Category Archives: Children

Book groups, Children

A big thank you

I shouldn’t pick favorites, but – I LOVE the sixth grade book group.  These kids have been in my book groups since I started them three years ago, and this group constantly amazes me with their good humor, great discussion skills, and literary insights.

At last Tuesday’s book group, two of the kids surprised me with a card and two cookies.  Here’s what the card says:

Thank You!  (heart shape here)

Dear Abby,

Just a quick thank you for how awesome you’ve been.  U ROCK!

Sincerely,

M—– & S————  🙂

(I gave the cookies 🙂 )

And then, down the inside left of the card:

Awesome

Bodacious

Bodacious x2

Young

Now there’s a few things a girl likes to hear!  Not just bodacious, but bodacious times two, AND I’m awesome and young.  That card TOTALLY made my day.  Thanks, girls!

Children, Librarianship

Ewwwwwwwww…

1 Comment

The most bizarre thing happened at work today:

A fifth grader was chatting with me at my desk when another fifth grader came up to borrow a pencil.  As the second student was digging through the pencil bin, she laid down the small fish squirt toy that she had been carrying.  The first student, still chatting with me, absent-mindedly picked up the squirt toy and squeezed.  Pfffffitttt – a squirt of liquid hit me full in the face, right next to my mouth. 

“Ewwwwwwwww!”  I cried, wiping the liquid off my face.

“What was in that?” the first student asked.

“Oh, I dunno, just some old bathwater I guess,” said the owner of the squirt toy (who has younger siblings, it should be noted).

Needless to say, as soon as I could extract myself I ran down to the staff room and washed my face.  Hopefully I won’t have broken out in a weird rash tomorrow morning or contracted some dread disease.  Blech blech blech.  The things they DON’T tell you about what it means to be a children’s librarian.

And, for the record, I also got sneezed on today by a sixth grader.  Twice.  Good thing I take vitamins.

Children, Librarianship

A few moments

2 Comments

A few fun moments from the past week:

During Jennifer’s infant storytime, a brother (age 5) escorted his sister (age 2) to the bathroom while mom stayed in the storytime with the baby.  The brother, less than enthusiastic about being in charge of his younger sister, sat in the comfy chairs outside the bathroom while his newly potty trained sister did what she needed to do.  Sister could have used a little more help – when she was done peeing, she came running out of the bathroom with no pants on.  Her brother sighed,  rolled his eyes and said, “Put your pants on!!!!!”  Which she then did.

In the fifth grade book group, one of the members had a particularly intelligent remark about The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and she asked me if I was going to post her comment on the internet.  Hmmm.  I wonder if that family reads this blog…

Yesterday afternoon two third grade girls were hanging out on the chairs by my desk after school.  It was Friday, and homework wasn’t hanging over their heads, so they whiled away the time writing riddles, which they shared with me.  Some of the riddles were really good, too – I was impressed!

Three of my most enthusiastic children’s room patrons stopped by mid-week, and were intrigued by the stuffed animals sent to us by the World Wildlife Fund as a thank-you for the donation the Friends made to WWF as part of the summer reading program.  The stuffed animals are displayed on my desk with the thank-you plagues and information about the two animals, polar bears and manatees.  But these three kids enhanced the display by making nameplates for the two stuffed animals (the polar bear is now “Snowy” and the manatee is now “Norman”) and pulling books on each animal from the collection. 

During the preschool storytime on Thursday, one little girl started to feel pretty crummy.  She lay down on the floor, rather miserable, and her sweet twin sister sat rubbing her back to comfort her.   (Needless to say, they went home soon after.)

Just a few tidbits from the past few days.

Children, Storytime

Another great art project

3 Comments

I feel like I’m writing too many posts on the fabulous art projects from MaryAnn Kohl’s book Preschool Art, but we just finished another phenomenonally successful preschool storytime that used one of her projects.  Today’s choice:  “Stomped Foil Sculpture,” chosen because I didn’t have enough time earlier this week to really plan for today’s storytime.  I had foil, I had paper, and I had masking tape, and this seemed like an easy last-minute project.  I have to admit that I was a wee bit skeptical, though, and wondered whether it would hold the kids’ interest.

I should know better – Kohl’s book hasn’t failed me yet, and today was beyond fun.  I started off by stomping on a piece of balled up foil myself, and talked to the kids about stomping away from your friends so that no fingers or toes would get hurt.  Then I showed how to loop a piece of masking tape (there were several kids who had never done that before), and then let them loose with a piece of paper, a pile of tinfoil sheets, and pieces of pre-torn masking tape stuck all over the edge of the countertop. 

