Good-Bye, Storytime Bus

It was with mixed feelings that I said "Good-Bye" to the Storytime Bus, my mobile storytime room for the last 3 years, earlier this month.

The Storytime-To-Go program was started just over 5 years ago as the culmination of a dream by our now-retired Youth Services Manager, in conjunction with Outreach Services. An RV that had been previously used by a business as a mobile classroom was donated and renovated to be a mobile storytime room. It had cabinets to store scarves, bells, shaker eggs, and many other manipulatives, an easel with flannel/white board, and a rotating selection of themed storytime kits that contained a variety of books, songs, activities, and felt sets. This is what it looked like in the beginning:

It was dubbed the "Storytime Bus" and would go to various daycares and preschools in the area to bring the storytime experience to kids who might not otherwise get the experience of a library storytime. I joined the program about 2 years in, after it become apparent it would not be sustainable as a strictly volunteer-driven program. Kids would come on the bus in groups of 12 and have storytime. Some were hesitant at first, afraid we were going to take them somewhere, others were disappointed that we didn't, but they all quickly fell in love with the storytime bus, and our driver, Mr. Barry, who gave them stickers at the end.

Unfortunately, the first exterior design for the Storytime Bus made it look too similar to the city transit buses, which not only had the same color scheme, but also had the library logo on many of them as part of a huge re-branding campaign. So people were constantly mistaking us for a city bus and trying to flag us down or board if we were stopped. So we requested a new design that would (1) use a completely different color scheme, (2) be much more whimsical and child-like, and (3) not look anything like a city bus! And our graphics designer did a fabulous job (the other side has a castle, and is pictured further down):

No more being mistaken for a city bus, plus it got a lot of attention as we would drive around town. But, being 13 years old by this point, we started having more and more problems with things breaking down, in addition to the expense of the normal upkeep and secure storage facility where it was parked. And since there was now only one place in the city that would work on it, and parts were getting harder to find, that meant any time it went down, we would be without it for anywhere from one to three weeks! So, when our driver, "Mr. Barry" finally decided it was time to retire this spring, the decision was made to also retire the now 15-year old bus, which I think was the right decision. Here is the bus and her driver after our very last run:

But, though it's a bit sad to see the bus and her driver both retire, the program itself WILL continue! It will just mean I will be going into the classrooms to do storytime, rather than the kids coming to me on the bus. It won't be quite as cool or exciting to the kids, and it means I will be driving all around and lugging material in and out, but the upside is that the teachers will no longer have to worry about the group size (safety & space limitations), which was a hardship for some of them. Now I can go in and just do a whole class together, possibly even combining smaller classes, which will be more efficient and make room in the schedule to add more centers to the roster.

It has been a more difficult transition than I expected, with several places not understanding the program was continuing (even though it was emphasized time and time again, in person and in writing), and being surprised and unprepared when I showed up in their classrooms as scheduled, but hopeful it will all smooth out soon enough!

Preschool Storytime - Cats

This has been a rough month, with so many assignments do with school, significant changes at work (I'll probably post about this at some point, but not now), taxes due, and family stuff, so I've had no time to read and little time for writing, so the posts are a bit thin this month.

A couple of weeks ago I finished up a two-week storytime rotation with the theme of "Cats" on the Storytime Bus. We started each session with our story song and Letter-of-the-Day (Cc), then read 2-3 books and did 1-2 other songs/activities with each group. These storytimes are not planned out; but done "on the fly" as we constantly have to adjust to the time we have (groups are often late), children's ages, personalities, and mood on any given day.

The Books 

(click on image to see larger)

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens by Denise Fleming, short & simple, good for younger kids

Matilda's Cat by Emily Gravett, what does Matilda's cat like to do??

Kitty's Cuddles by Jane Cabrera, short & simple, bold, simple illustrations, for younger

What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas, not my favorite of hers, but still OK

Come Out and Play, Little Mouse by Robert Kraus, José Aruego, & Ariane Dewey, days of the week

Cats by Matthew Van Fleet & Brian Stanton, all different kinds of cats

Widget by Lyn Rossiter Mcfarland & Jim McFarland, dog acts like cat to be accepted 

Mean Murgatroyd and the Ten Cats by Nathan Zimelman & Tony Auth, bully learns lesson

There Are No Cats In This Book by Viviane Schwarz, silly

Time To Sleep by Kandi Radzinski, little cat tries to find a good place to sleep

And I had already returned this book as it was from the circulating collection rather than our office storytime collection, but you could not possible do a "Cat" storytime without the currently VERY popular Pete the Cat! 
While I think the original books with Eric Litwin are superior, I did opt to use a later one with James Dean and his wife instead, because I like the dance at the end: Pete the Cat and the Cool Cat Boogie by Kim and James Dean.

