Firefly Award Kit Update

A couple of months ago, I posted about the Firefly Book Award Kits that I made for our library in order to spread the word about the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award and try to collect more votes from our county.

I am happy to say that we had a lot of success with this program, learned a lot, and plan to continue (and expand it!) next year. My goal was to collect 100 votes with the Firefly Kits and we ended up collecting 196 votes. Together with the other programs we did, we sent in over 200 votes. I'm really proud of that and hope that we can make it even more next year!

Teachers were really enthusiastic about participating. I had the most success in reaching out to preschools and daycares that we have already worked with in the past, but I hope that next year with some experience under our belt we may be able to advertise it more broadly and pick up some new groups. 

I really did not have to convince teachers about the worth of this program. Once they understood what it was, they were super into it. I had several teachers ask me about participating again, so I think we'll hit the ground running next year. My plan is to get this started earlier in the year next year since we now have a template for it. That will allow more time for the teachers to keep the bags and more time to spread the word. 

I decided to make the bags circulating for one week, but several of the teachers kept them longer in order to do the activities in the provided teacher guide. One preschool made their own voting poster for the whole school. One preschool even took pictures of all the crafts the kids did and make a big thank-you poster for us! I love the creative things the teachers thought to do with the voting and I want to encourage that. I had no problem being flexible with the check-out time since we never had a wait list for the bags. Next year, starting earlier will give us even more time, so I will probably extend the check-out time. 

Next year, I would also like to circulate the bags to families, too. We did not have a ton of participation from individual families with our in-house voting. I think we might get more participation if families could check out all the books and read at home. I didn't want to do that this year since we had a limited number of bags for our pilot program and I had a small window of time. I wanted to concentrate on groups of kids to get the most bang for our buck. If we offer the bags circulating to the public, I think it'll be easier to spread the word and that may catch the eye of our local teachers, too. 

It was a great, pretty easy program to run and I think our teachers and their students got a lot out of it. It was definitely successful and I'm excited about doing it again next year!

Firefly Book Award Kits

This year, I took on a project that I have wanted to do for a long time: Firefly Book Award Kits.

The Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award is a kids-choice state book award started in 2015 and aimed at ages 0-5 and featuring books that develop early literacy skills in our youngest readers. Each year, a committee of professionals selects 5 nominees and children 5 and under may vote for their favorite.

We've done some programming around the Firefly Award in the past and set up a voting station in our Children's Room, but this year I really wanted to push it with our local early childhood educators and see if we could get them involved.

I created five Firefly Award kits that each include a copy of each of the five nominees, the 2019 program guide (super useful - it contains ideas on how to share the books, craft ideas, ideas for voting, etc.), and 20 ballot sheets. Each kit checks out for one week and any teacher who checks out a kit and returns children's votes will be entered into a drawing to win a set of all five books.

I set the kits to check out for one week because we're starting a little bit late and I'm trying to get the maximum usage out of them before votes are due on May 15. We'll see how it works - if we repeat the program next year hopefully I will be able to start earlier in the semester so we have more time and we may adjust the checkout period.

For our pilot program, I'm first reaching out to local early childhood teachers because we'll get huge bang for our buck that way. I started last week and all five kits are checked out to teachers. If we start having kits sitting on my shelves, I intend to put them out for any families to check out.

Creating the kits:

I purchased DALIX zippered cotton canvas bags through Amazon for about $13 apiece. I have my eye on heavier-duty canvas totes via Lands End or LL Bean, but for this pilot project I decided to go with cheaper bags. If we like the program and continue it, we'll probably invest in higher quality bags. We will also look at vinyl bags or other options that are not cloth - critters aren't a huge concern to me with bags circulating to schools, but we can never be too careful.

I purchased a set of plastic tag holders that came with zip ties to affix the kit labels with barcodes to the bags. On the back of the label, I printed the contents of the kit. I realized that I needed to attach a second tag with the delivery and pickup information, so if we continue the program in future years I will look for better solutions.

My hope is that we will have success and continue the program and then the bags can be an investment that we reuse each year with the new nominees.

