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+ where we do community service work, library programs, host guest presenters, and make connections with peers in a safe and welcoming environment.
Tonight's guest presenter was my dear friend Bobby, a program facilitator at One N Ten. I met him when I started volunteering at One N Ten's Mesa satellite group, and I'm so glad I did because he's one of the sweetest, most genuine, and most down-to-earth people I know. He graciously agreed to be our guest for LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
One N Ten Mesa staff/volunteers at Camp OUTdoors 2018!
I gave him free reign to choose the subject he presented on, and he chose the history of the pride flag and the pride movement. He showed the following very cool and informative videos, and showed a PowerPoint with photos of the people who started the movement in the 1960's such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
left to right: Rivera and Johnson mid-protest
Bobby also talked about the Stonewall riots and listed some more modern LGBTQ+ rights bills that have been passed in recent years, like the Stonewall Hotel in New York being declared a national monument by President Obama in 2016.
Normally, after I posted these videos I would show pictures of proud library teens holding up their art from the hands-on portion of the night, but I didn't take any. BUT there was a hands-on project that everyone worked on after Bobby's presentation, and it was great. Everyone made their own personal pride flag based on things they're proud of themselves for. I loved this spin on the pride flag, becuse even if some of the youth don't identify as LGBTQ+, they all have things to be proud of about themselves!
Here are the videos Bobby showed during his presentation, followed by the few pictures I was able to take tonight.
Also, my favorite picture book on the history of the pride flag is Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders. Please enjoy this video of someone reading it aloud and showing all the gorgeous illustrations.
Time for my annual Pride display! Pride Month is like Christmas for me. I joke that it's the only month of the year I get to be gay at work. It's not, my workplace is super inclusive and accepting, but it IS the time of year that I get to hang rainbows everywhere with relative impunity! This year, I focused on YA fiction and nonfiction books, but invited the whole staff to add books as they found them.
Throughout the month, a lot of books made their way through the display. You can also check out 2017's display list for more titles. Here are the ones you can see in the photo:
Traffic by Ellen Hopkins (YA fiction)
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (YA fiction)
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (YA fiction)
Queer America by Vicki Lynn Eaklor (YA fiction)
Stonewall by Ann Bausum (YA/adult nonfiction)
And She Was by Jessica Verdi (YA fiction)
The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson (YA fiction)
Being Transgender: What You Should Know by Thomas E. Bevin (YA/adult nonfiction)
At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson (YA fiction)
Ship It by Britta Lundon (YA fiction)
FML by Shaun David Hutchinson (YA fiction)
The First Man-Made Man by Pagan Kennedy (Memoir)
Hold Me Close by David Levithan (YA fiction)
Here We Are Now by Jasmin Warga (YA fiction)
Alice and Frida Forever: A Murder in Memphis by Alexis Coe (YA/adult nonfiction)
Journey to Same-Sex Parenting by Eric Rosswood (YA/adult nonfiction)
Becoming an Ally to the Gender-Expansive Child by Anna Bianchi (YA/adult nonfiction)
To draw even more eyes to the display at the front of the library, one of my volunteers made this bulletin board strategically placed in the teen area. The writing on the shooting star reads, "Check out the PRIDE display in the front lobby!"
This storytime is for ages 0-5, but I've decided to structure it as a combination of Toddlertime and Preschool Storytime.
My formula for Saturday Storytime is:
Intro and Hello
Learn Theme Signs
Book #1
Movement Songs
Felt Story/Song
Book #2
Movement Song
Goodbye Song
Bubbles
Take-Home Craft
Intro and Hello Hello Song "Hello Friend"
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!
Friend
Warming Up Motor Skills
"Open, Shut Them"
Stretching "Tall/Small"
This is a short, easy stretch the preschoolers especially get a kick out of.
Learn Theme Signs
Our theme this week is rainbows, so we learned the signs for "colors" and "rainbow."
Rainbow
Colors
Book #1 Hideaway Hedgehog and the Magical Rainbow by Lisa McCue
A super cute tale of a mama hedgehog who stumbles into a leprechaun's golden pot to have her babies, this story can easily be brought to a toddler or preschool level depending on how much dialogic reading you incorporate. It's also adorable that each baby has a different magic power corresponding to their unique color.
Movement Song
"I See Something Blue"
I like to play this song and encourage the kids to find things around the room that match the color the singers mention. This song is pretty mellow and slow-moving, which is good for two reasons. One, it gives even the youngest storytimer a chance to find something of that color and point it out. Two, we all get a chance to practice the signs for the four colors named in the song as well as "color" and "rainbow" at the end.
Felt Story/Song
Today we did a felt story that I didn't make up myself, but tweaked from Rainbow Stew and made my own version. I'm probably over-analyzing, but it really bugged me that everything going into the rainbow stew pot was, in fact, a fruit. So Rainbow Fruit Salad was born. Since the chant was the same for each verse, I encouraged everyone to chant and do the motions along with me.