Activities

We did not have a good assortment of songs and other activities for this one, so we stuck to the same two for everyone.

If You're A Cat And You Know It...

If you're a cat and you know it,

say, "Meow!"

If you're a cat and you know it,

say, "Meow!"

If your a cat and you know it,

and you really want to show it.

If you're a cat and you know it,

say, "Meow!"

.... lick your paws (warn them to just pretend).......drink your milk....... sharpen your claws....

....(give a purr)......... swish your tail........give a hiss....

Soft Kitty

Soft kitty, warm kitty,

Little ball of fur.

Happy kitty, sleepy kitty,

purr, purr, purr.

And here's my favorite version of it from The Big Bang Theory, as Penny forces Sheldon to sing it with her as a round:

How It Went

This kit was put together before I took over the position, and I hadn't used it before now because I felt it was too specific of a topic. But this year I decided to force myself to try the last few kits at least once before I decided what to do with them.

I gotta say, this was not my favorite, even though I love cats. I thought the books were okay, but rather ho-hum and not extremely engaging. I liked Widget the best, but it's really more about the dog than the cats, and some of the others were cute, but slightly dull. The kids seemed okay with them though. Of course Pete was the most popular, with Fat Cat being next. 

This kit definitely needs more development, with more engaging stories and activities.

A Perfectly Love-ly Storytime

Yesterday I had the best storytime! You know the kind where the kids are just so into it, engaged, and enthusiastic that you leave with a smile on your face and warmth in your heart and feeling guilty for getting paid to do this (well, almost 😉).

So I get there and introduce the topic, and one of the kids asks me if I have a "Froooogggggyyy!" book, which made my day because I love reading Froggy's First Kiss. I said I just might, but he'd have to wait and see. So we continued talking about how we loved different people and things in different ways, did our letter-of-the-day (Ll), and sang our story song. 

They were still asking for a Froggy book, and were thrilled when I pulled out Froggy's First Kiss, of course immediately going "Ewwwww" at the mention of a kiss. They helped say "Froooggggyyyy!" each time, laughed at Froggy staring at Frogilina and bumping his head, identified the treats, were appropriately grossed out by Frogilina's unexpected kiss, and empathetic when Froggy's friends teased him about having a girlfriend. One little boy was very puzzled as to why Frogilina kept giving Froggy food, saying "He has his own food at home."

As soon as we were done, they said "Let's read another one!", and someone asked for a dinosaur book. Well, lo and behold, I luckily had Dinosaur Kisses, another favorite of mine (I'm a sucker for dark humor), and they stomped, and chomped, and giggled at all of the unfortunate outcomes of Dinah's attempts at kissing. Of course in their childlike innocence, they assume everyone is okay in the end, and the creature she accidentally ate would somehow get out and be fine. In the beginning I asked if they would let a dinosaur kiss them, and a few said they would, but by the end, they all agreed that they would not want dinosaur kisses!

Once again, as soon as I finished that book, a chorus of "Let's read another one!" rang out, so I pulled out another book I knew they would love, and that I really enjoy, Who Wants A Hug? by Jeff Mack. In this story, Bear loves to give out hugs, and everyone likes him, but Skunk, who is secretly jealous of Bear's popularity, does not like hugs, is grumpy, and no one likes him. Skunk decides to play a series of stinky tricks on Bear, trying to make him so stinky that no one will want to be around him anymore, but every trick backfires and Skunk ends up even more stinky that before! In the end, he gives in and accepts a hug from Bear and discovers that Bear was right, hugs are great! The kids all love the humor in this book as trick after trick backfires and gets Skunk instead.