The best deal I could find on the hardcover picture books was through Ingram. I ordered them non-processed and put labels in the front of each book with the kit's barcode. That way if they get separated we know where they go. When we give away the books, we'll put a new label with no barcode over the top of it so teachers can be reminded of their awesome library.

Giving away the books once the program is done was my cataloger's idea. That way we don't take up extra shelf space with multiple copies that we probably no longer need, and it's an extra incentive for teachers to participate in the program.

Program Goals:

My hope is to collect 100 votes via this program this year. Last year we were in the throes of our huge staffing restructure and we submitted 0 votes for our county, so if I can get 100 votes to submit I will be happy and that will give us something to build on. I'll be sure to update and let you know how it goes!

Read on for information about my budget and staff time for this project, as well as files you can use if you want to replicate it at your library!

Program Budget:

5 canvas bags at $13/each = $65*

Set of 50 tag holders with zip ties = $14*

25 hardcover picture books (5 each of the five nominees) at an average discounted price of $13/each = $325

Printing 5 program guides + extra in case any of the teachers keep theirs (which would be fine with me) at 25 cents a page = $100**

Printing ballots to include at each guide (500 ballots printed) at 25 cents each = $125**

Total: $629 for five kits
(Or about $400 without including printing costs)

*These items will hopefully be used in future years
**Printing costs may vary and may be something your library can absorb in its normal operating budget. We printed ours in-house, so I did not really need to budget for this, but you might!

Staff Time (approximate):

Purchasing supplies and processing kits (creating labels, making catalog record) = 4 hours*

Drafting invitation letter, collecting contact information, and sending out info to teachers = 2 hours

Checking out and delivering kits, creating teacher library cards, communicating with participating teachers, keeping track of kits = approximately 2 hours/week (mostly in small chunks, may vary week by week) for 11 weeks = 22 hours**

Total staff time: 30 hours
Over a period of about 12 weeks, so averaging about 2.5 staff hours/week

* Much of this can be reused in future years. We will still have to process new kits, but I won't have to design new labels, etc.
** You may or may not need to do all these tasks yourself at your library. Next year I will probably let other staff members handle a lot of this since it fits in with our School Collection program that we already run. I just didn't want to load up their plates with my project before I knew if it would be successful.

Files for your use:
You have my permission to edit these and use them however you like. The Firefly Award makes its logo available for use in promoting this program.

• Firefly program guides and ballots are available at no charge on the Firefly Award website
• Bag labels designed to fit in 3" x 4 1/8" tag holders (Publisher file). These include the Firefly logo, but I took our library logo off. Feel free to edit. We placed barcodes between the two logos. 
• Book plate labels for inside the books (Word file) designed to work with Avery labels 5164
• The letter I sent to teachers (Word file). I emailed this to the teachers and preschool directors that I had contact info for and mailed it to other preschools and daycares in our area. 

Babies Need Words Every Day: Read!

I am so happy to be taking part in the Babies Need Words Every Day Blog Tour alongside many fantastic librarian bloggers (check out the entire schedule here)! If you don't have these gorgeous posters up in your library yet, what are you waiting for? It takes just a little effort to print them out (and laminate them if you're feeling energetic) and they are great for your bulletin boards, in your restrooms above the changing tables, in your lobby or anywhere that parents and caregivers will see them!

We put posters right outside our storytime room!

Encouraging families to read together is one of my favorite things to do at my job. It seems second nature to me, but I run into so many people who don't realize how important it is to read with their babies. It's up to me to keep reminding parents and caregivers that it's great to read to babies, even if they don't understand everything you're reading yet and even if they don't have the attention span to listen for very long.

