Karen Beaumont

Week Six of Author Highlights: Karen Beaumont
This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.

Opening Activity:
Little Mouse

Books:


Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont
Doggone Dogs! by Karen Beaumont
Where's My T-R-U-C-K? by Karen Beaumont

Jazz It Up Moment #1:
Retell Move Over, Rover with puppets and cardboard box

I used a cardboard box I found in our Receiving Room to use as a dog house. Then I gathered all the puppets to match the animals in the story (dog, cat, raccoon, squirrel, blue jay, snake, mouse, and skunk). Luckily I had puppets for everything but the blue jay, and for that I substituted a robin instead.

I adapted the book a bit and wrote a little script so it would be easy to follow when telling the story, but it was basically just taking the text from the book and typing it up so I knew what animal came next.

It was extremely fun to stuff all the puppets in the box and then throw them all out when they started to smell the skunk at the end of the story. I hid the skunk puppet under the dog before the children got in the room for the element of surprise.

Action Song:

"The Airplane Song" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That?

Jazz It Up Moment #2:

Give each child a paint brush and have them follow along "painting" themselves while reading I Ain't Gonna Paint No More.

I've done this activity in the past successfully and I was really excited to bring it back for this storytime. I knew my kids could really grasp the idea of pretending, so we had a discussion about what it means to pretend to paint themselves with pretend paint. I even added another element to the activity by having the children guess which body part we would paint next based on the rhyming text. All together a very successful activity that really encouraged active listening.

Goodbye Song:

"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk Music from Songs for Wiggleworms

What Went Not So Great:

Doggone Dogs was the biggest let down. I chose it as more of a filler book and I ended up needing it in my morning session. The children just didn't get into it or enjoy the humor.

What Went Right:

Basically everything else! The puppet retelling was a hit, as was the paintbrush activity. The books were a blast to read aloud and the children really got into it. They loved seeing Dini keep getting into the bathtub with all his clothes on and my first group of kids didn't know what T-R-U-C-K spelled so that was a fun guessing game for them too.

You Are Special: An Out of the Library Preschool Visit

Part of my job at my library is visiting preschools and daycares in the area and presenting storytimes. This particular plan is for one of those instances, I had to create a very diverse plan to fit the following schedule the preschool set for me.

Monday

9:15am-9:30am (2-3 year olds) 

9:30am-9:45am (3-4 year olds)

9:45am-10:15am (4-5 year olds)

12:30pm-1pm (5 year olds-Kindergarten)

Tuesday 

9:15am-9:30am (15 months-2 year olds)

9:30am-9:45am (2-3 year olds)

9:45am-10am (3-4 year olds)

10am-10:30am (4-5 year olds)

In the 3 and 1/2 years I've been going to the local sites, I have found that a lot of them want me to come in and out quickly and provide very little space for me to perform the storytime. The children are often packed in like sardines, on a circle-time rug, and are told to NOT MOVE from their spot by their teachers. I have to keep this in mind when I plan, that means very little movement/dancing songs because there just isn't space for it. I also need to make sure the plans are creative enough and have enough child involvement that the kids aren't bored.

I think it's really important that I continue these visits, even if the conditions aren't ideal. This is often the only time some of these children see anything library related at all, so any time I can get into their classrooms and show off library pride I do!

The plan is a little all over the place. I'll designate what I used for the younger rooms (3 year olds and younger) and what I did for the older rooms (4 year olds and up). It varied room to room and I didn't use ALL the material listed for every room. Hopefully it won't be too confusing. Please feel free to leave questions in the comments if something isn't clear.

The theme requested by the preschool director was "You Are Special". They were celebrating the Week of the Young Child and thought that was an appropriate theme. I had a little difficulty finding materials that really fit this theme, especially for the little ones. I went with materials that focused on self-esteem, being different and unique, and just generally getting along with one another and friendship.

Opening Song - All Ages:

"These Are My Glasses" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

I didn't have a CD player or iPod with me so I sang all the songs acapella. I often do this on visits because I'm never sure what technology the rooms will have and I want to be prepared for everything.

Books for Young Rooms:

The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle

The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

You Are Special, Little One by Nancy Tafuri

Books for Older Rooms:

Artist Ted by Andrea Beatty

Chamelia by Ethan Long

It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

A Dog is a Dog by Shephen Shaskan

Cheetah Can't Lose by Bob Shea

Action Song for Older Rooms:

"The Wiggle Song" by Carole Peterson from Sticky Bubble Gum

My hands are starting to wiggle

My hands are starting to wiggle

My hands are starting to wiggle

Around and around and around!

