly, roly poly
Fast fast fast, fast fast fast
Roly roly poly, roly roly poly
Slow slow slow, slow slow slow
Roly poly, roly poly
up up up, up up up
Roly roly poly, roly roly poly
down down down, down down down

Popcorn Kernels
Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels
In the pot, in the pot
Shake them shake them shake them, shake them shake them shake them
'Til they pop! 'Til they pop!

One Bright Scarf
One bright scarf waiting for the wind to blow
Wiggle it high and wiggle it low
Shake it fast and shake it slow
Where did it go?

Bubbles in the Air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, there are bubbles in the air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, way up high in the sky
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way down low, way down low
There are bubbles way down low, way down low
There are bubbles way down low and they tickle on your toes
There are bubbles way down low, way down low

Bubbles

Goodbye Song
Storytime is over now, over now, over now
Storytime is over now- see you next time!


See everybody in June!

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Lap Sit Week of 4/25

Next week will be our "Baby's Choice" storytime, so today was our last regular storytime of the season! My department's high school intern got to sit in on lap sit and I think at least a few of the babies were big fans. Here's what we were up to:

If You're Ready For a Story
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story clap your hands (clap clap)
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story stomp your feet (stomp stomp)
If you're ready for a story wave hello
If you're ready for a story wave hello
If you're ready for a story, if you're ready for a story
If you're ready for a story wave hello

Big Big Big
This is big big big, this is small small small
This is short short short, this is tall tall tall
This is fast fast fast, this is slow slow slow
This is yes yes yes, this is no no no

ABCs

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 crawl them, creep them crawl them
Right up to your chinny chin chin
Open wide your little mouth-
But do not let them in!

Book #1: Noodle Loves the Park by Marion Billet (group reading)

Roly Poly
Roly poly, roly poly
Fast fast fast, fast fast fast
Roly roly poly, roly roly poly
Slow slow slow, slow slow slow
Roly poly, roly poly
Out out out, out out out
Roly roly poly, roly roly poly
In in in, in in in

Hokey Pokey
Put your hands in, put your hands out
Put your hands in and shake them all about
Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about
Put your feet in, put your feet out
Put your feet in and shake them all about
Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about
Put your whole self in, put your whole self out
Put your whole self in and shake it all about
Do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about

Wiggle Waggle
Wiggle waggle went the bear, catching bees in his underwear
One bee out, one bee in
One bee bit him on his big bear skin
Bzzzz!

Book #2: I Can Roar! by Frank Asch

Bounce Our Babies to the Top
We bounce and bounce and bounce and stop
We bounce and bounce and bounce and stop
We bounce and bounce and bounce and stop
We bounce our babies to the top!
We rock and rock and rock and stop
We rock and rock and rock and stop
We rock and rock and rock and stop
We rock our babies to the top!
We tickle and tickle and tickle and stop
We tickle and tickle and tickle and stop
We tickle and tickle and tickle and stop
We tickle our babies to the top!

Baby Put Your Pants On
Baby put your pants on, pants on, pants on
Baby put your pants on, 1 2 3
Baby put your pants on, pants on, pants on
Baby put your pants on, 1 2 3
Leg to the left, leg to the right
Wiggle and jiggle and pull them up tight
Baby put your shirt on, shirt on, shirt on
Baby put your shirt on, 1 2 3
Baby put your shirt on, shirt on, shirt on
Baby put your shirt on, 1 2 3
Arm to the left, arm to the right
Wiggle and jiggle and pull it down tight

Can You Shake Along with Me?
Can you shake along with me, along with me, along with me?
Can you shake along with me?
Put your shaker on your knees
[repeat with as many body parts as you want]

Bubbles in the Air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles in the air, there are bubbles in the air
There are bubbles in the air, in the air
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way up high, way up high in the sky
There are bubbles way up high, way up high
There are bubbles way down low, way down low
There are bubbles way down low, way down low
There are bubbles way down low, and they tickle on your toes
There are bubbles way down low, way down low

Bubbles

Goodbye Song
Storytime is over now, over now, over now
Storytime is over now- see you next time!

