Caps for Sale!

I didn't race ahead to Dr. Seuss this week...even though I wanted to! I ended the fairy tale/folk tale trend with Caps for Sale illustrated by Esphyr Slobodinka. I'm becoming more of a realist when it comes to my story time (much to the relief of the parents in my groups), and by doing so, I paraphrased most of the story yet used the pictures to guide us.

Why is the peddler in the tree? I'm confused.

There is a nicely mustached man who sells caps, which I explained to the kids, are hats. He doesn't have a kiosk in the mall, so he wears all of them on his head. One day, he's not selling so well and decides to take a nap. Much to his dismay, when he awakens the caps (except his own) are gone! The culprits: monkeys. Why he didn't notice that there were monkeys about, we'll never know.

Anyway, he has to devise a way to get his caps back. The ending is pretty funny but I won't spoil it for you who haven't read it.

I was originally going to read a story with a king and queen, so I had a crown craft prepared. I couldn't settle on an age appropriate royalty book, so I worked it out and told the kids that we were making our own caps. Thanks for your flexibility, kids!

I don't know where I found the instructions for this, so, sorry Internet. All you have to do is cut a paper plate four times to make triangles in the middle. I used markers to decorate mine, but gave the kids crayons so they wouldn't stain themselves. Here is the finished product.

Miss Meg the Cap Model

I did a session at our staff in-service day a couple of weeks ago and had the staff make their own hats.

Looking swell, ladies!

Creativity in motion!

Next post: DR. SEUSS' BIRTHDAY! WOOHOO!

Goldilocks: Faultless or Felon?

Ah, The Three Bears. What a classic tale! I especially like the book by Byron Barton that is free of fluff. Just the facts, ma'am.

They look happy now...but...

As an adult, I now ask myself, "Where the heck were Goldilock's parental units? Shouldn't she be in school, or at least picking flowers and not breaking and entering? WHO RAISED YOU, LADY?!" But I digress.

For our craft, I found a fabulous handout online via Pinterest with the bears, the bandit, the beds, and the chairs. What, no porridge? Okay, I guess I can only ask for so much. So I free-handed the porridge bowls on a scrap piece of printing paper, and transferred the image to cardstock. I had the kids color, cut, and then paste the props to a table tent made from said cardstock. For the bears and Goldie, we taped them onto craft sticks for puppets. The craft was very labor intensive, but I feel it was worth it so the kids could take it home and retell the story. I think some parents were irritated that I expected their kids to cut with GASP scissors. (I suppose that I shouldn't assume that the girl who takes big bites of glue stick would be able to use the scissors properly?)

Crazy Eyes and the Three Bears

Pajama Time was Thursday and I read Chicken Little by Laura Rader for this group. I enjoy the story where all the poultry get seduced by Foxy Loxy, but this version is the gentler king-tells-mob-it-was-an-acorn tale.

Ouch.

Our craft was a sweet paper plate chicken with googly eyes. I found this at a blog called Simple As That. I didn't have any yellow plates, but welcomed the kiddos to color their chickens if they were feeling saucy. I'm a sucker for the googly eyes.

Wiggle Wiggle

 My plan this week was to wrap up our fairy tale/folk tale story times with an actual coda, consisting of making prince/princess crowns...but I'm really excited for March and DR. SEUSS' BIRTHDAY....so I may skip ahead and just start my Seuss Storytimes!

Are you ready?! I am!!!

I will chop off arms if anyone hurts my white board this month!

Queenie Goes Bovine

Queenie the Cow guest stars on MEG-A-RAE, MPL's reader's advisory vlog. She's a bit fuzzy on the details, but she does a pretty good job reviewing Going Bovine, by Libba Bray.

February Counting Contest!

I know the library isn't a place where you normally think about math. I'm not terribly fond of numbers...that's why I work with books! Anyway, I have another fun "guesstimation" game here in the children's room.
 

If you guess the amount of kisses in the jar, you can win a free book! Yay! Stop by and place your guess in the box on the display.

This is such an easy "passive" library program to do. Supplies: scrap paper, jar, pencils, stuff to count into the jar, flyer explaining the contest, something to put the guesses in. Done! After I did the initial supply gathering, I have simply changed the item in the jar and the flyer month to month.

