what pet to get?

PLEASE NOTE: I have a backlog of storytime themes and activities from my first month on the job that I would like to document here; please pardon the dust as I try to catch up. :)


Because I was brand new to my position *just* as storytime was starting, this was a theme that I was nervous about. There was really no need because it was one of the best ones we did - and I learned a lot about how flexible we can be with our themes. 


Here's the Setlist*:

Song: 'Hello Song'
Hello, everybody! So glad to see you...
Hello, everybody! So glad to see you.
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
I first heard this when I attended a Music Together class with some friends of mine and our children (of course). It's catchy and repetitive so parents and children learn it fast. Plus, it welcomes every child by name (we wear nametags) and we even welcome baby siblings, moms, dads, and grandparents when they're with us.

Welcome/Theme Intro
We talked about the pets we own and the pets we'd like to own. I asked them if different animals (fish, dogs, cats, walruses, dinosaurs, ants, etc.) would make good pets. Then I asked them if they'd ever had ants in their pants to transition to our wiggles activity. :) 

Wiggles
Can you wiggle your fingers like this? (out in front of our bodies)
And can you wiggle your toes inside your shoes where no one can see? 
(they always look) :)
And can you wiggle your shoulders? How about your nose? What about your knees? 
(we look hilarious)
And can you keep wiggling like that and move around in a circle?
Now, let's reach up HIGH... (high voice) and down LOW... (low voice) 
And let's tuck in our bottoms and sit right down... for a story.


Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

I decided to do stories about the most common of pets - dogs and cats. This was a dog book I haven't read before and it's such a cute one. George's mother gets increasing frustrated as she pleads with her puppy-son to "Bark, George". When George does anything *but*, a trip to the vet reveals what he's been up to. The ending of the story might leave little ones perplexed, but the adults in the room make it pretty clear that they "got it". :)


Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

This is NOT your common cat tale. Pete is one cool customer and he loves his shoes, no matter what happens to them. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be making Pete's shoes into a flannel story in the future, but I want to hone my skills first so I can do them justice. I just made up my own little groovy, snapping tune to go along with Pete's lyrics, but some copies come with a link to an audiobook version of the book. I'm not going to check it out; I don't want to spoil how I imagine that groovy little tune. :)


Song: Bingo
Perfect song, amiright? This, too, is a (*super easy*) flannel in the making, especially for the 2-3 year olds, who are new to the song and need some help with the letters. I am just going to cut them out with our Ellison die... for the next time I use the song!


Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes
What does this have to do with anything? Nada. I was being flexible with the theme, remember? :) I hadn't realized until I was struggling with Pets that lots of storytimers have go-to songs that they do with their group so that by the end of the session, the kids know those songs/rhymes really well. This might be one of mine - we go faster and faster and the kids love it. 


Pet Wash by Dayle Ann Dodds

Quick and funny rhyming story about two kids who will wash just about any pet you can get... but they have to draw the line somewhere. I liked the introduction of all kinds of different animals as pets - even those very unlikely to make it past the Mom & Dad approval process. It was also a good segue into our next book...




What Pet to Get by Emma Dodd

Jack has convinced his mother that they need a pet. The question now is, what pet to get? Jack considers a number of options - all of which his mother pretty logically shoots down - until he finally arrives at a funny, flip-the-flap-to-reveal conclusion. There were two Jacks in one of my storytimes and they really liked hearing their names in this story. :)


Craft: Make Your Own Pet
Mrs. M had the brilliant idea of just cutting a regular ol' paper plate so that it looked like it had ears. Then we have every child a pair of yellow circles for eyes, a black circle for a nose, six grey yarn scraps for whiskers... or mouths, or eyebrows, or whatever! We decided to tell the kids to make whatever they wanted - and they sure did! I had a pet werewolf and a pet dragon come out of those supplies... but I just kept making cats. :D


Song: 'The More We Get Together'
I didn't realize that this is a Raffi song... I love the tune and the sentiment, and we sing it at the end of every storytime. I ask the kids to bring whatever craft we worked on to the carpet to share with the other kids and we use it as a prop for the song.

The more we get together, together, together...
The more we get together the happier we'll be.
'Cause your friends are my friends and
My friends are your friends and
The more we get together the happier we'll be. 