I am lucky enough to lead one of our weekly baby storytimes - it's definitely a highlight of my week - and each week, I get to model multiple ways to read with babies. Here are the ways I include the practice of READING in our baby storytimes:

• We always share at least two books. The first book I read aloud, always aiming for a way that's going to make the book engaging for even the youngest kids. We might count together, put actions to the words in the book, all say a repeated refrain, or make animal sounds as we read. This models ways parents can share books with their young kids. 
• The second book that I always share is using a book with farm animals to sing an animal sounds song. As we sing the song together, I hold up a spread in the book to show everyone which animal we're going to sing about next. I do this to model to parents that there is more than one way to read a book together! You don't have to strictly read the words to "read a book", especially with very young children who might not have the attention span to listen to a wordy book. 
• I include a few minutes for reading together right in the middle of our storytime. I'll pass out a basket of board books and allow grownups a few minutes to explore a book with their child. (This is also a great time for me to breathe for a minute and get a head count for our statistics!)
• I put up a book display every. single. time. If parents don't seem to be checking out books from the display, I'll gently nudge them by saying something like "Please feel free to check out the books on the table! If you check them out, you're saving me from reshelving them!" (which, of course, is no big deal, but if grownups feel like they're helping me out, maybe they'll take some books home!)
• I promote two programs that help encourage grownups to read to their children in our community. Our county is lucky to have some wonderful advocates who have brought Dolly Parton's  Imagination Library program to our families. I do whatever I can to encourage families to sign up their children. 
• The other program I promote to families is our 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program. Many libraries offer a program like this across the country and we certainly did not come up with this idea, but it's been popular with our families. I've found that it especially engages families with young children because it's something they can start from birth and having a sheet to keep track helps some families keep reading in mind. 

What do you do to encourage families to READ with their babies??

Why We Do Storytime

Today, I'm at the ALSC Blog getting all riled up about why we do storytimes. I recently saw someone say that they do storytimes for entertainment and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. We are professionals. We need to be able to explain to everyone who asks that storytime teaches essential school readiness skills. And yes, it is also entertaining! But our programs are so much more than entertainment.

ANYhoo. Click on through to read the full post and get riled up with me!

Preschool Storytime: Spring

Yesterday, I had a Head Start class visit the library for storytime. Since I've started doing preschool science programs, I hardly ever get to do a straight up preschool storytime anymore, so this was a real treat and we had lots of fun! I didn't realize until I started writing up this storytime how much STEM material I went over in this storytime without even realizing it! Here's what we did:

Opening Song: My Hands Say Hello. When doing a new song with a new group, I'm careful to sing slowly and clearly to give the kids a chance to learn the words. They love to sing along and will try, so make it easier on them to hear what you are saying and learn the words. Singing is one of our five early literacy practices - it helps kids hear that words are made up of smaller sounds.

Book with Scarves: Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry (Candlewick, 2004). I was inspired by this post on Thrive Thursday: Using Scarves with Stories and decided to break out our colorful scarves for this one. I passed out the scarves to the kids (remember: you get what you get and you don't throw a fit) and then as I read the book, I asked the kids to wave their scarves when we got to their color. At the end, we all waved scarves together to make our own rainbow and then we scrunched them up and threw them into the air!

To put our props away, I called them up by color and let them put their scarf in the bag. This makes putting the scarves away part of our game!

This activity reinforced color knowledge and helped them practice listening and following instructions, both school readiness skills. The book Duckie's Rainbow is a short book, but contains lots of great vocabulary words like "poppy", "waddled", "hurried", "indigo" and more! Books are a great way to expose kids to words they may not hear in normal conversation, and it's easier for kids to learn to read words that they know!

Felt: Five Umbrellas
(Borrowed from Anne LaBoon's kindergarten class!)

Five umbrellas stood by the door,
The pink one went outside, then there were four.
Four umbrellas, pretty as could be,
The blue one went outside, then there were three.
Three umbrellas with nothing to do,
The green one went outside, then there were two.
Two umbrellas not having much fun,
The yellow one went outside, then there was one.
Just one umbrella alone in the hall,
The purple one went outside, and that was all.

We talked about the rain in the last book and the rain outside yesterday. I asked the kids what we need to take with us when it rains and they chorused, "UMBRELLAS!" and then we did this rhyme! Hearing rhyming words helps kids hear that words are made up of smaller sounds. In this rhyme, we also practiced counting down from five.

