Once Upon a Story... Summer Story Times Week 3 and 4

     Still in catch-up mode, but I think I am going to accomplish my goal!  Hopefully I will be caught up by the time August comes to a close!  I can’t believe I just said that!  Where in the world did August go?!  Oh well, let’s get back to the task at hand, Summer Reading Story Times weeks three and four!

Week 3- SLUMBER PARTY!

     No, we didn’t really have a slumber party!  But believe me when I say I think the kids would have loved it!  Instead of having a slumber party, the kids were told to come to the library in their pajamas.  We made slumber party crafts and read books about pajamas!  It was a lot of fun and fit perfectly with the “Once Upon a Story,” theme.

This book is SO CUTE!  It is great for both boys and girls.
I was able to discuss colors and patterns and the kids were able
to yell out the answers!  Nothing is better than yelling out an answer!

The kids made these sleep masks out of
felt and sequins.  Our weren't as fancy as these,
but the kids still seemed to enjoy them.

Oh My Goodness!  This book is TOO CUTE!
It has a great moral lesson about listening to one's
parents and all the kids in class loved it.
One little girl wouldn't leave the library unless I let her check it out.

I had the bigger kids make something similar to this.
I gave each kid a piece of felt rolled to look like a bag.
They were then able to add hair, googly eyes, and a smile
to make it look like themselves in a sleeping bag!

Week 4- GLOW IN THE DARK!

     I don’t know about you, but I was always interested in things that can glow in the dark.  When I found out that Summer Reading was a night theme, I just knew that I needed to end Story Times with this theme!

This book went PERFECT with our summer theme.  It also
had both fireflies and owls to go with our crafts!
WARNING:  This book is faith-based.  However, I was
able to gloss over the faith-based portion by only
reading the letter and what it stood for.

What kid doesn't love Band-Aids?
Glow in the dark Band-Aid fireflies!  Enough, said!

I stuck with the glow in the dark theme for our second craft.
I had each kid color an owl.  Afterwards, they brought the owl
to me and I painted around its eyes with glow in the dark paint.
The kids LOVED it and we couldn't keep the bathroom lights on
with all the kids desperate to see their owls glow! :) 

Lastly, I just couldn't find that perfect glow in the dark book.
So, I went the easy route, a back to school book.  The kids at my last Story Time
were headed back to school and this book was great for getting them excited
to go back, and for some, start school for the first time! 

     Well, that seems to be the end of Summer Reading Story Times.  For those of you who don’t know, this is also the end of my time here at the Mooresville Public Library.  I will be posting one more “Goodbye” blog with a few more details about my newest adventure.  Don’t worry, though, the new Early Literacy Assistant will take over right where I left off!

     I hope you have enjoyed all of the hard work I have put into this blog.  My biggest wish is that this blog was able to spark an idea with someone, somewhere!  Stay tuned for Miss Jaymi’s LAST INSTALLMENT!

Once Upon a Story... Summer Story Times Week 1 and 2

     Things around MPL have been a bit CRAZY since summer began!  As I write this, summer is already OVER and the kids have gone back to school.  Thus, I am going to play a quick game of catch-up!

     At MPL, we have Summer Story Times every other week.  This means that instead of having eight, or one per each week, we only do four.  This gives me a bit of a break, as well as giving parents more time to enjoy the GREAT outdoors with their kids.  In attempt to get this posted before August finishes, I am going to show you what we did in Weeks 1 and 2 of Summer Story Time with my next post wrapping summer up!  I hope you enjoy the new format!

Week 1- MONSTERS!

     What kid doesn’t love monsters?  Sometimes they are scary and sometimes they are nice, but I have yet to meet a child that isn’t a little bit interested in monster tales.  Monsters also go GREAT with our Summer Reading theme.

The kids loved this book.  They thought it was funny
that the little girl annoyed her brother ALL DAY!

What kid doesn't like monster feet?
I know mine LOVED walking around in these.
Find this craft here.

To the tune of, "If You're Happy and You Know It."
No kid I know can sit through this story without
wanting to get up and dance!

Another fun craft.  The kids liked making these,
but they enjoyed chasing each other around
as monsters more!

Week 2- OUTERSPACE!

     Just like monsters, children love learning about the unknown, and space is definitely an unknown frontier.  Yes, scientists and astronauts have learned a lot about space, but kids still seem drawn to learn more.  What a better time to teach them a few things about space than Summer Reading!