"Let's read another one!" Normally I do work in some extension activities, but when the kids are so engaged and beg for more books, I can't say no! And really, my main goal is to first and foremost try to establish a love of reading. While our time was up, since it was my last session of the day I could spare the time to indulge them with one more story. I decided it was time for a story that was more sweet & sincere than funny, so I pulled out The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. I love this cute little story, but I HATE that they printed it soo tiny, and didn't even use the full page at that. So I made props to go with it, and someday I'll remember to copy & enlarge it.

One of the kids did correctly guess the necklace of hearts was for a dog (another said her mom), but they thought it was very strange when she glued the cottonball to another valentine, and cut holes in still another. They loved it when we saw at the end that there was a very logical reason for gluing a cottonball in the middle of a valentine, after all. One little boy was so cute, at first he was a bit zoned out, but for some reason this story and the idea of it raining hearts really got his attention! Afterward, he told me all about how if it ever rains hearts here, he was going to catch them and make valentines for his friends and for me.

And guess what I heard after that? Yep....."Let's read another one!".... I hated saying no, but by that point we had gone past our usual 30 minutes and I didn't want to disrupt their schedule, but I could've kept sharing stories with them until my voice gave out, as long as they were that enthusiastic and engaged. I just love seeing kids excited about stories, reading, and learning, and I sincerely hope it carries on beyond storytime!

I just love seeing the kids really connect with the books, and the more engaged they are, the more I get into it. While I'd like to think it was because I'm such a spectacular storytime planner and presenter, I think it was just one of those times that the kids were in just the right mood and everything just came together perfectly. I'd done 4 other storytimes on the same theme of Love/Valentine's Day at another daycare that morning that were fine, but there was something magical about this last one.


There is a world of difference between the two daycares to start with; the first was a large, church sponsored daycare/preschool with mostly comfortably middle-class, educated families. The latter is a very small daycare with mostly the kids from lower income, working class families. These kids tend to be much more appreciative of books and storytime, while the others enjoy them, they also take it for granted because they have many other opportunities so it isn't as special for them. I'm so glad we are able to bring this experience to those kids who might otherwise miss out, and it's so rewarding to see them enjoy it so much.

I hope everyone has an awesome Valentine's Day! Or just a Wednesday full of love and happiness, for those who don't celebrate it. 

Last Round of Storytimes for the Year

Today I finished up my last round of storytimes for the year, with a Christmas theme (keep in mind these are outreach storytimes and the theme was requested). It was a lot of fun, with several humorous stories, a great flannel board, and singing Christmas songs, which we all know are SOOOO much better when accompanied by bells!

I had all the same books as I've used before, with the addition of two others I came across in our stacks, that I'll highlight here:

That's Good! That's Bad! On Santa's Journey by Margery Cuyler & Michael Garland. I've used Cuyler's original book before in a series of Zoo-themed storytimes and thought this one would be fun, too. It works better with some groups than others, as not all kids get the humor and irony, but the ones that catch on to the pattern of things that seem to be one one turning out to be the other will really enjoy this book. 

Santa has a number of seeming misfortunes, like being stuck in the chimney, bumping his head, being left behind by the reindeer, falling out of the sleigh, splitting his pants, etc., but it all works out and he gets all the presents delivered.

Are You Grumpy Santa? by Gregg and Evan Spiridellis is another funny book that has our poor Santa running into one mishap after another. Mrs. Claus' snoring wakes him up, he stubs his toe, no hot water in the shower, a skimpy breakfast, being chased by a poodle in France, slipping on a noodle in Italy, nearly run down by bulls in Pamplona, and bumping his tush into a Christmas cactus in Phoenix, Arizona!

Poor Santa is upset and miserable, and then spies a card someone left for him, along with a plate of cookies. And now he's no longer grumpy! This story gives an explanation for why we leave cookies for Santa, and shows that anyone can have a bad day and get the grumpies, even Santa.

I had the same Rudolph flannel I used last week, and we sang a lot of "Jingle Bells", with real bells of course, and a few rounds of "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" during the two-week rotation.

The kids really loved all the stories and the Rudolph flannel, but what I think most of them loved the most was getting to use the bells. Most groups were so excited and yelled out "Jingle Bells!" as soon as they heard them. In fact, two of my little friends loved them so much they wanted to keep them. One little boy sweetly asked if he could take them home to his mom, but understood when I explained I had to keep them for other kids to use. But one little girl was much more sneaky, hiding them behind her back and slipping to the back of the group so I never noticed she didn't turn hers in. But one of the other kids ratted her out, and she was so mad about giving them up! Ah, the seductive lure of the jingle bells...