Book: Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001). I wanted to include a book that would show plants growing and this was a great choice. At the beginning, a boy plants ten seeds, but as they start to grow, things happen to our seeds. An ant carries one away, a mouse eats another, a slug destroys a seedling, a ball crushes a plant... until we're left with one flower! I like this book because you can see the seeds start to grow roots and then the plants growing on each page.

This is a great book for including some science information. Talking about science concepts helps increase vocabulary and expand kids' knowledge of the world around them. We talked about how the seeds were growing. We also talked about animals eating seeds - animals need food, too! And it's also a counting down book. I think this is a book that can be used on different levels depending on how old your audience is. For younger kids, I might just emphasize the counting down aspect, while for these older Pre-K kids, we had a conversation about how the seeds grow. (Yay STEM!)

Song: "Ten Little Flowers" (Tune: Ten Little Indians)
Borrowed from Storytime Katie!

One little, two little, three little flowers
Four little, five little, six little flowers
Seven little, eight little, nine little flowers
Ten flowers in the spring
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
Give them rain and lots of sunshine
So they'll grow up tall!

It was time to stand up and give the kids the chance to move a little bit and get some wiggles out, so we all stood up and did this song together. I went over the actions first (counting on fingers, fingers coming down for rain, arms above head for sunshine) and then we sang the song. We sang it twice since the kids were learning it the first time. Singing it again reinforces learning and gives the kids a chance to sing along with me.

This song not only gave the kids a chance to move around a bit, it also reinforces science knowledge - plants need water and sun to grow. Using their hands to make the movements helps develop fine motor skills.

 

Rhyme with prop: Three Kites

This is a prop that Miss T made. It uses magnets to hold and move the kites around. I believe she got the idea from a presentation by Susan Dailey.

Three kites up in the air,
Three kites in the air
One kite flew too close to a tree
And it got stuck there!

Repeat as you count down, ending with:

Three kites in a tree
Three kites in a tree
The wind blew hard and harder still
And the kites fell down to me! (Pull off the magnets at the end and let the kites fall!)

Again, we have rhyming words here and counting. After I said our rhyme, I turned the prop over to show the kids how it worked and we talked about how the magnets made the kites move. Just a little more sneaky STEM in this storytime. ;)

Book: Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2001). This book takes us through the life cycle of a butterfly, from tiny eggs sticking to plants through caterpillars and chrysalises to new butterflies... who also lay eggs. The rhyming text contains lots of great vocabulary words. This was also another opportunity to have a STEM conversation. The kids already knew a lot about butterflies and they were happy to share with me. Here's another chance to reinforce science knowledge and help kids learn about the world around them.

Felt Activity: Spring Things

This is an activity that we almost always include in our Toddler Time programs, and it works for the older kids, too. We have many different felt shapes that I pass out to the kids and then ask them to bring up and put on the board when their shape is called. This is another activity that helps kids practice listening and following instructions. When all the pieces are up on the board, I ask them to sit on their bottoms and help me count as I take the pieces off. (This not only reinforces counting skills, but it's a sneaky way for me to get my attendance numbers - bwa ha ha ha!)

Closing Song: Do You Know What Time It Is?

This is our typical closing song, to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" and one of the kids asked me afterward if I know the song "Do you Know the Muffin Man?".

We use a closing song to indicate to the kids when our storytime is over. They're familiar with the song if they've been to the library before and they know this is the end of our storytime routine. For a group visit, when we've sung our last song I tell them that now it's time to be good listeners and listen to their teachers who will tell them what to do next. This is not only closure for the kids, but it's closure for the teachers. They know that I am done with what I was doing and it's okay for them to take over and instruct the kids again.

This was a great group and we had a blast!

See Mom (and Dad!!) Read

I'd like to take a few minutes here and post about a phenomenon that was not common where I grew up or where I went to school. That phenomenon? Adult Summer Reading Clubs. I love 'em!

