Let's Pretend: Sugar Plum Bakery and Bakery Storytime

Programming librarians rarely have free time on the clock to work on other projects, but we do our best to help each other when it's possible. I'm on a part-time schedule at the moment while recovering from spinal surgery, but I still had enough time (just barely!) to cover my coworker's program while she's on leave. I don't usually post programs that weren't my own idea from beginning to end, but this one is an exception because I used my coworker's plan as a jumping off point to execute my own semi-original program. 

The original concept was a semi-structured dramatic play program with a storytime at the beginning. I was nervous about it because my programming style is usually minimalist, plus I've been finding it difficult to move a lot of things around since surgery, and there were about a million items involved in the original plan. Supplies included several kitchen- and baking-related play sets, a sensory bin of tiny pom poms that kids could use to "measure ingredients," chef hats and aprons to dress up in, and a cash register so they could pretend to work in a bakery. Luckily, I have some AMAZING teen volunteers who set up most of the toys the night before, and a couple who showed up on the day of the program to help me out. 

Bakery Storytime

Hello: "Hello, Hello"

Warm up motor skills: "Open, Shut Them"

Story: Baby Cakes by Theo Harris

Movement Songs: "Do You Know the Muffin Man" and "Milkshake"

Since there aren't any traditional gestures that I know of for the Muffin Man song, we practiced singing and clapping on the beat. It worked out great as a baking-theme song!

Felt Story: Down Around the Corner

I like to do this story with a hand puppet because he's our friend who buys the donuts. The more you act it out with your puppet, the more involved the audience gets!

Down around the corner at the bakery shop

Were five donuts with sprinkles on top.

Along came a friend with a dollar to pay,

And he took one donut away!

(Have your puppet "eat" a donut and put it away. Ask the group to help you count the remaining donuts. Repeat the rhyme with four donuts, then three, two, and one.)

These aren't my felt donuts, but they look a lot like them!

Final Song: "Follow the Leader" by Ella Jenkins

This song is mellow and chills out a storytime audience as if by magic. I wanted to use it to gently transition from storytime to playtime, and it worked pretty well!

Sugar Plum Bakery Playtime

Gingerbread people foam craft before patrons arrived

Watching holiday music videos

Measuring pom poms

Making felt pie

Awesome teen volunteers!!

Showing off their gingerbread crafts

Checking out at the bakery

Tiny gingerbread people

Looking great in a chef's apron and hat!

Some finished gingerbread people

They're such good sports

December 2018 Display: RM Kids Made 2018 Great

For the end of the year, I wanted to make a bulletin board that showed all the fun we had in programs in 2018. It only took about an hour to put this board together, including printing out the pictures and finding the right letters in our stash of bulletin board supplies. I haven't made a bulletin board or display lately, so it was fun to dress up our children's area with colors and pictures of program regulars.

PS. If you're wondering about the RM, my library is the Red Mountain branch.

I included programs from other children's librarians at our branch as well as my own, and tried to focus on pictures that showcased the kids participating as opposed to our staff (it was difficult not to include the cute picture of my coworker and I reading the stuffed animals a bedtime story for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover in January, but the pic of Dr. T-Rex mingling with a big group of kiddos was better representation of our programs). March was slow and I didn't find any good pictures from that month, but all the others are represented!

January: Dr. T-Rex Science
February: Bird Feeder Challenge
April: National Pet Day
May: Family Sign Language Storytime
June: Bowling for Kids
July: Theater Day Camp
August: Sensory Playtime for Babies
September: Pirate Playtime
October: Halloween Boo
November: V is for Voting
December: No Snow, Snow Day

Bowling for Kids

Every year, our system of four branches borrows lanes, pins, and balls (much lighter than actual balls and pins) from Brunswick Bowling for a fun, high-energy, high-capacity program that the kids in the community loooove.

This event is also our most volunteer-intensive program of the summer. This is because there are four carpet "lanes," and we need one teen on either side of each lane: one to tell the kid when to bowl, and the other to re-set the pins. Besides those 8 we need one to count participants, one to run the (super adorable) baby bowling station, and two back-ups to switch out with the ones on the lane in case they need a water or bathroom break.

I was lucky enough to fill all the volunteer slots this year, and it's a good thing because we had almost 200 participants! I think the pictures speak for themselves, so here are some artsy shots one of our volunteers took during the program with my incredibly antiquated digital camera from the mid-2000's.

Testing the wind to figure out the right trajectory to throw the ball?

Setting up pins

Gutter ball?

Special technique

Baby and regular pins ready to be knocked down

Rolling........

Will it make it??

Four strikes at once!

Setting up pins

Waiting to set pins back up

A bunch of pins just waiting to be toppled!

Good shot of the whole room

Good shot of the whole room

Baby bowling

Baby bowling

Baby bowling

Setting up pins

Strike!

#artshot

Almost a strike!

#artshot

Waiting for a strike!

Gutter ball?

Knocked some down!