Falling into Art

This fall for programming, I decided I wanted to reach out to a new group that wasn't being reached as much as I'd like -- the preschool to 2nd grade demographic. This is a fun age to work with, as these kids love trying new things. I thought long and hard about what sort of programming would work well for this group; I'd had luck with our stand alone programming, such as our Princess Tea and our Superhero Party, but I wanted something more regular.

Then it hit me: art! We're not talking about crafts here. We're talking art. The kind parents hate doing at home because it's so messy. Since we're a library, and we're used to messes, this seemed like the perfect outlet for these kids to express their creative urges. I wanted more than simply projects, though. I wanted this program to be about tactile experience, too. I wanted to give kids a ton of different options for creating and I wanted it to be done through means that would be unique and develop some of those fine motor skills that are so important at that age. Of course, these programs translate well for older kids, too, and at my library, sometimes big brothers or sisters have stopped in with their younger siblings, and they've found making art just as fun as the little ones.

I bought a few key supplies before fall and winter programming began to prepare for this program, and I made sure on all of our advertising that it mentioned these art projects can get messy and to dress for it. I've had no complaints about that, and by purchasing large, pump-lidded paints (pictured above and purchased through Discount School Supply), as well as large plastic lunch trays (also through Discount School Supply), I've ensured that what could turn into a very messy project is actually very manageable. Washable trays keep tables from becoming makeshift art pieces quite nicely.

In the program, I like offering more than one project, allowing kids to do any of them they like or all of them, too. If you're looking for a fall project, here's what we did earlier this month!

I focused all of my ideas on leaves this month, and the day of the program, I went for a walk up and down the street where my library was, picking up leaves in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Though I felt a little like a crazy lady picking up leaves from people's yards, no one looked at me twice. Perhaps I've a reputation. Alas, as you can see above, I filled a small storage tub with them. Cost? $0.

Then I set up two of the three projects at one table:

I spread a pile of leaves down the center of the tables, with a project on either side. On the right, this:


Leaf rubbing! I pulled out a box of our crayons and made an example of what leaf rubbings looked like. This is a satisfying project for kids because they get to be a little messy with coloring and still enjoy seeing something that looks like a leaf. It's one they can make into something really artistic and it's one that they can simply enjoy doing without a plan in mind. We had a little of both.

On the left side of the table, this project:

Leaf collages. The kids were able to put leaves into any shape or design they wished to (and some simply piled them one on top of another) and then I put down a piece of contact paper to keep them in place. The nice thing about this project is that the leaves will stay nice for a long time, making it a piece of art they can hold on to for a long time. Supplies needed? Scissors, contact paper, and construction paper. All of those are things probably hanging out on a shelf in your supply area for free.

On the other side of the room, I set up our other project -- one that required the lunch trays, clothes that can get messy, and ample paper towels and hand wipes for the kids (and parents, too):

I pulled out a pile of paper plates, some paint brushes, a couple cups of water, and, as you can see on the far right, the remaining box of leaves. The third project was making these:

Leaf prints! For this project, the kids pulled out leaves, painted them however they wanted to (yes, right on the leaf) and then pressed them down on the paper. While the kids were doing this, I kept trying my hand at it, as my example didn't seem to do much to show the veins of the leaves. I eventually found -- thanks to the help of kids who were much smarter than me -- that painting the back side of the leave would highlight the veins a lot more. Lesson learned.

This simple-to-assemble program was a big hit, and even after some of the kids finished all of the projects, they went back and made second and thirds of some of them. The cost is little more than picking up the leaves, and we probably have plenty of those to spare this time of year.

These programs are great for the family, as often this age group wants a little help from mom and dad. But what I think is important to remember in doing a program like this is less about making the right kind of art piece and more about experiencing the process of making art. As you can see, my examples are extremely simple and even, if you will, lazy. I don't want the kids or parents to feel like they need to make things the way I do. Art is about expressing as you want to, and while kids are usually so eager to do that, it's often parents who insist on making things like examples (storytime crafters are probably familiar with this phenomenon). In these projects specifically, there are so many sensory elements to the art, and I think it's important to step back and let the art come to the kids. If they want to just paint a leaf and not press it, let it happen. If they want to just paint and not bother with the leaves? Let it happen.