Before moving here to the library-rich suburbs of Chicago, I'd never seen a library that held a Summer Reading Club for adults. The library I worked at while in grad school does have a winter reading program for adults, which is a great idea. Winter, summer, I'm totally in support of it.

In terms of developing literacy, one of the best things parents can do is read themselves. Seriously. It seems like such a simple thing, but I think it's a really potent thing. Kids watch their parents. They want to emulate them. If they see their grownups enjoying books and making time to read, they'll want to know what all the fuss is about. They'll be eager to learn how to read.

And is it easier to get a kid to do something they want to do or something they don't want to do? Exactly.

My library runs Summer Reading Clubs for every age (including a staff SRC). And I, of course, signed up for the Summer Reading Club at my home library. (Yes, Chicagoland is so library-rich that I live five miles down the road from the library at which I work and I actually live directly behind a different library in a different library district!) Not that anyone ever needs an excuse to read anything, but I feel like the SRC gives me an "excuse" to read grownup books. It's easy to get caught up in all the children's and YA literature that I love to read and need to read for my job. This summer I'm making sure to take time to read adult books.

So far this summer I've read the following adult books:

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: a year in an american high school by Elisha Cooper
Prey by Michael Crichton (which I reviewed since I read it for the 48 Hour Book Challenge)
State of Fear by Michael Crichton
I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic (arguably 'tween or YA reading, but found in the adult section of my library, which means it counts!)
Naked by David Sedaris

I'm currently in the middle of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger and I have a big stack of "grownup books" waiting for me.

So, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but I think it's important for parents to read and to make time for it. And any way the library can promote that idea, well, I think it's awesome.

Early Literacy for Preschool Educators

The meeting room was booked. The invitations were sent. The Power Point slide was made. The notes were prepared.

And Tuesday night I gave my first presentation to a group of local preschool teachers. The presentation was about Every Child Ready to Read and it was geared as a refresher course about early literacy with examples of activities that teachers could (hopefully) use in their classrooms. Our library registered to be an official provider of Continuing Professional Development Units so that the teachers could earn credit for attending. The process of registering is different for each state, but ours was through the Illinois State Board of Education.

I culled my material from the awesome workshop resources on the ECRR website. Because this presentation was for preschool educators (and not limited to those working with a certain age), I pieced together slides and information from each of the age groups. As I went through each of the skills, I tried to give ideas about how to develop those skills with every child from birth to age 5. I also tried to give tons of examples of great books and activities that teachers could use in their classrooms. All of the activities I got from the ECRR materials and I put in my own favorite books wherever I could.

As part of the CPDU provider criteria, each participant had to fill out an evaluation form (which is totally awesome, by the way... I got some great feedback). So I know that at least one teacher felt she already knew all the information provided. But I still got many comments saying that teachers had learned something new or appreciated the scientific information or had learned about some new books or games. (My greatest fear was that I would finish the presentation and everyone would be totally bored because, well, they probably have degrees in early childhood education so they already know all this stuff.)

As librarians, it's part of our job to disseminate information about early literacy to the public. Even if preschool teachers have been taught how to develop early literacy, everyone can use a refresher now and then. Everyone can use a few new ideas about how to approach activities or sharing books with children. We got a great response and a great turnout (despite the Blizzard of DOOM that we was supposed to hit at precisely the time of the program). And I'm looking forward to doing more Preschool Educator Workshops in the future (which we will now be able to do since this one was successful).

Though it did go very well, there are some things I would change. I would ask the teachers to introduce themselves at the beginning. I definitely recognized some familiar faces, but I really can't put anyone's faces with their names. It would have been useful for me to get to know them a little better (and as an added bonus it would have given me a minute or two to get comfortable and calm being up in front of them). Also, I think that my presentation ended up being not very interactive. When I do this again (and I will do it again, for parents if not more preschool teachers), I will definitely make a conscious effort to get them involved.

(It was so intimidating to me to be standing in front of this group, most of which have many, MANY more years of experience at their jobs than I have at mine... That's my excuse, though I shouldn't make excuses...)

