Booktalking 2.0: Books for 4th and 5th graders

It is finally time to complete one of my favorite series of posts, my second series of grade level booktalk suggestions. It is always a pleasure to share books I've loved with the kids I hope will grow to love them too.

Here are the books I recommended to 4th and 5th graders this year:

 

For 4th graders:

The 14th Goldfish by Jennifer Holm: A girl named Ellie must deal with her scientist grandfather being turned into a teenager. The idea of an old man in a teenager's body holds definite kid appeal, and it is a very well written book. It is also a great example of science fiction, and of girls demonstrating a love for science.

Eat your Science Homework: Recipes for Inquiring Minds by Anne McCallum: This title fit the need for nonfiction title I thought kids this age would enjoy reading. It ties together food and science, two perennially kid approved topics.

Maryellen series by Valerie Tripp and Melody series by Denise Lewis Patrick: These new additions to the American Girl books allowed me to promote my library's popular American Girl Club.

For 5th graders:

VIP: I'm With The Band by Jen Calonita: Mac gets to live every teen's dream, going on the road with her favorite band. I like the humor in the book as well as the comic book elements that are included throughout.

Sunny Side Up by Jennifer Holm: Sunny's family is going through a lot with her brother. To get her away from the situation she is sent to spend the summer with her grandfather in his Florida retirement community. While reading about Sunny's adventures in this community we slowly learn about her brother's behavior and drug abuse. This graphic novel treats a difficult subject matter in a way that makes it easy for kids to understand and enjoyable to read.

I Funny TV by James Patterson: Jamie's latest adventure involves creating a TV show based on his life. The behind the scenes drama is pretty funny, as the title suggests. Patterson's tween series continue to be extremely popular among kids in my community.

 

For both grades: 

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan: This Newbery Honor winner was one of my favorite books of 2015. It will appeal to fans of historical fiction as well as fantasy lovers, and has a ending that just leaves you feeling happy. It is especially terrific as an audiobook.

Voyagers series by multiple authors: The premise of this science fiction series is that kids are sent to space to retrieve a much needed new energy source for Earth. The kids I talked to loved the concept of going to space, and seemed eager to volunteer themselves if the need ever arose.


I hope these titles will come in handy to anyone suggesting books for this age group. For more suggestions see last year's booktalks for fourth and fifth graders. If you have additional recommendations I would love to hear them too. I'm already looking forward to posting about booktalking again next year!

ATLAS: ArtBot Tips and Tricks

For February's ATLAS we did something I've seen done on many blogs before: ArtBots. In case you aren't familiar with them, they are robots that make art. I've a few different types of ArtBots and they primarily vary in the type of materials used to make them. The most common materials I've seen used are cups and pool noodles. One thing most ArtBots seem to have in common is that an electric toothbrush serves as the power source. The ones we made looked like this:

I decided to model my ArtBots after Anne's at Sotomorrow. The basic idea is you push an electric toothbrush into the hole of shortened pool noodle. Next you secure markers to the sides with rubber bands to balance them so they hang just past the end of the noodle. Once they are balanced you tape the markers on with duct tape or masking tape. The final step is decorating your creation. When you turn on the toothbrush the ArtBot should move in a circle and create a Spirograph-like picture.

Since the basics of ArtBots are covered in detail by Anne and others, I figured I'd share a few new tips and tricks I discovered through my own experience.

• The Luminant toothbrushes do fit pretty perfectly, as Anne mentioned. In my case I was lucky that they were very easy to find with a few calls to my local Dollar Tree. I didn't even have any duds in the 15 toothbrushes I bought.
• If you are doing this activity in the winter make sure you have pool noodles ready and available because as seasonal items you will not be able to find them anywhere cheaply or easily. I had to rely on a children's librarian from my cooperative who happened to have some extra on hand to give me. Thanks to her kindness our program was able to go on as scheduled!
• To make this a group art experience I covered our tables with butcher paper and used that as our drawing surface. It had the added benefit of keeping any marker from getting on the tables.
• Balancing was definitely one of the most difficult parts of getting the ArtBots to work. Other blogs have mentioned balancing too well, but a couple of my kids had trouble getting theirs to balance at all. It may just be trial and error. 
• 12 kids seems like a good sized group to do this project with. A larger group would most likely have made me feel spread thin when it came to providing the help some of the kids needed.
• Precutting the noodles into the necessary smaller pieces was definitely a smart move. We filled the entire hour of the program making and decorating our ArtBots and would not have had time for this extra step.

