Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Last week I did a storytime for my preschoolers all about ABCs and 123s. One of the books that we read was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert. I used this story as the inspiration for a new bulletin board.

Using construction paper, I constructed a large coconut tree. Letters were also cut out of colored paper. As a craft for storytime, each child was given one or two letters to decorate. A few kids drew shapes, some just scribbled, and one kid just wanted to write his name - each letter was decorated differently. Once storytime finished for the week and all of the letters were decorated, I hung the letters on the bulletin board to create a scene in the spirit of the story.

The bulletin board was completed with a quote from the book and the first names of each child who helped with the letters.

I liked how creating this bulletin board really got the kids involved. It was a good way to tie this book into something happening at the library, as well as a good way to link this lesson in letters with art. This project was a win-win all around!

Baseball Storytime

Here in Wisconsin we are all very excited about our Milwaukee Brewers. Last Friday the team managed to clinch a playoff berth as the NL Central Division champions for the first time since 1982. Huzzah! To celebrate I decided that my preschoolers should hear a few baseball tales in storytime this week.

Roasted Peanuts by Tim Egan
Sam and Jackson dream of becoming baseball legends together. Unfortunately, Jackson just isn't very good. When Sam makes the team and Jackson doesn't the two friends initially struggle with the situation...until Jackson gets a job selling peanuts at the stadium.

This was a longer story - the kids loved it, but make sure you have a group of good listeners when you read this one.

Curious George Plays Baseball by H.A. Rey
Everyone's favorite curious monkey is on his way to a baseball game to watch his friend Jimmy play. But George is curious and he wants to play too. What sort of mischief will George get into?

Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler
Dinosaurs gather to play baseball. Enough said.

Hit the Ball Duck by Jez Alborough
Duck and his friends go to play baseball, but Duck hits the ball into a tree. How will they get their ball back so that they can keep playing?

Before we read our first story I pulled out some baseball gear (bat, ball, glove, cap) and we talked about what happens at a baseball game. We also sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and did this action song:

This Is The Way You Hit The Ball

This is the way you hit the ball,
Hit the ball, hit the ball,
This is the way you hit the ball,
When you play baseball.

This is the way you throw the ball...
This is the way you catch the ball...
This is the way you run the bases...

Fire Department Visit

Today the fire department came to the library to talk to families about fire safety and some of the work that they do. This was a very informative presentation and the kids all had a good time seeing our fire fighters in all of their special gear and checking out the fire truck.

According to one of the fire fighters visiting the library today, just before he explained his equipment and what it does:

"You guys aren't going to be afraid of firemen, are you? Because firemen are cool."

I got a massive kick out of that. Maybe you had to be there.

From a librarian standpoint, this was an awesome program to host. Fire fighting is an impressively popular subject so there was a lot of interest from the public. The presentation was very interesting and educational as well as entertaining. And the fire department agreed to come to the library for the low, low price of FREE! You can't beat that.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from today's program:

Chime

Briony knows that she is the cause of all of her family's troubles, including her sister's developmental problems as her stepmother's death. Of course it's her fault - she's a witch. Briony knows that she can never reveal what she has done to her family because being a witch is punishable by death, and despite everything she has done Briony fears being hung. So instead, she bottles up her self-loathing and instead focuses her efforts on protecting her twin sister, Rose. But things change with handsome bad boy Edric arrives in Swampsea. Soon Briony's life becomes a little more complicated as she fights her attraction to him, knowing that she does not deserve the pleasures that come with love. When Eldric's father's attempts to drain the swamp result in anger from swamp-spirit Boggy Mum, Briony knows that she'll have to do something drastic to save her sister from Boggy Mum's deadly revenge, the swamp cough. And in the meantime perhaps, with Eldric's help, she can make peace with her ugly past.

Franny Billingsly's novel Chime is extraordinary. The language is a bit eccentric as it darts from one vivid image to the next, but it is this very strangeness that makes it lovely and pulls readers in. Even though her shockingly staggering guilt, Briony's narration also somehow manages to be darkly funny and I enjoyed some of her snide remarks. If all of this somehow isn't enough to grab the average teen reader, the supernatural themes, early 20th Century setting, and a swoon-worthy love interest certainly will seal the deal. No wonder Chime received glowing starred reviews from nearly every major book review publication - I can't think of another book like it.

Overall Grade: A

Mystery Bulletin Board

As a general rule, I do not like cutesy little slogans that tell you how wonderful reading is. I especially don't like seeing them at the public library. Because really, if you're inside the public library chances are that you already understand how much fun reading can be. Why belabor the point?

So when I started planning one of my new bulletin board displays for this fall, I knew that I wanted to highlight something a little more specific that the library had to offer. I decided to focus on a reading list that I had complied over the summer, highlighting various mysteries for school-age readers. My hope is that instead of preaching to the choir about the wonders of reading, perhaps a display like this will highlight an aspect of the library's collection that some kids have not yet explored.

This display was easy to make. The primary focus of the display is images of book covers backed by colorful paper. I also printed a few large mystery-themed images to fill in some space on this large bulletin board. One end of the display features a pocket holding the reading list itself. That way if the images have proven inspirational, kids and parents can help themselves to a copy of the mystery book list.