Today was my first storytime after a three week leave! You might have noticed there are hardly any programs listed for March 2018. This is because I was gone most of the month for recovery from a much-needed surgery. I am now back and ready to get my storytime groove on!
After our usual introduction and hello songs, our first board book today was Llama Llama Easter Egg by Anna Dewdney. It is technically the week after Easter, but I never pass up a chance for 1) a cute Spring story or 2) Anna Dewdney.
And since it's been a while, here is Ludacris rapping Dewdney's original, Llama Llama Red Pajama.(For the record, I don't include this in storytime, but I love it so much in my other life as a childless adult who enjoys hip hop music.)
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)
The musical lap bounces were on the "pop" theme: "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Popcorn" by Raffi. I like to do "Popcorn" twice through, because it's only about 30 seconds long. By the second time the grownups usually get the hang of when to bounce, when to sizzle, and when to POP!
Our second story was Peekaboo, Pierre by Florence Wetterwald. This little board book is great for grownup/child interactions. You can practice naming directions like up and down while looking for Pierre. It's also a great opportunity to practice counting to three, and playing peek-a-boo. It segued wonderfully into our Peek-a-Boo song later on in storytime.
Before saying goodbye, our final movement songs were my standby classics, "One, Two Hands" and "Peek-a-Boo."
Today's Baby Lapsit was only about 15 minutes long. Usually I aim more for the 25 minute mark before our 15-minute Community Playtime at the end. Today, since it was my first time back after a long absence, I kept it simple and we ended the entire session after almost exactly half an hour.
I had some extra time last week because the trains were in our program room, so I used it to plan a full month of Preschool Storytime themes with books, songs, and crafts all having to do with those themes. I am so excited to share them with the kids, and report on them in this blog!
First up was the theme of dogs. I got the idea for this theme from Jbrary's list of favorite 2017 storytime picture books. The book I Got a New Friend was on the list, and I found out we have it in our catalogue! So after making sure I could physically lay my hands on it, I planned a whole storytime around this book.
After saying hello (my introduction did not change with the new year because, why fix what isn't broken?), we learned the American Sign Language sign(s) and Baby Sign for "dog." I explained that the baby sign is for those who might not have very developed motor skills yet. Actually, the three signs can be broken down as baby, toddler, and preschool and up. The most beginning is just panting to imitate a dog, the intermediate is slapping your thigh as if you are calling a dog, and the advanced version is slapping your thigh and snapping. There are a lot of accepted signs for "dog."
Our first book today was Found Dogs by Erica Sirotich. This book was just published in 2017, and has a lot of very pleasing illustrations. It's fun and cartoonish to look at, which I think kept the attention of our especially wiggly group today. I also encouraged the kids to count with me as we saw one, two, three, etc. dogs of different colors and ages, all the way up to ten, and then count down again from ten to one. At the end (spoiler alert), all the dogs find their forever homes and get adopted! This book was an unexpected preschool storytime goldmine. I'm so glad I found it.
Because I wanted to provide a dynamic, educational storytime while simultaneously sticking with the theme, I decided to play the song "I Wanna Be a Dog" by Charlotte Diamond while we shook egg shakers. I figured it's music education, practicing shaking on the beat, and developing gross motor skills, while listening to a cute song about being a dog.
(On the CD recording, she does not include the introduction.)
After collecting the egg shakers, we were still pretty full of wiggles. Luckily, I expected this and planned a calm-down chant that we could say as many times as necessary. I wrote the words out on a white board so the kids and grownups could follow along. We also had a gesture to go with each line.
Call the puppy (Hands by your mouth like you are calling someone)
Give him some milk (Hold out cupped hands)
Brush his fur 'til he shines like silk (Pretend to hold and brush a small dog)
Call the puppy (Hands by your mouth like you are calling someone)
Give him a bone (Hold out cupped hands)
Then scoop him up and take him home! (Pretend to pick up and hug a small dog)
We ended up doing this rhyme four times through. I found that having the words written out where everyone can see them is really helpful. I will definitely be using this technique again.
After we got all calmed down and found our comfy story-listening spot once again, it was time for our second story. I Got a New Friend by Karl Newsom Edwards is also a 2017 book, with adorable illustrations and very few words per page, which makes it a storytime slam dunk. Before we started reading, I asked the kids to listen to the words, and then tell me at the end if they thought it was the little girl, or the puppy, telling the story. Two pages from the end I took a vote, and almost everyone raised their hand when I asked if it was the little girl. I won't spoil this one for you, because I want you to be delighted and surprised when you read I Got a New Friend and find out that it was the puppy speaking all along! (Oops.)
We did two short movement songs before saying goodbye: "Do the Dog" from Sesame Street, and the classic "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone."
"Do the Dog" is from 1994, aka MY era of Sesame Street. I encouraged the kids to follow along with the lyrics and act like dogs, with varried success. They were willing to put up their "paws," bark, howl, scratch, and turn around 3 times, but not so enthusiastic about the idea of getting on all fours and crawling around. I'm thinking that's more of a Toddler Time activity. On the CD recording, the "This Old Man" intro is not played.
The movements for "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" are pretty straightforward as well. Pretend to look for your dog, then mime ears and a tale when the lyrics talk about them. The kids had fun with this one.
Since I had the time to plan a craft, we made out very own dog masks today! It was a very fun and easy craft with minimal prep. I simply printed the mask templates, pre-punched holes in the sides to make the parents' lives easier, then provided crayons, scissors, and time to create!
Here is the template I used. If you print it on a regular 8.5x11 piece of paper it's about the right size for a face.
And I wasn't able to get pictures of our littles in their masks because I was too busy having fun, but here is mine:
Here is a list of books about dogs that I displayed:
I Got a New Friend—Edwards
Found Dogs—Sirotich
Shoe Dog—McDonald
Black Dog—Pinfold
Shark Dog!—Adamson
Dog Day—Hayes
Doggy Dog—Raschka
Dog Parade—Joosse
Dog Loves Drawing—Yates
My Dog Spot—Levin
Hello Goodbye Dog—Gianferrari
The Dog Book—Clerci
A final note about the book Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari. I love, love, love this book about a girl in a wheelchair whose dog hates saying goodbye to her. Over the course of the book, the girl gets her dog certified as a service animal so he can stay with her all day at school, and they never have to say goodbye again. Not only is it the most adorable thing in the world, it's a great introduction for preschool age kids to service animals and wheelchair-related disabilities. Yay, diversity in children's literature!
Today, the amazing East Valley Children's Theater (EVCT) visited our library with their original holiday play, "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus." I wasn't sure how many people would show up for a straight-ahead play with no interactive aspect, but was pleasantly surprised with 48 audience members. The actors were all between the ages of ten and thirteen years old and much of the audience were their family members, but I also spotted some new library patrons and some storytime regulars in the mix.
Before the production, one of the kids (possibly the stage manager) came up and explained how EVCT writes their shows. They begin by picking a title as a group. Without any other information, this group picked "The Tortoise and Mrs. Claus" for their December show. Then, they collectively did a lot of writing exercises and improvisation activities, under the guidance of an their adult director, until the premise of the show was born. They formed their own characters, wrote their own lines, and completely created the 30 minute show we saw! The group mostly tours retirement homes and libraries, and do all their performances for free. It was a great program to add to our December calendar, and I would definitely have them back again when they are touring their next show!