I hope these tips come in handy if you choose to make ArtBots with kids. As an easy and fun maker activity I highly recommend it!

Passive programming table: 3 recent stations

I've been meaning to do more passive programming for quite a while, but as a smaller library we haven't had quite enough space to do it. Most of it has been stuff set out on our Circulation Desk, or in small available areas of the Children's Department. For instance, we do a yearly backpack raffle, as well as a few other occasional raffles. I've also set out early literacy activities in our children's department, including  some on the sides of our bookshelves.

Despite what I've been able to do with the space available, I still coveted a dedicated area for alternating passive programs, such as the Boredom Buster station found at Hushlander or the felt board table found at Thrive After Three. Needless to say, I was thrilled when recent renovations on the adult side of our library have opened up a table that I've put by our circulation desk.

So far it has been a big hit. It not only provides an avenue to reach more children as they come into the library, it also keeps them busy as their parents check out library materials. In the past few months I've been able to use it for three different stations, and I have ideas for many more. The first station I choose to do was origami, which was inspired by Hushlander.

This station was definitely something that appeals to all ages. Not only does it promote creativity, but in younger kids folding helps develop fine motor skills. It was also a wonderful way to feature the origami books in our collection. As of the point this picture was taken quite a few of these books had been checked out already.

For our next passive program at this station I chose something both seasonal and huge on the popularity scale: Frozen. I actually first put together this station when I found out that our local rec center (which is across the parking lot from the library) was having a Frozen themed party on a Saturday afternoon.

I knew I couldn't do any traditional programming because I was in charge of the building that day, but setting up some printable activities would at least give the kids something connected to do at the library. I printed out some coloring pages and other printables from Mommypalooza. I also set out some reindeer cut outs I had leftover from Christmas and materials to cut out snowflakes. The kids loved it, and got some valuable cutting and writing practice without even realizing it. It was especially useful when many families arrived early to the rec center party.

The current program I have out was inspired by the mail centers at Libraryland and Reading with Red. The basic idea is that I set out materials for the kids to write mail to their favorite book characters. To mail the letters, they place them in the bins (leftover from our Frozen Party last fall).

I tried to make sure a wide range of age levels could communicate with their favorite characters. The youngest kids could draw pictures. I provided a template the slightly older kids could use, and lined paper for any pretty proficient letter writers. What I love about this center is that it not only encourages writing, it encourages a love of books.

Some of the letters we have received so far.

These three stations have seemed to be very popular with patrons and staff. Just the other day I had a parent thank me for setting it up. I've also had staff mention how helpful it is at keeping the kids occupied during checkout. I'm definitely looking forward to creating further activities for this new addition to our library!

Booktalking 2.0: Books for 2nd and 3rd graders

It has been a few months since I've last shared a post about my booktalks, so I figured it was about time. I am still enjoying visiting my local schools as much as ever. The recognition as kids come visit me in the library is also pretty much the best feeling in the world. It basically makes me want to jump for joy.

Here are the books I booktalked to 2nd and 3rd graders this year:

 

Books for 2nd graders: 

How to swallow a pig by Steve Jenkins: I continued to booktalk this nonfiction book that I previous used with the younger grades. They were also appropriately impressed and disgusted by the animal talents it details.

The Tale of Rescue by Micheal Rosen: A fictionalized version of a true story, this short chapter book is about a dog who rescues a family trapped in a snowstorm. Dogs are a perennial kid favorite, and an element of danger to talk up is always a plus. This one also filled a need for a shorter chapter book in my selections.

Frog and Friends Celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve by Eve Bunting: It was still the middle of the holiday season when I talked with this age group, so I continued to feature this seasonal beginning reader.

