Valentine's Day Party

I have to start by telling you how many people came to this program, because I still can't quite believe it myself: 111! That's not a typo. There were one hundred and eleven people in the children's area of our library this morning!

I think the high attendance was helped by the fact that we had this party directly after Toddler Time. But, I also think our fun seasonal parties have been talked up, and the news has spread among local parenting circles after our extremely successful Snow Day program (which I did not write up because I didn't really have a hand in planning it... But I probably will next year, so stay tuned until December 2018).

Our Valentine's Day Party had four major components: book display, refreshments, Valentine card making, and games.

For the cards, we set out art supplies and some die-cut hearts and other shapes. The refreshments were those delicious soft grocery store sugar cookies, and juice boxes. Neither of these need much more explanation, and I also forgot to take any pictures (I was too busy counting all ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN of our guests!).

We also had two games available to play: Valentine I Spy, and Pin the Kiss on the Frog.

Here are the Valentine I Spy pages procured from Live Laugh Row, printed on 8.5x11 paper and left on tables for kids to play together, alone, or with their grownups:

Pin the Kiss on the Frog was more of a group game, and unfortunately it did not get played. However, Mr. Frog made a great party decoration, and has now found a semi-permanent home on our Spring Into the Library bulletin board display.

The kids had a great time making valentines and eating their treats. I even saw a few books get checked out!

Here is a partial list of the Valentine's books we displayed:

• It’s Valentine’s Day—Prelutsky 
• Groggle’s Monster Valentine—Murray 
• I Love You, Dear Dragon—Hillert 
• Here Comes Valentine Cat—Underwood 
• It’s Valentine’s Day, Chloe Zoe!—Smith 
• Love You Always—Chapman 
• Mr. Goat’s Valentine—Bunting 
• Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse!—Numeroff 
• A Crankenstein Valentine—Berger 
• Llama Llama I Love You—Dewdney 
• The Yuckiest, Stinkiest, Best Valentine Ever—Ferber 
• Panda’s Valentine’s Day—Morrow 

Toddler Time 2-14-18

Today, for the first time since I started working in Mesa, I used a NEW HELLO SONG in Toddler Time! I got this song from my programming partner Sara. This song is a capella; no background music means the kids and parents have to sing along louder. It's also got built in movements with it, and those movements help you keep the beat while you're singing!

I use totally different lyrics, but this video will give you an idea of the tune:

Here are the lyrics we use here:

This is the way we wave hello,
Wave hello, wave hello.
This is the way we wave hello,
Hello, hello, hello.

Repeat with clap, tap (stomping feet), and then close it out with another chorus of wave.

Another reason I love this song is it lends itself perfectly to a goodbye song as well. At the end of storytime, the kids are already familiar with the goodbye song even if it's their first time!

After out new hello song, we continued with the rest of my regular storytime intro (minus "Hello Friends").

Our first story today was actually a flannel board story: Teddy Wore His Red Shirt. If you are familiar with "Mary Wore Her Red Dress," this is the same song and concept. We repeated the song for Teddy's red dress, blue pants, yellow hat, green socks, black mittens, and then Teddy's whole outfit.

Teddy wore his outfit,
Outfit, outfit,
Teddy wore his outfit
All day long.

For our two movement songs today, I went for classics: "Happy and You Know It" and "Hokey Pokey." I think it's adorable that some of my storytime regulars and their parents know my version of "Happy and You Know It" includes tickle bugs.

Click here for my version of the Hokey Pokey

Our book today was The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. I chose this one for the day because it's Valentine's Day! It's a cute story about a girl making valentines for all her friends using the hearts that fall from the sky. 

Our last movement songs were "Baby Shark" and "Peek-a-Boo." 

Click here to listen to the version of "Peek-a-Boo" I use

Then, we sang our new a capella goodbye song, followed by bubbles.

This is the way we wave goodbye,

Wave goodbye, wave goodbye.

This is the way we wave goodbye,

Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

Repeat with clap, tap (stomping feet), and then close it out with another chorus of wave.

After saying goodbye I invited everyone to our Valentine's Day Party in the children's room of the library. They all joined me for cookies and valentine making!