Going Green: A Recycled Costume Show

The theme of the week is no cost programming, and today's program at work was one of the favorites so far this summer: a recycled costume show.

I mentioned before that there are always programs you inherit when you start a new job, and this is one of the traditional summer programs at my library. I think it's a really cool program and one I plan on keeping around. It's easy to organize and cost free, and it lets kids of all ages express their creativity.

Supplies

This is an easy one: anything recycled. But start saving things well in advance of your program, and have your staff help out. I had bubble wrap, packing paper, cardboard, tinsel, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, cereal boxes, soda bottles, and other regularly recyclable materials. My supplies also included most of last year's summer reading club decorations, which meant there were a ton of shark fins, some plastic shovels and goggles, and, perhaps the crowd favorite, the wicker luau fans like these.

I then pulled out glue, scissors, yarn, stick on foam shapes, craft fuzz balls, tape, duct tape, and a handful of other supplies I wanted to deplete.

Set Up

In the past, this program has been held under our big outdoor tent, with a "red carpet" positioned in the middle so that at the end of creation time, the kids could walk the runway to the MC. That was the plan for this year until we had an extreme heat warning issued, and I decided it was best to keep this program inside. The contingency plan involved putting all the non-recyclables on the floor and the craft supplies on one table. We pulled together a punch of tables for the kids to create on, some with chairs and some without (as I've found, the kids are all different about their preference, so I leave it open).

I didn't want to miss out on the kids showing off their creations, so my contingency was a library parade. I told the kids 10 minutes prior to the end of the program, we'd go on a parade throughout the stacks.

Running the Program

Like with the beaded creations program, I made no plans. Instead, I made myself available to the kids for helping with cutting, knot tying, etc. I told the kids as they came to make anything they wanted to, and they did!

As soon as creation time was done, we lined up and took a tour of the library. Some of the kids thought this parade was the best part of the program because they got to have the attention of all the patrons. Everyone got to oooh and ahhh over their costumes. Costumes ranged from an incredible robot (body and helmit with a jet pack in the back!) to a mask with a straw attached (so she could wear a mask and still drink water), as well as crowns, wigs, and bubble wrap skirts. The teens who showed up made themselves an elephant hat (which she plans to wear for Halloween) and a mailbox hat. These kids were wildly creative and imaginative, and I'm eager to go through our photos, since I know I didn't get to see everything they made.

Once our parade was done, I took the kids back to our creation space and told them the program was over, but they should feel free to take any supplies they wanted to to continue their costumes at home. Lucky for me, many of them did, meaning I had fewer things to put back into storage for next year's costume show.

Lessons Learned

What I loved about this program was it really brought in all ages. I had very young kids and I had teenagers making costume pieces. They even helped one another out, which is always one of those end goals.

I had my intern helping me out with this program, but were I doing it again, I'd love more help. While it requires little in terms of set up and in instruction, it sure helps to have people around for clean up and for taking photos and helping kids with some of the harder tasks, such as cutting tape or making holds through cardboard, etc.

I'd also make the parade a bigger deal -- I can't get too down about this, though, since this was a serious last minute improvisation for the fact I decided not to hold the program outside in the heat. But the kids loved it so much, I do plan on doing that part again. The parents got a kick out of taking photos of their kids marching in the parade, and the kids liked to show off everything they'd made (and not all of them made costumes, so not having a runway show let everyone show off what they made, regardless of whether it was wearable or not).

This is a program I highly recommend for all ages, and it's one that can be done any time of the year, and one that could be particularly well done during April's Earth Week. What a way to encourage kids to recycle and to think about the ways the things they use every day can be re-purposed. We don't always have to teach through lecturing; sometimes, it's as simple as letting them create and discover.

Costs

$0.

Really, what do you have to lose?

At the Zoo Storytime

This was my final story time of the school year, and I'm glad it ended up being one of the most fun. I brought a pile of books with me, and for each group, I read a few different books. The zoo theme was inspired by Abby (the) Librarian's post about a zoo theme and because one of my groups this week had just gotten back from their own trip to the zoo.

