Cookie Storytime

This week our preschool storytime was all about every kid's favorite snack: Cookies! This was an action-packed storytime filled with activities to make this theme extra special.

We read:

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
A classic book! The story covers a circle of cause and effect, beginning and ending with a cookie.

Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington
A baker goes into his shop, makes and decorates cookies, and then sells them to happy children. I used this book as a way of talking about the cookie baking process.

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
Two children have twelve cookies to share between the two of them. But then the doorbell rings and two more friends arrive and the cookies must be shared. Then it rings again and again, and soon there are barely enough cookies to go around.

During storytime we went on a cookie hunt. To prepare for this activity, I printed, cut out, and laminated a few dozen pictures of gingerbread men. After storytime began an aid hid them in the children's area, hiding enough so that each child could find 2-5 (depending on group size). They could be found sticking out of picture books or sitting on tables so they were fairly easy to find. When it was time I briefly told the story of the gingerbread man up to the part where he runs away. I then sent the kids into the library to see if they could find all of the runaway gingerbread men. The kids then returned to the storytime area with their cookies, stuck them on my felt board, and we all sat down and counted the cookies.

We also did another action rhyme all about baking cookies:

Gingerbread

Stir a bowl of gingerbread,
Smooth and spicy brown.
(stir)
Roll it with a rolling pin,
Up and up and down.
(roll out dough)
With a cookie cutter,
Make some little men,
(cut out cookies)
Put them in the oven,
Until half past ten.
(put in oven)

To cap off this special storytime, each child was given a cookie to decorate with frosting and sprinkles (with a grown-up's help, of course). The kids were welcome to eat their treat in the storytime room, or they could get a plastic bag to take their cookie home in.


This is an activity that I can get away with only because I have fairly small storytimes - I imagine that this activity would get a bit more complicated and expensive with large groups.

Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading

Of all of the awful, not-fun things in the world, Charlie Joe Jackson hates reading more than anything. He thinks it's a miserable activity and can think of plenty of other things that he'd rather be doing than sitting down with a book. He has managed to get through his entire school career without ever reading a whole book thanks to a deal he has with his friend Timmy, who reads the book and then tells Charlie all about it in exchange for snacks in the lunchroom. But when the deal is uncovered by parents and teachers, Charlie finds himself in trouble. If he can't bribe Timmy to do his reading for him, then how will he get through the school year? Because Charlie has gone this long without reading a book - he's certainly not going to start now.

I wasn't exactly expecting to like Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading very much. After all, I'm a librarian. I love reading, and it's kind of my job to help other kids learn to love reading too. The premise of this book seems to go completely against this ideal. However, I have to admit that author Tommy Greenwald has a little gem on his hands in the form of this book. It was a lot of fun watching Charlie go through such extreme lengths to avoid reading. When it comes down to it Charlie is a smart, likable character. Pair him up with a fun supporting cast of characters and some solid, funny writing and you really do have the makings of a great story.

This is a book that I would highly recommend to all kinds of readers, but especially to reluctant readers. The book's subject matter has surprisingly little to do with this recommendation. Short chapters, supporting illustrations, and a fairly fast pace make this book great for any kid who, like Charlie, just doesn't care for books. Fans of books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and Big Nate will also be pleased.

Overall Grade: A-

If you need further enticing, check out the official book trailer:



Fans will also be pleased to know that a sequel, Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Extra Credit will be available in 2012.

Hunger Games Trailer

For your viewing pleasure:



I'm more and more excited about this movie as we get closer to its release!

Lots of Toys

Said by a three-year-old girl after storytime (edited to remove the adorable "umms"):

"I have lots of toys at home. When you're done at the library, you can come over and play at my house."

Aww, that's very nice of you to invite me!

Monkey Storytime

This week we're having lots of fun with monkey storytime. This is one of my favorites, heavily inspired by my former supervisor's version of the theme.

To start off this storytime we met a monkey puppet and talked about what monkeys like to do. We also learned a big word that really describes silly monkeys: Mischievous. Our first two books and many of our activities really showed us monkeys who like to be silly and get into trouble:

Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow
Five little monkeys go on a picnic with their mama and decide to spend some time teasing Mr. Crocodile. SNAP!

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
A peddler who sells caps walks with his wares stacked on top of his head. But when he falls asleep, some silly little monkeys take his caps away!

Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein
Everyone in the jungle loves Little Gorilla. But then Little Gorilla grows up! Will everyone still love him?

Together we also learned the fingerplay "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed":

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,
One fell off and bumped his head.
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Four little monkeys...
Three little monkeys...
Two little monkeys...
One little monkey...

We played another game as well where all of the kids pretended to be monkeys that copied my actions - running, jumping, skipping, etc. This got us good and warmed up for a fun activity corresponding with the book Caps for Sale where we really put those copying skills to work!

