Everyday Diversity

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Reforming the Storytime Mob

Storytime Mob!

 At the end of storytime, I stamp the kids hands/arms. I hold a flannelboard flat on my lap and have the kids place their hand on the flat surface so I don't have to touch them as much (germy!). It's...very popular. I often feel like the cat in the above GIF. I hate it because it's chaotic--the kids knock over my stuff and step on it, they push and shove, and there's no time to acknowledge any of them because I have six other hands in my face. And, worst of all, sometimes the littlest storytimers get knocked over in the mob. So, I decided to try and reform them. Today was my first attempt, and it went surprisingly well! Here's what I did:

1. I bought blue masking tape, and put a line down the middle of the room from where I sit (here's a picture of my normal storytime set up).

Magic Blue Line!

2. Mid-storytime, (NOT at stamp time) I explained to parents that I wanted to begin teaching the concept of lining up since it's so useful for when they start school, and also because I've had little kids get knocked over by the stamp mob. I also said that I knew that this would be a process and it would take a while for all the kids to understand the concept, and that that was ok, we would practice and learn it together.

3. Then I got up, and demonstrated walking to the end of the line and following the line all the way to the front. Kids immediately started following me, so we went around a few times, emphasizing, "You start at the end of the line, and follow it all the way to the front--keep your feet on the blue line! That's how you line up."

4. Then I sat back down, and had the kid right in front of me stop, "Now you're all in a line!" Then I brought out my puppet and let each kid touch/hug the puppet and go sit back down. Kids who ran up to the front were gently told that they needed go to the beginning of the blue line--and most of them did!

5. Finally, at the end of storytime, I cut out our closing song (I'll add it back again eventually) since it's a trigger for the mob to surge forward. Instead, I just said, "Ok, now I need everybody to go to the end of the blue line and follow it all the way to the front" and when the first kid arrived at the front I said, "Great job lining up! Now you get a stamp!" I actually got to see every kids' face and say hello to them!

The adults were super responsive to this activity; many were actively involved with helping their kids wait/follow through. I think the adults liked having a concrete expectation to help them regulate their child's behavior, rather than just sending their kids with the mob.

I think once I have the majority of the kids under a routine, I can make the line go wherever I want or change directions--edges of the room etc, as long as it's always clear where it starts.

I only had about 50 people total in storytime today, so it helped a lot that it was a smaller number of kids than normal. But still, I think this will stick and in a few weeks I'll be able to say goodbye to the storytime stamp mob forever!

Flannel Friday Song Cards-La Granja

Today I'm posting a Flannel Friday in the spirit with which Flannel Friday was originally conceived--As a way to keep new content on my blog when I don't have time to write any.

I made these song cards to help introduce a new song to my storytime repertoire, "La Granja." As you can see, the song is in Spanish (Thank you Captain Obvious).





Vengan a Ver mi Granja =  Come and See my Farm, and I should warn you, this song is a major earworm. BUT it's also delightful and worth learning. I generally do not use recorded music in storytime, but if you'd like to learn the song, I highly recommend José-Luis Orozco's version on De Colores

You have to do rooster; in Spanish roosters say "kikirikí"

Many kids, even in my homogeneous community, know the basic names of some animals in Spanish. However, this song relies on the diminutive ito/ita endings. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, adding ito/ita to a word basically means you're describing it as cute, little, or dear.



I wanted to make sure that kids and parents didn't get confused--if they knew that duck was "pato"  then why were we singing "patito?" I used clipart from with Microsoft Word to find the animals, and I tried to use animals that were all the same style of illustration so they would look like they went together. I had a hard time finding a font that used the correct type of lowercase 'a' but I really like this one. Unfortunately I can't remember what it is and on my Mac at home--I'll update later.



With these song cards, we identify the animals in both English and Spanish, then talk about the ito/ita endings.  We practice the words before starting the song (hello print awareness) and everyone is much more engaged than they would be if we just started singing. Once this song is familiar enough to my audience, I will probably start doing it with puppets, most likely using my barn prop.



Here is a great resource for translations of what sounds animals make in Spanish--which is a really fun discussion to have during storytime!



This song translates pretty well to English too, so if you'd like to learn the song both in English and Spanish I'd be happy to share my translation.  Enjoy!

posted from Bloggeroid

(Inspired by) Flannel Friday--Five Creepy Monsters

A few weeks ago when I hosted the Flannel Friday roundup I fell head over heels in love with Cate's creepy monsters. I NEVER sing 'Five Little Monkeys on the Bed" in ST--I dunno why, just bored by it, I guess? But, monsters jumping on the bed?! I'll use those adorable little guys all year. I didn't even really try to branch out, Cate's monsters were sooooo cute. So my "inspired by" is more like direct imitation.



I did add a Mama Monster. And I chose different colors/decorations for my lil' creepers.





I chose different belly shapes so we will have more options for things to discuss in ST--shapes, colors, emotions.





The other way I will use them is with a, "Five Little Whatsits" type rhyme, such as this one:

Five little monsters sitting on the floor.
Five little monsters sitting on the floor
The [red] one said, "Let's knock on someone's door."
The [green] one said, "Let's act a little scary."
The [white] one said, "Why are we so hairy?"
The [blue] one said, "I hear a funny sound."
The [pink] one said, "There's no one else around."
Then "WHOOSH" went the wind and "EEK!" someone said.
So five little monsters ran under the bed.

If I used that rhyme, I would probably stick with using ordinal numbers instead of colors. I don't often use a, "Five Little Whatsits" rhyme, but when I do I like to use it to practice/introduce counting with ordinal numbers. "First, second, third, fourth, fifth!"




Check Mollie's Blog for this week's full round-up.