We started out by singing "The Animals at the Zoo" (tune of "Wheels on the Bus")
The snake at the zoo goes hiss hiss hiss,
Hiss hiss hiss
Hiss hiss hiss
The snake at the zoo goes hiss hiss hiss,
All day long

and so forth. The beauty of this song is it can go on as short or as long as the kids interests dictate, and they can be the ones in charge of deciding what animals to sing about. I'm a huge fan of letting them dictate the animals we sing, but if you do that, be prepared to decide what noise a zebra makes stat. I suggested to the day care kids (they're 2 - 4 years old) that the zebra could snort, but they weren't having it. . .

Then I read these stories to the different groups:

Never, Ever Shout in a Zoo by Karma Wilson

If you haven't noticed, I'm a huge fan of Wilson's books. The text is just enough rhyme to work without being overpowering.


1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman

This story is way cute, and the kids in all of the groups loved it. A little boy sneaks into the zoo before it opens and sees all of the crazy hijinks that happen when one of the animals gets a key and lets the others loose. The pictures were the favorite part to the kids, who loved looking for the sneaky fox in some of them.


A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C Stead

I only read this one to my oldest group, which is a kindergarten class. They absolutely loved this one. It's such a sweet story, but I think it is geared a little older than preschoolers. I was worried it'd be over the kindergartners' appreciation levels but I was so wrong. When I finished, they wanted me to reread it.


Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

This popup book was one I could have the kids participate with. Each time we got to a new page, we had a flap to open, and I had the kids call out what they thought was inside. And it was the frog that tripped them up every time. A fun book and they begged me to read it more than once. But I still said no because of the next book.


From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

I bought this one in extra large, and I had the kids participate in doing the actions. What fun! I had to give them the warning to be very careful when kicking, but they were all very good sports about it. This is the story they begged to be read more than once, and I did it more than once in each class because I had a blast watching the kids act out the animal motions.

After reading, we played our last game of "Little Mouse," and my preschoolers each begged to kiss him goodbye. This is the same preschool group that broke my original little mouse with their kisses and hugs, but oh, it's worth it. They get a kick out of it.

And finally, our craft. I debated what I wanted to do, but then I pulled this one out since it was easy, fun, and one that required nearly no prep (after the spider hats and prep therein, I was ready for easy...as were my volunteers!):


We made our own snakes. This is such an easy one, and the kids have a blast making the snake exactly how they want to.

To make it, cut a plate into a spiral, until you have a small circle in the center for the head. Color as you want to, then glue on wiggly eyes and a small piece of red felt for a tongue. Voila!

Get Buggy!

This week's story time has been one of my favorite, and I think the same can be said for the kids (though my volunteers may hate me for the craft). Alas, we did bugs. It was fun, too, because it seems the teachers were really into this theme -- one mentioned they wouldn't be able to get to their insect unit in class this year, so it was nice to give them a little bit of that in story time.

We started with If You're Happy and You Know It as our song. I love doing this song, especially since it gives the kids a chance to shout.

I packed about six books for this theme, but in both sets of story times this week, I ended up sharing the same four stories since they were all huge hits.

First:


The Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out (Big Time) by Troy Cummings: The kids totally loved this book about a spider who gets scared when the rain on the waterspout threatens to knock her down. The entire book follows Eensy's desire to climb again, and we see her learn to climb a pot, then a mailbox, then a dog, then a house, until finally...she climbs a rocket and sees the earth from outer space. The kids were oohing and ahhing over this one.



The Hungry Little Caterpillar by Eric Carle: A classic story that all of the kids had heard before but you know what? I think bringing in favorites is a good thing. The kids still loved it and were still captivated by how much the caterpillar ate. If you don't incorporate some classic/well-known stories in your story time, I think you're missing out. Kids don't care how many times they've heard it; each reading experience is still fun to them.


I Love Bugs! by Emma Dodd: Although this is plotless, the pictures of different insects are so fun, it doesn't matter. The illustrations capture the interest of a crowd so easily. I really like Dodd's style, and she's become a bit of a go-to. It's a quick read, but it was all a nice lead up to the final story I shared with the kids.


Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas: This book requires -- yes, requires -- the kids to participate. They stand, sit, stand, then wiggle and make scary faces. It's fantastic, and it's a great way to end a story time. One of my classes begged me to read it again.

For a craft, we made spider hats:

I got this photo from another website, but it kind of shows what we did. We took long strips of black paper to form a head band. Using legal size paper, we needed a strip and a half of paper an inch or so wide. I stapled the long strip and half a strip together. Then, we cut more strips of paper into 1/4 inch strips -- enough for 8 to give each kid. The kids folded the paper to make the legs slinky, then glued them onto the headband portion of the spider (which served as the body). And of course, the kids got googly eyes to attach, too. An easy but labor-intensive craft to prep in the classroom on a tight schedule. Fortunately, I have a lot of volunteer help to make it happen for 120 kids. Here are instructions for a twist on my craft, and a better photo of what it might look like.

Ever done a bug story time? I know Awesome Storytime inspired me to do this one, but I don't think I had much book overlap this time because there are so many good insect books.

Rainbow Storytime

If you don't know about the fabulous Sarah's Awesome Storytime blog and you do preschool storytimes, become familiar. I get so many of my ideas from her, and the bulk of this week's small story time (small being a relative term for 70 kids, of course) came from one of her posts. The theme? Colors and Rainbows. This was one of my and the kids' favorite story times so far.

Rather than sing a song, I started my story times this week by playing "Simon Says." While the kids didn't want to play fair in any of the classes, it did not matter. The kids absolutely loved getting up and acting silly, and frankly, it was amusing for me to make them walk in circles clucking like chickens. In one of my classes, I let one of the kids be Simon, and he had as much fun as I did making us do things. A nice change up from the routine.

Then we dove into three stories:


Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. The kids loved telling me what happens when the sun and rain happen at the same time, and the pictures in this book are so fun.


Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier. This story is so colorful and fun. We chose different pages to not only talk colors, but talk shapes and objects, and we even counted. The kids loved counting the dots on the different items, and they loved finding the smaller dots within dots. I've had my eye on this book for a while because it's so pretty, and I'm glad it was easy and fun to use in story time. The kids were even begging to see the end pages, which are nothing but colorful dots. I highly, highly recommend using this book in a story time, and I will work it in again in the future.

Then, I tried out something totally different: a flannel board story. I've never done one before, but thanks to Sarah's inspiration, I knew I could do it for this last story. So the book was this one:

Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd. In this story, the dog on the cover finds himself with not just the black dot he was born with, but with nine additional, non-permanent dots that come about through his daily adventures.

I made up a copy of our dog by tracing the dog on the cover through white felt, then I cut out the 9 colored dots dog earns through the story.


Then I had nine kids be volunteers for the story. As I read it, I told them to come up and put their dot on dog when their color was mentioned in the book. They loved it. The kids had a real blast with the story and by interacting with the flannel. Plus, they secretly got to play with dots (which they loved in the previous story) AND they worked on their color recognition skills and their listening skills.

I should note, since I work with a very young group during this day, as well, I did end up doing the dot placing myself for the day care kids. They really loved this, as it made the story come that much more alive. Even the teachers got a kick out of this method of telling a story.

When we finished this story and flannel, we played two quick games of Little Mouse before making our craft:


I printed up copies of the rainbow template from here, then I cut about three sheets of each rainbow color for the kids to use. The way I did the craft was a little time consuming, but for the group that does the craft, the teachers liked this because it gave them a project they could work on during my time at the school and when they had down time later in the afternoon. Katie has done this craft too, and I love how her rainbow turned out. Lots of possibilities, and the kids had fun making it all their own.

Birthday Storytime!

The story time I've been doing this month has been one of my most successful, and I must give a big thanks to Dr. Seuss himself for it. This month's theme was birthday, and I was lucky enough to get to do two of the bigger groups on March 2, just in time to celebrate one of kidlit's most famous authors.

I started this story time with a song. I had all of the kids stand and pretend they were preparing for a party and we needed to sing a song. They loved this one.

