Category Archives: Storytime

Librarianship, Storytime

How to stay healthy?

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With all the scary talk about the H1N1 virus, I’ve been trying to figure out how to keep myself healthy in the face of the onslaught of germs that comes my way, especially during storytimes. 

I’ve toyed with the idea of adding a little note to the library’s published calendar that says something like, “Please help our community – and your children’s librarian – stay healthy, and don’t come to storytimes if either you or your child are sick.”  But I can’t come up with wording that says what I want to say in a way that’s friendly and kind, not obnoxious.  So for now I’ve followed the suggestion of a library patron, and bought an enormous jug of hand sanitizer that I put outside the door to the story room.  On the way in to the story room for each storytime, I’m encouraging attendees to use the hand sanitizer if they’d like or if they think they should.

Logically, I know that hand sanitizer won’t solve the issue of germs being spread at storytimes, since I know for a fact that every time that I’ve gotten sick recently it has been from airborne germs (I never, never, never touch my eyes or mouth or nose while at work).  But hopefully the mere presence of the hand sanitizer will remind people that germs spread quickly in the confined space of the story room, and hopefully anyone who’s sick or has a sick child will choose to stay home.  Hopefully.  And maybe I’ll be able to find a gentle way to let patrons know that when the children’s librarian gets sick, everyone loses, because then there are no storytimes until she gets better.  And given her tendency to nasty bronchial infections, it could take her a long time to get better if she does get sick. 

And I’ll definitely be getting my flu shot as soon as I’m able.  Definitely.

Storytime, Summer reading

What a week…

It’s that busy time of year again, as the school year winds down and I prepare for class visits to promote summer reading and get ready for the summer reading program.

This past week, I had my regularly scheduled five storytimes in four days, and in addition a preschool class visited on Monday for a storytime, a Boy Scout troop visited late Monday afternoon to earn their communications badges, and another preschool class visited on Wednesday, joining in with my Mother Goose on the Loose Wednesday storytime.  And, of course, I tutored Monday and Wednesday nights and am on my way to tutor again this afternoon.

It was a fun week, to be sure (though I’m working tomorrow, too, so the week isn’t over yet), but also occasionally challenging.  The Monday preschool visit was awesome, since there were only ten kids and their teachers, and I could present two of my favorite preschool stories:  Bark, George by Jules Feiffer and my feltboard version of Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.  The kids and I all had a lot of fun – there’s no better feeling than sharing a favorite book with a receptive audience.

The Boy Scout visit also went well, with many of the six boys asking terrific questions and looking like they were engaged for my one hour presentation.  My presentation covered the Dewey Decimal System; how books are ordered and catalogued in the library; a lesson on how to search the library’s catalog, whether from home or in the library building; and a quick best-of-the-best tour of the library building.  I know for sure that I reached several of the boys, and I feel like I did a pretty good job making some potentially very dry material a bit more palatable.  (No one has ever accused the Dewey Decimal System of knocking the socks off of a fourth grade boy…)

And the preschool storytime on Wednesday was almost great, but we were definitely short on space.  Forty-three adults and kids, plus me, don’t quite fit well in our lovely story room.  Room was tight, with the carpet squares butted right up against one another, and the lack of personal space took its toll on some of the kids.  For the most part, though, we had a great time, and it was fun for me to realize that I’ve now internalized the Mother Goose on the Loose program in a way that enables me to adapt it on the fly for a situation like this crowded room full of kids who were a bit too old for MGOL.  Internalization of a program means that I can move beyond mere memorization of the rhymes and such and to a different level that is more interactive and reactive to the attendees of the day – much like the way I’ve been able to internalize the Wilson Reading System and become a much better tutor in the process.

And now I need to spend tomorrow reading book reviews, finalizing the summer reading prize order from Toysmith, preparing Monday’s toddler storytime, and writing lesson plans for the next three toddler storytimes.  (And a million other little pre-summer reading details that need to be tended to RIGHT NOW.)  And, of course, I’ll help patrons through the course of the day.  No problem, right?  I just wish I weren’t coming down with a cold…

Feltboard, Storytime

The Big Red Barn

Here are photos of another of my feltboard favorites – the pieces for Margaret Wise Brown’s The Big Red Barn.  I’ve included a close-up of my favorite pieces, the roosters and hens (click on images to enlarge):

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Storytime

Valuable lesson

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This past week was a very long one, since I’ve been battling the silly cold I mentioned a couple of posts back.  It’s a head cold, and has mostly been tough on my voice (some days I was down to almost no voice at all), which may not matter in some professions, but really makes a difference if you’re a children’s librarian.