So. Yes. Our Early Literacy for Preschool Educators went well. My first presentation as a professional went well (and brought me RIGHT back to grad school). And I'm looking forward to doing more in the future.

Reviewing the Caudills and other assorted things

One of my reading resolutions for 2008 was to read and review all 20 of the 2009 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award nominees. As I do not intend to re-read all the ones I have previously read (although I might re-read some of them), my plan is to post "mini" reviews of these books. For several years now I've written short summaries or reviews of the books I've read and my plan is to share these blurbs along with any other thoughts I now have about these books. I'll also try to include links to other, more comprehensive reviews.

And, of course, as I start reading the rest of the Caudill nominees, I'll be reviewing those. So, keep a lookout for upcoming "mini" reviews.

And since I've got you here, I'll throw in some random stuff...

I want to draw your attention to the ALSC blog, which is a blog I've only recently started following. If you're a children's librarian, I think this blog can be fantastically useful. My favorite feature is that they often post storytime books along with fingerplays, songs, and activities... a whole storytime already planned for your use! How extraordinary!

Speaking of storytime, I did drop-in storytime this morning and we threw in an impromptu activity with the alphabet song. My coworker B read A is for Salad by Mike Lester, a very cute and funny alphabet book which the older kids ate up and the younger kids ignored while they ran in circles around the story room. After the book, we sang the alphabet song (accompanied by B on the ukulele). Once we sang it through once, we sang it again slowly and told the kids to raise their hands when we got to the letter of their first name. It went pretty well and the parents really liked it. It would have been better if we could have had cut outs of the letters to hand to them as we got to their letter or signs to hold up with the letters printed on them. Maybe next time it won't be so impromptu.

This news is already all around the Kidlitosphere, but in case you haven't heard, the Class of 2k8 is having their first quarterly contest. Do be sure to check it out. I was skeptical, but then I had such a blast poking around all the authors' pages and websites that it was well worth it even if I don't win! (But I would love to win some of their awesome-sounding books, I won't lie.)

And that's all I've got for you at the moment, so you may return to your regularly scheduled programming. :)

Early Literacy @ Your Library

Okay, who here has looked at ELSIE? If you're at all concerned with early literacy, you should check it out. ELSIE is the Early Literacy Storytime Ideas Exchange, created and maintained by the wonderful people at the Minneapolis Public Library. I love ELSIE and I use it all the time, especially now that I'm designing the first of several early literacy workshops that my department is presenting over the next couple of months. ELSIE is a database of picture books that promote one or more of the six early literacy skills denoted by the Every Child Ready to Read initiative. More about ECRR in a minute.

Not only is ELSIE a great resource for planning early literacy storytimes, displays, and booklists, but it's a great resource for storytime in general. Each title is given a short review and ideas about how to present it and how you can use the book to develop early literacy skills. Do you have a book and you're wondering how to use it to promote early literacy? Look it up. Are you looking for books with some great vocabulary or rhymes? You can search by the early literacy skill you want to promote. Are you bored with all your normal storytime choices? Browse the list and you're sure to find some fun, new reads that will be perfect for your storytime. And ELSIE includes more than books. You can find songs, rhymes, and fingerplays on there, too. AND it includes materials in Spanish as well as English.

So, yes. Go check out ELSIE. If you provide storytimes for preschoolers, it's guaranteed to be a great resource.

Want to know more about early literacy and Every Child Ready to Read? Read on.

In September, my department was lucky enough to have a trainer come for a whole day and give us training on Every Child Ready to Read, the ALSC and PLA initiative for promoting early literacy. What is early literacy, you ask? Early literacy is what kids know about reading and writing before they start learning how to read and write. What is Every Child Ready to Read? Well, that link to the homepage will give you more info than I can give you here, but basically it's an initiative to include information about early literacy in library programs and workshops for parents and caregivers of young children. It's a way of incorporating brain and child development research into programs and workshops. It's a way of providing proof that what we librarians do for young kids is so, so important. I know that. You know that. Every Child Ready to Read gives us the tools to let that research support what we do every day... in storytime, in talking to parents about reading to their kids, in selecting books for toddlers, and so many other things.

