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January 26, 2010
What I Did for Stories and Art Today and How It Worked Out
So we’ve changed what used to be “Fun for 4s and 5s” to “Stories and Art for 4-6 Year Olds.” It’s basically the same thing we’ve been doing with a little more descriptive title and a slight age expansion. I wanted to accommodate the afternoon Kindergarten kids who have been coming that might be turning 6 this winter or spring. Today was our first day.
Longer “Open Them, Shut Them”
Dude, I totally, completely, and utterly blanked on the words and didn’t have them written down. After a fumbling twenty seconds, though, they came back to me. Whew!
“Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle”
I keep waiting for someone to be all like, “Miss A, you tell this story every other minute. Stop it, now.” That didn’t happen today.
Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London, illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz
I must learn how to properly pronounce “Remkiewicz.” Today, I wound up saying, “Written by Jonathan London and with pictures by Frank… uh… Frank.” It’s been a long while since I read this book, and we all thought it was pretty funny.
“Read This with Gestures” by John Ciardi
Always the right thing to do.
Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems
This book is just so fun to read aloud. I love Sam’s long list of complaints, as do the children, as do the adults who are cool enough to stay in the room. I once again have that grandmother coming to storytime with her granddaughter who I wish would come to all my storytimes for the rest of my career.
“Mittens for the Snow Time”
Mittens for the snow time
When the world is white
Mittens for my two hands
Mittens left and right
Mittens with a thumb place
Mittens warm and snug
Mittens make me feel like a bug inside a rug.
(Motions obvious.)
“Funny Little Snowman”
I do this one with my snowman and rabbit puppets, because that’s the right thing to do, but every once in a while, I goof it up and say “Fuzzy” little snowman because my snowman puppet is, indeed, fuzzy. No children have ever called me on this.
Can You Make a Scary Face? by Jan Thomas
A Jan Thomas book a day keeps the doctor away.
“Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree”
The monkeys all got eaten again.
The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner, illustrated by Jonathan Lambert
Even casual readers of this blog must be catching on to exactly how frequently I use this book in storytimes. It’s on my story shelf, but it’s starting to show signs of age.
“Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum”
“Little Bunny Foo-Foo”
This group is, again, completely amazing, and they were so attentive that I finished my plan a little early and wound up throwing this in on impulse. “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” is always a good impulse.
Posted by adrienne at January 26, 2010 01:41 PM
Comments
...wait, which Open Them, Shut Them?
The one that repeats, then says, "then give a little clap... now set them in your lap?" Dude. That's like forgetting the words to the Pledge of Allegiance! Too, too funny.
What's really sad is that *I* knew what you were talking about. My mother has been a Littles teacher for too long.
Posted by: tanita at January 26, 2010 03:51 PM
*That* version I remembered--we'd have to really worry about me if I didn't. It's the longer version by Rob Reid I forgot. It is super-cute, but I am fairly sure it is copyrighted, so I cannot type it out here. Someday, when I see you, I will gladly perform it, assuming I can remember the words.
Posted by: adrienne at January 26, 2010 05:06 PM
Do you have this program after school? We are starting an evening Wee Reads for 4-7 years old. I really miss the older kids who can get into longer stories and this should help!
Posted by: Marge LW at January 26, 2010 05:33 PM
Leonardo the Terrible Monster is one of our favourites here in the LES. My voices for it rock, I might add.
Posted by: Jeffrey Lee at January 26, 2010 07:32 PM
Marge, This is a morning session, from 10:15-11:00. We're on half-day Kindergartens in the town where I work (well, the town where I live, too, although that's beside the point), so we hit the kids who aren't yet in school and the ones who are in afternoon Kindergarten. On Wednesdays, the other children's librarian does a drop-in half-hour storytime at 1:00 for ages 3-5, which catches some of the morning Kindergarten kids. We've had a tough time with after-school programming. They're hard for us to fit into our schedules, and we haven't had super turnouts.
Jeffrey, Yes, but plainly and obviously, I appreciate Sam on a much deeper level than you do.
Posted by: adrienne at January 26, 2010 11:13 PM
Sam is a complicated soul, that's for sure.
Posted by: Jeffrey Lee at January 27, 2010 12:24 AM
I wish my Eleanor could go to one of your storytimes! She's getting kinda bored with the one she is going to :(
We LOVE Leonardo! I wish Willems would do a sequel to it. Wanna know something unplanned but kinda cute? We love that ELEANOR is mentioned in it - always gets a laugh. AND we are probably going to be naming our baby boy Samuel (heehee).
Posted by: Cheryl at January 29, 2010 12:19 PM
I wish she could, too!
"Samuel" is a good, solid name, indeed, and it seems to me there are a fair number of Sams in children's books. We like that about my godson Max's name, too.
Posted by: adrienne at January 29, 2010 03:47 PM