* I call my storytime plans "Setlists" because I actually carry a half sheet of paper into the Story Room with me to remind me what I'm doing. It's all keyword/notes, so that's what it looks like to me - a setlist. And, "setlist" cracks me up. We're rockstars! :D

look whooo loves books!

PLEASE NOTE: I have a backlog of storytime themes and activities from my first month on the job that I would like to document here; please pardon the dust as I try to catch up. :)


Owls are pretty popular these days and I was excited about this storytime because I dig them, too. :)


Here's the Setlist*:


Song: 'Hello Song'
Hello, everybody! So glad to see you...
Hello, everybody! So glad to see you.
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
I first heard this when I attended a Music Together class with some friends of mine and our children (of course). It's catchy and repetitive so parents and children learn it fast. Plus, it welcomes every child by name (we wear nametags) and we even welcome baby siblings, moms, dads, and grandparents when they're with us.


Welcome/Theme Intro
I used this time to sort of prepare my younger kids for some of the action in the stories we were reading that day. We talked about how owls are different from other birds (they sleep all day, they eat mice, they don't 'sing')... and we practiced saying what they did say... a LOT. 


Wiggles
Can you wiggle your finger bones like this? (out in front of our bodies)
And can you wiggle your toes bones inside your shoes where no one can see? 
(they always look) :)
And can you wiggle your shoulders? How about your nose? What about your knees? 
(we look hilarious)
And can you keep wiggling like that in a circle?
Now, let's reach up HIGH... (high voice) and down LOW... (low voice) 
And let's tuck in our bottoms and sit right down... for a story.


Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

I wasn't sure about this story just looking at the cover, but man! was it good. I think the kids could totally identify with the feeling of not knowing where Mother was. The illustrations added to the story as I think we felt enveloped in the darkness of the owl's night world. 




Flannel: Five Little Owls
My first flannel project turned out great and the kids were pretty thrilled with our little owls!
Five little owls sitting in a tree.
One flew away... how many do you see?
1...2...3...4
Four little owls sitting in a tree.
One flew away... how many do you see?
1...2...3 
etc.


Song: 'Be Like an Owl'
(tune: 'London Bridge'; lyrics by Joe Stover)
Flap your wings and fly around, fly around, fly around.
Flap your wings and fly around - be like an owl.
Open your eyes big and wide, big and wide, big and wide.
Open your eyes big and wide - be like an owl.
Land on the ground and hop around, hop around, hop around.
Land on the ground and hop around - be like an owl.
Turn your head and say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Turn your head and say "Hoo! Hoo!"
Be like an owl.


Cock-a-doodle-hooooooo! by Mick Manning

We'd really enjoyed Manning's Cock-a-doodle-Quack! Quack! during our Farm themed storytime, so when I saw that he had a book for owls, I ILL'd that puppy right away. It was a little bit of a disappointment compared to Quack! Quack!, but still a cute book. I was sure to mention that owls eat mice and rats before getting into this one... and I skipped some of the insults that the hens hurled at the poor owl because they just didn't seem appropriate.


Song: 'Owls in a Tree'
(tune: 'Skip to My Lou'; source Sunflower Storytime)
Owls in a tree go hoo-hoo-hoo!
Owls in a tree go hoo-hoo-hoo!
Owls in a tree go hoo-hoo-hoo!
Skip to my lou, my darling.


Robins in a nest go tweet-tweet-tweet...
Ducks in a pond go quack-quack-quack...
Rooster in the yard goes cock-a-doodle-doo...


WOW! Said the Owl by Tom Hopgood

Such a cute book... I should have emphasized that this was the first time a little owl would have seen all these things, but my group was getting pretty restless and I wanted to get them to the craft (which was a little more complicated than I should get with these kinds of programs. :)


Craft: Circle Owls & Nightscenes
We have a plethora of construction paper circles (large and small) in a basket that I have been trying to incorporate into as many craft projects as possible because hey! they're already cut! :D I designed an owl using one large circle, 1/2 of one large circle, 2-1/4s of one large circle, and two small circles. Add googly eyes, half a sheet of blue construction paper and some chalk and you have an awesome (albeit pretty involved) owl nighscene! 


Song: 'The More We Get Together'
I didn't realize that this is a Raffi song... I love the tune and the sentiment, and we sing it at the end of every storytime. I ask the kids to bring whatever craft we worked on to the carpet to share with the other kids and we use it as a prop for the song.


