RIBBIT!

 

Froggies!

I kinda love frogs, from afar. I don’t want to touch them or anything, but they are quite cute. You know what else is cute? The frog books I picked for this storytime! I had a BIG book, a pop up book, and flannel sotries. Super awesome!

In the past for a spring storytime I read “999 Frogs Wake Up” by Ken Kimura and I loved it, super cute illustrations, but I didn’t want to repeat a title that close together. Luckily he has another book “999 Tadpoles” . Equally as cute and fun as the other book. I read that and the kids quite enjoyed it. I heard them gasp at the snake and whisper “oh no!”  when papa frog gets captured or they all fall (don’t worry, they’re ok). they really got into the story!

I also read “Wide Mouth Frog” by Keith Faulkner in pop up version because it should be read that way. The kids gasped at every turn of the page and the parents loved it. I liked the end where he makes his mouth all small and I tried to do the same as I was reading and I saw the kids sort of subconsciously purse their lips. hehe.

The BIG BOOK that I read was “Jump Frog, Jump!” by Robert Kalan.  This book was tons of fun but also a challenge! It reminds me of “there was an old lady” stories where it builds and builds as the story goes on but also has at least one constant. It’s a great story for us who perform storytimes to practice pacing and memory but also great for the kids to practice their memory because it gives you the opportunity to let them chime in when they remember the order of things on the list. They also get the chance to yell “JUMP FROG, JUMP!” a whole buncha times and who doesn’t like that?

So as if the awesome books we did weren’t good enough, I also did a “5 Little Speckled Frogs” flannel board using this video

 

I let the song play in the background behind the flannel board and the kids sang / clapped along and acted out the bits with me while I acted out the song on the flannel board. it was fun.

we also did a couple action rhymes:

Polliwog

Polliwog swims in the pond all day
Swishing his tail every which way
Swim, polliwog, swim, polliwog
How fun your life must be! 

Polliwog grows four legs one day
Becomes a frog and hops away
Hop, little frog, hop, little frog
How fun your life must be! 

Little frog sits under a blue sky
He jumps real low and he jumps real high
Jump, little frog, jump, little frog
How fun your life must be!

Ribbit!

Ribbit said the frog (make croaking noise)
With his great big eyes (put hands around eyes like goggles)
sitting on a lilypad (squat like a frog)
catching flies (reach hands out in the air)
“I have a sticky tongue it’s as fast as can be” (stick tongue out)
“And I catch flies…”
1, 2, 3! (stick tongue out to catch flies and count)

We did both of those rhymes a couple times each and they worked pretty well in getting out the wiggles.

All in all, I really enjoyed this storytime, we had lots of fun stuff going on AND we still managed a craft!

It wasn’t super complicated, I just cut out some frogs with the die cut machine and then grabbed some googly eyes and black pom poms and used some left over little white hearts and we made frog and fly collages.

 

Next week we have BEARS, RAWR!

 

I have some catching up to do!

You’ll have to forgive me, I was in and out of town an awful lot for the past few weeks and it has done a real number on my schedule!

I have at least 2 storytime blogs to write as well as a recap of the May the Fourth program and I’m sure there’s gotta be something else I’m forgetting. Oh well, I’ll get to it eventually.

 

CHOO CHOOOOOO!!!

Well hello! You’ll have to forgive me as I went on vacation and didn’t que up my posts properly. so here ya go!

 

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chugga chugga chugga chugga

This week, we did TRAINS!

 

I was pretty excited to do this theme because it lends itself to so many different and fun activities so it allows for a lot of creativity. Weirdly enough though, I wasn’t able to come up with a very good craft for this theme. Of course I thought of all sorts of neat ideas AFTER, but none of them came to me in time. Oh well.

I picked out 4 books but I was almost positive that I wouldn’t read one of them as it was quite long, but I grabbed it anyway just in case.

The books I read were:

Dinosaur Train by John Steven Gurney
Steam Train Dream Train by Sherri Duskey Rinker
A Train Goes Clickety-Clack by Jonathan London
I also did a few different train active rhymes and a flannel board. I had picked up a book about trains that I liked but something about it didn’t jive well with me so I turned it into a flannel board/active rhyme. The books wasThe Train Ride by June Crebbin  I took the text from the book and altered it very slightly to turn it into a rhyme that flowed a bit more since I didn’t have to turn pages and allowed kids to still see the things described by putting them up on the flannel but also allowed them to move a bit since I had then tap their knees or swish their hands to make a train noise.  What’s really weird is that I can’t for the life of me remember how I stumbled across this particular book or where because when I went to look it up after storytime, it didn’t exist. I couldn’t find it in the OPAC and according to Polaris, our copies were removed from the collection years ago. WHAT?!  Ghost Book!