Flannel Friday--How do I put it on?

So, I jettisoned my to-do list and made a flannel today. It felt good. I've really missed actually working on things for storytime.  The simple yet delightful, "How Do I Put It On?" by Shigeo Watanabe just begged me to turn it into felt.

Little Bear photographed really dark--sorry!

First I looked at the illustrations in the book, and did a Google image search for bears to figure out how I wanted him to look.  I knew he'd need long legs and arms to put the cloths on.  Then I did a small sketch (on the green paper) to test out some ideas.  Once I had it how I wanted it, I sketched him onto a clean sheet.  then I lightly outlined the clothes shapes so that they would be the right size. 

All my felt-making tools.

Next I enlarged my drawing on the photocopier so it would be better for group viewing, and made two copies (one for the bear shape, and one for the clothes).





Then I used my paper scissors (the orange ones) to cut out my pattern for just the bear. I taped that to the felt and then cut the felt with my cloth scissors.  Taping the pattern on works wonderfully--I just cut through the tape.  Paper dulls scissors very quickly, and cutting cloth with dull scissors is a nightmare, so I'm very careful to use different pairs for different materials.




I did the same thing for the clothes, and then I added details with markers using the dabbing approach rather than a dragging/writing motion.

Can't turn it without starting over.

I gave him a Green Bay Packer shirt because I know my audience, and it will delight many of the little boys in my storytimes.  I printed the logo on paper and glued it on.





I'd be happy to share my template if anyone wanted it. 

posted from Bloggeroid

Five Apples in a Basket

I'm not sure what the original source for this is, but it seems to appear all over the place on the Internet, and none of the sites I looked at credited it to anyone.  If I'm wrong and you know where credit goes, I'll gladly update. 

This is one of the first flannels I made, before I was even a librarian.  I did a few weeks of storytime subbing and I made this for a fall theme.  It is always appreciated.  I use Sharpies to add detail to my flannel stories, but I dab or tap the ink on rather than writing normally.  Writing normally pulls of up the fibers in the felt. 

Empty Basket

The first apple in the basket was a bright and shiny red.

The second apple in the basket said, "My, what a cozy bed."

The third apple in the basket said, "Now we two are a pair."

The fourth apple in the basket said, "Please move over there."

The fifth apple in the basket said, "Oh dear, oh me oh my. This basket looks like pastry--I think we're in a pie!"

Why I like it:

• Talk about feelings
• Sorting
• Talk about colors
• Opens up a conversation about real apples

posted from Bloggeroid

Blanket Guessing Game

Hi! It's me. I haven't abandoned Flannel Friday, or my blog for that matter. This summer is, well, I'll save that for another post.

Earlier this year I did a blanket-themed storytime and whipped up these little blankets using the tried and true paper-weaving technique, but with felt.  I had to glue the ends of the pieces so it didn't come apart, but all in all it didn't take more than 15 minutes to make these.  I have a bunch of little felt animals that I was given--and there are ten of each kind so they're really useful!

They are great for all manner of guessing games.  For the blanket themed storytime, first we 'discovered' who was hiding behind each blanket and named the colors of the blankets, the animals, and the colors of the animals.  Then I put the blankets back on with little clues sticking out, and asked different types of questions:




"What color blanket is the black and white animal hiding under?"
"What color is the animal hiding under the purple blanket?"
"What is the black and white animal called?"




I plan on making some more of the blankets in different colors to expand the game a bit more!

posted from Bloggeroid

The Little Red House

I love seeing everyone's flannel stories that they post, but I don't use them a ton myself. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I find that I don't have a lot of time to create them (well, who does really! Not a very good excuse, I suppose). I have gotten burned a couple times where I've spent a ton of time creating an awesome flannel story and then during storytime it kinda fell flat or the kids didn't care and now it just sits in my drawer. I try to focus on creating flannel stories that I can use often rather than really specific to a book or theme. The other reason I don't use flannel as much as I'd otherwise be inclined to is because of an offhand comment I heard at a workshop--something about kids being bored with the predictable book/flannel/fingerplay/book routine. At first I felt stricken--but I love flannel!  And then I got the point.

ANYWAY

Thought I'd share my newest non-flannel storytime activity! A few years ago I attended a workshop with amazing storytime librarian Kim Faurot and she shared the book, "The Little Red House" by Norma Jean Sawicki. It's out of print, but many many libraries still seem to have copies. Sawicki notes that her book is based on a Mother Goose rhyme from Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James O. Halliwell (very old and also out of print, but our friends at SurLaLune seem to have a copy).
Kim talked about how easy it would be to do a flannel of this story, but instead she MADE a series of houses out of cardboard boxes and it's a major crowd-pleaser. It was so cool and easy to see that kids would LOVE it.  I've had my eye out for the right kind of boxes ever since. Well, I got sick of waiting and used this origami tutorial to make my own! (I started with 11x17 paper and reduced each square by 1.5" then glued on a roof and doors--easy!)


Once there was a little red house...



And inside the little red house there was...



A little green house!  Once there was a little green house...


And repeat until you get to a teeny little yellow house!  And what do you think was inside the little yellow house?

It was you! Kiss kiss!

I've found all the little 'surprises' in vending machines and I got a bunch from Michael's in the dollar section.  I usually go through it twice, and the kids are hilarious the second time because they are SURE they know who's inside that little yellow house--but through simple slight of hand I surprise them every time.  I love this because it can relate to a variety of themes depending on what's hiding in the last house.  As far as concepts and you can talk about colors and size, and also work on memory and reasoning.  What do you think is in the NEXT house?  Sometimes they say, "Another house!"  and sometimes they say, "A giant!"

It's fun every time