Silly Hat Storytime

We recently started a new Saturday morning family storytime.  This is great for two reasons: one, parents who work throughout the week can attend (during the week we mostly get nannies and daycare centers) AND I get to pick a theme!!!  With an all ages audience, we have some more leeway when it comes to themes, which is why I usually don't do a theme for a specific age range; it ends up being too limiting to appropriate book choices.  Anyways, for my first Family Fun Time Storytime, I did SILLY HATS!

Silly Hat Storytime 

• Song: Hello, How Are You?
• Our typical "Hello" song for storytimes. 
• Book: Whose Hat? by Margaret Miller (1988)
• The kids loved this, as they got to identify who each hat belongs to (i.e. a witch, policeman, nurse, etc.)
• Puppet: Fat Cat in Hats

• I used hats from our dress-up set to put on my fat cat puppet Maurice and asked the kids to identify them. This was a nice continuation of Whose Hat? and the kids always love seeing Maurice.
• Book: Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina (1947)
• This was probably the crowd's favorite book of the storytime, and no wonder, it's a classic!  My favorite part was when an infant was shaking her fists right along with the monkeys.
• Song: and Flannel: No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
• Always a favorite!
• Book: I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (2011)
• I wouldn't read this for storytime again.  Since the story is basically told through dialogue, I think it's a little hard to follow just by listening.  I get the humor in it, but I don't think the kids do.  In fact, it's a little terrifying for wee ones, as the rabbit gets eaten by the bear in the end.
• Song: On My Nose I Have a Hat
• Kids love participating with this song by offering answers to the question, "Where else can my silly hat go?"
• Book: The Hat by Jan Brett (1997)
• I've said it before: Jan Brett is among the best of the best!  It's still winter so this was a nice choice, and the children listened intently.
• Flannel: Little Rat and Hat

• A variation of "Little Mouse in his House":  I put up five different colored hats and ask the kids to help me find my missing rat.  Someone guesses green, and I say, "Little rat, little rat, are you in the GREEN HAT?"  It is always extremely exciting for them when we finally find the rat.  I like this flannel because it's easily changed for a theme and it is always a favorite.
• We Wave Goodbye Like This 
• Our typical "Goodbye" song for storytimes.
• Our Hands Say Thank You
• The final finishing touch: "Our hands say 'Thank You' with a clap clap clap!  Our feet say  'Thank You' with a tap tap tap!  Clap clap clap!  Tap tap tap! And we rollllllllll our hands to say, 'Goodbye!'"
• Craft: Jan Brett's characters and hats, a matching game craft!  Jan Brett's crafts are so simple and easy to prepare, and kids love them.  This was perfect for multiple ages.

Freedom Quilt

This past weekend we hosted a Black History Month Kickoff Celebration.  My coworkers hosted a puppet show/ storytime, and I helped the kids to create our library's very own Freedom Quilt!

Legend has it that during the times of the Underground Railroad, African American slaves used quilts along the Underground Railroad to communicate messages and signals that would help them to escape to freedom. Different patches on these Freedom Quilts conveyed varying messages, such as following the North Star, identifying friendly houses for shelter, or following a safe mountain trail.

To prepare for this craft program, I pre-cut quilt squares made from some patterned paper I found in our magical craft closet.  I hole punched each corner and added a bit of red yarn to all four corners of each square.  Finally, I pre-cut a variety of squares and triangles so that the children could make their own patterns on their quilt squares.  I provided some examples for them to look at (Shoofly, Monkey Wrench, Hourglass, Star, Crossroads, and Flying Geese) and was pleasantly surprised when all of the participants creatively came up with their own designs by cutting, coloring, and gluing the shapes onto their squares.

Once the squares dried overnight, I tied each corner together to make our quilt.  There was a fairly heavy amount of prep-work involved with this project, but I am so pleased with the results.  The quilt is now proudly hung on display outside our children's room.  Not one child was disappointed that they couldn't take their quilt square home; instead they were excited and proud to have their work displayed in the library! 

What Time is it? It's ValenTIMES

I love holidays and I especially love holidays that give me the opportunity to make SPECTACULAR displays of puns.  

This display was made on a large poster board, with heart cut outs and medium letter stickers.  I stapled together about 6 sheets of large white paper to make it look like a 3-D book, and I like the effect I ended up with.  

I put this up in our Teen section (it's a tad racy for the wee little ones) and so far they have gotten a kick out of it.  