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Program: Board Book Book Club

Last December, an especially large board book order combined with the Association for Library Service to Children's Babies Need Words Every Day: Talk, Read, Sing, Play initiative, led to a Board Book Book Club program. The idea was to display all of our new board books and encourage caregivers to make informed choices about their baby's board books.

Although this program was not especially well attended, I still really loved creating it and I think I will try it again the next time a big order comes in.

The categories were:





 And some of the displays:






 

Decorations: Thanksgiving 2015

This was another really fun bulletin board. In early November, our turkey looked like this:

And by the end of the month, he looked like this:

I think kids and parents had a lot of fun deciding what to write on their feathers. I certainly had a lot of fun reading them. Here are some of my favorites:






Decorations: Summer 2015

As we are gearing up for Summer Reading Club 2016 (Lions, and Tigers, and , I found some pictures of decorations from Summer Reading Club 2015 (Read Through Time). I really enjoyed making these:

The Magic Tree House (to help us travel through time):


An Egyptian sarcophagus:


Big Ben:


A medieval castle (my favorite):


A rocket ship:


Prehistoric corner:


Program: Story Walk Summer 2015

I have grown to love Story Walks. The idea is very simple- take a book, disassemble the pages, mount the pages on large signs, hang/plant the signs outdoors, and have families walk through the story. Last summer, I did a Story Walk with I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric Kimmel:

For each stop along the walk, I had a coloring page featuring the animal. By the end of the walk, each child would have made his or her own coloring book to take home. We actually kept the signs assembled and I was able to put it out a few more times over the summer for field trips and other big events. It went well enough that I did another one with The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats over the winter and will do another one this summer. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any close-up pictures, but here are a few of the set-up:






Program: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I did a program recently based on The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We've had great luck in the past with programs based on a single book, and this one did not disappoint! We had around 20 kids and their adults (which is just about our capacity for a one-librarian program) and everyone had a ton of fun.

First, everyone collected a felt piece from the story as they checked in for the program. There were exactly 25 pieces in the felt set I made, so I ended up placing the 5 oranges and all the kids got to put up their  felt piece:

I was especially fond of my small caterpillar, my big fat caterpillar, and my butterfly:





After the story, we rotated through a few stations:

Making caterpillar hats:
(photo credit and inspiration from Librayland)


Decorating an activity book with various Hungry Caterpillar-themed activity pages from Pinterest


Snack (green grapes and goldfish):
(photo credit and inspiration from The Weekend Homemaker)


Photobooth:
(My own creation, although the model is my coworker, Miss Kaitlin)


This was only a half hour program, and this number of activities seemed just about right. When I submitted this program back in January, I had hoped to do it outside, but we had about 5 inches of snow (in April) so we had to move it indoors. I think we all still had lots of fun, though!



Fabulous 3s: Spring

Opening Song: Clap Your Hands (Wiggleworms Love You)


Felt Game: Ladybug, Ladybug
Ladybug, ladybug
Are you under the [blue] rug?
repeat until the ladybug is found


Book: Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson


Song: Mr. Sun


Book + Felt Board: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle



Song + Finger Puppets: 5 Little Flowers
Five little flowers growing in the ground
Teasing Mr. Bumblebee- we can't be found
Along comes Mr. Bumblebee with a bzzing sound
And SNAPS! that flower right out of the ground
repeat until all the flowers are gone


Book: Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming


Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again

Song: These Are My Glasses (Whaddya Think of That?, Laurie Berkner)


Goodbye Song
Storytime is over now, over now, over now
Storytime is over now- see you next time!




Recommended Reading:

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Worms for Lunch by Leonid Gore

Rah, Rah, Radishes! by April Pulley Sayre

Mini Putt-Putt

The Very Hungry Caterpillar mini golf station at a program earlier this summer was so popular that I decided to make an entire Mini Putt-Put...