Concert Review - Charlotte Diamond

Friday night I got to see Charlotte Diamond in Concert at Spokane Falls Community College. She was in town to do a workshop the next day. It was a sweet deal for only five dollars.  I regularly sing her - I am a Pizza - before afterschool programs during that figgetty time after everyone  is seated and the program still won't start for six minutes. I haven't used any other of her songs yet.

There were at least 400 in the audience, in a mix of parents, educators, and kids, ranging from infants to tweens. And they were very enthusiastic.

Charlotte did a fantastic job of keeping everyone involved. And she had great crowd control.  She periodically sent a mob of little ones from the base of the stage with a "Go back to your seats, go back to your seats", and then into the next number. To acheive quiet when she needed it, she had everyone go "Shhhh", again "Shhhh" and then into the next number.

Charlotte signs (American Sign Language) many of her songs and teaches the sign before she begins. She had parents take out their keys and shake them to make the sound of rain. She donned not only a banana hat but also a fish hat and dog ears.  Apparently folks in the workshop the next day were going to get to make their own dog ears.  I was very envious.

She did a new song, "I have shoes and I can walk", which will fit into this week's storytime perfectly.  She also did a fish song that I had never heard. She did this with cutouts of the fish, octopus, shark etc. As each animal is eaten it is put in a pocket at the back of the larger anima. I am definitely going to investigate this one further. She also sang "I am a bubble" to the tune of "I am a Pizza"

The audience knew her songs and loved them. She had the parents and kids hugging to "Four Hugs a Day" and had them dancing in the aisles to a rousing rendition of "La Bamba". 

Here is Charlotte's website: http://www.charlottediamond.com/   And you can probably find many of her cd's at your library. And if you ever get the chance to see her in person, go for it.

Wall Displays - Polar Bears

I change my wall displays four times a year. I have a long section above the children's audio/visual shelving that is around forty inches high, so my main pieces usually measure 30 inches high and up to 40 inches wide. I make five to seven pieces.  I tend to have the pieces facing left toward the picture book area, with one piece looking the other way for visual interest.  I get my ideas from (copyright-free) clipart and children's books. We have an old fashioned overhead projector to enlarge my drawings. Our main branch downtown has a photocopier that can make transparencies, but I've found it faster and easier to just trace or draw on the transparency sheet. Here are my polar bears for this winter.  I had to add a different head to the skating bear to get them to be more uniform and added ear muffs and a scarf to the sledding bear.   The snowflakes were made by staff over the years.

My other wall space goes from ceiling to floor but I try to keep everything above book shelf height.  The kids sledding are from previous year.  I find that every winter display looks better with snowflakes.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Spokane Public Library.

Coyote Storytime (and Cowboys)

Sometimes I try too hard to get my storytime books all on a theme.  And it is always a mistake to read a book that I find lukewarm or boring just because it is on topic. This week I had coyotes as my theme and I could only find one toddler level book.  So I renamed my wolf puppet, Cleo the Coyote. After introducing her, I set her behind me on a table. When I bring stuffed animals, I say that they are there to listen to storytime and afterwards everyone will get a chance to pet then. This makes them less of a distraction.

[My very first storytime was Jungle Animals.  I brought a super sized alligator and lion. The kids went berserk and all climbed on the stuffed animals at once. Pandemonium reigned.  My trainer, the Youth Services Coordinator for our library system, let it go on for a few minutes, until I had absorbed the lesson and then put the animals away under the table] 

Cleo in the Snow is a cat who goes sledding. After I read the book,  I turned my head and yipped. Where is that coming from? I turned it the other way and yipped again.  Oh, Cleo is that you? What are you trying to tell us?  Then I let her whisper into my ear and tell the kids that Cleo thinks that was the funniest book she had ever had read to her. A cat named Cleo!

This was my book lineup:

Toddler books :

Way out west lives a coyote named Frank by Jillian Lund

Cleo in the Snow by Caroline Mockford

Wolves by Jim Arnosky. 