Learn & Grow With Rhythm & Flow 2-9-18

This morning, after saying hello to our friends with our regular introduction, I actually deviated from the usual Rhythm & Flow plan. For the first time since this program started I did not do the Heckity Peckity rhyme! I could say I wanted to put more variety into my storytime, but the truth is, I forgot my bumble bee finger puppet at my desk. It worked out okay, though, because with the passig out and collecting of rhythm sticks, we ended up just about on time.

After the intro, we sang the incomparable "Goldfish Song" because I could tell there were some extra wiggles in the room this morning. Before singing this song, I like to teach the kids the phrase, "Wait a minute, we're fish!" so they are ready when it comes up in the song.

At this point, I passed out a pair of rhythm sticks to each child. I like to tell them that I have two rules for rhythm sticks:
1. The only people who get sticks are the ones sitting calmly in one place.
2. Don't hit your friends.

They think it's hilarious when I make them repeat "Don't hit your friends" several times, but it's effective. They do not hit their friends. Actually, everyone was incredibly calm and respectful of the sticks today.

After everyone got their sticks, we learned a short rhyme. Along with it, we did a rhythm with our sticks. The X's show a place to hit the floor with your sticks, and the O's show a place to hit them together.

Rain on the rooftop
  X    X        O

Rain on the tree
  X    X        O

Rain on the green grass
  X    X        O

But none on me!
       X      X  O

This diagram is not exact, which is why it doesn't seem like an even rhythm... But it is, I promise. Two hits on the floor, and one tap of the sticks together. It's a simple pattern that kids find easy to follow, but that still does the job of waking up the music centers in their brains. In addition to tapping this rhythm with the rhyme, we turned off our voices and tapped it alone a few times. I think this really helped drive home the rhythm for the kids and grownups.

After our a cappella stick exercise, we practiced following directions while tapping to "Tapping on My Sticks."

After collecting the sticks, it was already time to say goodbye! My biggest tip for using any prop in storytime, from scarves to egg shakers to rhythm sticks, is to remember to build the time to pass out and collect the props into your storytime plan. With an especially large and/or wiggly group, it can take up to five full minutes just to make sure everyone has an egg shaker! In a 30 minute storytime, 5 minutes counts. This is valuable time that teaches preschool-age kids a lot about cooperation and being patient, so the time is not wasted. It's just something you need to account for so the program doesn't go overtime.

Baby Lapsit 2-9-18

Even considering last week's success in a themed Baby Lapsit, I went back to no theme this week. After saying hello to all our friends, our first book was Why Cry by Yusuke Yonezu. This book is a good one for babies and toddlers, because it teaches about emotions and normalizes sadness. As children are developing, it's important that they learn it's okay to cry and be sad sometimes, and that these feelings don't last forever. The book also has a cut-out half circle in each page, that turns to a rainbow by the last page.

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)

Our musical lap bounces today were "Noble Duke of York" and "Humpty Dumpty." Since my version of "Humpty Dumpty" repeats the nursery rhyme three times, I suggested to the grownups that their baby's "great fall" be in a different direction each time.

Our second book today was Rainy Day by Dan Yaccarino, from the Happyland series. This book was interesting to read to a room full of babies (and one two-year-old big sister) because it only has words on every other page. The others show Glub Glub performing an action: putting on his rain boots, dancing in the rain, etc. I realized that while babies might not be the ideal audience for a book like this, toddlers or preschoolers might. It leaves lots of room for discussion: "What is Glub Glub doing? How do you think he feels?"

We did two movement songs before saying goodbye today. First, we practiced "Hush Little Baby" with the sign language.

Here is the version of the song that I use, and here is a video showing the correct signs to go with the song.

We also sang "One, Two Hands" by Laurie Berkner today, because she's a storytime goddess and her songs are fantastic. When we sing this song, I like to remind parents that an important part of a baby's development is learning who they are, and where they exist in space. Naming their body parts is an important part of this, and this song helps begin that conversation.

Bird Feeder Challenge

February is National Bird Feeding Month! This was a very cool program conceived and planned by Sara, but carried out by me because she was out sick. I actually debated posting it on my blog because this program was not technically mine, but I love the idea and the pictures of all the kids with their finished bird feeders. I figure as long as I don't take credit for the idea, we're good to go.