We went through 100 square feet of tinfoil, and the sculptures that came out of that room were inspiring.  Some of the kids stuck to the stomped idea, and stuck mostly rounded balls of tinfoil on their paper.  One girl wrapped her piece of paper in tinfoil, and then built it up piece by piece until there was a tinfoil tunnel and a story to go with it.  A boy went completely freeform, and constructed a tinfoil ornament that he’ll be able to hang when he gets home.  Another girl built a boat out of tinfoil, and made two figures to go in it, a boy and a penguin – inspired by the book I’d read aloud just before the art project, Oliver Jeffers’s Lost and Found.  Yet another girl used a sheet of tinfoil as her base, and attached a tinfoil handle to it.  And a younger boy mastered the art of making tape loops, and had a grand time putting his new skill to work on multiple sheets of paper.

We didn’t finish up until the last piece of tinfoil was gone, and that was an hour after we had started the project.  I’m sure that the creations would have continued if the supplies hadn’t run out.  Yay, yay, yay.  What complete and total fun.

Children, Storytime

Textured table art

4 Comments

Yesterday was the art week in the preschool storytime rotation, and we had a blast.

First I read two books to the large group:  Thing-Thing by Cary Fagan, a sweet story of a stuffed animal of no definable species who is given to a spoiled rich boy.  The spoiled rich boy throws Thing-Thing out the fifth story window in a rage, and the book chronicles Thing-Thing’s fall past floors four, three, and two; Thing-Thing and the reader get to observe little slices of life on each of those floors, interspersed with Thing-Thing’s thoughts as he falls.  I won’t give away the very happy ending to the story, but suffice it to say that the kids really liked the ending.

The second book was one of my favorites, Mr. Pusskins by Sam Lloyd, the story of a very grumpy, ungrateful cat who runs away from his adoring child Emily, only to discover life outside isn’t nearly so much fun.  Mr. Pusskins, of course, comes to regret under-appreciating Emily and wishes he had never run away.  My favorite scene in this story is when Mr. Pusskins calls Emily on the telephone after finding a MISSING poster with his (grumpy) photo and Emily’s phone number.  “Meow?” Mr. Pusskins whimpers into the phone, and adoring Emily immediately knows who he is and comes to get him.

We also did a couple of fun fingerplays, and wrapped up the story portion of storytime with a fingertasting.  I hadn’t used my fingertaster puppet with older kids before – Zebra has been monopolized by the toddlers up till this point – and I was blown away by how much this age group loves the humor and suspense of having their finger tasted.  Zebra tasted only things that cats like today: one child tasted like tuna, another like kibbles, a third like olive oil (Ophy Cat’s favorite thing in the whole world).  We had a great giggly time with Zebra.

And then it was time for process art.  Today’s project:  textured table art, from MaryAnn Kohl’s book Preschool Art.  I spent a bit of time agonizing over whether I needed to set up the tables prior to storytime, or whether I could let the kids really be in on the whole process.  Ultimately I reluctantly decided to set up the tables before the kids arrived, since this is a drop-in storytime with ever-increasing numbers of participating children.  So I laid out four small tables with all kinds of cool things spread out underneath the butcher paper, and presented this project as part mystery (what’s under the paper?) and part art exploration (playing with rubbing the crayons over the objects). 

It was a huge, huge, HUGE success.  Lots of discoveries as kids figured out which items were hidden – shells, paper clips, feathers, leaves, grass, coins – and lots of experimentation with color and pressure.  And what an orderly, wonderful bunch of kids.  I had given a brief introduction to the project while all the kids were still seated on the floor, and had shown them the two types of crayons they might find in the buckets: crayons without any wrappers (perfect for this project) and crayons that still had their wrappers on.  I told the group that if they had a crayon with a wrapper that they’d need to peel it off, and I pointed out the two wastebaskets that they could peel over.  And guess what?  Not a single crayon wrapper ended up on the floor.  Very, very impressive for a large group of four through six year olds, most of whom were in the story room without a parent!

I love, love, love this preschool storytime, and really look forward to it from one week to the next.  And yesterday’s meeting was a particularly wonderful time.

Children, Storytime

Storytime moment

3 Comments

This morning, in my Thursday Toddler storytime, I had a last-minute additional family.  The mom called fifteen minutes prior, and asked if she could come to today’s storytime, since they’d had to drop out of the Monday storytime due to a conflict.  “Sure,” I said, “No problem – see you soon.”

But I hadn’t realized that Mary’s older sister, Grace, who is four, also would be attending.  Grace hadn’t come to the Monday storytimes with Mary (she must be in preschool on Mondays), and so I didn’t have a nametag for her.  Usually kids don’t really notice whether or not they have a nametag, so I didn’t worry too much.

