What to Wear?  A Storytime about Clothing

Books:

 Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback.  This was a last-minute substitution that went over better than I expected.  I had planned to read Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London but couldn't find a copy.  The die-cut elements get a bit small for group viewing but the kids still seemed engaged by the end, which pleasantly surprised me with the younger family storytime group.

Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi and Ron Barrett.  The preschool group thought this was absolutely hilarious, so much so that I frequently had to pause to wait for the laughter to subside before continuing.  The family group liked it, too, but some of the humor was above the younger kids' heads.

Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.  The book reviewer in me sighs a bit at this book's continued popularity but there is no doubt that kids freaking love it.  I had one boy that was so beside himself with glee that he stood, grinning, the whole time I read and boy, did he get into the singing and finger-snapping that we do on Pete's song.  New this time was a magnet board set I made for the story.  I made an over-sized Pete (about two feet high--I drew him standing upright on two feet to minimize the number of shoes I had to make and also to make him compatible with the Pete and His Four Groovy Buttons book) and four pairs of shoes in the colors mentioned in the book.  As Pete's shoes change color, I would remove one pair and slap another pair on Pete quickly.  There were audible gasps (of delight, I hope) as I put up the large Pete on the magnet board, which was gratifying!

Puppet Friend:

Instead of an actual puppet, I brought a teddy bear this time and a variety of doll clothes in which to dress him.  He even had underwear, which of course went over well.

Songs & Rhymes:

"Olivia Wore Her Red Dress"--I used the tune from "Mary Wore Her Red Dress" with a large, two-dimensional magnetic Olivia the pig doll.  I had previously made Olivia a green shirt, black skirt, yellow tights, red boots, and pink hat for Olivia, and I also used the red sunglasses that came with the doll (she came with many other outfits, all of which are mostly red).  As we added a piece of clothing we sang about it using that tune.

"Hat and Shirt, Pants and Shoes"--Sung to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  I'm not sure where I found this, so apologies if you are the author.
Hat and shirt, pants and shoes, pants and shoes.
Hat and shirt, pants and shoes, pants and shoes.
Oh, I can get dressed by myself!
Hat and shirt, pants and shoes, pants and shoes.

"B-O-O-T-S" by Laurie Berkner--For my first group, I couldn't find my CD so we sang it acapella.  It worked surprisingly well that way but went better with the next group when I found the music.  I had printed out clip art to go along with the different boots mentioned in the song and added each one to the magnet board as the song went on.

A note about using music and rhymes--I always try to post a "lyrics sheet"  for the adults present at storytime.  I think this allows more adults to participate (which always helps) and lets kids see, even if they can't yet read, that there is a connection between the written and spoken (or sung) word.

Crafts:

Dress-Up:  I have a pretty extensive collection of dress-up clothes, hats, and shoes (some dating back to my own childhood) that I brought in and I put out a full-length mirror.  I had intended to take photos but didn't have a working camera available.  We did have a newspaper photographer present however, and she took a charming photo of a few of the kids playing dress-up that was published in the local paper.  I didn't have many "boy-ish" dress-up pieces but plenty of boys didn't let that stop them.  I was amazed at how much time some of the kids spent at this activity.

Make an Outfit for Pete:  I had drawn a black and white outline of Pete the cat and had also drawn black and white outlines for a shirt and shorts for Pete.  The kids colored the shirts and shorts, cut them out, and glued them onto Pete.  I also had buttons and a few other odds and ends for them to glue on Pete's clothes.  I will try to post the Pete pages soon as printable PDF files.  Stay tuned.

Fabric Collage:  As a crafter, I have way, way too much fabric.  I cut up a large variety of types and textures of fabrics into small bits (1-2 inches mostly) and put the scraps out with glue, more buttons, and 8 x 10 cardboard pieces that I bought at our local recycled materials teacher store, The I. D. E. A. Store, which is an amazing and inspiring local resource.

Soup's On!

Since January is National Soup Month--and since I am one of those people who cannot be happy repeating the same programs over and over and over--I came up with a new storytime for this past week:  Soup's On!  Here's what I did:

Books:
I shared the story "Birthday Soup" from Minarik's Little Bear.  As I read the story, I set out a few simple props.  I had a stuffed bear for Little Bear and a cooking pot, and stuffed animals/puppets for Hen, Duck, and Cat that I placed on chairs as I got to their part in the story.  As everyone is served soup in the story, I tapped each character on the head as they sat in their chairs and lastly put Little Bear in a chair as well.  Then I had a bear puppet (wearing a dress--having a child with American Girl doll clothes is a boon for puppet/storytime accessories!) come in with a laminated paper birthday cake for the story's end.  The kids were quite attentive during this.