Anyhow, here’s the text I used:

 

We’re riding on a train out of town
What shall I see, what shall I see?
Sheep running off and cows laying down
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Over the meadow up on the hill
What shall I see, what shall I see?
A mare and her foal standing perfectly still
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

There’s farm in the distance down the road
What shall I see, what shall I see?
A shiny red tractor pulling it’s load
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Here in my seat, my lunch on me knee
What shall I see, what shall I see?
A ticket collector smiling at me
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Through the window I’m looking out
What shall I see, what shall I see?
A gaggle of geese, strutting about
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Over the treetops, high in the sky
What shall I see, what shall I see?
A hot air balloon, sailing by!
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Listen! The engine is slowing down
What shall I see, what shall I see?
The market square in the seaside town
That’s what I see, that’s what I see

Now in the station, who shall I see?
Who shall I see? who shall I see?
There is my grandma! Welcoming me!

I made up some simple images for the flannel board using clipart and simply placed them up as I recited the rhyme/story. It goes quite quickly so you could easily add more lines or stanzas to it if you’d like. I often like to let the kids suggest things and incorporate it to the rhyme…even though it usually doesn’t rhyme because I’m just not that quick on my feet like some librarians. (would storytime librarians make good rap battlers? That should be a thing. )  The kids seemed to get a kick out of this activity and the parents liked the ending a lot. 🙂

I also did “The wheels on the train”

 

 

“The Wheels on the Train”
(to the tune of “Wheels on the Bus”)

1. The Wheels on the train go clickety-clack all down the track
2. The Whistle on the train goes toot, toot, toot all down the track
3. The Conductor on the train says “all aboard” all down the track
4. The Crossing Gates go clang, clang, clang all down the track
5. The People on the train go bumpety-bump all down the track

And stole this little activity from TheBettyJulie on youtube. As she states, it’s not just a fun and cute rhyme, but it’s a great way to develop brain connections and fine tune some motor skills. In fact, I found out that I certainly could work on some of mine as I was far less coordinated on one side than I was on the other!

 

Again, I let the kids make some suggestions for where we go on the train because it’s fun and it’s good practice for me to improvise.

 

I enjoyed this storytime theme a lot but wish I could have come up with a fun craft to incorporate. oh well.

May the 4th Be With You!!

Today is Intergalactic Star Wars Day!

YAY!

Why, you might ask, is today Star Wars Day? well….

“In 2005, George Lucas was asked so say the famous line, “May the Force be with you” during an interview with German news TV channel N24. The interpreter relayed it as “Am 4. Mai sind wir bei Inhen” – translated to, “On May 4 we are with you”. This was captured by TV Total and aired on May 18, 2005. Since then, “May the Fourth be with you” has trended among fans everywhere. “

I’m a giant Star Wars nerd. I admit it.

Here I am sporting my Droid leggings and my Boba Fett costume hoodie giving bunny ears to a young patron that is borrowing my Boba Fett helmet and a blaster during a past Star Wars library event.

I’ll take any excuse to dress in my nerd gear.

Anywho, We are Celebrating Star Wars Day here at the library and I am GEEKED!

We have lots of neat stuff planned including, but not limited to crafts, food, and play and will also have some special guests visiting from the 501st Legion!  Score!

I’m really looking forward to this event because though I’ve celebrated a few Star Wars Reads Days in libraries, this will be my first time doing a May the 4th program which is exciting because unlike Star Wars Reads Day where the focus is really on reading and we just use Star Wars as a tool to promote it, this program is more just for the fun of it.

Speaking of Star Wars Reads Day, here’s a stunning shot by annarbor.com from my very first one at the Ann Arbor District Library back a couple years ago. I’m still quite proud of that program as it was a huge hit; I was really lucky to be able to work together with some great librarians to plan it.

Does this not look just like you’re spying on a Padawan descending the stairs into the Jedi temple archives on Coruscant to work on his studies? I’m pretty convinced! 😀

I’ll check back in later after all is said and done with an update on what happened and how it all went.

May the Force Be With You!

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**UPDATE**

The event was a huge success! We had some awesome volunteers from the 501st Legion Great Lakes Garrison who really made the event a blast!

I’ll post a few pictures from the event below, but be sure to take a peek at the flickr album to see all of them!

We had some really great costumed attendees! check out this short stormtrooper. 🙂

our volunteers were happy to pose for pictures.

The view from the checkout desk was much more entertaining than usual.

The room was a bit dark because we were showing a fan made version of star wars and people happily plopped down with some popcorn to watch.