Baby Lapsit June 2018

My Baby Lapsit formula is:

Intro and hello
Board Book #1
Lap Bounce Journey ("Bumpy Road/Smooth Road" and two recorded songs)
Board Book #2
Movement song or another lap bounce song (optional, depends on time)
Peek-a-Boo
Goodbye
Bubbles and Community Playtime

June 8th
Board Book #1
Frida: A Bilingual Counting Book by Patty Rodriguez

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

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)

"This is the Way the Ladies Ride"

"Noble Duke of York"

Board Book #2

There, There by Taro Miura

Movement Song

"I'm A Little Teapot/Two Little Blackbirds"

Click here for the version I use

And here is Jbrary demonstrating the same moves I teach the kids for both classic nursery rhymes.

June 15th

Board Book #1

Hug Machine by Scott Campbell

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"Humpty Dumpty"

"Hurry, Hurry, Drive That Firetruck"

Board Book #2

Are You My Mommy? by Joyce Wan

Fun fact: This is the book I used in my job interview! I like to teach the sign for "mommy" and have the kids and grownups practice it with me each time the bunny asks if someone is his mommy.

Movement Song

"Wheels on the Bus"

Click here for the version I use

June 22nd

Board Book #1

Curious George's 1 to 10 and Back Again by H.A. Ray

Lap Bounce Journey

"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"Noble Duke of York"

"Milkshake"

Board Book #2

How Do Dinosaurs Learn their Colors? by Jane Yolen

Tip: This is a great one to practice the Baby Signs or American Sign Language signs for the colors while reading.

Movement Song

"One, Two Hands"

June 29th
Theme: Babies
Board Book #1
Baby Animal Farm by Karen Blair

Lap Bounce Journey
"Bumpy Road/Smooth Road"

"This is the Way the Ladies Ride"

"Pop Goes the Weasel"

Board Book #2
Baby Party by Rebecca O'Connell

Movement Song
"Baby, Put Your Pants On"
We did pants/leg, shirt/arm, and hat/head.

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!

Build Your Own Musical Instrument

This program was absolute insanity, in a good way! Our program participation numbers have been off the charts so far this summer; we've been capping it at 250 and still turning people away at the door. Today was an especially big deal because we had two fantastic musical programs back-to-back.

The first one, organized and facilitated by my wonderful programming partner Sara, was the local string trio Triad, who performed a concert for an audience of over 200 people of all ages in a program we called Kids Music Lab. Not only did they perform a bunch of kids' hits (songs from Frozen, Moana, and The Greatest Showman among others), they also gave talks about their instruments, how they became musicians, and how they formed their group. I think it was especially inspirational to the kids in the audience who play instruments at school, because all three women made a point to mention they all got their start playing instruments through the Mesa Public School System's music programs.

Here are a few blurry shots of their performance from my circa-2005 digital camera that's probably close to a dramatic technological death.

Top hats for The Greatest Showman medley 

Shark hats for the Jaws theme and other movie themes medley

After Triad was finished with their performance, we brought out tables of craft supplies that had been pre-set just out of reach of the patrons. On each table was a different "build your own musical instrument" craft, each made of household items.

Here are the signs I put on each table, so people could mingle and craft at their leisure. Below is a list of all supplies you would need for each craft. By the end of the hour, we were almost completely cleaned out of supplies and I saw some very happy kiddos leaving with their new instruments!

• Paper Plate Tambourine
• Paper plates (not styrofoam)
• Hole puncher
• Ribbon
• Jungle bells
• Decoration materials
• Craft Stick Harmonica
• Tongue depressors
• Index cards
• Rubber bands
• Decoration materials
• Tissue Box Guitar
• Empty tissue boxes
• Thick rubber bands
• Decoration materials
• Textured noisemakers
• Pool noodles
• Plastic knives
• (I pre-cut the noisemakers to length, but let kids and their caregivers cut them in half themselves with plastic knives. There were no cuts or other safety issues, yay!)
• TP Roll Kazoo
• Toilet paper rolls
• Wax paper
• Rubber bands
• Decoration materials

Sign Language Storytime: Feelings

My Sign Language Storytime format is:
Intro and hello
Felt story
Movement song or video
Book
Movement song
Goodbye

This storytime is special for a couple of reasons. First, it's the only one that I give a handout with pictures of the signs on it, so that the kids and grownups can refer to it during storytime and then practice at home. Second, I'm experimenting with adding an AV component to storytime by showing videos to follow along with instead of just listening to songs.

Handout:

Intro and hello:
Hello: "Hello Friends"
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!

Warming Up Motor Skills: "Open, Shut Them"

On this song we do the movements described in the lyrics: open our hands, close our hands, clap three times, put our hands in our lap, creep our fingers up to our chin, and don't let them in our mouths.

Stretch: "Tall/Small"

This is a short, easy stretch the kids get a kick out of. While we're stretching, I like to encourage them to reach for the ceiling, touch their toes, then make themselves into a tiny ball.

Felt Story

"If You're Happy and You Know It"

Almost everyone knows this classic song. We sing it with five different emotions, and practice the feelings signs whenever we name that feeling.

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands (*Clap clap*)
If you're sad and you know it, say "boo hoo" (Boo hoo!)
If you're scared and you know it, say "oh no" (Oh no!)
If you're angry and you know it, give a frown (Grr grr!)
If you're excited and you know it, say "yipee" (Yipee!)

Video

"Feelings Song" by Dream English Kids

During the video, I encouraged everyone to practice along. Using videos in storytime is still something I'm trying out, but it's going well so far.

Book

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard

This book teaches a great lesson about cheering up your friends, and also provides a great opportunity to practice the sign for "mad" or "grumpy."

Movement Song
"Feelings" by Mary Trachsel
A nice simple song that kids and grownups can easily sign along to. It's also very short, so I usually repeat it twice.

Goodbye

"Until We Meet Again" from Out of the Box

When we sing this song, I help them recall the sign for friends from the hello song, and teach them a couple others as we sing: meet, time, and say.

Friends

Meet

Goodbye

This is the only storytime that I don't close with bubbles, because directly following is another program called Stay and Play where I set out 4-5 bins of toys for a 30 minute free play. Adding bubbles to that seems to be too much stimulation.