Preschool books:

Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires

Little Lost Cowboy by Simon Puttock

Way out west lives a coyote named Frank by Jillian Lund

Many thanks to Cate at Storytiming for sharing her coyote flannels.  You can find them here.  I added an orange moon and sang the Nancy Stewart song, Five Coyotes up on a hill. You can find it here.  The kids all join in with the Awoooo’s and when we got down to two coyotes, I stop after, “One coyote said” And ask the kids  - what did she say? And most of them were able to reply, “I’m gettin' kind of hungry” 

For the preschoolers I also sang the Nancy Stewart song, I am a Cowboy. This is a repeating song, with me singing one line and the kids repeating the line.  I take them through all the motions first.  You can find the song on her Singin' Sidesaddle CD.

I’ve used the song before as a time filler before after school programs and as part of a cowboy storytime.  Here is a flannel I made for the cowboy storytime using Cowboy Small by Lois Lenski for the pattern. I find the book too small in format to read to a group.

I put the cowboy on the flannelboard and ask the kids, What does a cowboy need? As the kids guess horse, rope, etc.  I put up the flannel for the item. If they are having trouble coming up with answers, I ask more questions, What will the cowboy wear on his feet?  What does a cowboy ride around rounding up? to get them thinking.

Here is a picture of poor Cleo. She lost an eye while getting some rough love after my Tuesday storytimes.   Despite my heart palpitations, it doesn't appear that anyone actually consumed her eye. I thought a patch looked better than the empty eye socket for the Thursday storytimes.

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the vies of Spokane Public Library.

Valentine Storytime

This week I did a Love/Valentine theme for my toddlers and preschoolers. Here is the summary of my programs:

Toddler
Greeting and opening song: Good Morning to You

Action Rhyme: Open them shut them

Book:  How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You by Jane Yolen

Rhyme:  Wiggle Fingers

Book:  All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri. This is a new book by my all time favorite author/illustrator. It was perfect for this storytime.  As I showed each picture, I asked, "What is this Animal?", read the text, then had everyone say the animal sound with me.

Rhyme: Tommy Thumbs Up

Book:  I love you big as the world by David Van Buren

Rhyme:  Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear   - I always do more colors than just red. 

Flannel Board:  Five Little Valentines -  I didn't make the flannel hearts, it is one of the sets that were here when I started the job.  I can find the rhyme everywhere but could not identify the maker or source for the hearts.

I especially like the fox face. We counted the valentines together and then I asked, What shape are these valentines? Are they square? Are they round? Of course, they knew they were heart shape.  That led into..

Song: There's a little wheel a-turning in my heart - This is a tradtional folk song, but I learned it from Laurie Berkner's Buzz Buzz CD.  I demo all the kids' parts: twirling hands, clapping, stomping, barking, snoring, HONKING, then sing the song.  I've done this song many times and the kids will often ask for it if there are a few minutes to wait before storytime starts.

Pop-Up Books - Stop Kissing Me by Ethan Long and  If you're Happy and You know it by David Carter.

Closing Rhyme - My hands say thank you

I use the same rhymes every week and add in one or two different ones that may or may not follow my theme.

Preschool:
Greeting and opening song:  Good Morning to you

Opening rhyme:  Open them Shut them

Book: Slugs in Love by Susan Pearson

Action Rhyme:  Teddy Bear Teddy Bear

Book: Smitten by David Gordon

Action Rhyme:  Head and Shoulders

Book: I ended up reading Do you still Love me  by Charlotte Midleton at the Tuesday session and Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman at the Thursday session.  I enjoy acting out Katie's excitement and her unsuccessful attempts to suppress it as I read the book and it always gets a laugh.

Song:  Skinnamarink

Book: Cat and Mouse by Schoenherr  - The kids and adults really enjoy the cat's expressions in this book.

Flannel board:  Five Little Valentines

Song:  There's a little wheel turning in my heart

Pop-up Book:  Stop Kissing Me by Ethan Long.  If you have not seen this pop-up, I really recommend it. The duck keeps kissing the pink poodle who thinks the slobbery kisses are yuck. There is a button to push to get a smooch sound. I really ham this one up when I read it and put in lots more smooches. The kids usually start calling out - push the button, push the button.
Pop - Book: If you're happy and you know it
Closing Rhyme - My hands say thank you.