I didn't follow this song exactly since I didn't have the music to go along with it. I sang the first verse using "hands" and then I allowed the kids to suggest other body parts to wiggle. They really enjoyed helping me "write" the song as we went. We used everything from tummy to shoulders to hips to feet, and I always ended with "all of me is a wiggle". A great success!

Closing Song for Younger Rooms:

"Skinnamarink"

Closing Song for Older Rooms:

"The More We Get Together" using sign language

I did this recently in a preschool in-house storytime with great results. Here's a great video from Skokie Public Library showing exactly how to do the signs.

How It Went:

I would say that overall the storytimes were successful. The really young ones just kind of stared at me the whole time and didn't participate (even though their teachers did!). I think it was the first time the little ones had any sort of structured storytime so I was very impressed with how well they sat for me, even if they didn't participate. The best book for the young ones was The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. I chose this book simply because it shows things in a different way. The children laughed at all the colors and helped with animal noises.

The theme was a difficult one, but the older rooms really got into the discussions of how it's okay to be different and how we should all get along even if we aren't all the same. That itself was really encouraging because I could tell that the books were getting through to them and they were relating to the stories. Chamelia and Cheetah Can't Lose were the most successful books in that aspect. They deal with being different and fair and what being a good friend means and the children really understood that.

The songs were successful too. Everyone enjoyed "These are My Glasses" and the older kids really got into the sign language of "The More We Get Together". Apparently in the music class at the school they already sing "Skinnamarink" so everyone knew that one and sang along with gusto, which is always fun.

Lauren Thompson

Week Five of Author Highlights: Lauren Thompson
This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.

Note: I was in a haze during this storytime. I ended up going home sick right after this program and found out I had strep! So, there isn't really a Jazz It Up Moment for the program. I was lucky to just get the storytime done. Also, because of the sickness there will be no Music Maker post this week.

Opening Activity:
Little Mouse flannel

Books:

How Many Cats by Lauren Thompson
Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson
Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson

Bean Bag Song:
"Bean Bag Rock" by Georgiana Stewart from Action Songs for Preschoolers

Special Request Book:

Little Quack by Lauren Thompson

Goodbye Song:
"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk Music from Songs for Wiggleworms


What Went Not So Great

• Obviously the sickness prevented a truly great storytime, so the whole thing was pretty low energy. I had grand plans to make a magnet story out of Little Mouse's First Spring in hopes of elevating the story to a preschool level. I ended up not getting it done and therefore the book fell a bit flat for the kiddos. They were a bit bored by it.
• I really wanted the bean bag song to go over well. Unfortunately I've noticed that my preschoolers aren't really into the bean bags. We have this set from Music in Motion and I don't know if it's because they are small or what, but the children just don't like this prop as well as scarves or rhythm sticks. It was a bummer because I've found great success with this song in the past. The only thing I can think of is that the song is possibly a little young for my current group of preschoolers.

What Went Right

• They LOVED Little Quack! My plan was to read Little Quack's New Friend and in our discussion about authors and Lauren Thompson I wanted to talk about how she wrote about the same characters a lot (Little Quack, Little Mouse), so I had other Little Quack books on display. They enjoyed New Friend so much that I ended up reading the original Little Quack as well by special request.

Caroline Jayne Church

Week Four of Author Highlights: Caroline Jayne Church
This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.

Opening Activity:
Little Mouse Flannel Activity

Books:

Hungry Hen by Richard Waring (illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church)
Little Lost Cowboy by Simon Puttock (illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church)
Ping Pong Pig written and illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

Not all of these books are written by Caroline Jayne Church, but they are all at least illustrated by her. This was a great opportunity to discuss the difference between the author and the illustrator and what they are responsible for in the bookmaking process. It might be hopeful thinking, but I really think my kids are starting to get the whole author concept!

Scarf Song:
"The Airplane Song" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

This song was not intended to be a scarf song, but my preschoolers seem to really respond to scarves. I have kids that will ONLY participate if a scarf is involved. I'm lucky enough to have enough scarves to give each of my kids two, so we used them as our airplane wings in this song. It is also a good listening song because it gives specific actions throughout.