Some more Valentine Puns for your enjoyment:

• Do you have any overdue books?  Because you've got FINE written all over you!
• Can I get your Call #?
• Dewey match?

Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Mural

A staff member at another branch had a wonderful idea for a creative collaboration among the different branches of our library system.  Each branch made a Peace Mural in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's birthday.  The murals will eventually be put together into one large mural that will go on display here at our main library.





I chose AccuCut stencils of a dove and of Martin Luther King Jr.'s silhouette for the kids to decorate. We had some cut-outs in the Children's Room and some in Teen Space for kids to complete throughout King Week.  We encouraged them to decorate their "peace symbols" with their own ideas of what peace means, as well as their dreams of peace in the style of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech.

I was very impressed at the amount of participation that went into this passive program, especially from teenagers who are usually so reluctant to participate in library programming.  As you can see, however, many children and teens were able to express their ideas of peace creatively and beautifully (and adorably!).  I am thrilled with the results.

Chinese New Year Crafts

This Saturday we had our Chinese New Year Party.  I was assisted by my lovely coworkers who led a Chinese New Year storytime and even led the children on a parade throughout all the different departments of the library.  The children were very excited at the opportunity to run around with noise makers in the library.  I was of course in charge of the crafts!

Dragon Pencil Critters

I try to take advantage of the fact that our office has an AccuCut  (thank you thank you thank you!) whenever possible.  I recently discovered one for "Pencil Critters", which is basically just a paper cut-out that you zig-zag fold and stick on a pencil and it looks like a critter.  I thought these would be the perfect "bodies" for the kids to make dragons.  I printed out dragon faces that they colored, cut out, and glued to the critters.  I also cut various shapes out of construction paper for them to give their dragons scales and spikes.  They really enjoyed making the dragons.  When the group of kids came out of their storytime, the majority of the kids wanted to make their dragon critters before their Chinese lanterns.

Paper Lanterns

While I realize this is one of those crafts that tends to get overdone, I still wanted to do this one because it's a classic (I remember making one as a kid) and I thought it would be fun for the kids to take their paper lanterns on the parade throughout the library.  Also, it is so easy to set up and the only materials you need are construction paper, scissors, and a stapler!  I enjoyed seeing the kids get creative with this craft.  They colored their paper in so many different ways before cutting it out and turning in into a lantern.  One boy even knew how to write his name in Chinese!

Book Review: The Day the Crayons Quit

I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of Drew Daywalt's best-selling picture book (illustrated by Oliver Jeffers).  It's been on the New York Times best-seller list for 29 weeks and counting.  After reading it, I was both very impressed (especially with the illustrations) and equal parts disappointed, but I set myself up for that by having very high expectations.  I try not to do that, but it inevitably happens, just like Christmas and birthdays.

I want to start with the fact that this book is HILARIOUS! Amongst a series of letters written by a grumpy set of crayons to a little boy named Duncan, these disenchanted crayons have a LOT to complain about.  Red is tired of being overworked, Orange and Yellow argue over whose job it is to color the sun, Purple just wants to stay in the lines, and Pink wants be be known as something other than a girl's color.  I think I've figured out why it is a best-seller: parents love reading it to their kids.  It is one of those kid's books that was written for adults just as much as children, who will find it equally entertaining.

My own personal favorite letter comes from the Peach Crayon:

<<"Hey Duncan,
It's me, PEACH CRAYON. WHY did you peel off my paper wrapping?? Now I'm NAKED and too embarrassed to leave the crayon box.  I don't even have any underwear! How would YOU like to go to school naked?  I need some clothes.  HELP!
Your naked friend, PEACH crayon." >>

The single reason I was disappointed is that this is not a book I find to be conducive to the storytime format.  It is certainly entertaining, funny, and has a very sweet ending, but I can't see myself reading it to a large audience of preschoolers.  It's a bit text heavy for storytime, does not have much opportunity for participation, and doesn't have that much of a plot.  For what it is, however, it's great.  For a large audience, I think I'll skip it; but I will be happily recommending it to parents!

Meet Maurice

Meet Maurice (aka Sir Fluffington McSilkfur III), my new (best) storytime friend.  He's made by Folkmanis, a puppet company that I am really excited about finding even though my pocketbook (ha! pocketbook!) is scared. When I found this fluffy guy I couldn't resist the fact that a) he's quite pudgy and b) that surly look on his face.  I can't wait for the little ones to meet him.  I am going to try and see if we can cheer up Maurice by singing, "If You're Happy and You Know It"!