(Make hands into a bowl)
Jelly in a bowl,
Jelly in a bowl,
Wiggle Waggle
Wiggle Waggle
Jelly in a bowl.

(Make hands into a jar) -- I had the kids guess what we'd be bringing next.
Cookies in a jar,
Cookies in a jar,
Shake 'em up,
Shake 'em up,
Cookies in a jar.

(Make all 10 fingers into candles) -- I asked the kids what went on top of a cake.
Candles on the cake,
Candles on the cake,
Blow them out,
Blow them out,
Candles on the cake.

After our song, I shared three stories:


I Want Two Birthdays by Tony Ross: This is a story about a girl who thinks she should have a birthday every day. I began by asking the kids if they wanted two birthdays (and strangely, most said they did -- their real one and the one they have their birthday party on). But by the end, the kids didn't want two birthdays anymore.

Happy Birthday, Monster by Scott Beck: This one's about a dinosaur that makes a birthday cake for his friend, who happens to be a monster (a dragon, actually). This one's a tough one to read aloud because there's a lot of hilarious dialog. I did end up reading the dialog to the kids who appreciated it. But it was a little annoying for me as a reader, so by the third time I read the story, I decided instead to just have the kids tell me what the weird creatures were doing. I also asked some questions about the pictures (such as, would the ghost be good at jump rope?). They liked it a lot both ways.


Don't Spill the Beans by Ian Schoenherr: I didn't care for this one as much as I thought I did. The story isn't obvious enough, and I was prepared to swap it out but my replacement book went MIA the morning of story time. Alas. I asked the kids if they knew what it meant to not spill the beans, and then I explained it to them. But their answers were better; one said it was a game he had at home and another said it meant (completely serious) not to spill the beans!

After stories, we sang another song -- we had to! How could you share a birthday story time without singing Happy Birthday? The first day, we sang it to "everyone," but then we were lucky and got to sing it to Dr. Seuss.

As I've mentioned before, the "Little Mouse" game is one of my favorite story time activities. It's an easy guessing game, and it helps the kids work on their color recognition skills. Well, I promised my favorite group (more on them in a second!) I'd switch it up this week. So instead of "Little Mouse" we had...

"Little Snake!" Naturally, he hid beneath a birthday cake.

This was extremely simple to create -- both the snake and the cakes were in my Word clip art, so I didn't even have to look hard for them. I then covered them in contact paper and stuck sandpaper squares on the back, and wham! I now have a new go-to game, and the kids were in LOVE with it. My favorite group has the most ridiculous (cute) habit, which is to beg to see the "little" friend every time I visit them. Why? Well, each and every one of them gives him a hug and a kiss good bye! This time, not only did the snake get his good bye, but each of the cakes also got recognition. Too sweet.

For the craft groups, we made our own sprinkled birthday cake:

A Google image search will give you twelve billion coloring page options for cake, but I liked this one because it let me add the key part of the craft: the glitter. I let each kid color the sheets and pick out 4 to 5 sequins for the inside of their cakes. Although mine had a cotton ball on top for the whipped cream, I didn't end up bringing that with for the kids.

While they colored, I came by each kid with a glue stick and glitter shaker. I let them pick where to put the glitter -- and I let them but it anywhere in any amount -- and then I glittered for them. It kept it less messy, and we didn't need a box lid to catch the excess.

This was a hit of a craft. Super simple and customizable, and each kid's product came out completely different. A real winner of a story time!

Pet Storytime

It's been a while since I've shared a story time plan. This one was for the last few weeks. I'm so tired of snow and cold and refuse to do a winter story time. So, I went with a more fun topic: pets.

There aren't any really good songs I know about pets, but I had two in mind and played it by ear which one to share. We did "Old McDonald" for a few of the classes and then mixed in "BINGO" for some of the others.

Then I shared these stories:


The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle: This is a cute story about a boy who asks his mother repeatedly to get a dog and she gives many reasons why a dog is not a good pet. Finally, he gives in and asks for a dragon. She says to him if he can find one, he can have one. Low and behold, he finds one. But the dragon isn't as fun as the boy thought, and his mom isn't pleased either. She finally relents and lets him have a dog since "Dragons are afraid of dogs."