I also read Soup for One by Ethan Long and had magnet board props that I placed on the white board as I read the story.  For the props I had a large bowl of tomato soup (a photo found online) and I had traced/drawn each bug character from the story.  As each new character came into the story, I placed that character's magnet piece on the soup bowl.  I also used Terrence the T-Rex puppet and a laminated paper flyswatter to act out the part where a large lizard shows up and shoos away the bugs.  The kids were also quite attentive for this.

I was going to read a third book, Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic, but ran out of time.

Music:
We sang one song together, "The Soup Is Bubbling Up," that I found online.  Here are the lyrics I used:


“The Soup Is Bubbling Up” (Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
The soup is bubbling up,
The soup is bubbling up.
Stir it slow, around we go,
The soup is bubbling up.

Now we add some carrots,
Now we add some carrots.
Stir slow, around we go,
Now we add some carrots.

Potatoes, tomatoes, celery, corn, onions, spices

The soup is ready now,
The soup is ready now.
Stir slow, around we go,
The soup is ready now.

Before beginning the song, I had passed out laminated clip art "vegetables" (and salt and pepper shakers for "spices").  As we sang each verse, the kids brought the vegetables from that verse up and put it into my cooking pot.  We all made stirring motions on that phrase of the song.  Before we put in the spices, I pretended to taste the soup and said, "Hmmm.  It needs something--some spices!"  Then we added the spices and finished the song.  At the end, we blew on our "soup" and pretended to slurp it up.

Another thing we did was watched/sang along to a YouTube video of Carole King singing "Chicken Soup with Rice" (see link below). This video included the book's illustrations along with the words in large type and even though it's long and we couldn't get the volume very loud, the kids and adults seemed to enjoy it.  One of my favorite parts of working with young children is their willingness to "go with" something--if I dance and get into it, usually they will, too.  They are not self-conscious at this age and I love that!

Another song we sang and moved to was Lauri Berkner's "I Feel Crazy So I Jump in the Soup."  This is a great one to end with because there is lots of movement and silliness and the song itself is very simple and singable.  At the end when we had all "sat down in our soup," I pretended to taste my "soup" and said, "Mmm, mine's tomato soup.  What's yours?"  My favorite answer was "Mac and cheese!" from the same little girl who had said "Mac and cheese!" when I asked at the program's beginning, "What do we cook in a big pot like this?"  I have a feeling someone went home and had mac and cheese for lunch!

Puppets/Props:
I used a lot of props and a couple of puppets for this storytime, more than I usually do.  I am never sure whether the props/puppets will be a complement to the stories and songs or a distraction but for the most part using them went pretty seamlessly this time.  Besides the props and puppets mentioned above, I also used my Folkmanis Sheepdog stage puppet, Brody, to introduce the topic.  He stirred a spoon around in the big pot and looked excited as we got ready to talk about soup.  I had planned to have him come back at the end of "The Soup Is Bubbling Up" song and pretend to eat it, but I forgot.

Crafts/Activities:
We had one main craft this week.  Kids got a small blue paper plate from the dollar store, a piece of tan copy paper with a circle traced on it, and a spoon traced onto cardstock.  They were to cut out the paper circle for the "broth" and glue it to the plate and color and cut out their spoon and glue it to the plate.  Then I had dry noodles, beans, corn, and small wooden letters that could be glued on as well as foam alphabet stickers and rubber stamp letters and ink pads for adding more letters to their "alphabet soup."  This went pretty well although I had to stop one of the preschoolers from gluing a rubber stamp to his soup bowl--he had apparently never used a rubber stamp before so I had to show him what to do with it.

I also had a station set up for kids to assemble their own "Snowman Soup" baggies.  They were to place a photocopied poem/instructions (see link below), a hot cocoa packet, 5 mini marshmallows, and a candy cane "stirrer" into a ziploc bag so that they could make Snowman Soup (Hot Cocoa) at home.
  

