YAAS: "Holes" Movie Night and T-Shirt Tie Dye

If you want to learn about the original conception and mission of this program, read my What is YAAS? post. TL;DR: It's a weekly group for youth age 14-24 where we'll be doing community service work, library programs, hosting guest presenters, and making connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.

Tonight was a very special night of YAAS. A while back, we had a t-shirt design contest to determine what the YAAS emblem would be. 

These were the designs submitted...

And after voting, this is what was voted in as our official group shirt design!

We ended up going with a black and white version

I spent my downtime at work ironing on the designs for the last couple of weeks so the kids wouldn't have to take the time to do it, and could focus on tie-dying. The logic behind this was, everyone's shirt will be both uniform and individual; same icon, different tie-dye patterns and colors. A group, but still individuals.

In order to make the tie-dying easy and accessible for everyone, we combined the project with a movie night and then had 2-3 people at a time come outside to dye their shirts. "Holes" is one of my all-time favorite movies of any genre, and when we talked about potential movies to show at YAAS it came up as a choice everyone would enjoy. If you haven't seen it or read the book by Louis Sachar, I highly recommend both. In fact, the movie is on my [very, very short] list of book-to-movie adaptations that was actually well done.

Here are some pictures of the tie-dye process...

...and here we all are a few weeks later at a YAAS outing wearing our fantastic group shirts!

Baby Lapsit April 2019

My Baby Lapsit formula is:

Intro and hello
Board Book #1
Lap Bounce Journey ("Bumpy Road/Smooth Road" and two recorded songs)
Board Book #2
Movement song or another lap bounce song (optional, depends on time)
Peek-a-Boo
Goodbye
Bubbles and Community Playtime

April 2

Board Book #1

Duck's Ditty by Kenneth Grahame 

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:

Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)

"My Bouncing Buckaroo"

Another new lap bounce already? COULD IT BE???? It could! I learned this one in an online course I'm taking to brush up on my storytime sign language skills. Before we do this rhyme I like to go over counting up to ten using only one hand and American Sign Language numbers (this is a little above babies' developmental stage but a good skill for parents to learn and practice for later). I also like to emphasize that this fun rhyme gets children ready to laugh at jokes later in life by making them anticipate the last line, then doing something unexpected by getting loud and crazy! This is the general basis of most jokes, so in addition to numbers and rhyming words, this is a good exercise in building social skills. 

One, I love you. Two, I love you.

Three, I love you so!

Four, I love you. Five, I love you.

Never let you go!

Six, I love you. Seven, I love you.

Eight, you love me too!

Nine, I love you. Ten, I love you...

My Bouncing Buckaroooooooooooo!!!!!

"Shake My Sillies Out"

"Walkin' Ol' Joe"

Board Book #2

Peekaboo Morning by Rachel Isadora 

Movement Song

Wheels on the Bus

April 9

Board Book #1

Clive and His Babies by Jessica Spanyol 

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"My Bouncing Buckaroo"

"Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck"

"BINGO"

Board Book #2

There, There by Taro Miura

Movement Song

"Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon"

April 16

Board Book #1

Animal Noises by Thomas Flintham 

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"My Bouncing Buckaroo"

"Humpty Dumpty"

"Milkshake"

Board Book #2

I Can Do It, Too by Karen Baicker

Movement Song

"Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, We're Going to the Moon"

April 23

Board Book #1

My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"My Bouncing Buckaroo"

"This is the Way the Ladies Ride"

"Walkin' Ol' Joe"

Board Book #2

Clive and His Bags by Jessica Spanyol 

Movement Song

"Wheels on the Bus"

April 30

Board Book #1

Clive and His Hats by Jessica Spanyol 

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"My Bouncing Buckaroo"

"Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck"

"Popcorn" 

Board Book #2

Five Little Bunnies by Dan Yaccarino

Movement Song

"If You're Happy and You Know It"

YAAS: Earth Day Seed Bombs

If you want to learn about the original conception and mission of this program, read my What is YAAS? post. TL;DR: It's a weekly group for youth age 14-24 where we'll be doing community service work, library programs, hosting guest presenters, and making connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.