Jazz It Up Moment #1:
I use board book sets in my toddler programs a lot. We have sets of 15-20 books of the same title so that each child can hold their own copy of the book I'm reading aloud to them. I've tried using these board books sets once or twice with my preschoolers with great results so I brought it back for this storytime because we happened to have a board book illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church.

You Are My Sunshine illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church

This was a perfect choice for this storytime. We just read through the book together at first with me pointing to each word as I read it. I went extremely slow so the children could follow along with me in their own copies. They LOVED being able to do this with me. The second time through the book I sang it, a lot of them sang it with me too!

Jazz It Up Moment #2:
This was completely improptu and wasn't in my plan at all. I had a couple of extra minutes and decided it would be fun to sing the song "The More We Get Together" and teach the children the signs to go along with it. I used the signs for "more", "together", "happy", and "friends". The Skokie Public Library has a great YouTube video of this, HERE.

This is typically a song I use in my toddler programs, but I thought these kids would like it and would really appreciate what sign language was and understand it's meaning. Turns out, they really enjoyed it! I'll probably be quizzing them on it next week and see if they remember the signs.

Goodbye Song:
"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk from "Songs for Wiggleworms"


What Went Not So Great:
Timing. I was all done with my songs, books, and activities and still had 5 minutes left of my 30 minute program. So I decided to teach the children the sign language for "The More We Get Together". I thought about this song because Caroline Jayne Church has illustrated a board book of this song. We have a set of that title as well so I was considering using it when I was doing my planning. Maybe that's why the song was on my mind.

What Went Right:
Really, everything. The only thing I would add is possibly a prop or flannel retelling instead of doing the sign language, only because it would go along with the author theme better.

I would say the absolute most successful moment was the shared board book reading. It was great seeing the kids get so engaged in the program. I might invest in some higher level board books for our collection so I can do this more often. I loved how it presented such a perfect opportunity to practice  early literacy with print awareness!

Denise Fleming

Week Three of Author Highlights: Denise Fleming

This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.

Opening Activity:

Little Mouse

This time I hid spring related items under the houses. The kids loved it!

Books:

Action Song:

"List of Dances" by Jim Gill from Jim Gill Gets Noisy in Boise

This is a great storytime song because it's got so much directed action. I decided to turn this into an early literacy moment and focus on text in the song. I wrote out on the white board all the different dances we do and pointed to each before we actually sang the song and practiced. We talked about the word meaning the specific dance and even the order of the numbers. 

Jazz It Up Moment:

Retell Lunch by Denise Fleming using flannel pieces and a mouse puppet

This was a HUGE success! I kept the food pieces hidden in the pockets on the back of the easel and described each item before I put it on the board. That gave a chance for the children to guess what food I was presenting. Once it was on the board I made a big show of "Mr. Mouse" gobbling it up for lunch. I adapted this (and got the idea from Miss Courtney Meets Bobo). 

Goodbye Song:

"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk from Songs for Wiggleworms

What Went Not So Great:

• I wanted The Cow Who Clucked to be received better, but the children were not enthused and they just thought it was overall a bit short and boring.

What Went Right:

• Retelling Lunch was fantastic! It's been a couple weeks since I did this activity and the children are still asking about Mr. Mouse. It was a great way to turn a very simple book (that is really too low for my preschoolers) into a more complex activity for the children to enjoy. It really did Jazz Up the program.

Karma Wilson

Week Two of my Author Highlights: Karma Wilson


This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver.


Opening Activity:
Little Mouse

Books:

Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson
The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson
Moose Tracks! by Karma Wilson
Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson
Sakes Alive! A Cattle Drive by Karma Wilson

Jazz It Up Moment/Song:
"Cake" by Juice Box Heroes from No Sugar Added

I tried something new with this song, normally I encourage the kids to free dance and jump whenever they hear the word 'cake', which is pretty often (it's to the tune of "Faith" by George Michael). This time I decided to introduce a new prop, Boomwhackers!

Boomwhackers are big plastic, hollow tubes that make specific musical notes. The longer the boomwhacker, the lower the note. We have used rhythm sticks a lot in storytime so the children are familiar with the general rules of a prop this shape and size. The difference with these is that they are specific to musical notes! We discussed that and then listened to the different notes and what was high and what was low. Every child got one shorter boomwhacker and one longer one.