While I love doing storytime, I am looking forward to having a little break from it for a bit. I will be taking 3-weeks off from storytime over the holidays, for 3 reasons: (1) there are so many closings and low attendance it isn't worth it, (2) the kids just get too crazy as we get closer to Christmas, and (3) the Storytime Bus needs to have it's annual inspection and maintenance, and scheduled repairs. This gives me a chance to take time off for the holidays or a vacation, but this year I may take a day off, but will be at work most of the time.

I'm looking forward to a break and having a chance to do something different. My major projects will be catching up on some much needed collection development, and working on a presentation I've been asked to give in January. I also might pick up an extra shift at the Children's desk or help with one of their programs, which is always a nice change of pace.

Food, Glorious Food! - Preschool Storytime

The week of Thanksgiving seemed to be the perfect time for a round of "Food"-themed storytimes, since food is such an important part of the holiday tradition, as well as for many holidays in general. My book selection was kind of a mish-mash without any real focus, but all had something to do with food: cooking, eating, sharing, table manners, etc.

Each storytime started with a brief introduction which included letting the kids each share what one of their favorite foods is, our letter of the day ("Ff"), and our story song. Though it varied with the group, we generally read 2-3 books and did 1 or 2 additional songs/rhymes.

The Books 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a classic, and while many may already know it, there are still those that don't. I use the opportunity to point out that he got a tummy ache from eating all the junk food, when he should have been eating leaves.
• Worms for Lunch by Leonid Gore has various characters with lift-a-flaps for guessing what each one eats, and figuring out who eats worms.
• The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli has a silly crocodile who loves watermelon, but when he accidentally swallows a seed fears that it will grow inside him.
• What's for Lunch? by Ann Garrett, Gene-Michael Higney, & Stephanie Peterson features lift-a-flaps and a rhyming text to show what different animals like to eat. They also produced a companion book, What's for Dinner?
• Yummy, Yucky by Leslie Patricelli is a board book intended to help teach babies and toddlers what they should and shouldn't eat, but preschoolers still enjoy saying whether things are "yummy" or "yucky".
• Sam's Sandwich by David Pelham is a book that looks like a sandwich. Sam offers to make his sister a sandwich, but sneaks in some rather distasteful ingredients among the others. Kids love being grossed out by this one.
• The Wolf's Chicken Stew by Keiko Kaska has an unexpected ending, though most of the preschoolers don't quite get it.
• How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague is a fun book for addressing appropriate table manners.
• Cookiesaurus Rex by Amy Fellner Dominy, Nate Evans, & AG Ford is a really fun
  book about a dinosaur cookie that learns it doesn't pay to be demanding and selfish.
• Is That Wise Pig? by Jan Thomas (inadvertently omitted from collage above) has humor, counting, and making soup, though the ingredients Pig suggests are pretty questionable.

Activities

We talked about our favorite foods and identified fruits and vegetables using the set of plush props I had as visuals:

We also had a great song about making soup to complement Is That Wise Pig?, and let each child have a turn suggesting an ingredient to add:

"Stir, Stir, Stir the Soup"

(to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

Stir, stir, stir the soup;

Stir it all day long.

Add some   (ingredient) ,

Take a taste (SLURRRP!)

Soup will make us strong! 

[Act out stirring, adding ingredient, tasting from spoon, and show muscles, 

repeat for as many ingredients as desired.]

As you might expect, we did get some rather unusual ingredients, and they outnumbered the typical soup ingredients. Even after reading Is That Wise, Pig? and seeing ingredients like onions, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, etc., they tended to choose fruits, or silly things, like cookies, cakes, and ice cream.

How It Went 

Even though I think our book selection needs a little improvement (I really hope to find something about healthy food vs. junk food that is engaging), the kids seemed to enjoy the theme, and talking about what they liked and didn't like. Some of the books they seemed to like best were Is That Wise, Pig?, Worms For Lunch, How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food, and my newest favorite, Cookiesaurus Rex.

They had a lot of fun with the "Soup" song, though the ingredients they came up with were for the most part definitely not standard soup ingredients. A few did say things like carrots, tomatoes, rice, or noodles; but I also got a lot of fruits, ice cream, and cookies. They did have fun with it, though.

