Every Hero Has a Story: Who is your hero?

Ever since I took an early childhood related webinar through MLA about two months ago, I've been thinking about how to provide literacy building activities on every available library surface. I created our counting ramp, and am planning on adding a Lego board and a flannel board to the sides of our shelves. For summer reading I wanted to come up with a literacy building passive program that kids of all ages could enjoy.

I took advantage of our circulation desk and paper we had on hand to create a "Who is your hero?" board.

In addition to keeping kids busy while they wait to check out books, this board has many literacy benefits:

• When writing on the board the youngest kids are developing their fine motor skills.
• As the youngest children see words written down, they will develop the knowledge that print has meaning.
• Kids will most likely sound out the names of their heroes as they write them, developing their phonemic awareness.
• Developing readers will get valuable reading practice by reading the names of the heroes other children write on the board.
• As parents see the board they will most likely talk about it with their children (one of the literacy practices in ECRR2).
• Kids will probably explain why they chose their hero to parents or staff, therefore strengthening their narrative skills.

I'd love to hear any other great passive programming ideas you may have for the summer. As always you can comment here or reach me on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets).

Early Literacy Messages in Action: The why, how, and where of incorporating early literacy tips in storytime

In my almost five years doing storytimes for all ages I've found one of the hardest aspects I've had to work on is how to incorporate early literacy tips. As someone without children it always seemed a little strange giving parents advice related to their children. Over time I've realized that this is one of the most important things we do in storytime and I've become more comfortable incorporating early literacy messages in my storytimes. Because of this experience when I saw some of my wonderful Twitter friends discussing doing a blog tour on the topic I was happy to add my two cents.

The why
The biggest reason for including early literacy messages in storytime is because as children's librarians, early literacy is one of our areas of expertise. Many parents may not know the things we do about early literacy, and it is part of our job to inform them. Other parents may already know a great deal but need a gentle reminder on a busy day. Still other parents could just use a reminder that the things they already do with their children are making a difference. Providing these messages helps support all these parents. It will help them encourage their children's development in the best way possible.

Knowing that storytime specifically supports early literacy will also help parents see the reasoning behind what we do and the value behind coming to storytime. Once they realize the value of storytime the more likely parents are to bring their children to storytime and become advocates for the library in the community.

The how
The "how" is where it gets tricky. It can be difficult to put our knowledge into words without sounding judgmental or preachy. Here are some things I've learned that make it a little easier.

• Tie messages directly to what you are doing in storytime. I find this makes it feel more relevant and natural. It also gives your message a little more conversational tone.
• Include messages at different points during storytime. As Jbrary points out, messages can be woven into your opening message, before or after activities and in one on one conversation with parents.
• Word the message in a straightforward and simple way. I like the format of "When you do (insert activity) it is great for your child because (insert reason)". For instance "When you do bouncing rhymes, it is a great way for your baby to feel the rhythm of language." This not only gives concrete advice, it shows that we know parents are probably doing many of these things already.
• Provide messages in several different formats. Some librarians provide handouts at storytime or display signs around the children's department. My favorite format is including these messages on my storytime blog.
• Keep your messages varied as possible. I work in a small town, and have many regular kids who have attended storytime over long periods of time. This means I have to do my best to keep the messages I provide fresh and new.

Examples
Here are a few of my favorite tips to use:

• "Song lyrics often include unfamiliar words, which makes singing a great way to boost your child's vocabulary" 
• "Ask your baby simple questions as you read to them, even if they can't respond. The more you engage with your baby in this manner the more words they will learn to understand."
• "Your baby will learn to pay attention to their name very early on. If you use their name right before a new word, your baby is more likely to learn the new word."
• "Rhyming stories help your child identify the sounds of language. This skill becomes increasingly important as your child is learning how to read."

Where to find tips
These are just a few of my favorite places to find more examples.

• Zero to Three: This is a website of a national nonprofit organization that provides parents with great information about child development.
• Betsy Diamont Cohen's Early Literacy Kit. It includes both a handbook and tip cards.
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• Many more great resources are included on my early literacy tips Pinterest board.

For more great perspectives on this topic see the other posts in this blog tour. Jbrary has been kind enough to include them all in a a roundup post. You can also find discussion of this topic on Twitter under the hashtag #EarlyLitInAction.

5 reasons why summer reading rocks

As you probably already know if you are reading this, summer is the busiest of year to be a youth services librarian in a public library. Running a summer reading program can be stressful but also amazingly fun and rewarding. While waiting for this year's summer reading program to start, I've definitely enjoyed the way my online youth service colleagues have written about this dichotomy. Angie sums up the chaos and fun of summer reading perfectly at her post on Letters to a Young Librarian. Sarah at Green Been Teen Queen gives another great account of what it is like to be a public librarian in the summer. They both show outsiders that summer reading is definitely not something to be run away from in fear!

