Toddler/Preschool Dance Party 2016

We are slowly but surely getting started with summer reading at my library and during our current storytime break I thought another dance party for toddlers and preschoolers would make a great evening program. It is fun, easy to plan and the active nature of it fits the "On your mark, Get set, Read!" theme.

For those who have not tried doing this kind of program yet, I highly recommend it. If you need a playlist to get you started, here are the songs I used this time. For more ideas you can also see my previous dance party post or Pinterest board.

• Body Talk on Kids in Motion by Greg and Steve: One of the few songs I reused from my previous dance party. It is just such a good warm up song. As a bonus it introduces many great vocabulary words for body parts.
• Body Rock on Kids in Motion by Greg and Steve: This is another favorite song with a variety of directed motions. It is also a little faster tempo so it seems to get the kids excited.
  
• I Really Love to Dance on Buzz, Buzz by Laurie Berkner: My other repeat song from my previous dance party. It is a fun song that fits into a dance party perfectly.
• Let's Go Swimming on Top of the Tots by the Wiggles: I liked the idea of including a few summer related songs to get into the spirit of the season. 
• Wipe Out by the Surfaris: Another summer themed addition. I had the kids pretend to surf then yelled "Wipe Out" throughout the song so they could pretend to fall down.
• Rockin Robin on Songs for Wiggleworms: We pretended to be birds and flew around the room to this classic. 
• Twist and Shout on Songs for Wiggleworms: This song was chosen as one of my designated shaker songs. I also included it because I wanted another song the parents would recognize.
• I know a chicken on Whaddya Think of That? by Laurie Berkner: Another terrific shaker song. My kids are familiar with it from storytime, so that was another definite plus.
• Wimoweh (the Lion Sleeps Tonight) on Whaddya Think of That by Laurie Berkner: As an ending song this worked wonderfully. We sat on the floor and pretended to sleep when the lion did. When it got to the chorus of "Wimoweh" we waved scarves around.

Logistics:

• Once again I made a playlist on my iPhone and connected it to my CD player with an auxiliary cable. I would definitely recommend this as a method if your group is small enough. Mine was about 30 people and it worked well.

What I learned:

• Getting parents to participate can be hard. I made several requests for grownups to get up and dance at the beginning of the program but still didn't get the participation I hoped.
• Participation may look different for toddlers vs. preschoolers. This is totally normal developmentally. Both are benefiting from participating and having fun.
• Digital music collections such as Freegal are a good resource to recommend to parents at a dance party. They often contain some great kids music. 

I hope these ideas have help if you are planning a dance party, or just provide some good song suggestions for the kids in your life. If you have any questions you can always comment here or email me at marrak at libcoop.net. Thanks for reading!

Flannel Friday: Going On A Picnic

My contribution to this week's Flannel Friday is a set of flannel food I created for a picnic themed storytime I did this past week. I am always up for talking about food at storytime so this seemed like a very seasonally appropriate way to do so!

A few pieces were reused from previous flannel sets. For instance the apple is from my Five Little Apples set, the cupcake is from the Five Little Cupcakes set I created, and the strawberry was made to go with my Baby Bear Sees Blue flannelboard. The other pieces were traced using templates I found online.

Here is the rhyme I used with these pieces:

Going on a picnic

Going on a picnic,

Gotta pack a lunch.

What should we bring to munch, munch, munch?

I found this rhyme at Sunflower Storytime. Not only does it fit the theme, I also liked that it encourages kids to participate and provide their own input as they suggest what we should bring on our picnic. One major benefit of this is that it gives kids practice taking turns, which I consider an important school readiness skill.

We followed our rhyme up with a game of "I Spy" using these same pieces. This is something I've been meaning to do in storytime since I heard it mentioned in a webinar I viewed awhile back. This game encourages color recognition and categorization. It also allows kids to see the patterns that exist among the pieces.

The Flannel Friday Roundup this week is hosted by Melissa from Mel's Desk! Check it out here to see what was shared. 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. 

Summer Reading Graphic: On Your Mark, Get Set, Read!

Summer is just about here, and like most other children's librarians I am getting prepared for our summer reading program. Our program starts a little later than most, but I figured it was still time I kicked off the summer fun here on my blog.

For all you other librarians that are also using the CSLP theme and already getting things underway I figured I'd share a graphic I made. It can be downloaded here.