The more we get together, together, together...
The more we get together the happier we'll be.
'Cause your friends are my friends and
My friends are your friends and
The more we get together the happier we'll be. 


* I call my storytime plans "Setlists" because I actually carry a half sheet of paper into the Story Room with me to remind me what I'm doing. It's all keyword/notes, so that's what it looks like to me - a setlist. And, "setlist" cracks me up. We're rockstars! :D

halloween week storytimes...

PLEASE NOTE: I have a backlog of storytime themes and activities from my first month on the job that I would like to document here; please pardon the dust as I try to catch up. :)


In addition to the special Spooky Storytime (K-4) we did this week, we had a Halloween theme in our regular storytimes (2-3, 4-K) as well.


Here's the Setlist*:


Song: 'Hello Song'Hello, everybody! So glad to see you...
Hello, everybody! So glad to see you.
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
Hello to _____, so glad to see you!
I first heard this when I attended a Music Together class with some friends of mine and our children (of course). It's catchy and repetitive so parents and children learn it fast. Plus, it welcomes every child by name (we wear nametags) and we even welcome baby siblings, moms, dads, and grandparents when they're with us.


Welcome/Theme Intro
Many of my storytimers came in costume, so we had a little fashion show. For those who didn't come in costume, we gave them a chance to describe what they were wearing for Halloween and congratulated them on keeping it a big surprise! :) We talked about trick-or-treating (I had them pretend to ring a doorbell and I opened up an imaginary creaky door and they all yelled "Trick-or-treat!" and I threw out tons of imaginary candy... gigglefest ensued).


Wiggles
I usually have the kids do a stretch, but today we danced the 'Hooky Spooky'... I made my lyrics up using finger bones, funny bone (elbow), skull, tailbone (bottom), and whole skeleton, but I have also seen fun lyrics with an imaginary pumpkin head, witchy nails, zombie arms, and ghost-self. Instead of clapping after "That's what it's all about" (which can also be modified to "Then give a little shout"), we yelled "BOO!" - which was super fun. It was also a cardio workout for Mrs. D!


The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams

I first heard this song at my son's preschool a few years back. The little old lady is on a walk through the woods back to her house when she hears something behind her. First it's two boots (CLOMP, CLOMP), then a pair of pants (wiggle, wiggle), then a shirt (shake, shake)... you get the idea. She tells them all she'd not afraid and comes up with a plan to help them fulfill their scary destiny. :)


Flannel: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat
This was also my first Flannel Friday submission!


Wiggles
This time, we did our stretch. :)
Can you wiggle your finger bones like this? (out in front of our bodies)
And can you wiggle your toes bones inside your shoes where no one can see? 
(they always look) :)
And can you wiggle your shoulders? How about your nose? What about your knees? 
(we look hilarious)
And can you keep wiggling like that in a circle?
Now, let's reach up HIGH... (high voice) and down LOW... (low voice) 
And let's tuck in our bottoms and sit right down... for another story.


The Halloweiner by Dav Pilkey
I used this one in the Spooky Storytime, too.


NAF**: Five Little Pumpkins
Mine are printed out from a template I found online. I cut them out, laminated them, and put velcro on the back.


Five little pumpkins, sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."  (hands on cheeks)
The second one said, "There are witches in the air!"  (pointing above us)
The third one said, "But we don't care!"  (crossing our arms)
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run!"  (pumping our arms)
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?!"  (arms out, fingers extended)
Oooo-ooo (make an "O" shape with lips and blow) went the wind 
and (LOUD CLAP) out went the light...
And five little pumpkins rolled (roll fist over fist) out of sight. 


Craft: G-G-G-Ghosts!
Mrs. M came up with this one. We gave each child a piece of white paper, a black marker, scissors, and a length of orange or black yarn. They traced their hands (with fingers closed) and cut them out (with help). :) They then flipped that shape upside down and added a little ghost face. We came around with a hole punch and the kids threaded the yarn through and had a necklace or a decoration of their own - and parents had a little hand keepsake if they wanted. :)


Song: 'The More We Get Together'
I didn't realize that this is a Raffi song... I love the tune and the sentiment, and we sing it at the end of every storytime. I ask the kids to bring whatever craft we worked on to the carpet to share with the other kids and we use it as a prop for the song.


