GARZ4LIB » children’s crafts

Library Day in the Life Round 5: Tuesday or “The More We Get Together the Happier I Will Be.”

mmgarza — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:24:06 +0000

Today was my last day of storytime for the summer. We only ran Family Storytimes this summer – for ages 0-5 years. This is a notoriously strange storytime to do since it’s hard to select materials appropriate for that age range and even more difficult to keep all those involved engaged for a full 30 minutes without slipping into utter chaos. Not going to lie – there was some chaos involved, particularly since the numbers went from 45 people the first week, to 75 to 90 back to a manageable 70-something today. Action rhymes became some baby mosh-pit action! It was wild and totally fun. If I could make a living free-lancing storytimes for libraries… I would. Except, y’know, there’s librarians to do that sort of thing.

Here’s a brief outline of what I did each week. But “brief” I mean the craft and one of the books or rhymes… I can’t remember them all!

Week 1: Leaf necklaces (Materials needed: Leaf-shape cut outs, yarn, things to decorate with, glue)
Debuted my new song Who’s My Pretty Baby,(I learned it from Elizabeth Mitchell’s album You Are My Little Bird), with success. Goes like this:

Who’ll be my baby
Who’ll be my pretty little baby?
You’ll be my pretty little baby
Hey, hey, pretty babe

[Chorus]
Hey, hey, pretty baby
Ho, ho, pretty little baby
You’re my, my pretty little baby
Hey, hey, pretty babe.

Who’ll be my little man?
Who’ll be my nice lady
Who’ll be my funny little bunny
Hey, hey, pretty babe

[Chorus]
(lather, rinse, repeat first verse)

Week 2: Monkey paper bag puppets (Materials needed: brown paper bags, pink oval shapes for the face and brown oval shapes for the ears, glue)
The book Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett, (who I laude copiously throughout this blog), worked phenomenally well for Family Storytime! Babies enjoy the simple rhyme and pre-schoolers enjoy reading it as a “read along.” You read a line and they repeat it back. For extra fun – act out the animals!

Week 3: Butterfly straw puppets (Materials needed: Butterfly-shaped cut-outs, straws, crepe paper streamers, markers, tape)
The Baby Goes Beep by Rebecca O’Connell. I love, love, love this book. Babies enjoy the theme and the “baby’s day” aspect of it… toddlers like helping you make the onomatopoeias. It’s easy for parents to help you out – everybody wins!

Week 4: Paper plate flowers (paper plates, tissue paper or crepe paper cut into pieces, glue)
Is Your Mama a Llama (Deborah Guarino) – One little boy liked this so much he took it home with him!

At the end of the hour, several of the mothers came up to tell me how much their children enjoyed the storytime and promised to be back in the fall. In light of all of the extra administrative /off-desk and hands-off type of work I seem to be doing lately, it’s the ability to interact with customers, especially in an environment like storytime, that makes my job worthwhile.

Family Fun-Day Monday Week 3… Ooey Gooey… Librarian

mmgarza — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:05:15 +0000

Week 3 of this self-proclaimed lame named (haha fox in socks, sir) story time. This week’s theme was “Ooey Gooey.” The jury’s still out on whether or not the themes make it easier or harder for story time planning… this was kind of a strange theme, so maybe that was it.

The program itself was bit harder because I was exhausted and I got really hot jumping around with the kids. Usually their enthusiasm has proven to give little attention seeking me the fuel to finish the 20 minutes or so of story times. But I think the kids were as restless as I was tired so it was a struggle. Not to say they didn’t have fun… they shook their sillies out, but they spent more time kicking each other than actually listening, haha.

Here’s the outline of the program:

Song: Shake My Sillies Out

Book: What Did You Put in Your Pocket?

Song/fingerplay: Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Five green and speckled frogs,
Sat upon a speckled log,
Eating the most delicious bugs!
Yum! Yum!
One jumped into the pool,
Where it was nice and cool.
Then there were four green and speckled frogs!

