I had two totally different crowds for each of my storytimes this week. The first group of kids were all pretty antsy and distracted and the second group of kids were super engaged. Both groups were on the small side.
My theme this week was all about mud, which was perfect because it rained all day the day before storytime.
Books we read:
One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman
This is a tough book to read. No matter how many times I practiced, the rhymes didn't flow well and the unique words didn't work quite right. I'm not sure if the kids picked up on my discomfort with the rhymes, but this wasn't as big a hit as I had hoped. Yes, there's counting, and yes, I was able to secure a humongous version of this book that was larger than two toddlers put together, but it was a bit of a flop. I asked the kids to help me with one of the repeated phrases in One Duck Stuck. When the duck, who remains stuck for pretty much the whole book, gets help from each group of animals he cries for help and whatever group of animals are currently trying to help him say, "we can, we can!" My first storytime didn't care for the repeated phrase, but my second storytime was all about it. I'm on the fence about whether I'll use this book again.
Underground by Denise Fleming
This was a huge hit! There are lots of things to find under ground in this simple, fun read. As soon as I asked each storytime group where something was, all the kids rushed to the front to help. Thankfully, both groups were small so this worked out marvelously. After this storytime, I will definitely mark this as a great book for small groups, but maybe not the best book for large groups.
Yoga pose of the week: Frog
Putting our arms over our heads for the frog pose was a little too weird and hard for pretty much all of us, so next time we do the frog yoga pose we're going to go back to frog yoga 101. The frog pose is really such a fun pose though. We squatted, took a deep breath in, and jumped with a loud ribbit.
Activities:
Beanbags: This week was the last week we played with beanbags and a lot of the kids knew the beanbag routine, which was adorable to see.
Flannel board activity: I did this super duper cute (and kinda magical) felt board activity during the second storytime, and it was such a big hit. Everyone gasped when the pigs came out out the bathtub clean, and one boy figured out the secret and was absolutely delighted to tell everyone about it (the pigs are reversible - one side is dirty and the other is clean).
Here is the script, which I mostly followed:
I have five dirty piggies who need a bath.
One dirty piggy climbs in the bath.
The water splashes
and the bubbles go pop pop pop.
Another piggy decides to join the fun!
Two little piggies taking a bath…
The bathtub is full. Are the piggies clean?
One clean piggy climbs out of the bathtub…
After reading One Duck Stuck, which was propped up on the magnetic side of our magnetic/felt board cart, I flipped the cart around and jumped into the five dirty piggies activity. Without a doubt this was my smoothest transition so far in my entire storytime history. Transitions are so stinkin' hard. It was also organic and flowed smoothly. I realized that, while I put up my script on the slideshow for my magnetic board/felt activities, there's really no need to show that slide. It's really just for me to practice until I have it memorized. The part where everyone participates is easy enough to just tell them about it. On that note, everyone enjoyed clapping each time we got to the 'pop, pop, pop' part, which was a last minute add-in and totally necessary and awesome.
I can just rave and rave about this little piggy activity for days. I'm over the moon about it.
Songs we sang:
We sang Our Feet/Hands/Elbows/Chins are stuck in mud to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and it was a spectacular flop. Due to some pretty big teenager drama (a five-hour meltdown) the night before my storytime I got less than four hours of sleep. I'm sure this is why I fell over twice because my balance is normally pretty darn incredible (I know I'm bragging but I can hold the eagle pose the length of a 3-4 min song easy as pie). While doing the frog pose I toppled forward and totally face-planted in the second storytime. This brought on squeals of laughter from pretty much everyone, kids and grown-ups (I think they thought I did it on purpose to be funny). And then I totally fell over during the mud song too. All of the kids looked confused the entire way through the song. When I fell over their expressions didn't change one bit. It was so funny I almost burst out laughing but thankfully, held it together. It's interesting how some songs/activities/rhymes/books completely flummox them. It's as if they're thinking, why would you ever think I would like this?!?
We also sang the hand-washing song during the first storytime, which the parents got a huge kick out of. While planning my storytimes in December I never thought just how perfectly appropriate the hand-washing song was going to be.
We also sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes during the first storytime and as usual. there was lots of laughter.
Cute Moments:
* For each storytime I place a long row of favorite picture books along the shelf and let everyone know they're available for checkout. I usually put up about 10-20 books total for both storytimes. A couple weeks ago at the end of storytime a patron said she was "just going to take all the rest of the books because librarians have the best taste." This week I was nearly cleaned out after each storytime by different patrons who pretty much did the same thing. I had to go grab more books between storytimes! MY HEART!
* A patron asked to take a picture of one of my slides (the second quieting down rhyme) because she wanted to keep doing it at home with her toddler.
* I checked out another puppet from the puppet catalog, and this puppet was instantly adored. It was a loved and dingy-looking pig with the most perfect crinkly snout and adorable curly tail. I couldn't figure out why his snout was particularly dingy until the puppet did its puppet duty and began greeting all the kids with lively oinking. Though my kids know to high five the puppet and almost every kid high fives now, even the shy kids (!), they did something rather unexpected and remarkable today. After their high fives, almost every kid couldn't resist that perfectly crinkly nose and had to touch it, most doing so almost reverently and with the utmost respect. So there was the crazy high five and then directly afterwards, this sweet little pat on the nose. There's a book or movie here somewhere about this perfectly crinkly nose. Who wants to write it?
This is a picture of the pig, who also has a warm smile too. Look at that nose!
On a sad note, our library programs have been puase until the end of March due to COVID-19. This means I will not have storytime updates for a few weeks.
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