This book was cute.  It covered quitea bit of basic
space terms and the kids really enjoyed it.

We did this craft a little different than described,
mostly because I have too many kids to let play with paint.
Instead of paint, we colored our rockets then glued
them to an outserspace themed paper.
Find this craft here.

This book is quite tricky!  It explains that we
all live in space, even humans!  The kids were a little
confused, however once explained, they began to understand
that humans live on Earth, which is a planet in space!
This leads into the solar system craft smoothly!

The solar system craft was quick and fun. The kids liked it and their
parents liked that they were making something educational.
Find it here.  My suggestion?  Make the planets a bit larger!

     That seems to be it for the first two sessions of Story Time.  I can tell you, the kids absolutely loved both of these themes.  The stories were fantastic and the crafts only enhanced the experience.  Summer is a great time to try something new, so don’t be afraid and jump right in!  I know the kids you work with will appreciate it!

Z is for... Zebras and Zinnias!

     Are you ready for the last alphabet post?!  It’s been a long time in the making, but we finally made it to the letter Z!  Hooray!

     Ok, I will admit it.  I took the easy route with Zz and with zebra! There are lots of great zebra books and I wanted something a bit easier for my kids to be able to complete with little help!  Thus, without further ado… the letter Zz!

 

Materials:  Index card with capital z, black crayon, zebra head, google eye, and glue stick.

Front of card

Back of card

1)    Use the black crayon to draw stripes on the capital letter Z.

2)    Trace the upper and lower case Zz on the back of the card.

3)    Glue the zebra head on the Z and add the google eye.

     By now I am sure you all know what comes next.  The 2^nd craft for my four to six year olds, of course.  I really struggled with this.  Finally, I found a cute zinnia craft.  I know zinnia is a bit unexpected for Z, but it gave me an opportunity to introduce the kids to a new word while also being able to celebrate spring!  Hooray!  Click here to get the instructions on how to make this zinnia.  Warning:  you will have to scroll down a bit on the website to see this craft.

     As for my book selection this week, like I said previously, there are a ton of good books about zebras.  Though, unbeknownst to me, I actually revisited a zebra book from a series that I had previously read.  In October, we read a ghost book about a zebra named Zee.  Guess what, that’s actually the title of this week’s book, Zee by Michel Gay.   Both the children and their parents enjoyed this great little story about a zebra who is trying his absolute hardest to get his parents to wake up.  I don’t want to ruin the story, but let’s just say that Zee gets into all kinds of trouble when he decides that coffee is the only way to wake them up!

     I thought that finding a book to go with my zinnia craft would be difficult, however, it really wasn’t.  Eve Bunting authored the book, The Flower Garden, which discussed a little girl who lives in an inner city.  The little girl and her father are created a birthday present for her mother.  Of course, the book involves a flower garden with zinnias, but that is all I am going to say.  If you want to figure out how I the world a girl can plant a garden in the inner city, you are just going to have to pick it up and read it yourself!

     Slowly but surely I am getting caught up!  It’s nice though, to be officially done with the alphabet!  The kids enjoyed doing it, I thought it was really fun and educational, and the parents appreciated a craft that didn’t clutter their houses every week.  Stay tuned for my next post when I show all of the pictures of the alphabet crafts in order!

V is for... Vases and VOLCANOES!

     Have you ever tried to do a science experiment with 13 kindergarteners?  I tried this very thing with my Kinder Corner class, and let me tell you something, I learned a couple of VALUBALE lessons!  The first, always have extra ingredients because after the first spill of vinegar, I ran out.  The second, no matter how reassuring you may be, if you tell a kid something is going to explode they will either love it or be scared out of their minds!  There really is no in-between. 

     So what does this have to do with the letter V and Story Time?  Well, as you may have read last week, we tackled volcanoes this week.  I will get back to that in a minute, first; let’s discuss the letter of the week card.  I found the most adorable letter V turned into a flower vase online and just knew I had to do it, especially since spring has sprung!

Materials:  Index card with capital V, 3 flower stickers, 3 green paper stems, crayons, and glue stick

Front of card

Back of card

1)    Color the capital V.

2)    Trace the upper and lower case Vv on the back of the card.

