Flannel Friday-Pete's Big Lunch

If you follow my blog, you will know that Pete the Cat is one of my favorite book characters.  It is like Christmas for me when a new Pete the Cat book comes out.  This week we tried out Pete's Big Lunch, one of the new I Can Read books by HarperCollins.  What I like about it, other than the silliness, is that you are building something.  This translates really well over to a flannelboard.  Plus, in the case of Mrs. Lisa lost her voice this week, the kids were able to tell the story as we stacked the pieces up.

If you have missed this book, Pete is making a sandwich.  He just uses some unlikely ingredients.  As you can see, Pete uses a whole loaf of bread, a fish, a tomato, mayo, an apple, crackers (by this time the kids are giggling), a pickle, swiss cheese, an egg, 2 hot dogs, a banana, a can of beans, and three scoops of ice cream (by now you have lots of laughter).

All of the pieces for this flannelboard are cut out of felt with puffy painted details.

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Storytime Katie.  For all things Flannel Friday, check out the official blog.  Also, make sure you stop by the Flannel Friday Pinterest page for an excellent flannelboard resource.  

Next week's round-up will be hosted here at Libraryland.  If you will be going out of town for the holiday weekend (in the U.S.), the placeholder will be up by Wednesday (a little early this week).

Sick Days

They happen at least once a year and unfortunately you can't schedule them.  Mine tend to come the first week of summer reading or right in the middle of a story time session (you know, those times when you can't take off).  What do you do when you get sick?  How can you run a program with no voice?  Here are a couple of tricks and tips to minimize the damage.

1.  Have a back-up plan.  Do you have a story time plan written out in case you can't be in the building (the flu does hit all of us and never on convenient days)?  Here are two samples of what I have put together for my Music and Movement story time and my 2 Year Old Story Time.  My boss and my colleague both know where these are located and can pull them out.  They both know where all of my materials are located.  While neither of them want to do my story times, they can in a pinch.

2.  Have a secondary back-up plan.  I know that this sounds funny, but some days, you can't afford the extra staff to run a program if you are already out sick.  In this case, I have a staff member pull out a disc of my Lisa's Dance Party songs, put it in the cd player, and just push the play button at the beginning of story time.  While this isn't my favorite thing to do, I like it better than cancelling a program.  After all, parents put forth a lot of effort to make it to the library.  We want to give them the best experience possible on a given day.

3.   When you run 28 weeks of story time a year, chances are good that you will lose your voice at some time.  This happens to me at least 4 times a year.  When this happens to me, here's what helps me to put together a program:

• First, explain to the parents what is going on.  Really, it is obvious (after all, if you have no voice, you really can't talk).  You will find that they are really supportive in these instances and will take some of the burden of the program off of you.  After all, they are happy that the program is still going on.  These are the instances where I really feel appreciated.  The parents will sing louder and participate more to keep the program going.
• If you have no voice, you really can't read a story.  First, I raid our JKIT area which cd and book kits.  Are there any that will work for your group?  Second, I raid You Tube.  With a laptop (or iPad) and a microphone set up, you can let someone else tell the story while you flip the pages.  We used this method this week with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes and Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  I let Eric Litwin tell the story while I turned the pages.  There are also a lot of really good apps out now that will actually tell the story (check out the Sandra Boynton ones for sure).  These are great to use in this type of situation.
• This is also a good day to pull out a flannelboard or two.  Do you have any that have a lot of pieces (so everybody can take a turn)?  How about ones with matching pieces?  These are the ones to pull out-many of these will tell themselves with very little words.  The kids are still having a great experience and you don't have to talk.  Plus, with 30 or so kids each putting a piece up on the flannelboard, this will take up about 10 minutes of your program.

These are just a couple of ideas that help me to put on story times when I am sick.  What do you do?  The biggest thing that I have found to be helpful is to think outside of the box.  This isn't the type of program that I want to do every day.  After all, talking is an important early literacy skill.  How can you put on a program that is audience-driven?

Flannel Friday-Cleaning Up

It's Friday so that means it is time for some Flannel Friday fun.  This week in our Music & Movement program, we did stories about Cleaning Up.  While the stories are great, it is hard to find rhymes and flannelboards that work.  Below are two that we used.

This is not an original idea for me.  Unfortunately, I do not have the citation of where it came from (Anybody???  If you know it, I will add it in.  I think it is one of the recent ALA books.)  It is called "Where Does It Go?  The parts are all clip art, but I took pictures of things around my house for the refrigerator, the closet, and the toy box.  The goal is to match all of the items to where they belong.  We start off by looking at the refrigerator, the closet, and the toy box and talking about what goes in each.  Then I hold up each clip art item and ask where it should go.  Sometimes I am silly and say things like, "Should the chocolate milk go in the toy box" or "Should the shirt go in the refrigerator?"  The kids thing this is hilarious and you will get a lot of "No's" and laughter.  As this is a flannelboard game, it encourages participation so know your group if you use this.  It is one of those situations of "If you ask them a question, they WILL answer (and tell you their whole life story)."  The trick to this one is to find items that the kids will recognize.