So here is the valuable lesson that I have learned:  I’ve now created a head cold-friendly Mother Goose on the Loose storytime plan.  This storytime plan uses as little singing as possible, and incorporates a lot of finger plays and action rhymes that are so familiar to me, so ingrained in my subconscious, that I don’t have to think too hard to present them to the group.  When I used this storytime on Tuesday, it worked beautifully: I was able to make the storytime fun for the participants while I was inwardly suffering.  No need for the group to know just how miserable I was.  All they needed to know was that I’d been sick for a week and a half (so probably not contagious anymore) and that they’d need to help me out with the few songs that were in the storytime.  All of those songs are used every week in MGOL (“I Went to Visit a Farm Today,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” “Wind oh Wind,” and “We Ring Our Bells Together”), and there were enough regular attendees on Tuesday to make the songs work.  On Wednesday, there were a lot of brand new attendees to MGOL, so I simply skipped the animal songs and reassured myself that no permanent damage would be done by eliminating a portion of the storytime for this one week.

I’ve marked this Mother Goose on the Loose storytime in my files as “Head Cold Friendly,” so that it will be easy to find next time I need it.  Next time I’ve got a persistent cold, I won’t have to scramble to create anything, I can simply use this plan that has been proven to work.  Lesson learned!  Plan created!

In addition, this week’s Toddler Storytime just happened to be song-free, which was a huge boon to my voice, and this week’s Preschool Storytime was an “art week” storytime, so I only read two stories to the kids, then we all did an art project together.  Much easier on the voice.  In all, I was able to stumble through a total of five storytimes in four days.

And two other valuable lessons I learned this week:  don’t be afraid to let the storytime participants know that your voice is a bit rough and you can’t push it too much, and keep a thermos of honey-laced tea next to you during the storytime.  No one cared that I took a moment here and there to sip the tea, and it helped enormously.

But the biggest lesson I learned was that anyone who attends a storytime with their child is there to enjoy themselves and partake in a group experience.  They didn’t really care that I wasn’t as fabulous as usual, especially since I kept smiling and used humor throughout the storytimes.  Ultimately, we all had fun, and that’s the single most important ingredient for a successful storytime.  And, ultimately, this was only one week out of fifty-two, so it’s all ok.

Feltboard, Storytime

One more time for Spot…

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So I used my felt pieces for Where’s Spot again last Thursday, this time for a preschool storytime (ages four to seven).  I did it partly as an experiment – comparing the reactions of the toddler age group to this age group – and partly because I had a feeling it would be lots of fun.

It was a BLAST!  By age four, most kids know this story inside out, and when I brought out a new piece – the grandfather clock, for instance – the kids would start yelling “There’s a snake in there!!!!” And I would play the dumb adult, saying, “Gee, are you sure?  You really think there’s a snake in the clock?  Don’t you think Spot is in the clock?”  And the kids would holler back in unison, “NOOOO!!!!  It’s a SNAKE!!!!”  And I’d open the the door of the clock and find the snake, and shake my head while saying, “Wow, you guys were right.  There IS a snake in there.  No Spot, but a snake…”

And then we’d continue on to the next felt piece, and repeat the process.  The kids had a fantastic time hollering their thoughts to me (which, surprisingly, never once felt out of control, because I was able to moderate their comments and behavior through the whole story), and I had a great time pretending to be the not-so-bright librarian who had no clue what animal was in each of the felt pieces.

In fact, it was so much fun that I’m going to extend the experiment tomorrow morning, and try using these felt pieces with the infant storytime crowd.  Lots of babies, some one year olds, a few twos or almost twos.  It will be very, very interesting to observe this crowd and how they react to the story.

Most importantly for my own storytelling, though, last Thursday was a prime example of how the best storytimes are interactive, with the storyteller paying close attention to the reactions of the kids in the audience.  If you’re willing and able to “riff” a little when telling stories, it becomes the most incredible experience for everyone, storyteller AND audience.  I left last Thursday’s storytime smiling and with a totally happy storytime buzz that lasted me the rest of the day.  Hopefully tomorrow’s telling of Where’s Spot will be just as wonderful.