3)    Glue the green stems inside the V.  Stick the flowers on top of the stems.

     Ok, I said I would get back to my volcano, and now is the time.  If any one of you has ever been in a science fair, undoubtedly someone made a Papier-mâché volcano and erupted it.  Well, that is exactly what we did. Only I learned from my Kinder Corner Science experiment mistakes.  Instead of having every child in Story Time explode their volcano, each kid made one, and then I exploded mine.  After class, I gave each child the instructions as well as a list of ingredients so that they could explode their volcano at their home.  Good idea, huh?  In order to see the volcano in action, watch the video!  It really is fun and exciting.  As for how to make the actual volcano, click here.  It was the easiest volcano I could find!

     The route I went with my book choices this week was a little different than usual.  Instead of picking a book on vases, I picked a spring counting book called Flowers and Showers by RebeccaFjelland Davis.  This book was fun because not only were the kids able to do a little counting; the pictures were vibrant and very spring-y!

     When I did a search for picture books on volcanoes, not much came up that was short enough for my kids to sit through.  I ended up going with Volcanoes: Nature’s Incredible Fireworks.  This is a great book not only because it is non-fiction, but the pictures are amazing.  The boys in my class were really into this book.  The loved all of the action pictures of volcanoes exploding.

     I did have one really fun spring song that I used this week.  It is appropriately titled, “Spring,” by Kidzup Educational Music.  I like a lot of this company’s music and tend to use it a lot.

     That’s it for this week!  I hope you enjoyed the exploding volcano!  I know we had a lot of fun doing it!  Come back and see us next week when we cover the letter W!

U is for.. Umbrellas and Unicycles!

     The letter U is difficult.  Outside of the normal, umbrella, I was having a rough time coming up with something.  So I thought for a bit, and came up with unicycle.  Why not introduce the kids to something new and interesting?  I did, however, keep the umbrella for our letter card.

Materials:  Index card with capital U, umbrella cut from cardstock, raindrops cut from foam, crayons, and gluestick

Front of card

Back of card

1)    Color the capital U.

2)    Trace the upper and lower case Uu on the back of the card.

3)    Color the umbrella.

4)    Glue the umbrella to the U.

5)    Add the raindrops!

     The next craft is probably one of my favorites for the year.  As I mentioned, I decided to go with unicycle.  First let me state, I was very impressed that a number of my 4 to 6 year olds actually knew what this was.  I was also excited that I found a cute and somewhat simple unicycle craft online.  Find the craft with instructions and an instructional video here.

     I absolutely love the books I chose this week.  The first book, Ella, of Course! by Sarah Weeks,  is about a little girls who receives a beautiful umbrella for her birthday.  Ella, of course, loves her umbrella and wants to take it everywhere with her.  You can only begin to imagine the kinds of troubles created when Ella takes her umbrella to ballet class, her brother’s birthday party, and all sorts of other places.  You must, however, pick up the book yourself to see how Ella incorporates her umbrella into her dance recital.  I promise, it will not disappoint.

     My second book for the older kids was not about a unicycle.  I tried, I really did, however, there is only one book I could find with a unicycle in it and our copy was checked out.  So, I went a different route.  I chose My Sister’s Rusty Bike by Jim Aylesworth.   This book has a bicycle as the central focus, instead of a unicycle.  After reading it aloud, I then had the kids discuss what the differences between a bicycle and unicycle are.  It seemed to go over well. 

 

     I didn’t introduce any new music this week.  We are starting to wind down Story Time and before you know it, it’s going to be summer!  I can’t believe it.  Thus, I am waiting to introduce new songs until then.  Okay, truthfully, I am on kind of a strict budget, and although iTunes has cheap music, I didn’t find anything that I liked.  Oh well, maybe next week!

     Well, that’s a wrap for this week!  Come back next week for the letter V.  Trust me, you want to tune in!  There is going to be a VOLCANO!  See ya then!

    

T is for... Trains and Tyrannosaurus Rex

     I don’t necessarily know what it is like with your kids, but at our library, our kids seem to LOVE trains.  We have a train table at the back of the children’s section that kids seem magnetized to.  It’s like they just can’t help themselves.  At all hours of the day, you can hear, “Choo! Choo!,” coming from the back of the library. Thus, when it came time for Tt, I just knew I had to use trains.