The last station was a snack.  I had made vegetable soup in my Crockpot and brought that in.  I served small amounts of it in foam cups with a spoon for those who wanted to try it.  I also had crackers handy, which were a surprisingly big hit, especially among the non-soup eaters.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many kids were willing to try the soup and how many actually seemed to like it.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful storytime.  The kids were really engaged most of the time and I think everyone had a good time.

"Chicken Soup with Rice" video (Words by Maurice Sendak, Music by Carole King)
Snowman Soup Labels/Instructions (download is free but you have to create an account) 

"Let It Snow Storytime"
Storytime today was all about snow.  Here are the resources I used:

Books:
Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee
Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Tracks in the Snow was a new one for me this year.  The book itself is physically fairly small, but a rhythmic repeated phrase ("Tracks in the snow, tracks in the snow.  Who made the tracks?  Where do they go?") helped keep the kids' attention and they seemed to enjoy the twist at the book's end.  Snowballs and The Snowy Day are perennial favorites of mine and always seem to go over well with audiences.  I always enjoy asking the kids what they think happened to Peter's snowball--why is his pocket empty?

Songs:
I also used one of my favorite "Five Little..." songs, "Five Little Snowmen Fat," a song I first learned from Valerie and Emily at Valerie's Inner Child Fun blog.  Here is a link to their version and the felt playset Valerie created to go along with it:Inner Child Fun--5 Little Snowmen Fat

I made my own felt figures to use on that librarian staple, the flannelboard. I'll try to get a photo up later.

The text of the song is as follows:

"Five Little Snowmen Fat"
Five little snowmen fat,
Each with a funny hat--
Out came the sun and melted one,
What a sad day was that!

This repeats, each time counting down another number until no snowmen are left.  I found a concluding verse on another website (sorry, I've forgotten which one) that left the ending a bit more hopeful:

"No little snowmen fat,
Only their funny hats.
But when it snows, I'll make more of those,
Oh, what fun is that!"

Puppets:
I always have at least one puppet friend who comes out at the beginning of storytime.  Often it is Simon, my faithful Folkmanis snail puppet, but this time I used Kiki, the koala, who demonstrated the kinds of clothes one needs to wear when playing in the snow.  My daughter has a lot of American Girl doll clothes and accessories which are often the right size for puppet props and I have a stash of other such props as well--pet "accessories" (reindeer antlers with elastic, for example) also work well for most of my puppets.  The kids seem to enjoy seeing the puppets each week and talking about them and they especially love when the puppets do anything silly, which they often do.

Crafts:
Before I tell you about our storytime crafts, you should know that I am a crazy person when it comes to crafting at storytime.  I almost always have three options for the kids, because I love crafts so much.  It's often a lot of work, but I have gotten so much positive feedback from parents and kids about the crafts and I love planning them so much myself that I've continued to do it this way.

So, for today's crafts, we had white stamp pads, pastel copy paper, and snowflake rubber stamps which I have collected over the years as well as some plastic spools, which leave a snowflake-like print when stamped onto paper; a snowman craft in which children glued three round cotton cosmetic pads onto a large blue paper plate--they added details with beads, buttons, markers, toothpicks, and some snowflake confetti that I always try to pick up at a discount after Christmas--the snowmen also got a scarf (piece of plaid ribbon) and a top hat, which was clip art I copied and the kids cut out (they love to cut with scissors); the last thing was something called "Snow Dough" which consists of one can of shaving cream plus one box of cornstarch and some "fake snow" glitter.  This was really neat stuff, although the fake snow felt a little irritating--the dough would be much smoother feeling without it and more snowlike.  Once it's well mixed (and that part is totally messy, so be prepared--I did it at home ahead of time, then put the dough in a Ziploc bag), you can actually mold it into realistic looking snowballs and although it got kind of crumbly and powdery after awhile, it didn't leave much mess on the children's hands.  I also squirted some shaving cream out on the table for the kids to "fingerpaint" and play with--we used to do this a lot when I taught in a K-1 class and the kids always enjoyed it.

This was a long post but I hope you find it useful.  I hope to have photos in the posts to come but first I need to get access to a working camera!

I have tried blogging so many times and failed to keep up with posting.  It's a new year, and I'm trying once again, this time with a blog about my work as a leader of children's programs at my local public library.  Here I hope to post photos and descriptions of my activities as a storytime and art program leader.  I truly love my work!  I am so grateful to all the other librarian and teacher bloggers and "pinners" who share their ideas and provide me with endless inspiration--hopefully, I can return the favor somewhat through this blog.