I created this graphic with the design website Canva, using free images taken from Canva and from Pixabay. These are definitely great sources to use for free photos and graphic creation if you aren't familiar with them. This particular graphic is formatted to be a Facebook cover photo but could be used as a  picture on advertising as well. Feel free to use it and share it as you'd like. Hoping for a fun and successful summer for us all!

Money Smart Week: Money Madness for Grades K-6

Like a lot of other libraries, my library recently participated in the national Money Smart Week initiative. One new addition to this year's money themed programming is a program for Grades K-6 that I called "Money Madness". It gave us an opportunity to collaborate with our local bank, teach a little about money, and shower the kids with some money related swag (from the Money Smart Week people and our local bank).

The format of this program was simple: A brief discussion of money and saving (led by representatives of our local bank), followed by a series of money related stations. I tried to include a variety of activities to suit the children's interests and age range. We had 20 kids come, which is pretty good attendance for us.

Bank on It

One of the stations we did was a game I found at Oceans of First Grade Fun. The idea is to roll dice and fill in coins on the piggy bank corresponding to each dice roll. Very easy because the only prep I had to do was print off the provided printable and take some dice from our library's collection of board games.

Coin rubbings

I provided the kids with paper, pencils, crayons and coins and instructed them to make coin rubbings. I also gave them some aluminum foil to create 3D coin rubbings. This is a great way to get the kids familiar with the different coins in a fun way. It also has the side benefit of adding a little art to program as well.

Aluminum Foil Boats

This classic activity has always been well received any time I've done it with kids in the past. It is a great way to teach kids a little about bouyancy, weight and other scientific concepts. The twist this time was that instead of real coins we used fake plastic money I bought at my local dollar store. The real money probably would have been the better choice, because the fake money was pretty light and floated just a little too easily.

Heads or Tails

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

The idea for this activity came from a compilation of ideas given to me by the Money Smart Week coordinators. The way it worked is to put a group of different type coins into a cup and have the kids use the cups to do a coin toss. They must then determine how many heads came up, how many tails came up, and the value of each. To record I made up this sheet. As they played the game the kids has the opportunity to practice counting, coin value, and addition.

In addition to these stations I had printables available. A color by coin worksheet was definitely a hit with the older attendees, while a design your own money template was a little less popular.

All in all, this program seemed to go pretty well. Any opportunity to work with another local organization is a win in my book. I hope to find other ways to collaborate with this bank in the future. Any ideas you can suggest are always greatly appreciated!

Toddler/Preschool Art Exploration

In my quest to provide more evening and weekend programming for my library's patrons I decided to get a little artistic with my toddlers and preschoolers this month. Art has many literacy benefits for kids in this age group. First of all, it is a great opportunity for sensory experience and motor skills development. Holding a paintbrush is perfect practice for holding a pencil! Art also provides a great opportunity to use some unusual vocabulary with your child and promotes creativity/imagination. Not to mention it is just plain fun!

For all these reasons I figured a program focusing on art would be a terrific program for a weekday evening. Alas my plans were foiled by the beautiful spring weather that did a number on my attendance.

I wanted to share my plans here in hopes that others might try these ideas when the weather is on their side. I arranged the room in 5 stations, each focused on a different art related concept or medium. The majority of the stations were found on Pinterest or are adaptations of art ideas I've used previously.

Station 1: Exploring texture with collage

This station (inspired by Keep Calm and Teach On) was about as simple as you can get. I put out some random materials (such as torn paper, yarn, tissue paper and cotton balls), and let the kids make collages. I have always liked collage because it is a very open ended medium that encourages creativity. The end product of a collage doesn't have to look any certain way. That's part of the beauty of art, and something I wanted to get across to the kids and their parents.

Station 2: Color mixing in shaving cream

Color is an important aspect of art, so to explore this concept I figured this idea I found at In Lieu of Preschool would work perfectly. All the kids had to do is put two different colors of paint in a pile of shaving cream and mix it together. This gives them the opportunity to see how the colors combine, and also provides for a unique sensory experience.

Station 3: Painting with sensory balls

Our Friends of the Library were nice enough to purchase some soft plastic sensory balls for baby storytime attendees to play with. I'm all for using what we already have for many different purposes, so I thought they'd make a fun tool to paint with. The toddlers and preschoolers put the sensory balls in plastic tubs, added paint, then rolled them around. Definitely a fun and easy way to make a masterpiece! 