It's a simplistic story but the kids love the dragon. He eats spaghetti in the tub, even. I have some issues with how this story reads; it's too many simple sentences, so when I shared it, I did a little of my own improvising to make it smoother. No one cared.


What Pet to Get by Emma Dodd: I LOVE Dodd's style so much. This is another story about a boy wanting a pet. He asks about a ton of exotic pets -- a T-Rex, a lion, a giraffe and many others -- and each of the images is hilarious. In the end, he chooses a normal pet, but the way it's illustrated makes it look huge and scary. The kids liked this story a lot and all of them get a kick out of the end.


The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble and illustrated by Steven Kellogg: I originally brought the oversized book to my first classes but soon realized how unwieldy it was to hold and read. My reading became too choppy for me to stand, and I decided in my later classes to ditch the novelty for the standard book.

This was one of my favorite stories growing up, but I found that it didn't go over quite as well as I wished. My kids are in preschool and kindergarten, and part of me wonders if this is a book better appreciated by older reads or if it is the kind of book I should have begun my story time with, rather than end with. Oh well. You can't know until you try.

After stories, I played a couple rounds of "Little Mouse" with the kids and then we made this craft together. My coworker asked me if I needed any help prepping a craft about a month ago, and I said I needed some kind of pet craft for February. I gave her my parameters -- something that has just a few steps, lets the kids make some choices so they feel ownership over it, and something that can be done in about ten minutes.

I think she did really well in giving me this:


Everyone got to make their own pet birds!

This craft was exceedingly simple: it required a few feathers, two googly eyes, a paper bag, and yellow paper. My coworker cut the triangles for me, and I rounded up a ton of different colored feathers. When we got the kids situated to make the bird, each had their eyes and beaks handed to them. While they glued, I came around and let the kids each pick out 4 or 5 feathers and let them glue them anywhere they wanted to.

Some of my kids made paper bag horses and dogs, but most made birds that were much more creative than mine. And this craft was a total hit: who DOESN'T like a project that can be played with and involves using feathers and googly eyes. There aren't enough things like this, I tell you.

I had one kid ask me to have a conversation with the bird while it was on my hand. Not being one to miss an opportunity to let the kids be creative, I told him mine was actually mute but I couldn't wait to hear his. I totally did, too.

Halloween Storytime

This week was my short story time week -- only 3 classes (Preschool, Kindergarten, and the Day Care for a total of about 60 kids). The theme was Halloween.

We started by singing the always fun "If You're Happy and You Know it." Since this was a Lutheran school, I was informed in the first class that we don't shout "hooray" but "amen." I went with it.

Then, I shared three stories:


Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin is a fun one to read. The kids got a kick out of making "ick" and "yum" noises with the suggestions of what Peter the Tiger would make with his pumpkin. They even offered their own (including pumpkin fish and pumpkin chicken).

Boo, Bunny is a really sweet story that starts out like it'll be a scary one. The kids loved that the bunnies were dressed like a superhero and a bumble bee, and they were eager to help me with some of the words in the story (we all shouted "Trick or Treat" and "Boo" together). This one's got very few words and is really about the images. I was able to get the kids to predict what they thought would happen, which they LOVE doing.

After that story, we shared the finger play of "Five Little Jack-o-Lanterns":
Five little jack-o-lanterns sitting on the gate (5 fingers up and point to each one)
The first one said "oh my, it's getting late"
The second one said "let's have some fun"
The third one said "let's run run run"
The forth one said "let's dance! let's prance!"
The fifth one said "now's our chance"
When whoooooo went the wind (blow the whooo)
And out went the light (make one loud clap)
Then the five little jack-o-lanterns rolled out of sight (roll arms).

Then I shared one more book:


This story is hilarious. The little witch and her cat capture all of the ghosts then do very silly things with them. The kids and the teachers were laughing so hard as we saw what she did with the ghosts, and there was again good opportunity to ask the kids what they thought would happen next. Every single one of them figured out the purpose of the last two ghosts, too.