One group was absolutely beside themselves with excitement as they presented us with "drumsticks" that their teacher had made, obstensibly with their help. They were made of paper bags and had candy inside. It was very sweet of her to do, and so cute how excited the kids were to give to us (the "us" being myself, the Storytime Bus driver, and the volunteer assistant). 

One little boy in that class, that I have noticed really seems to enjoy the stories, asked if we had the "scary carrot book" because he really wanted to read that one again. I realized he was talking about Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown's Creepy Carrots that we had read to them last month. Unfortunately I didn't have a copy of it with me this time, but it's always nice to see when a book makes that much of an impression on them that they remember it and ask for it later.

Gone To The Dogs - Preschool Storytime

Last week our theme on the Storytime Bus was "Dogs", which is a pretty specific theme to do over and over, but luckily there are quite a few good dog books, and with the popularity of the Paw Patrol television show, dogs are hot with the preschool set. I started off each session with an introduction, letter of the day ("Dd"), and our story song, then read 2-3 books and did 1-2 additional activites.

The Books

I'm going to highlight the books I really liked and used the most, and just list the others:

The Doghouse by Jan Thomas was one of my favorite books for this theme. Cow and Pig and Duck and Mouse are playing kickball, but Cow kicks the ball so hard that it goes over their heads and into the doghouse. Yikes! Who will go and get it? One by one they each go into the doghouse, BUT they don't come out! 

I like to make this one very melodramatic (unless I know I have more sensitive kids in the bunch), and it tickles me to death to see their shocked faces mirror Mouse's when Dog says he is having Duck for dinner! I do love dark humor, but you can always tone it done for the more sensitive ones.

The Dog Who Cried Wolf by Keiko Kasza was another fun one, partly because the audience gets to howl like wolves, which is *almost* as fun as roaring like a lion. Little Moka and his owner Michelle are best friends and life is great, until one day they read a book about wolves, and Moka starts to think his life as a house pet is pathetic in comparison. So he decides to run away and live in the wild like a wolf. But he finds out life in the wild is not so great.

The kids are always shocked when Moka runs away, and relieved when he and Michelle are reunited. They don't all get the twist in the ending, but those that do find it quite funny.

Dog's Colorful Day is a great book that does double duty; not only does it work on colors as the title indicates, it also works on counting from 1 to 10, and has a cute story to go along with the counting.

Dog is a white dog, with just one black spot on his left ear. But one day when dog goes out, he gets into all kinds of messes, which stain his white coat, and he returns home with not one, but ten spots of all different colors! At the end when it goes over all the colors of the spots one last time, I like to test the kids and see if they can remember what caused each spot.

Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer just so happens to be the book I read at my interview for my current position, unknowingly choosing one of my manager's favorites, as luck would have it. It is a great book for a fairly good age range. The simple, bold illustrations, simple text, and opportunities to make animal sounds make it a great book for the younger kids, and the humor and surprise ending make it work for the older kids. Not everyone gets the ending, but even if they don't, they still enjoy the book

Widget by Lyn & Jim McFarland is the story of a poor little stray dog in search of a home. He spies a cozy looking house, but when he enters, he finds it is occupied by a very sweet old lady and six cats, who are not big fans of dogs. Widget cleverly starts acting like a cat, and eventually he wins the girls over and he is allowed to stay.

One day, there is an accident, and they all learn that while cats are nice, sometimes it is very good to have a dog around.


Some others I used occasionally were:

• A Dog's Life by Caroline Sherman
• Dogs by Emily Gravette
• What Puppies Do Best by Laura Numeroff
• A Dog Needs A Bone! by Audrey Wood
• Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
• Spot's First Walk by Eric Hill

The Activities

The one I used most was the traditional song "B-I-N-G-O", with a slight twist. After the first verse, we would omit a letter and instead of clapping in its place, we would bark. I had the letters B, I, N, G, & O to put on the magnet board, as well as pictures of dogs to put up in their places.

B-I-N-G-O

There was a farmer who had a dog, 

and "BINGO" was his name-oh.

B - I - N - G - O

B - I - N - G - O

B - I - N - G - O

and "BINGO" was his name-oh!