First, we read the story. After we finished we acted the story out. I played the role of the peddler and everyone in the audience got to be a mischievous little monkey. I made lots of cone-shaped caps out of construction paper which sat on my head until it was time for the peddler to fall asleep. Then the little "monkeys" came and stole my caps! The monkeys then copied all of the peddler's actions as they shook their fists, stamped their feet, and finally threw their caps to the ground.


These are the caps we used: The peddler's checked cap (I drew black lines on white paper), brown caps, blue caps, and red caps. I didn't have any grey construction paper, so we left this color out of our retelling.

This activity was not only a ton of fun, but it also gave us a chance to practice the important narration pre-literacy skill.

Thank You

Last week a class of 2nd graders came the library for a tour. We spent some time talking about library cards and what kinds of things there are to do at the library. I then read the class a story and concluded the visit with a tour of the children's area.

Today the teacher came to the library and dropped off a lovely thank-you card that the class had made:


Isn't this card awesome? I love the illustration. Escpecially fascinating is the way that everything is labeled. The word "book" appears 33 times in this drawing! There are signs featured for the "fishin" and "non fishin" books. (For the record that's "fiction" and "non-fiction," not books about going fishing! Also, these signs don't actually exist at my library, but I'm glad they were paying attention to that part of the presentation.) Even the story I read them is labeled as a "zoo book" (it was Wild About Books by Judy Sierra).

Thank-yous like this really make me feel like I'm doing a good thing for these kids as a librarian. It also makes me feel like a rock star. Both feelings are pretty awesome.

Let's Do a Rhyme

Said by a 2-year-old girl, one of my regulars, during Baby and Toddler Storytime:

"Let's do a rhyme now!"

Apparently this girl has really been paying attention during storytime and has picked up on the phrases I often use to transition between activities. Mom told me afterwards that at home she pretends to be me and teaches her dolls all of the rhymes. Apparently "let's do a bouncing rhyme," and "let's sing a song" are fairly common phrases at home!

Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. I feel kind of like a rock star.

Be My Friend

Said to me by a six-year-old just the other day:

"Hello. Would you like to be my friend?"

Awwww... Of course I would! We shook hands and traded names, and *bam!* we were friends. I love how a simple question is all it takes for young children.

Best Reads of 2011 - As Voted by Teens

During Teen Read Week we had a passive program taking place in the Young Adult area. We set up a raffle for teens to enter during this week. Two winners would be selected and would win a book of their choice off of my prize cart. All they had to do was tell me what the best book that they read this year was and why it was so good.

I had a secret ulterior motive with this program - I just wanted to get an idea of what my teens were reading! It was also nice to offer at least one program that brought the focus of Teen Read Week back to reading.

My teens really impressed me with some very thoughtful responses to the "why did you like this book" question. Here are just a few of the books mentioned in this year's raffle entries:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Flygirl by Sherrie L. Smith
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Pies and Prejudice by Heather Vogel Frederick

For the purposes of this raffle I did not require that the book be published in 2011, though I did ask that teens list a book that they read for the first time during this year.

Minute to Win It

Teen Read Week took place October 16-22, and to celebrate we had quite a bit going on at the library. One of my favorite programs from this week was the Minute to Win it event.

Have you ever seen this show? The idea is to challenge people to complete a series of seemingly simple tasks in less than 60 seconds. But it's a lot harder than it sounds! Even though it might seem easy to keep three balloons in the air at once or move a cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands, these tasks all proved to be much more difficult than they first appeared.

Planning this program was surprisingly easy. I talked to a few librarian friends who had dome similar programs before to get ideas, which helped a lot. The official Minute to Win It website has a list of the challenges featured on the show, complete with rules, a list of what supplies would be needed, and video of the task. Then it was simply a matter of selecting eight games to try! There are lots of good choices, but in the end we selected:

A Bit Dicey
Bobblehead
Defying Gravity
Egg Tower
Face the Cookie
Hang Over
Spin Doctor
Stack Attack

Attendance was kind of low (we're still working on building a solid teen base group at my library) so I was able to run the entire program on my own. But with more than four teens I would definitely suggest having another staff person or volunteer help out so that the teens can split into groups, allowing more teens can play at once. I kept the time for each challenge with a stop watch while the teens tried each task - sometimes more than once. We tracked who was able to successfully able to complete each task, and awarded the two most successful teens small prizes.

There were actually several games that the teens were not able to complete at all, but they still had a lot of fun trying and laughing at each other's attempts. Since we had a fairly small, casual group we tried each challenge multiple times and found that some of the games - like Stack Attack, shown below - were a bit easier with a little team work.


All in all I think I spent about 8 dollars on this program, including snacks. We had quite a few of the supplies needed for each game already on hand at the library, and the Dollar Store provided what we didn't have.