Mid-way through the storytime, though, Grace raised her hand, “Abby?  I don’t have a nametag…” 

“I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t know that you’d be coming today,” I said, “but I’m very happy that you’re here!  I’ll make you a nametag for next week, ok?”

Even as she nodded ok, Grace’s eyes filled with tears.  She was about to lose it.

“Would you like to wear my nametag, Grace?”  Big, grateful, happy nod.  And Grace was Abby for the rest of the storytime.

Children, Storytime, Teaching

Process art

3 Comments

Thursday was the first time that I attempted a process art project in my preschool storytime.  And it was one of the more wonderful experiences of my library career.

Quite a while ago, I had firmly decided that I wanted to pursue process art projects with this age group, but I was heavy on the concept, short on the specifics.  So I was thrilled when I found MaryAnn Kohl’s book Preschool Art: It’s the Process, Not the Product.  Not only did the title match my thinking, but the book is a well-thought-out and easy to use resource that also provides a wonderful photocopy-ready explanatory page to hand out to parents.

In planning this fall’s preschool storytimes, I decided to establish a three-week rotation:  storytelling with puppets week one, feltboard story week two, and process art week three.  That way we’re not overly heavy on the arts/craft angle, and we get to explore alternate ways to approach stories in two of the three weeks.

For the first process art project, I chose Kohl’s “Dark Sugar Chalk.”  After reading two stories aloud, I explained to the nine kids in attendance that we needed to do some prep work for our art, then we’d sit back down for a last story before doing our artwork.  This terrific bunch of kids took turns helping me measure out the water, add scoops of sugar, and stir the mixture, then everyone helped plunk pieces of chalk into the sugar water.  Totally riveted, we noticed that little bubbles come out of the chalk, and that it immediately starts to turn a darker, brighter color.

While the chalk soaked, we read one last story, then packed up our carpet squares, moved the tables to the center of the room, and fished the chalk out of the water into dry tubs.  And here came the best part: the kids colored with this bright, less smudgey chalk on black poster board, playing with the colors and the quality of the chalk, experimenting with using cotton balls to moosh the colors around, putting one layer of chalk on top of another…generally having a great time messing around with this new medium and discovering its qualities.

One of the children went back to the tub that contained the sugar water, and dipped some cotton balls in that mixture, then went back to his art and experimented with using those sugary cotton balls to smush and blend the colors.  Another child dipped her finger into the sugar water, and noticed that the sugar hadn’t completely dissolved, so that she could trace almost invisible pictures in that layer of sugar.  Yet another child discovered that he could draw pictures with the chalk on the inside surface of the dry plastic tubs.  Needless to say, all of these discoveries were shared with the group, and each of the children tried a variety of techniques and approaches that I would never have anticipated.

It was incredibly fun, and so rewarding to see how the kids responded.  I had a fantastic time, and can’t wait ’till our next project!

Note on materials used:  I bought sheets of black poster board, and cut each sheet into four pieces (bigger pieces wouldn’t have fit well on the tables we use, though bigger pieces would be a lot of fun).  The chalk was remarkably hard to find: I went to five different stores before finding regular Crayola colored chalk at Crosby’s Supermarket in Concord.  The plastic tubs are storage tubs from IKEA – they’re perfect for this kind of project.  Not too big, not too deep, not too expensive, easy to carry because they have a broad lip all around the edge.

Children, Children's literature, Librarianship

No better feeling

3 Comments

Five minutes before closing yesterday, a young man (4th grade) came up to me and asked, “Do you have any recommendations for me for realistic fiction that’s not depressing?  I really liked the last book you recommended to me, The Golly-Whopper Games [by Jody Feldman].”

I pulled the first Phineas MacGuire book for him, Phineas L. MacGuire Erupts!: The First Experiment by Frances O’Roark Dowell, told him that another boy his age had loved it, and sent him on his way.

And then this afternoon he came bouncing up to my desk, “You know that book you got for me?  I’m almost done with it – can you get me the next book in the series?”  And luckily we had the next two books on the shelf, and I sent him home with both.

Less than 24 hours, with a school day in the middle of those 24 hours, and he’s already almost finished the book and is ready for more.  That’s incredibly satisfying to me, the children’s librarian: I managed to put the right book in this child’s hand at the right time.  Really, truly, there’s no better feeling.

Children, Summer reading

A few more snippets

2 Comments

Yesterday’s class visits gave me these snippets to share:

I brought out the book A Visitor for Bear by Bonnie Becker to read to a second grade class, and a boy in the class called out, “I heard that book on NPR!!”  (A good indication of the type of town in which I work…)

When asked by Peggy (the school’s library media specialist) whether they knew who I was, several hands in that same second grade class shot up eagerly in the air.  One little girl, a favorite of mine, answered Peggy with the usual response to that question this week:  “She’s Abby.”  And a little boy, whom I also adore, said “I know her!!  I LOVE her books!!!!!!!!!”