With all of my groups, I played a version of "Little Mouse" more thematic to Halloween -- "Little Bat." I printed a little bat and 7 different colored hats, so we asked if the little bat was under the little hat. It astounds me how much the kids love this game. When I came into the classrooms, they were asking me if we were playing Little Mouse again and they were even MORE excited I'd brought something a little different.

For my Preschool and Kindergarten class, we played a few rounds of Little Bat so that everyone could have a turn guessing, but for the Day Care, we just played a couple quick rounds because they made a craft. Again, I stole from my favorite story time blog and had the kids make their own paper jack-o-lanterns. My wonderful crew of volunteers cut out circles, squares, hearts, triangles and some other shapes for them to make faces like these (photo lifted from above mentioned blog):

My pumpkin pattern was a wee bit different, but the kids made some awesome pumpkins and they were all excited to have Miss Kelly (yes, I'm Miss there) see their creations.

I promise next week I will bring my own camera to capture some of their wonderful pieces of art!

My First Storytime!

I am officially done with my first ever rounds of story times. On site, one of my coworkers does the story times, but I am in charge of the story times off site. I visit the 2 elementary schools' 4K classrooms twice a month; there are a total of 40 kids at one school and 20 at the other. . . for the first groups. There are the same number for second ground. Did you get that? 120 different kids, but I only need to do one story time plan.

I also do bimonthly visits to the local parochial school, where I visit preschool, kindergarten, and day care -- about 80 kids total.

So for my very first story time ever, I knew I faced 40 kids at once. I wanted to pick a theme that would be pretty easy, so I chose Fall (which ended up being a lot more "fall animals" than actual fall). Here were my reads of choice:



Kitten's Autumn was a hit because the kitten hides in each of the pictures. We were able to look and find him on each page together. Nuts to You is just plain fun, as the kids were very excited to talk about animals they see outside and don't want to see inside (and I'm shocked how many kids said they have seen bears lately -- I guess it IS Wisconsin). I'm Not Cute got the kids nice and riled up for their craft, since they can participate with the book and they get the chance to shout "I'm NOT cute" over and over.

Before diving into reading, I had the kids stand up and do "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" with me. We did it normally, then we did it fast, slow, loud and quiet. They loved it.

We then read all three stories, and I brought out the flannel board. For the first group, we did "Five Little Squirrels." The kids were SO EXCITED to help me count 5 squirrels. I made 5 squirrels, 1 door, 1 tree, 3 coats (and asked the kids if they'd ever seen squirrels wearing coats), and 1 sun. The story goes:

5 little squirrels sitting by the door
1 ran away and then there were 4 (as a group, count them out and swap out the door for a tree)
4 little squirrels playing by the tree
1 ran away and then there were 3 (as a group, count them out and swap door for coats)
3 little squirrels with coats so new
1 ran away and then there were 2 (as a group, count them out and swap coats for sun)
2 little squirrels playing in the sun
1 ran away and then there was 1 (as a group count them out and take down sun)
1 little squirrel wasn't having any fun
he ran away and then there were none.

I love this simple flannel board because the kids LOVE to help count. They will tell the story for you by the end, and that's exactly how it should be.

For the 4K and the day care groups, I was asked to bring a craft to share. They made owl masks, which you can see a photo of right here. The craft required paper plates, cotton balls (which I ripped in half to double the number), orange construction paper, popsickle sticks, and glue. I pre-cut the plates, the eyes, and the nose to bring with me, and after the first session of story times where the kids wanted to play with their masks before the glue dried onto the sticks, I decided to tape them on before handing them out (for immediate gratification). They kids loved the craft, and they were all eager to hoot around the room.

A couple of classes elected to go without a craft, so we played "Little Mouse." This is a story time favorite everywhere, and I plan on bringing some sort of variation of it with me regularly.

I'm jazzed to do story times now. I loved getting hugs from the kids at the end, and I know that even if I am not perfect, as long as I have fun and let the kids have fun, it all works out just fine.

(Also: this is the longest post on story times you will ever see here. From here on out, it'll be much shorter - books, activities, lessons learned).