[on each subsequent verse, remove one letter and replace with dog and bark instead]

We also did variations on "If You're Happy And You Know It":

If You're A Dog & You Know It

If you're a dog and know it, give a bark....

If you're a dog and know it, wag your tail....

If you're a dog and you know it, sit up and beg....

If you're a dog and you know it, dig a hole....

If you're a dog and you know it, sit please!

And this fingerplay:

Digging in the Dirt

Ten little doggies went out one day

(hold up ten fingers)

To dig in the dirt and play, play, play. 

(Pretend to dig with both hands)

Five were spotted dogs, and five were not.

(Hold up one hand at a time)

And at dinner time, they ate a lot!

(pretend to eat) 

How It Went

I was afraid the theme might be way too specific to work for multiple storytimes on multiples days, but it actually worked really well. I especially had fun with The Doghouse, though I almost lost it a couple of times at the kids' perfectly shocked reactions to Dog having Duck for dinner (no one was upset), though they didn't always completely get the ending and how it was a play on words, they did understand that no one got eaten!

1, 2, 3 Read With Me - Preschool Numbers Storytime

I skipped this theme on the Storytime Bus last year because the first time I did it, I found it rather monotonous during the course of about 25 storytimes over two weeks. But since then I've added some books that were more fun and had a bit of a story, rather than just straightforward counting books. As always, we started with a brief introduction by asking who could count to 10, 20, or 100, sometimes doing a brief counting of how many of us their were and kids vs. grownups, or boys vs girls, followed by our letter-of-the-day (Nn) and our story song.

The Books 

(Please excuse the poor quality, PicMonkey pulled a bait & switch, and now you cannot save anything unless you pay for a membership, which they don't tell you until AFTER you've spent time creating something, so I had to take a screenshot instead.)

• Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh, the hungry snake learns a lesson in greed, and the mice learn a lesson on keeping watch.
• Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin & James Dean, counts down from 4 to 0, and shows equations, also good for colors
• Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin, Jr., Michael Sampson, & Lois Ehlert, counts to 20, then skip counts by tens to 100.
• Little Quack by Lauren Thompson & Derek Anderson, will Little Quack and his 4 siblings get over their fear and join Mama in the water?
• 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle. Count the animals on the zoo train & imitate their sounds, spot the mouse on each page.
• Chooky-Doodle-Doo by Jan Whiten & Sinead Hanley, how many chicks does it take to pull this worm? Counting, cooperation, and a surprise ending.
• 10 Little Ninjas by Miranda Paul & Nate Wragg, children pretend to be everything from ninjas to alligators as the parents try to get them ready for bed.
• Doggone Dogs! by Karen Beaumont & David Catrew, ten mischievous dogs lead their owner on a wild chase.
• One Blue Fish by Charles Reasoner, bold simple graphics & lift-a-flaps to work on counting, number recognition, and colors.
• Counting by David A. Carter, simple pop-up butterflies to count.
• Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton, Russell can't sleep and tries counting things to help him get to sleep.
• Ten Dirty Pigs/Ten Clean Pigs by Carol Roth & Pamela Paparone, two books in one!

The Activities

I used a few miscellanous Five- and Ten Little somethings songs and rhymes, but the one I used the most, because it had more movement and the kids really like it, is this "Ten Little Bubbles" song I made up:

Ten Little Bubbles

One little, two little, three little bubbles;

Four little, five little, six little bubbles;

Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles;

Ten little bubbles to POP! (clap hands)

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop those bubbles;

All the little bubbles go POP! (Clap)

Ten little, nine little, eight little bubbles;

Seven little, six little, five little bubbles;

Four little, three little, two little bubbles;

And one little bubble goes POP! (clap)

We just have pretend bubbles due to the small space we're in, but real bubbles during the middle verse would be so much more fun! I do have them use their fingers for counting, and counting down is much more difficult, so I go slower on the last verse, but it is very good practice for fine motor skills since they aren't used to doing it that way and don't have the same muscle memory, so it requires more concentration. 

When I do "Five Little" somethings, I have them repeat it, using their other hand the second time, so the non-dominant hand gets a workout, too. All the 5 & 10 little rhymes may seem monotonous, but they are really good for their fine motor skills when done this way.