Later on, as I was talking about the Ice Cream Social, that same little girl announced in her lovely British accent, “Last year you had the music of the Beatles!”  Which made Jim pretty happy when I told him later, since it was his band that played the Beatles music. 

Another comment that made Jim happy came from a fourth grader:  “Last year you had a BAND playing at the Ice Cream Social.  Are you going to have them again?!?!?!”

After I finished reading to the second graders, and they were busy doing some word searches, a member of the PTO came up to me and introduced herself.  Apparently she had been in the library shelving books as I was reading to the kids, and she commented to me, “Wow – they really like you.  And they really liked your stories.  You’re a celebrity!”

So, I may not have monetary fortune, but I do have a measure of fame.  And I love that I’m just “Abby” to the kids – not Mrs. Kingsbury, not Miss Abby (sorry, but I ABHORE being called “Miss Abby”), not the librarian.  Just Abby.  That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.

Children, Summer reading

Why kids are great

2 Comments

Some snippets from my week (a fun week, but a loooong week) visiting the classes at the elementary school, doing my regular job in the children’s room in the afternoon, and tutoring in the evening:

A third grader, standing in line to get his summer reading bag today, twinkled his eyes at me and said, “My sister knows you really well!”  “Ah,” I said, “Your sister is Rachael…and I know your sister pretty well, too!”   (His sister is a three year old toddler storytime regular.)  He grinned from ear to ear.

Tutoring yesterday, I had to dictate this sentence to A.:  “Gerry is a terrific person.”  I dictated the sentence, she repeated it back to me, and then she did what she often does – put her left arm kind of over her work so she could write without me seeing.  When she finished writing, we started the proofreading process, and she stifled a couple of nervous giggles before I figured out what was going on.  She had written the sentence twice, once just as dictated, and a second time this way: “Abby is a terrific person.”

Yesterday afternoon, after I had spent the day at the elementary school, two second grade girls came up to my desk hand-in-hand and said, “We just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for coming to our school and reading to us today!”  “Oh,” I said, “It was my pleasure!  Thank you for letting me come visit!”  The two girls giggled and blushed and dashed away as if they had just spoken to a celebrity.

Tonight my other student, M., told me the results of the fourth grade spelling bee that she participated in this week:  she made it to next week’s finals!  This is a student who struggles with encoding and decoding, and who has been working with me using the Wilson Reading System for the last year and a half or so, and she correctly spelled seven out of eight words given to her.  The only word she missed?  Average.  Not bad, considering it’s usually pronounced as a sight word (most people don’t pronounce the “er”).  Yay!  Way to go, M.!!

Yesterday morning, as I was making my way through the school’s lobby to the school’s library, I passed by and greeted another one of my toddler storytime regulars, who was with his mom dropping off his sister for kindergarten.  Liam’s jaw dropped when he saw me, and he stood there frozen in place, watching me go into the school library.  Shortly thereafter, he and his mom followed me in, and she (a wonderful, wonderful mother, by the way) smiled at me and said that she was just going to give Liam a little orientation and explain about the school library and why he was seeing me there and not in my usual spot.  Liam still looked a bit shell-shocked by the whole experience.

Today a young man, an afternoon regular at the library, came into the room and said hi to me, and I responded by wishing him a happy birthday.  “Wait a sec…” he said, “How did you know it was my birthday????”  “Well, I saw your name at the top of the list on a white board…”  “YOU were at MY SCHOOL???  Wow.  Wait, why were you at my school?”  (He’s a fifth grader, and a smart one.)

And my favorite moment, the one that pumped up my flagging ego:  in the fifth grade class that I visited on Tuesday, there were two of my book group girls.  One of them, Sophia, raised her hand and asked me, “Did you get a haircut?”  When I said yes, the other, Madeline, told me, “It looks really pretty!!!”  That’s just the kind of moment every girl (ok, almost forty-year-old girl) needs now and then. 

It’s been a really great week visiting the school.  Lots and lots of great kids, and more stories than I have room for here.  Though I’ll be totally and completely and thoroughly worn out by the time I’m done tutoring tomorrow night, I’ll also have enjoyed one of my favorite parts of the year.  A favorite part that’s been even better this year, since more kids know me now and thus have been attentive and terrific audiences for the stories I’ve read to them in their classes.

And not to forget my two tutoring students, who have very few lessons left (two for M., one for A.), and whom I’ll really miss this summer.  We’ve developed a special bond, and become great learning teams.  Though the tutoring exhausts me beyond measure (just that much extra time and energy spent on the top of an already very busy day), I also find it deeply rewarding.  Great kids with great attitudes and personalities who have made great progress in our time working together.