The more we get together, together, together...
The more we get together the happier we'll be.
'Cause your friends are my friends and
My friends are your friends and
The more we get together the happier we'll be. 


* I call my storytime plans "Setlists" because I actually carry a half sheet of paper into the Story Room with me to remind me what I'm doing. It's all keyword/notes, so that's what it looks like to me - a setlist. And, "setlist" cracks me up. We're rockstars! :D


** NAF= Not a Flannel; still something we do with the flannel board or the magnetic whiteboard, but not a flannel project. 

spooky storytime...

PLEASE NOTE: I have a backlog of storytime themes and activities from my first month on the job that I would like to document here; please pardon the dust as I try to catch up. :)

Spooky Storytime was a program planned before I accepted my current position, but since I had the privledge of working with another staff member (who does Books & Babies) to present it, I had no worries about it. Also, Halloween is easily my favorite holiday, so this storytime (and all the spooky fun that went with it) was right up my alley.

Here's the Setlist*:

Assortment of Halloween Riddles & Jokes**
(various paperback books)

Where do vampires buy their pencils?
Pencil-vania!

How do Mama ghosts keep their babies safe in the car?
They put them in their car sheets!




Where's My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi

This is one of my favorite Halloween-type stories for the preschool crowd. Little Baby Mummy plays a game of Hide and Shriek with his mom to forestall bedtime. As he goes through the deep, dark woods, swamp, cave, and graveyard, he encounters Bones, Glob, and Drac as they get ready for bed. While they warn him about the things that lurk in the night, he waves them off with an "I'm not scared!"... until he is!



The Boo Baby Girl Meets the Ghost of Mable's Gable by Jim May

I was completely unfamiliar with this book when Mrs. M said she was going to read it. It turns out that Mr. May is a local resident and friend of Mrs. M's! At first, I wasn't sure where this story was headed. It introduces the Boo Baby Girl and tells you that she attends the Pied Piper Preschool. Then it introduces Mable, a rich old woman who died in her home (with big, steep gables) long ago - with all her gold. Two big, tough, strong boys (8th graders) try to steal Mable's gold and fail when the ghost shows herself. So Boo Baby Girl takes a crack at it. The result is pretty hilarious and we all laughed outloud.

The 'Hooky Spooky'
It's the Hokey Pokey - but way more fun. Same tune, with a few fun changes:
You put your hand bones (I used this one for practice)/funny bone (elbow)/skull/tailbone (bottom)/whole skeleton in,
you put your ____ out,
you put your ____ in
and you *rattle* it all about.
You do the Hooky Spooky and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about - BOO! (instead of clap)

The Walking Casket***
The text of the story is pretty silly... a walking casket contains a monster who turns his victims into mummies... until a chance encounter with a brave ghost who blows out the monster's candle at midnight. The thing is, casket, monster, victim, mummies, candle, midnight, and ghost are all trigger words for sounds in the story. I think we had more fun watching me trying to keep up with Mrs. M's reading (I was holding up clipart cue cards for the triggers)... but it was a good time.

The Little Orange House***

This was another interactive story, but this time, I was the reader. Every child got a half sheet of orange paper and a pair of scissors, just like the little witch in the story. She's trying to find a house for the winter when a piece of paper blows to her on the wind. Just like the witch, we fold the paper in half, cut off the top corners to make a roof, a special door with a point for the witch's hat, a window to let light in, and a small angled door for a lonely ghost the little witch meets. When we unfold the house, you see the secret inside. :)

The Halloweiner by Dav Pilkey

Another funny favorite of mine. Oscar is teased pretty mercilessly for his stature, but on Halloween night, it's the advantage that takes him from being a Weiner Dog to a Hero Sandwich. A few cute jokes went over the kids' heads and straight to their smiling parents.




Craft: Edible Spiders
The craft was really a treat. We used jumbo marshmallows for bodies and chow mein noodles for legs... then we did the grossly unthinkable and we ate them. :) We also had bat rings, finger puppets, and tattoos from Oriental Trading that we handed out.

It was a great night!

* I call my storytime plans "Setlists" because I actually carry a half sheet of paper into the Story Room with me to remind me what I'm doing. It's all keyword/notes, so that's what it looks like to me - a setlist. And, "setlist" cracks me up. We're rockstars! :D

** I had some reservations about jokes and riddles with a K-4 group, but those reservations just proved how new I am to the storytime game. The kids and parents ate them up with a spoon.