We also did various counting and grouping activities, using ourselves as props, and a measuring activity I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of. We are in the middle of horse country, and in case you aren't aware, horse height is measured in terms of how many "hands" high. So I put a vertical column of cut-out handprints on the wall for measuring height. I would have the kids make predictions about who was the shortest in the class, the tallest in the class, how many hands tall they would be, etc., and then we would have them stand by the column of hands and measure in terms of hands and fingers, instead of feet and inches.

At the end, we gave everyone handprint stickers, to represent our counting fingers, and our measuring in hands activity.

How It Went

This theme worked much better than last year with the addition of a few books that had a bit of a story, or unusual things to count, and it did not seem too monotonous this time. I would say as expected, Pete the Cat was the biggest hit, but all the others worked really well, except for maybe Russell the Sheep; the kids just didn't really seem very engaged with that one. My personal favorites were Little Quack; 1, 2, 3, to the Zoo; and Mouse Count. I did have one unexpected response with Mouse Count; usually the kids are really relieved and happy the mice got away and did not get eaten by the snake, but there was one little girl who really felt sorry for the poor hungry snake not having any dinner!

Garden Storytime

I just finished my 2-week rotation on the Storytime Bus with a "Garden" theme. We talked about both flower gardens and vegetable gardens, and what we would like to plant if we had a garden. We also talked about how seeds need soil, water, and sunlight to grow, the main parts of the plant and what they do (roots, stem, leaves, flower), and what types of bugs and animals might be helpful or harmful to the garden. I particularly emphasized how important bees are for pollination, and that without pollination we would get no vegetables to eat, or seeds to plant more flowers.

I used mostly the same books and the same songs and rhymes as I did last time, so I'll just link to my previous "Garden" post and highlight the three new books I used this time here.

Maisy Grows a Garden is not actually a "new" book, but we did not have it in our collection previously, so it is new for me. I love these Maisy pull-tab books! They are short and simple enough for the younger kids, but all the pull-tabs and pop-ups keep the older ones engaged, too.

This books shows all the steps of gardening: digging the ground, planting the seed, watering, sunlight, sprouting, weeding, growing, and maturing. I like that it shows both vegetables (carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and green beans), and flowers.

My Sunflower by Mar Ferrero and Martin Taylor is a new pop-up book that is also great for the younger ones because it is short and simple, but the older ones like the pop-ups, too. The first page amazes them because when the book is closed, you see a sunflower seedling in the die-cut circle, with the seed still visible and roots and shoot just started to develop. 

But then when you open the cover, it "magically" changes to a sunflower blossom in full bloom! We see the seed in the ground, then after it gets water and sunshine, the seed cracks open and the roots and shoot start to grow. The seedling grows taller and taller, then a bud appears, and finally blooms into a huge pop-up flower.

I love Christie Matheson's Tap the Magic Tree, so I was excited when her new book, Plant the Tiny Seed, came in a couple of months ago. In this book, we follow the growth cycle of zinnia flowers, from seed to sprout to blossom and back to seed again.

Just like her other books, the reader/audience is prompted to do various motions, such as making it rain, clapping to bring the sun, and pretending to snip the spent flower so more buds will bloom. I will say this book doesn't quite have the same magic as her first, but it's still nice to use.

The kids all enjoyed this theme and talking about their gardens at home, or what they would want to grow in their gardens. One thing I noticed that was very consistent across all groups is that they were *really* distracted by any bugs or worms shown in the illustrations! I made a point to explain how some were good, such as how earthworms keep the soil loose, allow water and air to reach the roots, and fertilize the soil; how ladybugs eat the aphids, and how important bees are for fertilization. Of course we also read my two favorite garden-related books, Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! and Carrot Soup, along with several others.

For more books and songs & rhymes, see my previous "Garden" post and my previous "Five Little Flowers" Flannel Friday post!

Bird Storytime

This week I finished up a two-week rotation on "Birds" with the Storytime-To-Go program. I did this same theme last spring, and since I used mostly the same books and the same activities, I'm just going to link to the previous "Bird" post for the descriptions of all those and just focus on the two new books I used this time, how it went, and some very funny comments it prompted!

Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler is actually not a new book (2009), but it was new to me. Our system only has one copy, which was at a different branch, so I had never seen it before. My manager found it when she had been asked to do a bird-themed storytime by a teacher who specifically requested something on flamingos, and suggested it to me.