April means, among other things, Earth Day! I couldn't think of anyone better to teach YAAS about environmentalism than my best friend, Anna. You might remember her from March's Artist Trading Card program...she was back wearing her gardener hat tonight!

At Anna's request, I made a quick PowerPoint showing all the seeds she brought with her and what they'll look like when fully grown. 

Our group also took an in-building field trip to the library's Seed Library, where patrons can "check out" seeds and take them home to plant. I put "check out" in quotes because you're obviously not bringing the seeds back after they're planted. HOWEVER, the seed library also has a spot for donation. After a patron's plants grow up, the idea is that they would harvest seeds from that plant and donate them back to the library. So in a way, you do turn them back in. 

Instead of just learning about the plants and having the kids take some home to plant, we did a cool gross messy awesome project with compost and clay! If you've never heard of seed bombs, here's short video introducing the concept.

The ones in the video are the size of a golf ball, and most of ours were about the size of baseballs, but they'll still work. Look how much fun everyone had!

 

Anna + plants = true love

Group hand moisturizing

I am notoriously anti-dirt... and they got me

YAAS: Spoken Word Poetry Workshop

If you want to learn about the original conception and mission of this program, read my What is YAAS? post. TL;DR: It's a weekly group for youth age 14-24 where we'll be doing community service work, library programs, hosting guest presenters, and making connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.

This week we had a very special guest from our sister city location, the Mesa Arts Center. The MAC does a lot of diverse and wonderful programming, including poetry and hip hop workshops given by Tomas. YAAS members did a wonderful job following his directions and coming up with original, personal poetry.

Our group with Tomas post-workshop

I also wanted to share this video posted by Tomas about his background and why he pursued work as a spoken word artist and teacher. He is amazing at commanding a room and teaching valuable lessons in the exact way youth need to hear them. We were so lucky to host him!

Sign Language Storytime: Numbers and Counting 2

My Sign Language Storytime format is:
Intro and hello
Felt story
Movement song or video
Book
Movement song
Goodbye

This storytime has a laid back atmosphere and is always a great forum for me to try out my new ideas. When it began I tried introducing an AV element, and that went over very well. I also usually include a handout for parents so that they can follow along with the signs (although I didn't make a handout this month). The people who come to this storytime are open to new ideas and don't expect anything from month to month, so they go with the flow if I decide to mix it up! This month instead of a felt story, I did two interactive books and a YouTube video.

Intro and hello:
Hello: "Hello Friends"
Before turning on the music, I teach the kids (and grownups) the American Sign Language sign for "friends." Then we boogie, wave, and sing hello to all our friends!

Warming Up Motor Skills: "Open, Shut Them"

On this song we do the movements described in the lyrics: open our hands, close our hands, clap three times, put our hands in our lap, creep our fingers up to our chin, and don't let them in our mouths.

Stretch: "Tall/Small"

This is a short, easy stretch the kids get a kick out of. While we're stretching, I like to encourage them to reach for the ceiling, touch their toes, then make themselves into a tiny ball.

Story

I Know Numbers! by Taro Gomi
Taro Gomi is one of my favorite children's authors. He is sparing in his use of words, and the art in his books look almost like very intentional collages. I have several Gomi standbys that I use often, and I think I Know Numbers! has just joined that list. It explains locations where you might find numbers and math in everyday life, which starts children noticing numbers as they move about their day.

Video

"One From the Left" by Jim Gill

During the video, I encouraged everyone to practice along. This is just a fingerplay, not traditional sign language, but I went over the differences with the group before the video to make sure there was no confusion. 

Story

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean

I like asking the kids to sing along with me each time we sing the button song.

Movement Song
"Jumping and Counting"
This song gives a great opportunity to get all the wiggles out, and sneaks in some counting as well.

Goodbye

"Until We Meet Again" from Out of the Box

When we sing this song, I help them recall the sign for friends from the hello song, and teach them a couple others as we sing: meet, time, and say.

Friends

Meet

Goodbye

This is the only storytime that I don't close with bubbles, because directly following is another program called Stay and Play where I set out 4-5 bins of toys for a 30 minute free play. Adding bubbles to that seems to be too much stimulation.