The Bird Feeder Challenge was a program for school-age kiddos, and had three basic parts. First, we talked about all the aspects that make up a good bird feeder, and why. Second, the kids had some time to make their own bird feeders out of found objects, Crisco (in lieu of peanut butter in case of allergies), and bird seed. Third, each child got a chance to stand up in front of the group and tell us about their bird feeder.

First, we made a list of everything a bird feeder needs to be successful. Here is what they came up with:

I left this list up so they could refer back as they constructed their own feeders. 

The building process:

After the building time was over, some of the kids were reluctant to tell everyone else about their creation. A couple of them preferred to sit instead of stand, but eventually all twelve kiddos told us where the bird(s) stand, how they get their food, and what is special about their creation. 

In addition to being lots of messy fun, there was an important educational element to this program. The actual construction of the bird feeders encourages STEAM concepts such as engineering and architecture. 

If I were to do this program again, the only thing I'd change is taking a little more time at the beginning to talk about bird feeder construction before launching into the list-making. Luckily this group all had a pretty good idea of what a bird feeder is, but not all kids do. This was actually a suggestion made by a mom. I learn something new with every program I present!

Here are some of the kids with their finished bird feeders (posted with parent permission).

Baby Lapsit 2-2-18: Transportation 2.0

 I did something that I haven't done in a while; a theme in Baby Lapsit!

Themes in the baby storytime don't always go over great, because the kids are too young to understand what a theme is and the parents just want enriching activities for their babies. However, if you can manage to find worthwhile, enriching activities on a solid theme, good for you! I feel like I was able to hit that balance today, with my second shot at a transportation-theme Baby Lapsit.

After saying hello, I introduced the theme of transportation (you can also call it "Things That Go" Storytime), and we learned the signs for "bicycle" and "fire truck." While there are a lot of vehicle signs to choose from, I didn't want to overwhelm the grownups with a million signs. I chose these two because I knew they would come up later in stories and songs, giving us an opportunity to practice them.

Bicycle

Fire

Truck

Our first story was Everything Goes by Brian Biggs. This board book works great for babies, because it counts to ten and introduces many different types of vehicles. It also allowed for us to practice the signs for "bicycle," "fire truck," "food truck," and the numbers 1-10.

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)

Our musical lap bounces today were "Little Red Wagon" and "Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck." 

Our second book was Fire Engine No. 9 by Mike Austin. I love this book because it has very few words, but not no words at all. It's helpful for explaining the steps to putting out a fire, and a great companion to the fire truck song. 

Instead of adding another movement song before saying goodbye, we transitioned straight into "Peek-a-Boo" and "Skidamarink," before bubbles and toy time. 

I'm A Little Bit Famous Again

Tonight our library hosted Harry Potter Book Night, part of a nationwide night of celebration of the series. The program was originally thought up by my youth services partner Sara, and worked on by several members of our staff. We set it up as stations throughout the library, mostly in out collaboration space called THINKspot and the Children's Room.

Stations included "potion" making (tasty juice and soda with food coloring), wand painting, "howler" paper crafts, sorting kids into their houses, and a costume contest. I had limited involvement with a lot of the planning, so I'll let my coworkers report on the specifics on their blogs if they wish. However, I was free and able to travel downtown to the Arizona Midday studio to appear on a segment promoting Harry Potter Book Night to the whole valley. So, I am famous again!

I am not able to embed the video, but it is immortalized forever on the Arizona Midday website.

Watch my segment of Arizona Midday here!

Visiting the TV studio was a surreal experience. The closest thing I've experienced in the past is a recording studio as a kid. Everything was on platforms, which were themselves on wheels, and nothing was as sturdy as it looked.

The studio from my perch in the waiting area

My shooting location with my props on the table

Teleprompter

Me and the host after shooting the segment

This is a video showing how to make the Howler craft. It isn't nearly as complicated as it looks.

This is an example of the wands. Basically, you make a design with hot glue on the fat end of a chopstick and let it dry, then paint over it. 

Also, our local newspaper Nearby News stopped by for the event and ran this short feature on it.

The program itself went great with over 100 people in attendance. Harry Potter is always a slam dunk!