I wanted to share a little bit of my own summer reading related positivity, so here we have my countdown of five reasons why summer reading rocks.

Reason 5:  You get to include fun and interesting outside performers
I don't typically use outside performers at my library very often, mainly due to budget reasons. However, in the summer all that changes, because I know attendance will be high. I typically get to include a least a few performers each summer. This summer we are having a magician, a pair of authors and a local artist visit my library. It adds a little variety for both the kids, and is fun for me to see as well.

Reason 4: It's the perfect opportunity to try new program ideas
More programs done each week equals more chance to those ideas filling up my Pinterest boards. The overarching themes of the Collaborative Summer Library Program also give me a chance to focus on topics I may not have previously thought of. For instance last years science themed summer reading program really strengthened my repertoire of STEAM program ideas.

Reason 3: You get to see kids you may not see during the school year.
There are some kids that can't make it into the library often during the school year, no matter how amazing your programs are. Summer is your time to see these kids and show them what the library is all about. The goal is for them to remember these positive experiences and become life long library fans.

Reason 2: The children's department gets to help the library build community good will
Summer reading is a great opportunity to show your community what the library has to offer. You have more families in to visit, more items being checked out and more programs to brag about. It is also a great time to partner with community organizations to fund prizes and programs. This works to showcase the positive of both organizations.

Reason 1: More kids + More reading = more fun.
This is really what it's all about. Summer reading brings together a children's librarian's two great loves: kids and books. There is really nothing better.

What are your favorite things about summer reading?

American Girl Club: Summer Fun

For our last American Girl Club of the school year I decided to focus on summer. I figured this would be a fun way to close out the program until fall. Like the "Best Friends" theme, this theme also helps me to stretch a limited number of American Girl characters over the greatest time period possible. It also is a theme that allows a wide variety of options as far as activities, games and snacks.

Image courtesy of openclipart.org

 Overview:

• One session of 12 kids were registered. 
• Age group: 3rd-6th graders. 
• Length: One hour
• The only cost involved was for our snacks (less than $10)

What we did: 

• As usual we started out with a discussion about the American Girls characters. This time we focused on how they spent their summers. I tried to get the kids to think a little about how these character's summer plans were similar and different from their own. 
• For our first game we focused on Rebecca, our American Girl from 1914. In Rebecca's summer story, she went to Coney Island. I had to explain to the kids that this was a place with rides and games, and in fact not just a restaurant. I set up a simple carnival game for them to play. I stacked five cups on our meeting room table and had the kids try to knock them down with a ball. Once that was done we tried turning the cups over and throwing marbles into them.
• Next we played a little game of volleyball with my beach ball (purchased from the dollar store). I figured this was a fun summery game that they would enjoy. It was definitely a hit, because the kids didn't want to stop playing.
• Our final activity was a beach themed game of pictionary. I found a word list at The Game Gal and picked the words I thought would be easiest to draw. 

A little record of our Pictionary fun :)

• We ended the program with a craft related to Julie, from 1974. She is very into environmental issues, so we made bird feeders. To create them I we started with paper plates with the center cut out and holes punched on either side. The plates were prepared beforehand, and I left it to the kids to string yarn between the holes. Next time I make this feeders, I will do this step for them too, because some found it a little difficult. The plates were then covered on top with shortening (an allergy friendly alternative to peanut butter!) and sprinkled with bird seed. They can then be hung from the yarn. 

How it went:
This was a great end to my regular school year programming. Definitely a good way to usher in the summer before the craziness of summer reading hits! 

What we learned:
The attendees learned a little about different historical periods, in particular how the summer activities done in various time periods were often very similar to what they do in the summer. Through our craft, they learned a little about environmental issues. The games in general gave them valuable practice with teamwork.

For information on my other American Girl related programs go to these posts:

• Grace, 2015 Girl of the Year
• Samantha, from 1904
• Caroline, from 1812
• Kaya, from 1764
• Addy, from 1864
• Josefina, from 1824
• Isabelle, 2014 Girl of the Year
• Best Friends

Summer Reading Graphic: Every Hero Has a Story

We are going with the national Collaborative Summer Library Program theme this year: Every Hero Has a Story. I'm really looking forward to the summer and excited to share all my plans with you all.

To kick it off I wanted to share a graphic I made using an online photo editor, Pixlr. It can be downloaded here. Feel free to use it in whatever way you would like!

Credit for the heroes in the graphic goes to the wonderful Rebecca at Hafuboti. She was generous enough to share the graphics designed by her fiance. I've incorporated them into my flyers and other materials and I know of many other librarians that have done the same. You can find many of these graphics in both color and black and white here. Thank you so much Rebecca for being so willing to share!