In late January, I'm presenting our library's first (hopefully of many) preschool educator workshop. Our topic is early literacy, especially how preschool teachers can promote and develop it in their classrooms. My library has registered to be a provider of Continuing Professional Development Units (registration was much easier than I thought it would be, actually!), so any teacher that comes will earn one CPDU. We'll provide them with information and activities they can use in their classrooms. We'll have tons of book suggestions. Hopefully it will go off without a hitch and the teachers will feel like they got something out of it. In the coming months, we're also offering parent workshops and going out to a local hospital to offer a workshop for new parents.

Want to know more? One of my favorite resources for early literacy storytimes is Early Literacy Storytimes @ Your Library by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Diaz. The ECRR website has lots of resources for parent/caregiver workshops. And, of course, you should check out ELSIE. Anyone else have some early literacy tips or resources??

A couple new storytime favorites

Today was my first storytime in a couple of weeks and (to be completely honest) I was dreading it a little bit. Don't get me wrong. I love storytime, I do. But after having a couple of weeks off, I was afraid I'd be rusty. I was afraid I wouldn't pick good books. Heavens, I might even have forgotten some of the words to Shake Your Sillies Out! Luckily, none of those situations came to pass and we actually had quite a good time. In fact, I think I might have some new favorite storytime books and I just had to share them.

First is one that my coworker read. I'd never heard of it before, but it was a delightful story that kids and parents (and librarians) all enjoyed. Sadly, it looks like The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr is out of print, but I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it. It was originally published in England and it tells the story of that fateful day when a tiger came to tea. Not only did he eat up all the sandwiches and all the buns, but he ate all the food in the fridge and the pantry as well! When Mum and Dad discover that there's no food left, the family goes to eat at a cafe and then buys some groceries, including a giant can of tiger food in case the tiger ever stops by again.

Next is a sequel to one of my favorites. Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Ann Dewdney is the sequel to Llama Llama Red Pajama. Both books have great rhymes and vocabulary. In Llama Llama Mad at Mama, Llama is forced to abandon his toys and go on a boring shopping trip with Mama. He can only take so much of trying on clothes and deciding which cereal to buy before he has a massive meltdown in the store (sure to be a familiar scenario to many a family). Mama understands, calms him down, and makes the rest of the shopping trip into a game, which results in a much happier trip for both of them. Great rhymes (my favorite is "llama drama") and a situation to which all kids can relate makes this one a surefire hit. (And hopefully if there are more Llama books, we can get the dad in there somewhere...)

And finally, we just got in a big book version of A Splendid Friend Indeed by Suzanne Bloom. This is a great, great book to have as a big book because the illustrations are so important to the story. A polar bear is sitting alone, trying to concentrate on reading, writing, and then thinking while his friend the goose insists on interrupting him. The polar bear's expressions are priceless. Although the text of the story doesn't mention anything, you can see the bear getting more and more annoyed. But in the end, the bear realizes that goose wasn't trying to be annoying, he was just trying to talk to his friend. All is forgiven and bear and goose remember that they are splendid friends indeed. Funny and sweet, this book has great opportunities for dialogic reading. Ask kids how they think bear is feeling or how goose is feeling. Have they ever felt the same way? Maybe with a brother or sister?

We always include songs or action rhymes in our storytimes and today we ended with a rousing rendition of Old MacDonald Had a Farm. My fellow librarian B accompanied us on the ukulele and I stood behind our giant felt board with a hidden stash of puppets. When we came to each animal, I held it up above the felt board, dancing around with it. We did the typical animals... pig, cow, cat, dog... and then threw in a HUGE tiger at the end just for fun. My library is lucky enough to have a giant closet full of puppets and we try to use them at every opportunity because the kids love them so.

So, there you have it. My first storytime of 2008 was a hit and I'm just hoping it's indicative of what's to come throughout the year.

(Incidentally, yesterday was my one-year anniversary with my library, so... happy anniversary to me!)