*** These stories were improvised from stories we'd heard about...

my first flannel friday!!

Seriously? Participating in #flannelfriday is a major reason I started this blog. The *first* flannel I made was inspired by the "5 Little Owls" that so many awesome librarians had already put together. These owls are ridiculous cute and so. easy. to make. The kids loved them.

I was so happy with my experience with the owls (both making them and sharing them with the kids) that I decided to make my own flannel for our Halloween-themed storytimes this week. So fun!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat (Scholastic, 2002)

I made flies like these when I shared There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly during a Bugs storytime. We used a sorta creepy looking old lady puppet and the kids stuffed what she was swallowing right down into her gullet. It was a hoot.

I didn't know about the old lady who swallowed a bat (or the cold one who swallowed some snow for that matter) until I went looking for songs for our Halloween storytime. I figured that if I created a pretty generic looking old lady, I could use her in the future for swallowing flies, bats, AND snow (with the addition of some layers for the "cold lady" angle). Yay, multitasking flannels, amiright? :D

I am super proud of the finished project:

(Over the course of the story, she swallows a bat, an owl, a cat, a ghost, a goblin, some bones, AND a wizard. Sheesh, sister... take it easy!)

I thought the eyebrows added to the agony that would no doubt be associated with swallowing that amount of things.

This wizard cracked me up because he pretty much came together from scraps. His gesture there is because he eventually casts a spell on the old lady.

Am I the only person who is not quite sure what a goblin looks like? I went with a green guy with yellow teeth and ragged clothes. (Patch added to emphasize raggy-ness.)

This little owl is my homage to Leah's adorable owls who kicked off my flannel journey. :)

I had so much fun making this - which I did when I had some free time away from the desk on Tuesday. I am already considering putting together my own flannel kit and hope to add many more fun multitasking flannels to my meager collection!


You can find the rest of this week's round up with Tracey at 1234 More Storytimes, view past round ups with Anne at So Tomorrow, or click the Flannel Friday button to the right to view the page on Pinterest.

Thanks for checking this out and Happy Friday! 

hello out there...

Hi. I'm Liz, a.k.a. Mrs. D. I am a Youth Services librarian in Northern Illinois and I really love what I do.

I am still relatively new to the profession, having graduated from the Graduate School of Library & Information Science at the University of Illinois in August 2011 (I-L-L...). I participated in the LEEP program (14.1) and can't say enough good things about my experience there.

Before becoming a YS librarian, I worked part-time for several years at another area library as a YS assistant. I gained invaluable experience and confidence in this position and even though I love my current library, I miss that job like crazy. I was also a classroom teacher for five years, teaching fifth through eighth grade in a variety of subjects.

I think I was destined to be a YS librarian... but it took me quite a while to figure that out. I got my first library card when I was five from the Garfield Ridge branch of the Chicago Public Library. My mom had us there all the time. When we moved to the suburbs, we got library cards right away and were, again, frequent visitors. Mom actually accepted a job at the circulation desk there when I was in high school and both my sister and I did summer stints there as desk help and pages.

In second grade, I asked if I could organize the classroom library. In seventh grade, I started a book review "magazine" with the help of an English teacher. In college, I worked summers as a day camp counselor... right next door to the library. When I was on-campus, I was a student assistant (SA) in the Commerce Library at UIUC. After I decided teaching wasn't for me (and had my first adorable baby), I found a part-time gig in a local public library.

See? Libraries, kids, me... we were always meant to be.

When I first started my job here, I knew that one of my responsiblilities would be to plan and present storytimes for kids from 2-5 years old. I scoured the internet for ideas for themes, songs, rhymes, crafts, and interactive games and was so fortunate to have found librarian blogs like storytime katie, mel's desk, and many others. this is blog is my attempt to pay it forward.

but why 'putting smiles on faces'? well, i thought 'storytime liz' was just a rip-off of katie ;) ... and the kids don't call me that anyway. putting smiles on faces is what my husband often says 'it's all about'. i think that is very true in this profession. smiles on faces mean that connections have been made, people feel good about what they are seeing or doing, and they are making positive associations with other people and activities. so, the goal of my career is the title of my blog - 'putting smiles on faces'.

And away we go...