Best of luck to all of you kicking off SRP in the next few weeks. We don't start the majority of our programming until July, because we are closed for a local festival towards the end of June. Can't wait to join in all the hero related fun!

Flannel Friday: Five Little Cupcakes

My contribution to this week's Flannel Friday is something I've had in the works for a few weeks. My library recently participated in Money Smart Week, during which I held a money themed storytime. I started cutting out these cupcakes in hopes of using them with a rhyme I've seen on many of my favorite storytime blogs: "Down Around the Corner".

In case you aren't familiar with it, the rhyme goes like this:

Down Around the Corner

Down around the corner in the __________ shop

Were 5 little ___________ with ____________ on top

Along came someone with a nickel to pay

And they bought a little __________ and they took it away.

It is a very versatile rhyme that I've seen used in many different ways. It was even the subject of  the very first Flannel Friday at Mel's Desk! I figured it would fit well in our Money Smart storytime, but  didn't get a chance to finish it in time. I was finally able to complete it this week, and wanted to make sure I shared it with you all.

To make the cupcakes I traced this template on felt and glued the pieces together with tacky glue. The sprinkles were cut free hand.

These cupcakes can be used many different ways. I'm definitely planning on using them the next time I do a food themed storytime. They would also fit perfectly into a color themed storytime if you focused on the colors of the frosting. Bridget at What is Bridget Reading has a post that includes some great alternate rhymes as well.

Flannel Friday is hosted by Mollie at What Happens in Storytime this week. Check out her roundup post tomorrow to see what great ideas have been shared by Flannel Friday bloggers this week.

To participate in upcoming roundups, or get more great storytime ideas head over to the Flannel Friday Blog or Pinterest page. You can also follow #flannelstorytime on Twitter.

Kidding Around: Bubble Bash

For our May meeting of my K-2nd program, Kidding Around, I turned to a perennial kid favorite: bubbles. It is practically scientific fact that kids of all ages love bubbles. Bubbles are relatively mess-free and blowing them (or trying to) can hold the attention of even the youngest children.

Program Overview:

• 9 kids attended
• Age group: K-2nd graders. 
• Total Cost: $10-$20  

Introduction: "Big Bad Bubble"

I've been trying to include more books in my school age programming in an effort to promote reading. To this end we started our bubble bash by reading one of my favorite bubble related books, "Big Bad Bubble" by Adam Rubin.

I love the premise of this book: the monsters in La La Land are afraid of bubbles. It is pretty funny, and definitely has a good message about facing fears. It made me so happy to hear a little girl repeating "This is so funny!" as I read.

Next, we moved on to the main portion of our program: playing with bubbles. This consisted of three different activities.

Bubble Activity #1: Making our own bubble solution

Supplies needed:
Bowl of water for each child
Plenty of dishsoap
Pipe cleaners
Straws

Cost: $3 for the pipe cleaners

I gave each child a bowl of water and asked how it was similar and different to bubble solution (hooray for scientific observation!). My favorite answer was "It would taste gross!".

Next I added soap to their bowls and had them stir it in. Once everyone had bubble solution we experimented with making bubble wands out of straws and pipe cleaners. We asked questions as we experimented, such as "What kind of wand would make a big bubble?" and "What would happen if we taped straws together and blew bubbles?"

Bubble Activity #2: Bubble Painting

Supplies needed:
Food coloring or paint
Paper

Cost: None

To paint with bubbles we added food coloring to our solution and placed paper on top of the resulting colored bubbles. I've seen this online various places and did it with the kids at last year's summer reading finale party. The kids seemed to enjoy it, even though some colors didn't come out on paper as clearly as others. For alternate methods of painting with bubbles, see Artful Kids.

Bubble Activity #3: Giant Bubbles

Supplies needed: 
Giant bubble wands
Other bubble blowing devices
Super strong homemade bubble solution:
                 1 gallon of water
                 1 cup Dawn Dishsoap
                 4 tablespoons of glycerin (near the cake decorating supplies at Michaels)

Cost:
About $6 for the glycerin

I brought out the giant bubble wands I bought on sale last summer at Michaels. The ones I have are pretty similar to this one. If you don't want to buy one there are also many tutorials I found online for making your own version. I also had some play tennis rackets and larger bubble wands for the kids to use.

As expected, this was the highlight of the afternoon. At the end of the program I asked the kids which kind of bubble wand was their favorite and the giant one was the unanimous winner.

All in all this was a great way to end "Kidding Around" for the school year. Summer reading is coming fast, and I look forward to updating you on all our fun programs!