That's great, Miss K., but what does it have to do with libraries?
Dewey or Don't We
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Movement in library programs
Friday, May 31, 2013
Stuffed animal camp-in
· Wash faces – we used the wash cloths that came with our multiple copies of Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Bath for baby story time.
Marching band
Monday, April 8, 2013
Books for Babies
I got my push yesterday as I settled in to a very nice breakfast with about twenty extended relatives. While snuggling one cousin's five month old, I listened to another (23 weeks pregnant) announce that her sister is also expecting. Baby showers abound and what else will a librarian give as gifts but books? Actually, I think I will send this list to my cousins so that they can each use it when they start the registries. Don't worry, I have plenty more titles to build an element of surprise into the party.
Sandra Boynton
Rhyming is critical to brain development. Babies get to hear the smaller sounds in words which will help them when they are learning to speak, and read.
Sue Williams
Margaret Miller
Babies love pictures of other babies. Actually, photos of people in general bring out a different reaction in babies than illustrations. It's good stuff; mix it up.
Margaret Wise Brown
No list for babies is complete without a nod to Goodnight Moon! I think I have seen this given at a gift at every baby shower I have ever attended.
John Schindle
Rhyming, photos, and cute animals. His "Busy" series of books flies off the library shelves.
Tana Hoban
The first thing your baby can see is sharp contrasts. Hoban has done many books in just black and white. Some of them are also wordless, like White on Black.
Lucy Cousins
One word per page can be fun, too. Babies' attention span is super short; a lot of text is just not going to work at first. You can always embellish the story if you want.
Rosemary Wells
Helen Oxenbury
The incomparable Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a list of even more titles.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Flannel Friday - Passive programming
Thanks to the Flannel Friday Round Up, our library's collection of felt board stories has been growing for a couple years. They are a wonderful addition to storytime, but it seemed a little boring to leave them in files the rest of the year.
We happened to have some foam core posters just waiting to be repurposed. After measuring the space, I trimmed a piece to fit, and used instructions similar to those at Time for Play. It is nicely mounted to the bookshelf with Command strips. Now our library's felt pieces can be used by children on a regular basis.
Each set is likely to sit out for play from one to two weeks at a time. For the first two months, the set was left out just like that. Then it struck me that this could be even better. I added a pocket for index cards. Now, each set can have a card printed up with the rhyme that matches. Each family that plays is welcome to take home the card as a reminder of their library visit. Another bonus is that our staff can count the cards left when we swap sets to tally this as a passive program.
By the way, I just love our hand painted signs, don't you?
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
A Painting Page
I am spending part of my lunch next to two newly cut flannel sets. Soon we will have a momma bunny and her five babies, and three billy goats. The best part is that I have a high school page on spring break right now who has been doing all of the magnificent puff painting for me.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Go green
Featured books:
In the tall, tall grass by Denise Fleming
Go away big, green monster by Ed Emberley
Green Wilma by Ted Arnold
While thinking about a craft, I came across this post for a Green Gobbler. Just last week, a plain box was transformed into a mailbox. It was still sitting around, so I helped it morph into a monster. He is covered in green plastic tablecloth. It had previously spent time as the background on a bulletin board. The pieces are made from craft foam, and simply taped onto the face. I wasn't sure how my regular desk tape would work, so I used small pieces of packing tape, which held everything nicely. His appearance is modeled very much on Mr. Emberley's monster.
He only eats things that are green. That could be the end of the story, but sometimes he tries to munch non-green things. When that happens, the fun really starts. Inside the green gobbler is a paint stirrer that has been colored red. Something like a bumblebee gets spit out with a little, "pbbt" sound. This project allowed me to raid several files in the flannelboard sets. Each child was given one green item, and one non-green.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Not so Flannel Friday: Kicking off
This week, the Flannel Friday Round Up is featuring the upcoming summer library program, Dig into Reading. Sherry Duskey Rinker's Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site combines a favorite of little boys in every generation, trucks, with one of the most important factors in pre-literacy, rhyme.
Die-cutting can be challenging with felt, but works great with craft foam. While cutting shapes from the dies that rotate through the libraries in our system, I was only missing the crane in order to allow the storytime crowd a tactile connection to this book. It was easy enough to trace the digger and extend its arm into a crane. These pieces have velcro added to the back for use on the flannel board.