Glub! Glub!
Repeat for 4,3,2,1

Action rhyme: Bouncing Ball

Book: The Mud Puddle

Song: Mr. Sun

Oh Mr Sun, Sun Mr. golden Sun
Please shine down on me.
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun Mr. golden Sun
Hiding behind those trees.
These little children are asking you
To please come out so we can play with you.
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun Mr. Golden Sun
Please shine down on me.

Song: The More We Get Together

Book: Jamberry

Song: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes

Book: Peanut Butter and Jelly

Song: Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Book: Slop Goes the Soup

Song: If You’re Happy and You Know It

Actually, I didn’t get to Slop Goes the Soup, cuz the kids pretty much were just bugging each other by the time I got around to “Mr. Sun” but… I had planned it. Overall, I think The Mud Puddle (by the wonderful Robert Munsch) was a bit too old for the majority of the kids, although it’s a great book for story telling and they listened politely. What Did You Put in Your Pocket (Beatrice De Regniers) was possibly a bit too trippy for the kids. It’s a strange book – great visuals , putting pudding in your pocket, but it doesn’t really flow as well as I’d like. I feel like there should be a rhythm (“What did you put in your pocket? What did you put in your pocket? In your pockety-pockety pocket? Early Monday morning…) but somehow I’m not getting it very well. It lent itself well to a great tie-in craft, though: I had the kids make their own “pockets” by cutting out a pocket shape in construction paper, and then stapling a plastic baggie to card stock under the pocket shape. It made a transparent pocket which they could decorate then stuff it full of strange things, just like the book. I gave them glitter, feathers, foam shapes, crepe paper and cotton balls. Hm. Might have to post a picture of that one, haha. So, I think they had fun… Wellll, that’s my report for this “Family Fun Day Monday”… tune in next time for “Hilarious Hats and Headwear” (ohhhhh I am such a children’s programming cheeseball).

Family Fun-Day Monday Week 1… Funny Foods. I can haz out in the open?

mmgarza — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:26:06 +0000

My very first story time that I have created… planned… and will do for longer than 15 minutes! Hooray! I was really really nervous. This is also Angus Glen’s very first “out in the open” story time ever.

Good thing it went much better than expected!

The kids were incredibly cute. I’ve found that small children like stickers and clapping their hands and jumping around more than … oh, I don’t know… Donald Trump likes money? That much. Kids would maybe even eat bugs for a sticker. And if anything involves clapping and jumping around it’s an instant hit. So “Shake Your Sillies Out” = instant success! Altogether this was a much more positive experience, despite my nerves, than previous story times. Hurray!

Funny Foods

The Beastly Feast by Bruce Goldstone

Shake My Sillies Out

Apples and Bananas

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays
I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees
I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and bi-ni-nis

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos
I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to ute, ute, ute, ooh-ples and bu-nu-nus

Mmm, Cookies! By Robert Munsch

Betty Botter bought some butter,
But, she said, the butter’s bitter;
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter,
But a bit of better butter
Will make my batter better.
So she bought a bit of butter
Better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter
And the batter was not bitter.
So ’twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.

If You’re Happy and You Know It

Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? By Philemon Sturges

5 Little Cookies

5 little cookies sitting on a tray

5 little cookies smiling all day

Along came a little child rubbin’ her tummy

One cookie disappeared, yum, yum, yummy! (Repeat 4.3.2.1)

Do Your Ears Hang Low?

Bee- Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

I guess when librarians plan programming consistently, we don’t realize how much we also program customers. I had maybe 2 families here for the actual story time itself… the rest were just people I wrangled and co-opted to come to the story time, and those who just happened to stop over. After the program ended and during the craft portion of the program itself I got all sorts of questions like “you really have a story time Monday nights? Every Monday? Really?” I was told later it was because Mondays at AG have traditional NOT been story time nights. So have we confused them or “delighted” them? Who knows? At least the kids seem to enjoy it. Too bad it all ends in the fall. We’ll see what happens to the customers then! Mwahahaha…