What kinds of passive library programs do you have, Libraryland?

Valentine's Day, Iguanas, Boogers, and Books

Um. Yeah...just watch this:

My library is in the midst of a new tagging system for our books. I am "weeding" the picture book collection so we don't have to tag all the books that are either a) in bad condition or b) not circulating. This is how the "Endangered Books" display came about.

Free to a good home!

As far as iguanas and boogers go, please keep them at home...and get well soon before you bring boogers to share with me at the library. Thanks for your consideration!

Creative Kids: Valentine's Edition

Yesterday I did Valentine's crafts with 25 elementary school kids. It was more fun than it sounds! I got them focused by reading Rotten Ralph's Rotten Romance by Jack Gantos. Rotten Ralph is a disgusting sort of cat, who reminds me of Oscar the Grouch, but in a nastier, trashier, not-so-funny sort of way. I think the kids liked the novelty of the book, but I don't think I will read it again.

Ant filled chocolate, anyone?

I then asked the kiddos to use this "i love..." coloring sheet from Vale Design to make a drawing of what they love about the library. When they finished, I collected them to make an awesome display at the front desk for all to see!

LOVE the LIBRARY!

AWW gee thanks!

Their next assignment: go crazy with craft supplies to make Valentine's cards. Wahoo! I placed supplies at the work tables and let them go to town.

I even received a few!

It was strange to me that a few of the kids said, "Miss Michelle, I messed up. I need another paper." I showed them how to 'salvage' what they had done, and they went on to create some good stuff. I think they just needed a gentle prodding to 'think outside the card' and see that they didn't "mess up." I felt great after they looked at their pieces differently and worked with what they had.

I love that you make lists like I do!

We wrapped up the program with Ten Things I Love About You by Daniel Kirk. I read this for a class of kindergarteners last week and they thought it was funny. The elementary school kids liked it too. Some of their laughs probably had to do with my delivery...as I portray Rabbit as kind of a bunny-on-uppers sort of character. The book is cute, and not really even a Valentine's book...so I'll read it again later in the year, I'm sure.

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day! Eat some chocolate for me. :)

The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Mr. T

I'll let the video explain.It's really the easiest way. =)

The kiddos really liked the craft portion, as shown in these fabulous photos!

Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap!

Let the creating begin!

A finished product. Bravo!

Ready, Set, Read! Letter T

It's tempting to think that I could overuse the letter T in this text, but I will try not to. :)

I'm slow going on the posts, but hopefully I can catch up over the next few days! Ready, Set, Read! was last Thursday. It went swimmingly compared to the  first installment of the class, so huzzah for that.

I started class with a basket of items: tiger, train, truck. I held them up, and asked the kids to guess what the letter of the evening was. I showed them how to draw a T on the white board, made a list of T words that they came up with, and then I asked them how they could make a letter T with their bodies. We stood up and stuck our arms out to make Ts! I try to employ different methods of learning for each type of learner...and the kids really liked the gross motor skill portion.

You read that correctly.

I like to do read aloud books for each class, and this one is no different. Too Much Tooting is an easy reader, and not super fabulous for a story time book, however I wanted to give them a auditory example of the letter T in action. And just look at the title. I mean, if you didn't see the pictures in this book, what would you think it was about? Just try to read this with a straight face...even the kids in the audience were coming up with fart jokes after it was over. It was a good choice.

We then broke out into stations. I let the parents and kids choose whatever they want to do from a variety of fun stuff. I added a new activity this week: making the letter of the evening from play-doh. I think all the kids hit this station at least once. The least used station: worksheets. Not going to waste the paper anymore!

Turnip casserole, anyone?

After some station-action, we gathered back up for our last read-aloud: The Turnip retold by Harriet Ziefert. As another easy reader, not the greatest pick for a traditional story time setting, but a good pick for us. The story is timeless: farmer needs help pulling the huge turnip and employs whoever is around to pull, pull, pull!

I had easy reader books pulled for the kids to check out with the topics: toad, Thursday, turtle, turnip, Thomas the Train, trucks, etc.

The parent feedback has been great for this class. Any suggestions from Libraryland?

Next post: K6 Roundup!