Books for 3rd graders:

Markus "Notch" Persson: Creator of Minecraft by Tamra Orr: The popularity of Minecraft in my community still hasn't waned, and the kids were thrilled to realize that there are books written about the creator's life. Including a biography also provides a little introduction to the genre before they are required to read them for a school report.

The Secret Cookie Club by Martha Freeman: Anyone looking for something similar to "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" for kids need look no further. After spending a summer at camp, four friends decide to stay close by sending each other cookies throughout the school year.  You get to see each girl's problems and perspective throughout the book and it definitely is a good representation of realistic fiction.

Maryellen series by Valerie Tripp (American Girl series): A new American Girl character seemed the perfect opportunity to bring in her book and promote my library's American Girl Club programs.

Books shared with both grades:

Knights of the Kitchen Table by Jon Scieszka: This favorite of mine was once again my read aloud pick for these visits. The first chapter is hilarious and has great kid appeal because it involves threats, name calling and the menacing Black Knight. It is always great to introduce new kids to a series that has been around a while, and this is a worthy choice for librarians and teachers looking to do so.

Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon: I always like to include books with strong female characters in my booktalks and this title definitely fit the bill. It is the first in the "Harriet Hamster Princess" series and details how Harriet grows up with a curse by an evil witch. The curse is meant to make her fall asleep forever at age 12, but backfires and renders her invincible in the meantime. She takes advantages of this as any Hamster Princess would do, by taking up cliff jumping and monster fighting.


Hopefully these titles will come in handy if you are booktalking or choosing books to read with kids. For more suggestions for this age group see last year's booktalks for second and third graders. I'll be updating you with my selections for fourth and fifth graders as soon as I complete a few last school visits. Thanks for reading!

Kidding Around: Big Game Bash

In honor of the recent big football game I decided to make this month's Kidding Around a football themed party. Football is pretty popular in most communities, and despite my lack of sports aptitude I wanted to make sure I tapped into this interest. Even though the big game is over, I figured this program would be useful to share for any other libraries going with this year's sports themed CSLP. As I mentioned, I am not a particularly "sporty" person at all so my first thought when planning this program was "This should be interesting...".

To start planning my first step was to come up with some simple games that could be done with a soft football. I figured  activities that involved "playing football" were kind of a must at this kind of program. The kids who attend "Kidding Around" are still pretty young (in Kindergarten through 2nd grade) so I also wanted to keep it as easy and active as possible. After that I filled out the rest of the program with some classic kid's games that I gave a football themed twist.

I find beginning a program with an active game gets the kids engaged and breaks the ice with any new attendees, so we started out by dividing into pairs and throwing some soft mini footballs back and forth. The goal was to throw it back and forth as many times as possible without dropping it. This definitely proved a little more difficult for the kids than I initially anticipated, but still seemed to be something they all enjoyed doing. After that I provided a little easier challenge and we took turns throwing the footballs through a hula hoop I held a few feet in front of them.

Next we "practiced making field goals", a.k.a. played a football themed version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I called it Pin the Football on the Goalpost, and here are my  templates for the goalpost and footballs in case you would like to use them.

Our final game was one of the highlights of the program: a football themed version of Bingo . I created this game with this awesome picture Bingo creator. This particular Bingo creator is one of my favorite resources for this age group because their reading levels vary too widely to play themed versions of Bingo that involve reading. Picture Bingo works great with struggling readers of any age, and would also be perfect to use with ESL students.

Craft and snack time closed out the program as usual. Our craft was a coloring page with a football helmet and jersey, because I really couldn't find any more involved football themed crafts I wanted to do with them. Because it is a Big Game party the snacks were the focus at this point anyways. I chose chocolate cupcakes (topped with printable football cutouts), chips, pretzels and popcorn.

All in all this was an inexpensive and fun program. The only costs involved were for snacks (about $5) and squishy footballs ($1 each at my local Dollar Store). I would definitely repeat this program again in the future.