Red fruit: apple
Orange fruit: orange
Yellow fruit: banana
Green fruit: pear
Blue fruit: blueberries
Purple fruit: grapes
(Put apple and red part of rainbow on felt board)
Chop up an apple, put it in the dish. (mime chopping fruit)
Stir and stir as much as you wish. (mime stirring a large bowl)
Look inside, what color will it be? (hand above your eyes as if looking)
The prettiest red that you ever did see! (ASL sign for "red")
~repeat with all other fruits in rainbow order~
(All fruits and rainbow pieces should be on the board)
Chop up all the fruit, put it in the dish. (mime chopping fruit)
Stir and stir as much as you wish. (mime stirring a large bowl)
Look inside, what color will it be? (hand above eyes as if looking)
The prettiest RAINBOW that you ever did see! (ASL sign for "rainbow")
Movement Songs
Today we did our movement songs with scarves, starting with an a cappella rhyme that ends with everyone throwing their scarf into a pile to make a rainbow:
Wave your scarf high, wave your scarf low.
Wave your scarf fast, wave your scarf slow.
Crumple up your scarf and throw it on three.
One, two, three, whee!
"Color Song"
(vid to come)
"The Freeze" by Greg and Steve
This one has nothing to do with colors, but it was so much fun to make up dances with scarves in between freezes!
Goodbye Song
"Until We Meet Again" from Out of the Box
When we sing this song, I help them recall the sign for friends, and teach them a couple others as we sing. After a while, storytime regulars start to look like native signers!
Take-Home Craft
Since this is a monthly storytime with a theme, I thought it would be fun to provide families with a craft based on the theme to work on when they get home. I put everything needed for the craft in baggies, including an instruction sheet so they know how to do the project once they get home. It's a rainbow fish that helps the child's fine motor skills develop as they practice going over, under, and over again.
Giving a take-home craft as families leave the storytime room is a good way to extend the learning experience after families have left the library. Also, it's a great way to provide a literacy-based craft without having to clean up afterward.
Because June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, I decided to make a display celebrating pride in the Young Adult section of our library. Here are some pictures I took of the display right after I finished it. (Sorry about the weird warping on a couple of them... I attempted to do panoramic view pictures)
Below is the list of books I displayed. For the record, I have not read too many of the books on this list yet. My favorite genre to read is YA fiction, so this list could easily double as my to-do list for the next couple years. Feel free to use as a jumping off point for introducing more LGBTQ+ positive lit in your classroom or library!
YA Fiction
Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinski
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley
Pretend You Love Me by Julie Anne Peters
How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan
Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden
Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva
Hero by Perry Moore
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Ash by Malinda Lo
Lies my Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters
Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn
How I Paid for College: A Novel if Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater by Marc Acito
True Letters for a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
Thinking Straight by Robin Reardon
Promposal by Rhonda Helms
The You I've Never Known by Ellen Hopkins
Drag Teen: A Tale of Angst and Wigs by Jeffrey Self
Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate
You and Me and Him by Kris Dinnison
YA Nonfiction
The ABC's of LGBT+ by Ashley Mardell
Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens by Kathy Belge
"You Can Tell Just by Looking" and 20 Other Myths About LGBT Life and People by Michael Bronski
It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living
This Book is Gay by James Dawson
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out edited by Susan Kuklin
The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities
After saying hello, I asked the kids to shout out their favorite colors. Then we read our first (adorable) story, Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinall. In this story, a group of six penguin siblings try to make their mom the perfect Mother's Day gift. Each penguin has a favorite color, and together the family's signature colors make up the whole rainbow. To make it interactive, I asked the kids to identify the color of each penguin on the pages when all the siblings appear.
After the story, I passed out colored scarves to all the kids and any grownup who wanted one.
I encouraged the kids to dance and play with their scarves while we listened to "The Color Song."
(vid to come)
For a second movement song, I played "It's Time to Stand Up" and we all followed the directions. This is a fun one to do with toddlers because just when they think they've followed the last direction, a new one is fired at them. It keeps their brains moving, and keeps them laughing the whole time.
Our second story was Freight Train by Donald Crews. For some reason, a lot of toddlers are very interested in trains. I don't know why, but it is a fact of life. So between the trains and the rainbow colors, this simple book was enjoyed by everyone.
My last, and best, color idea was one I got from a training last year. Before Toddler Time began I taped different colored die cut stars around the room. The kids wondered what they were for all through storytime, and I finally told them for our last song of the day before saying goodbye: I was going to play a song that mentioned colors, and when they heard a color mentioned they had to run around the room and find a star of that color. They absolutely lost their minds about this song, and it was a lot of fun watching them scamper around hunting for colored stars. A lot of them ripped the stars right off the wall and handed them right to me, which was unexpected but really cute.
If you look closely in this picture, you can see the colored stars stuck to the table.
Here is a list of picture books about colors that I displayed:
