Baby Lapsit 1-19-18

We had a huge group of babies this morning! Usually we have 6-7 babies, each with one grownup. Occasionally two parents bring one baby, or one parent bring 2-3 kids. Today, we had 13 babies, and many of them came with 2-3 adults! It was the biggest Baby Lapsit I've done in a while, and it was also one of the most fun sessions I've ever done.

After our usual introduction, we read I Love Hugs and Kisses by Sandra Magsamen. It worked well for a first book because it only has a few pages, and the illustrations are bright and eye-catching. It was also a good opportunity to identify animals and what sounds they make (if applicable: pandas do not, to my knowledge, make a distinct sound). We had a couple of older siblings in class today, so this worked out well.

Next it was time for our lap bounce journey and it began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." I have a few regulars who have come to Baby Lapsit continuously since their babies were only a couple months old, and they know this chant by heart now. 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)

I tried a new lap bounce today, that went really well: the old children's music standby, "BINGO." I encouraged everyone to sing along, and we bounced babies on our laps for most of the song. At the missing letters, I encouraged them to hold babies up above their heads, or even gently toss them. The babies had a great time, and I could tell the grownups thought it was fun, too!

video

Our second lap bounce song was "Milkshake," one of my favorite storytime songs because it works with all ages. Makes a great lap bounce because you can "stir" baby (similar to the "smooth road" part of the above chant), and of course bounce and gently shake them while making your milkshake.

For our second book we read the board book How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors? by Jane Yolen. The How Do Dinosaurs... series is adorable, and I'm really happy that they published some board books for the series as well. The board books are better for the baby and toddler level, while still engaging for the kiddos.

While reading this book, we learned the signs for all the colors mentioned. I also took the time before class to print out pictures of the signs, so the grownups could follow along with the color signs, and hopefully retain them well enough to practice at home with their baby.

 

Colors

Red

Purple

Green

Blue

Pink

Yellow

Brown

White

Black

Orange

Rainbow

Our first movement song today was Mr. Jon's awesome version of "If You're Happy and You Know It," tickle bugs and all. We also practiced the sign for "happy" while singing, clapping, stomping, and shouting yippee.

Before singing goodbye, our last movement song was a new favorite of mine, "One, Two Hands." I like to give the parent tip that practicing naming body parts helps babies of all ages start to figure out where their bodies are in space, and how they have control over how they move their bodies. This song is great for practicing body part names.

Then we had our community playtime and said goodbye until next week!

Play Book BINGO Live!

This event was the culmination of a whole summer's worth of passive programming.

For the whole summer, I printed BINGO boards that I made for children, tweens, and teens, and left them at the circulation desks so kids could pick them up and mark off what they read. There were spaces for actual books that had pictures of the covers, and there were also spaces with descriptions of books such as "A book that takes place in Arizona" or "A book with an LGBTQ+ main character." For these spaces, the kids could choose their own books as long as they applied to the description, and write them in.

When the boards were returned to the library, participants received a prize from the treasure chest if they had completed one row, and $2 to spend at our used book sale for a totally full board. Click on the pictures to enlarge for a closer look.

Picture book board 1

Picture book board 2

Picture book board 3

Tween/middle grade board 1

Tween/middle grade board 2

Teen/YA board 1

Teen/YA board 2

Teen/YA board 3

Finished tween board!

Finished picture book board!

Finished picture book board!

For the BINGO Live event, I printed and laminated 20 BINGO boards with book cover art in each square (the fill-in-the-blank concept would have been too difficult to incorporate in this program, I think). I created a slide show with the cover art and brief synopses of all the books that appeared on every BINGO board from the passive program. Then I randomized the slide show so the slides would appear out of order, and projected the slides on the wall.

We played several rounds, including a couple of total blackout rounds. The winners of each round received a snack of their choice from my snack bin and a $5 gift card to our book sale.

What I liked about the passive BINGO program was that, like the Summer Reading Program itself, it encouraged children to use their summer vacations to read as much as possible. It also gave a mix of book suggestions and opportunity to choose their own.

For the active program, I was able to show more than 50 titles to a group of people who may have never heard of them. Not only that, but the group was diverse in age. We had a family with little ones drop in, a couple groups of middle- and high-schoolers with their chaperoning adults, and even several retired adults who like BINGO! I was delighted by the turn out, and will definitely repeat a Book BINGO program again.