If you have any questions about this program you can reach me in the comments or on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets). Next month's Kidding Around is a birthday party for Dr. Seuss, so Seuss related program ideas are also greatly appreciated!

ATLAS: Chocolate Olympics

If I've learned one thing in my five years as a children's librarian, it's that if snacks work to get kids into the library chocolate works even better. When I held a Chocolate Olympics as a part of our monthly ATLAS (At The Library After School) program about 3 years ago, it was one of my favorite programs I had ever done with 3rd-6th graders. Now that enough time has passed I was able to repeat this program recently, which gave me a great reason to share it here.

A little visual for you chocoholics out there. 

Program Overview:

This program involved a few simple games related to chocolate. Some were physical, others were just for fun. The "winner" of each game received a Hershey's Kiss. 12 3rd-6th graders signed up and 11 attended. The program lasted about an hour from start to finish. The only supplies I had to purchase were a large pack of Hershey's Kisses, three boxes of Oreos and one box of chocolate chip cookies.

What we did: 

 

Chocolate Toss

Each child was given a plate and a Hershey's Kiss. The goal was to place the plate on the floor and throw the Kiss onto the plate. Once they got it on the plate, they were instructed to take one large step back and try to do it again. The child that ended up the farthest away after about 2-3 minutes was the winner. This ended up being one of the more difficult games as it was surprising how much the candy would bounce.

Hershey Kiss "Tennis"  

I made "tennis rackets" out of paper plates and craft sticks. We broke into pairs, and the goal was to hit a Hershey Kiss back and forth as many times as possible. The kids quickly realized that gently tossing worked a lot better than powerful hits. Definite points for building the kids' physics knowledge!

Hershey Kiss Relay Race

The kids were divided into two teams and had a relay race where each team member had to cross the room while balancing a Hershey Kiss on a spoon. This was probably the most active of the events and the kids seemed to have a great time with it.

Stack the Oreos

The object of this activity was for the kids to work in teams to see who could create the highest tower of Oreos. I like to incorporate group work whenever possible, so this was a great way to do it. Word of warning, you will have to buy a separate stash of Oreos purely for eating purposes.

Cookie Face

Any one who has done a Minute to Win It program for kids is probably familiar with this one. Each participant puts a cookie on their forehead and must move it from their forehead to their mouth without using their hands. A crowd favorite, and a great way to end the program.

Tips and Tricks: 

• Plastic baggies to bring home leftovers are a great addition. The kids definitely appreciated going home with their own "goodie bags". One child had big plans to take her baggie to school as the next day's snack. 

• Chocolate fondue is a great addition to the end of this program. I was definitely bummed that this year the chocolate chips I purchased didn't melt well enough and we had to skip that part.

• Adapting Minute to Win It games is a great place to start to come up with games for a program like this. Many of these games can also be adapted to work with other foods. In the past I've done a Popcorn Olympics and a Marshmallow Madness program that were fairly similar to this one.

I hope these ideas will be useful to anyone working with kids, and that they haven't stimulated your sweet tooth too much! Excuse me while I go and find some chocolate to eat...

Flannel Friday: Five Little Valentines

To go with the Valentine's Day theme of this week's Flannel Friday, I am sharing one of the very first storytime props I created, five heart shaped "valentines" made out of construction paper.

To make these valentines I used a template I found online to cut out the shape of a heart, which I traced on red construction paper. For the white "lace" around them I cut white construction paper free hand and drew circles on the paper with black marker.

In a storytime setting, these valentines could be used with a variety of Valentine's themed counting rhymes. I originally made them to use with this rhyme that can be found on Child Fun.

Five Big Valentines
Five big valentines from the corner drug store
I mailed one to a friend – then there were four
Four big valentines, lovely ones to see
I mailed one to my Mommy – then there were three
Three big valentines – red, shiny, and new
I mailed one to my Daddy – then there were two
Two big valentines, the best is yet to come
I mailed one to Grandma – Then there was one
One big valentine, the giving is almost done
I mailed it to Grandpa – and now there is none.

The Flannel Friday Roundup this week is hosted by me! There is still time to add your ideas to my placeholder post. 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.