Humbug Witch

Our Halloween party yesterday was so much fun.  We had Trick or Treating around the library's various department, and awesome photo booth, a scavenger hunt, and make your own spiders, mummies, and monster crafts.  We kicked off the party with a special Halloween storytime for all ages.

 For the storytime, I adapted Lorna Balian's Humbug Witch to a flannel board display.  This story adapted well because at the end, the witch starts to take off her "witchy" gear, finally revealing that she was a little girl all along.  It is a fun surprise ending the for the kiddos, and is definitely not a scary book so it is suitable for all ages.  I had fun telling the story and I think the kids had fun listening to it!

Frog and Toad Display

And my adoration for Arnold Lobel continues.  I decided it was time to spruce up our Easy Reader display, and who better to spruce up the easy readers than Frog and Toad?  Don't they make you want to cuddle up and read a good book?

To create this, I drew a larger version of Lobel's illustration from Days with Frog and Toad onto a manilla poster board.  I colored it with colored pencils, and traced it and drew its opposite again so that the tree could be two-sided.  Finally, I glued each side of the tree together at the top, and onto a wood block at the bottom.  I also glued popsicle sticks in between the paper layers so it would have better support to stand up.  Finally, I tied on the sign with some pretty yellow string. Voila!

"Leaf Man" Flannel Story

Happy Fall!  The air is crisp, the wind is blowing, and the leaves are falling.  What a perfect day to read  Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert for today's preschool storytime.  As I read the story, I periodically "found" leaves along the way, creating my own leaf man for the children to see.

We talked about how leaves are different shapes and change different colors.  A lot of the kids eagerly explained that they had read this already, but the flannel board story kept their attention throughout this quiet and melodic text.

Divergent Party

This past Saturday I held a Divergent party to celebrate the upcoming release of Veronica Roth's final book in the trilogy, Allegiant, which comes out on October 22nd, 2013.  I had so much fun with the party and I consider it a huge success.  It was a teen program and attracted patrons aged 13-19.

The program was attended by both Divergent fans as well as teens who had never read the series.  I  took this as a great opportunity to do a quick booktalk and hopefully inspire interest in the series for those who were unfamiliar with it.  I explained it as a great readalike for Hunger Games, where the series is set in a futuristic dystopian Chicago.  The city is divided into five factions: Abnegation, the selfless; Dauntless, the brave; Erudite, the intelligent; Amity, the peaceful; and Candor; the honest.  Long ago, the government determined that it was these qualities of humanity that were necessary for society to function and therefore each citizen must be a part of one faction and act out its qualities to the utmost extent.  Some rare people, however, called the Divergent, have aptitude for more than one faction.  Tris, the main character in the series, was born into Abnegation but chooses Dauntless, after learning that she has aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite.  Having divergence for three different factions is almost unheard of and we learn that this puts Tris in great danger, but also gives her great power.

The first part of the program was to have teens take a quiz that I created, entitled "Divergent Faction Aptitude Test".  This quiz was done in a infographic style, with questions similar to the scenarios Tris faces in the first book before the Choosing Ceremony (first question: "You see two baskets in front of you: one with a knife, one with cheese.  Choose one!").  At the end of the quiz, they have the opportunity to be Divergent by coming up with an idea alternative to the choices given in the quiz.  Once their faction is determined, participants could choose an activity based on their factions.  I also gave out stickers I made for each faction so that they could wear them with pride (I, for the record, belong in Amity!).  The activities I had planned for each faction are as follows:

Dauntless: Temporary tattoo design
Erudite: Play Scrabble
Candor: Play "Would You Rather?"
Amity: Make friendship bracelets
Abnegation: Make greeting cards

Overall, the teens seemed to enjoy playing "Would You Rather?" the most.  The questions I created sparked discussion and they all got really into it.  Most people did a few different activities as opposed to just doing their faction activity, which I took as an opportunity to explain their "divergence", inspiring further conversation about the book ("Can you imagine having to be 100% honest, all the time?  Even when it hurts someone's feelings?.. etc.).  I was thrilled with that fact that not only did participants thoroughly enjoy the program, but it also got a lot of them interested in reading the series.  I, for one, am anxiously awaiting October 22nd, so that I can read Allegiant.  I never thought that I would like a series as much as Hunger Games, but Divergent is a huge contender!

Catching Fire Display

It's exactly 50 days until Catching Fire is released in theaters on November 22nd, 2013.  To commemorate the exciting day, we will be holding a special Catching Fire movie release party this November, filled with super fun Hunger Games activities and games (spoiler: create your own victor!).  Because I am majorly geeking out over this, I couldn't even wait until November to start working on a display for this event, and let me just say, things got intense.  I am particularly proud of the flames coming out of the Mockingjay.  Get it? Catching Fire!

To make this display, I drew the mockingjay logo on yellow poster board, about one foot wide.  Then I traced over it with a Sharpie and cut out the middle pieces.  I coated the entire piece with some glitter glue I found in the craft closet, using a paintbrush.  Then, I layered red, orange, and yellow tissue paper and cut out a flame pattern.  I stapled the folded layers together and crumpled them up to give the flames a more fiery look, and layered the flames beneath the mockingjay.  Finally, I glued all of it onto a poster board, where I have written with cut-out letters: "May the odds be ever in your favor".  I obviously had a little too much fun with this one.

Birthday Cake in the Oven

I am always trying to think of clever ways to use felt and make new flannel board displays.  I love the visual element that it adds to rhymes and songs.  I made this birthday cake display to go along with "Pat-a-Cake".  

First, I ask the little ones who likes birthday cake.  Then I tell them that we are going to bake a cake just like in the rhyme!  If they are old enough, I can ask them for suggestions on what we should put in the cake; otherwise, I just list off the ingredients as I put them on the board: flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and butter.  Then, with the felt cake layered underneath, I put the oven on top of the ingredients.  We all count to five to let the oven "warm up" so the cake can cook.  

After that, I carefully peel the oven off revealing the cake underneath!  The kiddos were pretty thrilled with this; it seemed like a magic trick to them.  Finally, as another counting exercise, I count five birthday candles to go on top and our birthday cake is done.  I think that this is a great exercise to show kids patience, counting, and of course a fun surprise!

Banned Books Storytime

      To honor the last day of Banned Books Week 2013, I held a special "Banned Books Storytime" today.  Featured books include H.A. Rey's Curious George, The Family Book by Todd Parr, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (of course), Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr., and Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford.  Each of these titles were challenged for various reasons.  My favorite has got to be Curious George and the reasoning behind its challenge: the monkey is not portrayed as anatomically correct (he's missing his tail).  The book to leave most patrons dumbfounded, however, is Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  What could it possibly have wrong with it? Bill Martin's name was confused with another Marxist Bill Martin. 

In addition to reading these books, I created some rhymes and flannel board activities for the kids to do.  I made 5 felt balloons for Curious George and asked the little ones to help me count them so George could fly away, followed by Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.  I have a flannel board activity where I hide a felt mouse underneath one of five different colored houses and have the kids guess until they find him.  For Banned Books Storytime, I thought who better to hide than Waldo?  Finally, I had the kids do "Wild Thing Wild Thing" (turn around... touch the ground... etc.) and "If You're a Brown Bear and You Know It".  The little ones really seemed to enjoy this storytime as banned books are often classics and they got to see a lot of familiar characters.  At the end, I even had a child who wanted to take a picture with my Wild Thing stuffed animal, in front of all the banned books.  The theme was probably a lot more important to parents than children, but I did try to help kids understand the theme by opening the storytime by asking them if they could imagine the library without Curious George and various other characters.  None of them thought it was a good idea!