The story starts with little Sylvie asking her mother why they were all pink. Her mother explains that it is because of the shrimp that they eat [which is true]. Sylvie wonders what would happen if she ate something something different and experiments to find out, with results that are very colorful and sometimes funny. But in the end she doesn't feel like herself and decides to go back to eating shrimp....but not quite exclusively.

This is a cute story with bright illustrations, and I really liked that it was based on the surprising truth about where flamingos get their pink coloring, which not many people know. I have always mentioned this when we would have a flamingo show up in our stories, but I like having a story that incorporates this fact (if they don't have their normal diet, they will be white or pale grey). And we talked about how funny it would be if people turned different colors based on what they had been eating, and how their parents would know if they had been sneaking treats if we did. Another thing I like to point out is in at least one picture, the flamingo's legs look like the number "4" (which is often the case when flamingos are pictured, I've noticed).

By pure coincidence, the first class I pulled this book out to read to had a little girl name Sylvia in it. And you wouldn't believe what she was wearing.....a t-shirt with a big, bright flamingo on it! She thought it was so cool that she matched the book, and her teacher took a picture of the book to show her mom. I wish I could have taken a picture of her holding the book, but alas, one of the downsides of outreach is that we can't take photos of the kids since the parents are not present to consent.

Hooray for Birds! by Lucy Cousins is a brand-new book that we just got in a couple of days before I started this theme, which was perfect timing. I was expecting it to be similar to Hooray for Fish!, which is okay, but not particularly exciting. I do really like her illustration style, with the simple illustrations, saturated colors, and heavy black outlines, which I think is great for keeping younger kids focused.

But when I opened it up, I found it was so much more than I had expected. It not only shows all different kinds of birds, but prompts the reader or audience to imitate them, so it's very interactive and a great way to incorporate some fun movements! They get to say "cock-a-doodle-doo", flap their wings, hop, stand on one leg, waddle like a penguin, and more! The kids really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. And coincidentally, it also features a flamingo on the cover, whose legs just happen to make the number 4!

Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming and Eugene Yelchin is a book I've used before, but I wanted to show it since it is a favorite, and it prompted a very surprising discussion and funny comments.

This is a story about a mother bird working hard to feed her seven babies. By the time she finally gets the last one fed and settles down to rest, they wake up crying again! But this time Daddy has to take a turn.

I went on to mention that's how it really is with new babies; as soon as you get them fed, changed, and back to sleep and try to get something done or take a nap, they are awake and ready to eat again. Some of the kids have babies at home and could relate, and one boy piped up in a knowing voice, saying "Yeah, they can be really annoying..."

But in another class, the kids ended up having quite a discussion while I was selecting the next book to read:

Child #1: "Yeah, then it's my Daddy's turn to help. But he has to feed my baby sister with a bottle."

Child #2: "Yeah, because he doesn't have breasts."

Child #3: "No, men have breasts, they just aren't big enough."

Child #1: "No, it's not because they aren't big; they don't make milk."

Now some people might have gotten a bit flustered or uncomfortable with this, but I found it amusing and sweet, and the teacher was fine with it. The kids weren't trying to be funny or shocking, they were simply having a sincere discussion about lactation amongst themselves, and I didn't intercede since we were at a transition point while I decided which book to read next anyway. I should also note that there were both boys and girls involved in the discussion, and I think it's a great thing that more boys are growing up knowing what breasts are *really* for!

How It Went Overall
This always seems to be a popular theme. The kids enjoy identifiying different birds, and hearing the different calls, and they are always completely fascinated by the nest we have with the egg that never hatched. Some of them are convinced that egg will hatch eventually, while another child was so empathetic with the poor baby that didn't make it I was afraid he was going to start crying! But, thankfully he didn't. I never say that the baby died, I tell them it didn't have a baby grow in it [and it could be either way; an unfertilized egg or an embryo that didn't make it].

In addition to the books above, Peck, Peck, Peck was a big hit once again, as was Owl Babies, which is a favorite of mine as well. The kids just love joining little Bill whining, "I want my Mommy!". They also liked The Odd Egg, Roly-Poly Egg, and The Pigeon Needs A Bath. Night Owl is a really good one for younger kids since it is shorter and has the different sounds to guess.