 For our refrigerator, I cut out an apple, swiss cheese, and chocolate milk.

Our closet has a shirt and tennis shoes.

 Our toy box has a teddy bear and some blocks.

The second flannelboard is Five Little Toys.  All of the pieces are different and I used clip art for each.  You can do this as an action rhyme or add in the clip art.  Mine is done on a handheld magnetboard.

Five little toys on the bedroom floor.

(Hold up 5 fingers.)

I'm not playing with them anymore.

(Shake head, no)

I picked one up and put it away.

(Pantomime picking up toy.)

I'll play with it another day.

(Nod head, yes)

Repeat with four, three, two and one.

I love to use counting up or down rhymes with toddlers.  After each verse, we count all of the items that are left.  With the older groups, you can just ask "How many toys are left?"  It adds something extra into the rhyme and makes them feel like they are participating.

This week's Flannel Friday round-up is hosted by Amanda at Trails & Tales.  For all things Flannel Friday, check out the official blog.  Are you planning a story time?  Check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest page for ideas!

Z is for Moose

This morning in our 2 year old story time, our theme was M is for Moose.  This was the perfect time to pull out Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham and Paul Zelinsky.  If you haven't read it before and work with young children, you definitely need to pick it up.  It will work with themes on mooses, abc's, or funny stories.

With 2 year olds, they really want to be "in" on the joke.  Most of them like to laugh, even if it is for no reason.  This book has lots of silly things going on.  To get them ready, we practice our abc's before we read the story.  Then, we look at the title and sound out the word "moose".  We talk about what letter moose might start with.  Could it start with "m" like mouse or mom?  What else is on the cover?  Then, we sound out "zebra".  What letter could zebra start with?

This book works well because the kids can help tell the story if you want them to.  I start off with "a is for" and let them fill in the blank.  With a large apple illustration, you will get a lot of "apple" answers.  The illustrations are familiar enough that they should be able to get most of them, but I did have to help them with fox and glove.  By the time you get to "m", the kids will be laughing.  When you keep going and the zebra is "protecting" the illustrations, they will almost be rolling on the floor with laughter.

For those of us who use early literacy messages in our story times, this is a good book to use for your example.  In addition to reading the story, you can talk about the illustrations or what might happen next.  The kids are practicing their reading skills when you let them read along.  Even if they don't know the actual words, they know the shapes (like they know a picture of an apple is an apple).  The more of these connections that they put together, the better they will get at it, and the more prepared they will be to actually read when the time comes.

Why We Use Nametags

This is one of those subjects where everybody will have a different option.  Some librarians don't use any nametags for programs, while some have parents write their child's names on a label when they arrive.  For me, it goes back to my personal rules of children's programming:

1. Know your audience.
2. Know what you can handle (this includes how many kids).
3. Know what you are trying to accomplish.

How it all started for us:
We started using nametags in Fall 2008 because we had to start registration for all of our programs.  At our location, we hold story time in a large meeting room with a maximum capacity of 100 people.  We were getting 60 kids, plus siblings and parents for some of our story times.  It was chaos-we didn't have enough props for all of the kids (shakers, scarves, etc.) and the room was too loud for the kids to hear the stories.  This was not a meaningful experience for anyone (me included).

For our next set of sessions, we started registration.  We told all of the parents ahead of time.  Those who had attended one of our 60+ kid sessions understood the reasoning behind registration.  After all, we were after the best possible experience for their children.  Since this was the first time that we started registration, we didn't enforce it.  We wanted to see if it worked and to get people used to the whole registration process.  We made it as easy as possible-we use the Evanced Events calendar so people can register in person, over the phone, or on their own computer.

The next step:
If you have registration, you need a way to keep attendance.  Otherwise, why would people bother to register?  Are the people attending who should?  Our events calendar automatically sends reminder emails.  If people don't attend for 2 or more weeks, we contact them to see if they are still interested in the program.  Do you have a lot of people sneaking in?  We had a lot of this in the beginning.  By using nametags that all look alike, we were able to easily identify those people who snuck into programs.  Then we could explain our registration policy after the program and hand them a calendar of events. 

The issues:
No matter what you do, there will always be issues.  Our biggest problem was that nonresidents would fill all of the spaces in the first 30 minutes of registration.  This made our residents, who are taxpayers (and basically pay my salary), upset.  Our solution for this is to offer priority registration for our residents 2 weeks ahead of time.  We open up all of our program registrations 1 week ahead of time for everyone.