Feltboard, Storytime

Where’s Spot, part 2

I meant to bring my camera yesterday and get photos of the additional felt pieces I’ve made for Where’s Spot by Eric Hill, but, of course, forgot.  But today’s post is more about the process of presenting this story in felt, because yesterday’s storytime was an excellent example of how a felt story can spark something in younger kids in a way that a story in print doesn’t.

For yesterday’s storytime, I loosened up my presentation of the felt story considerably, and did more of a storytelling/felt presentation than a precise retelling of the story.  I paid attention to the reactions of the kids, and drew out the suspense more than I do when using the book (I should note that I’ve used this book more times than I can count for storytimes, since it never seems to get stale for the kids).  It was amazing to watch their expressions as the story progressed, and to see how completely and totally involved they were in the story.  Very, very cool.

And the best part was that in the Quiet Time section of the storytime, which came right after the feltboard story, all of the kids chose to read Where’s Spot with their parents.  Every single one of them.  (Good thing I had multiple copies available!)  So seeing and hearing the story in a felt version actually inspired all of the kids to go back to the original print version of the story – who could ask for more than that?

Feltboard, Spare time - Culture, Storytime

Where’s Spot?

My longest-running felt board story project is the pieces for Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill.  I spent hours upon hours on several of the pieces last spring, and added one more piece last fall, and now have to scramble to finish off the pieces in time for the “Peek, Peek, Hide-and-Seek” toddler storytime this week.  These are tough to make because I’m trying to duplicate a lift-the-flap book in felt: it uses a LOT of felt, and requires a lot of patient gluing to keep the inner parts from sticking to the flaps.

So here are a few of the pieces from my collection – the staircase (with lion inside the under-stair closet) and the bed (with crocodile hiding under the bedskirt) are quite large and safely stored at the library, and so are not shown here.  Note that the left photo is the pieces as they are shown first (“Is he in the clock?”), and the right photo shows the pieces with the flap lifted; click on images to enlarge:

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Above are Spot’s mommy, Sally, the door with the bear behind it, the clock with the snake in in it, the closet with the monkey in it, and the piano with the hippo in it.  Still to be created are the box with the three penguins, the rug with the turtle underneath, the basket with Spot, and Spot and Sally’s food bowls.  Stay tuned for those photos!

Storytime

Funny, that

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One more bit of proof that the way we see ourselves isn’t the way the world sees us:

Halfway through a recent Mother Goose on the Loose storytime, a mother new to the storytime asked me, “Wow – when you interviewed for this job, did you have to do a singing audition?”

Me, with a laugh, “Actually, before this job I never, ever sang publicly.”

The mom:  “But you have a beautiful singing voice!!”

Storytime

Artwork

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As promised a while back, here are two photos of artwork created by the preschool storytime.  In the first photo, you see two examples of the confetti explosion project (black paper) next to the two murals created in the free painting project.  In the second photo, you can see a close-up of one of the painted murals; note the scratchboard-like quality the kids achieved by first painting a multicolored layer, then painting a top layer of blue, then using their fingernails to dig through and uncover the first layer.  Very cool, and it all came from the kids and their imagination.  (Click on images to enlarge.)

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Children's book reviews, Storytime

The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett

I love this new picturebook by one of my favorite author/illustrators, and on a whim decided to use it for preschool storytime yesterday, even though it seems more logical to use it for one-on-one book sharing due to its size, shape, and multiple partial pages.  I was also worried that my preschool storytime crowd might think the story was too simple and spare and not be engaged.

But The Odd Egg was a total hit.  The kids were completely enthralled, and were so excited about the story’s progression that they couldn’t stay in their seats.  After several of them had run up to the book to view the pictures (blocking the view of others, of course), I had to start going around the room with each picture so that each child could get a good moment to view each illustration up close.  And the best part was the guffaws of laughter at the final illustration on the book’s endpages.  (I’m really glad that Nanette, the library’s awesome cataloger, had the foresight to process the book without the dust jacket so that last picture of duck and his “baby” can be fully appreciated.)

It’s so nice to find a picturebook that an adult (me) loves, and that also passes the test of a group of child listeners.  Bonus:  the kids loved the book, and stayed attentive to it, even though they were all wired up on the tons of sugar that they’d just consumed at their school’s Valentine’s Day party.  If a book can pass THAT test, then it’s a real winner.