Station 4: Learning about positive and negative space using tape

To learn about this art concept we put tape on a piece of paper and went over it with our bingo dauber paints. I liked the large motor skills involved in the dotting motion and the fine motor skills involved in peeling the tape off. Our bingo daubers don't often get brought out for storytime crafts (too many kids!), so any chance to use them is a plus.

Station 5: Coloring table

This is probably the simplest station of them all. I covered our table with butcher paper for the kids to color on. I've done this before with the older kids, and thought it would be a great thing for the little guys to try as well. Not the most popular station, but an easy one I'd definitely include next time I try this program.

Despite the weather getting in my way I was pretty happy with the way this program turned out. I think it could accommodate a big group of kids pretty well, and look forward to trying it again in the future. If you have any questions about this or any other programs feel free to let me know!

Kidding Around: Going Batty

In honor of Bat Appreciation Week (from April 3rd until April 9th this year), this month's meeting of Kidding Around celebrated the bat. The winged creature, not the piece of sports equipment.

This was originally an idea I used during the summer when the CSLP theme was "Dream Big, Read." My primary objective when I do celebration programs like this one is to get the kids into the library to have fun. The secondary goal for this program was to give them a little basic knowledge about bats.

We started out by reading a simple nonfiction book about bats. I chose "Bats" by J. Angelique Johnson, because the simple text and clear facts seemed perfect for this age group (Grades K-2).

After reading, we talked a little about the facts in the book. I made sure we discussed echolocation in particular, because it was the topic of the two games I had planned.

The first game involved using my rhythm sticks to practice locating via sound. I gave each kid two rhythm sticks and had them stand in a circle. One child stood in the middle and was our "bat". The bat closed their eyes while I chose a child to bang their rhythm sticks together. When the bat opened their eyes they needed to guess who had made the sound. After a few rounds I made it more difficult, by instructing all rest of the children to bang at a slow pace while the chosen child hit their sticks faster than the others. Adding this "background noise" was meant to make the kids see how difficult it can be to isolate a single sound.

Next, we moved on to our second game, a modified version of Marco Polo that I found here. One child is the bat, who closes their eyes and calls "Beep!". The rest of the kids are insects, who reply "Buzz, Buzz!". The bat's goal is to find the insects and tag them. This provided an additional lesson on how movement might play into echolocation. It also gave the kids an opportunity to burn off a little extra energy.

Our final activity was using a bat template to explore positive/negative space. I gave each child a bat template cut out of cardstock. They needed to place it on a white sheet of paper, and paint over or around it to create a bat out of white space.

One child diligently working on her bat :)

We ended the program with juice, fruit snacks (because bats eat fruit), and cupcakes topped with bat cutouts. Overall I'd say this program went pretty well. I think the kids enjoyed themselves and learned a little at the same time. Many of the bat books I put out were checked out after the program, which is always a good sign!

Next month's Kidding Around is a Star Wars Party. Any related tips and ideas are more than welcome. You can contact me here, on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets) or by email at marrak at libcoop dot net.

ATLAS: Tape Games

For my most recent ATLAS (At The Library After School) program, I was inspired by this post on the ALSC Blog. It was an easy, fun and inexpensive program and I wanted to make sure I shared my take on it. So grab a roll of tape and get ready to have a good time with your chosen group of tweens.

The basic format of the program was that we spent about a half hour doing stations related to tape, followed by a half hour doing assorted duct tape crafts. The crafts included making duct tape bows, bookmarks and anything else the kids could come up with.

The crafts were pretty self explanatory, so I thought I'd focus on the stations we did:

• Skee-ball: This was an idea I took directly from the ALSC post. It was a little more difficult than the kids expected, but overall their favorite station.

 

• Straw races: The goal of this station was to blow a puff ball from one end of the line to the other  using a straw. After everyone had tried that, we did the same thing with a marble. In comparing how easy it was to move these two objects with their breath the kids got to learn a little about the science of weight and friction.

  

• Tic Tac Toe: This was a simple twist on the classic game that the kids definitely enjoyed. It would be a great addition to any program focusing on life sized games.

As always I'm happy to answer any questions about these games you may have. You can reach me here, on Twitter (@MsKellyTweets) or by email (marrak at libcoop dot net). Thanks for sticking around and reading (pun intended)!