Materials:  Index card with capital T, 4 black foam wheels on glue dots, 2 foam pieces cut to resemble train card, and crayons

Front of card

Back of card

1)    Color the capital T to look like train tracks.

2)    Trace the upper and lower case Tt on the back of the card.

3)    Place the train cars on the T.  Place the wheels on the cars.  Draw windows, if you prefer.

     The next craft this week was a little ambitious for my 4-6 year olds.  I knew that it might be when I decided to use it, however, I knew once complete; my kids would love the outcome.  So I went for it and decided to make Tyrannosaurus Rex out of paper plates.  Visit this website for complete instructions on how to make this fun and craft T-Rex.  Although the website says to use watercolors, I had my kids use crayons and they turned out great!

     I went a different route this week with my book selections.  I decided to go with short books that would keep my kids’ attention.  Lately, most of the kids have had a case of the wiggles and haven’t been able to sit through a whole story.  That’s not a big deal to me at all, though I do like them to at least attempt to listen to the story.  Thus, this week, I went with two shorter stories where the kids could participate in the dialogue.  The first book, Freight Train by Donald Crews, was great.  I was able to introduce the kids to what an award book is; Crews received a Caldecott nomination for this book, as well as discuss the parts of a train and colors.  My kids also had a lot of fun trying to guess what the train may be carrying.  My personal favorite, Smurfs!  That’s right, one kid in my class thought the blue freight car was carrying blue Smurfs! I love kids and their amazing imaginations!

     For the older kids, I went with the same idea and chose T is for Terrible by Peter McCarty.  By picking a shorter book, we were able to discuss dinosaurs, what they eat, how they lived, and why they no longer exist.  We also talked about whether or not we truly believed the Tyrannosaurus Rex to be terrible.  My kids decided that while not terrible, they are still scared of them!

     As for music, what better song to use for T-Rex than “Walk the Dinosaur?” I, personally, prefer the Queen Latifah version from the movie Ice Age, though the original version by Was (Not Was) is pretty great too!

     I also used “This Train” by Ziggy Marley with Willie Nelson.  I liked how smooth and upbeat this song was.  It’s not the typical “bouncing off the walls” music I normally choose, but it’s really great and I even caught a few of the kids swaying back and forth to it.

     Before I close this week’s post, I would like to mention one more T word, tornadoes.  Our library is located in Mooresville, Indiana which is in central Indiana.  Recently, the southern part of Indiana was heavily hit by tornadoes and in some places, people lost everything.  I thought I would take a moment a post a couple of links if anyone is interested in donating to help the cause of the many men, women, and children affected by these devastating tornadoes.  At this time, the authorities are saying the best thing to donate is money though there are quite a few groups taking loads of food, medical supplies, clothing, blankets, and other essential needs.  If you are able, please consider making a donation to aid those who are in need.

Ways you can help..

WISH-TV 8 School Supply Drive (click here for more details)

WISH-TV Disaster Relief Fund Donations can be made at any Huntington Bank Branch location or by mailing a check to: Indiana Disaster Relief Fund c/o WISH-TV 1950 N. Meridian Street Indianapolis, IN 46202 Salvation Army of Indiana

SMS: HOOSIER to 80888

800-SAL-ARMY

American Red Cross of Indianapolis

SMS: REDCROSS to 90999

Phone: 317-684-1411

If interesting in volunteering, contact the Red Cross at 800-733-2767 or visit the office: 510 East Chestnut Street DR384 Louisville, KY 40210.

Cleanup Volunteers: Those wanting to volunteer their time to the cleanup efforts need to register with the Indiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster before heading to storm damaged areas. Call before you travel: 812-827-0519 or 812-287-0521 INVOAD Reception Center 723 Spring Street Jeffersonville, IN The United Way Volunteer Service is also operating from the same address.

     Well, that’s it this week.  If you watched the video, you know that a couple exciting things are happening next week.  I will be in Philadelphia all next week for the Public Library Association (PLA) conference.  I hope to at least post a couple of time while I am there to keep everyone updated on all of the fun we are having.  Sammy, on the other hand, has to stay here and help Miss Suzanne with my programs.  Lastly, our chicks will be hatching.  If you are interested in seeing baby chicks hatch from their shell, stop in the library any time on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and you may be lucky enough to see all the action.  Thanks and see you next week!