We don't do crafts as part of our storytimes, but I have a stack of leftover flyers from last summer's Summer Reading Program.  I printed out coloring pages on the blank backside of the flyers, a simple heart for the toddlers and a more complicated valentine design for the preschoolers.  And lastly, everyone gets a hand stamp of a red heart. ( I use non-toxic, child safe washable ink pads and last week, for the first time to my knowledge, was told by a mom that her infant had had a reaction to it)

Yes, I did mean to say infant.  I get a real mix of ages at both storytimes.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed here are my own, and not my employer's.

Flannel Friday

I do a twenty minute toddler storytime for kids 18 months to three years and a half hour preschool storytime for kids three to five every Tuesday and Thursday.  I wanted to share my recent Lunar New Year storytime.
I was inspired to make some Chinese lanterns from the pictures in the Oriental Trading Company catalog, but I could not find a five Chinese Lanterns rhyme.  I ended up adapting a rhyme I found on Amazon. 
Five Chinese Lanterns (tune: I'm a little tea pot)

One Chinese lantern shining bright
  Use it to light your way at night
If it's really dark, just light one more
  That's what Chinese lanterns are for.

Two Chinese lanterns...
Three Chinese lanterns...
Four Chinese lanterns...

Five Chinese lanterns shining bright
  Use them to light your way at night
Lanterns help celebrate Chinese New Year
  Gung Hay Fat Choy! Gung Hay Fat Choy!
[adapted by Susanne Miller]

I used a 3 oz dixie cup to cut out circles for the lanterns and just eyeballed the hexagonal lanterns. I added little rectangles of felt at the top and bottom with the bottom piece cut into a fringe. Then a small loop of felt at the top and added stripes and Chinese characters with fabric paint. (again from the ads in the Oriental Trading Company catalog)

For the toddlers I read:

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

My first Chinese New Year by Karen Katz

For the preschoolers: 

Chinatown by William Low

This Next New Year by Janet Wong

Red is a dragon by Roseanne Thong

We also learned the Nancy Stewart song, Gung Hay Fat Choy. This was difficult for me because I could not get the tune to stay in my head and had to play the music to sing along. The song with words and an instrumental version are on Stewart's cd, Songs of the Month Vols 1 & 2.  I had thought it might be too difficult for the kids, but all they really got into it. Our circ crew let me know that some were actually humming it afterwards while they checked out their books!

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the vies of Spokane Public Library.

Baby Lapsits

I got the opportunity to observe a baby lapsit on Monday.  I was a half hour early because the library's website had the time posted as 10 am instead of 10:30.  The first thing I noticed was that kids with moms who had also come too early looked to me like toddlers.  [After the rest arrived, I noted there was a full range of baby ages with many being very ambulatory] Kathryn, the youth librarian, was very gracious and took the time to answer my questions.  She had a table display of board books ready for check out and a large colorful poster explaining the Early Literacy Goals along with handouts of the rhymes she uses.  She started with five minutes of blowing bubbles. The kids loved this.  She played music during the bubble blowing.  Kathryn then greeted the group and pointed out the board books, the kleenex and the sink area. Kathryn used a stuffed elephant for her baby. She said she changes which stuffed animal she uses each week. The opening song was the More we get together.  The song was shortened and the babies were rocked first forward and back and then side to side. Kathryn then read three board books, alternating with a rhyme.  The rhymes were repeated twice. She gave one literacy hint : that reading books would help the children develop narrative skills. She then turned the music back on and brought out a box of toys (rattles, teething toys, a phone)for the children to play with.  She pointed out that the toys are cleaned (with chlorox spray cleaner) between each session. The books and rhymes lasted eight minutes. The playtime went 20 minutes.  Kathryn stayed in the room the entire time.

Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the vies of Spokane Public Library.