In addition, all of your librarians (or people who deal with the public) should be on the same page and have the same answers.  If someone isn't registered for a program, will you let them in?  If you have a mom telling their child that the mean librarian will not let them in, will you stand firm?

Our nametags:
We are fortunate enough to have an AccuCut die cutting machine at our Main Library with some basic dies.  We are also close to our local Intermediate School District who has a wide assortment of dies.  Each session gets a set of die cut nametags in a specific shape and color (for example-green frogs, red apples, white sheep, etc.).  We have a 3M Heat Free Laminator in the building and all of the shapes are run through the laminator and cut out.  For our 2 year old, preschool, and school age sessions, we string the nametags with yarn.  For the baby sessions, we use packing tape on the back of the nametag for the parents to stick to the baby's back (or the adult's front).

Since we do take attendance, we use stickers on the nametags to mark who attends each week.  The kids love the stickers!

For us, premade nametags work.  It may not be the same for you.  At our location, we run 9 story times a week, 8 of which are in the mornings.  With a 30-minute program, we have under 30 minutes in between programs to get people out, reset the room, and let people start coming in.  This is where knowing what you can handle comes into play.

For one-time programs (pretty much everything other than story time), we use Avery 5163 labels.  They are large enough that you can add some clip art to fit your program and type in the child's name, but small enough that they will still fit on a child's shirt.

The early literacy connection:
I like to be in the program room 5-10 minutes ahead of time because the kids who get there early love to talk.  Here are some of the fun things that you can talk about using their nametags:

• What does your nametag say?  Mine says something different.  It says Mrs. Lisa.  Do you see any of the same letters?
• What shape is your nametag?  What does a frog say?
• What color is your nametag?  What is your favorite color?  Do you see anything green around the room?

Talking is an important skill for young children because it builds vocabulary.  Plus, if you do it you will be modeling the behavior for the parents.  Hopefully they will pick up on it and do it at home. 
 
Random nametag fun:

• Kids love taking their nametags home after the last class in a session.  I have heard of kids playing story time at home and making their stuffed animals wear the nametags.  I have also had kids come back with their nametags from every session throughout a year around their neck (just like fancy necklaces).
• Last week in our 2 year old story time session, the kids were using their cow nametags to talk to each other.  None of them used words-I just heard a lot of mooing.  

Fun with Bubbles

You can tell that spring is here in Michigan.  Last week I showed you Chalk Play and this week I have Fun with Bubbles.  Bubbles are a lot of fun to play with outside, but you may be wondering about the early literacy connection.

Blowing bubbles works on your child's motor skills (both fine and gross).  Whether your child blows the bubbles from a wand or uses a bubble gun, they are exercising the muscles in their hand.  Eventually, those muscles will be strong enough for your child to write and for them to have control over their pencil or crayon.

If you are playing bubbles with your child, you are modeling new vocabulary and ideas for them.  As a child's vocabulary increases, they are better prepared to read and write.  Talk about what you see and are doing.  Are you blowing one bubble at a time or many bubbles at a time?  Are the bubbles small or large?  Who can pop the bubble?  Can we pop all of the bubbles?  Where do the bubbles go when they fly over the fence?  One of my favorite ways to talk about the bubbles is to talk about how many we blow with a bubble gun.  You get the best answers from 3 and 4 year olds, which also work on their early math skills.  I can ask, "How many bubbles do you think there are?"  Then I tend to get random answers, such as "67" or "100".  What is interesting is that they know that there are a lot of bubbles so they pull out the largest numbers that they know.

Bubbles are not just an outside toy.  We end all of our baby story times with bubbles.  In addition to the early literacy benefits, bubbles are a good tool for a baby's eyes to track.  Once they have "found" their hands, they will try to touch them too.  Plus, they are fun.  If you inject some fun into what you do, chances are better that parents and kids will remember your idea and replicate it at home. 

Story Time Swap: Crazy Traffic Light

I was trying to come up with a new idea for this story time swap when I downloaded the April issue of Children's Programming Monthly from ALA.  On page 10 is Rob Reid's poem called "The Crazy Traffic Light".  While I like to try to add poetry to my story times, poets make it really easy for me if they add in some sort of actions or sounds to help entertain the children.  That will move it to the top of my "Must Use" list.

If you are unfamiliar with the poem, you can read it here.  It is also in Children's Programming Monthly (vol. 3, no. 8 or April 2013) and in Family Storytime: Twenty-Four Creative Programs for All Ages by Rob Reid.  I came up with a pattern which you can download here.  Otherwise, it is just a bunch of circles in different colored felt on a gold rectangle.

red, yellow, and green

pink, purple, and orange

brown, white, and blue



This week's round-up is hosted by Loons and Quines @ Librarytime.  For all things Flannel Friday, check out the Flannel Friday blog.