Then I just let them go! We danced and hit our boomwhackers along with the song. A lot of them mimiced me when I slammed my boomwhackers on the ground every time I heard the word 'cake'. The loved the colors, the size, and all the noises they could make! I'm really encouraged now to take the next step with these props and assign notes to each child and possibly play a song together.

Closing Song:
"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk Music from Songs for Wiggleworms



What Went Not So Great

• Moose Tracks is a hilarious story with a great punch line. Unfortunately none of the children got it and were just kinda lost at the end.
• Sake's Alive! A Cattle Drive is another story that the kids didn't really get all the humor. They didn't really understand what a cattle drive was so they missed the main plot of the book. However, they really loved watching the silliness of the cows driving the truck all around.

What Went Right

• Mortimer's First Garden went really well even though I was very nervous. I was concerned because it discusses God and  miracles, but I just changed the words a bit and made it more of a story about Spring and the miracle of growth. The older kids really enjoyed it.
• The boomwhackers were an enormous hit! The children really seemed to understand that the longer ones made lower notes and the shorter ones made higher notes. A great success and first try-out with the props.
• Bear's Loose Tooth was a great choice because a lot of the the children could really relate to Bear and his loose tooth. The only I would do different is allow more time for discussing this book because every child wanted to tell me story about their loose tooth or one of their siblings'.

Margaret Wise Brown

Week One of Author Highlights: Margaret Wise Brown

This plan is for a preschool storytime, a registered program for 3-5 year olds that attend the program independently without a caregiver. This is the preschool version of the author highlight I did in Toddler Time.

Opening Activity:

Little Mouse Flannel Game

Opening Song:
"These Are My Glasses" by Laurie Berkner from Whaddaya Think of That

Books:

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown - I used the Big Book version of this.
The Diggers by Margaret Wise Brown
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Sleepy ABC by Margaret Wise Brown

Jazz It Up Moment:
I brought in a small biography, Margaret Wise Brown by Jill C. Wheeler. The cover had a nice big picture of her on the front. We started by talking about what the word author meant (which almost all of the children knew). I told them that Margaret Wise Brown was the author of every book we were going to read to today and then pointed out her name on every cover of the books I had displayed.

Next I asked them if they knew what the word biography meant. A lot of them thought it was the illustrator of the book. I explained what a biography was and that they are different kinds of books they seemed to get it. I liked having the opportunity to bring up new vocabulary in storytime.

I quizzed them throughout the program on who Margaret Wise Brown was and each time I did this program (four, if you're counting) I had at least one little person shout..."ME!". Most of the older kids got it and would point to the biography I brought in when I asked that question.

Songs:
"The Wheels on the Bus" by The Learning Groove from Groovy Green
"Rhythm in the Scarves" by Johnette Downing" from Second Line Scarf Activity Songs 

Closing Song:
"Goodbye" by Old Town School of Folk Music from Songs for Wiggleworms 


What Went Not So Great

• It was a bit of an overload to do Little Mouse and an opening song. Next time I'll just pick one or the other, or a song that the kids are more excited about. I think my kids are starting to get bored with "These are My Glasses".
• The biography discussion seemed to go over the younger kid's heads (my preschool programs are 3-5 year olds without adults). 
• Sleepy ABC was just a big fat fail, it is just better suited for one-on-one reading I think.

What Went Right

• I can never stop using Little Mouse. The children will revolt and stop coming to storytime. He is the biggest draw, by far.
• Diggers was one of the most successful books. They liked talking about digging a hole big enough for a train to fit in.
• "Rhythm in the Scarves" made the kids really happy. Giving each of them a scarf to dance around with just seems to make their day. Plus this song focuses on counting, which I think is great to reinforce early literacy without beating them over the head with it.

Paints and Colors

These past two weeks I've had preschool visits at the library. Two different preschools in the area took field trips to the library and requested a storytime and tour. Over the two weeks I saw over 300 children and completed the same storytime about 12 times. This is an annual visit and every year I'm exhausted afterwards, but so glad that the schools choose us every year as one of their very few field trips.

This year I put together a great storytime with a colors/paint theme that I knew I could jazz up to the extreme. I really wanted these kids to leave the library filled with excitement and the desire to go home and beg their parents to bring them back.

A quick note on my plans...I always over plan. I prepare more materials then will normally fit in my 30 minute format because each group of children is different and has a different dynamic so I want to make sure I have ideas and options for every possibility. 

Books:

Opening Activity:
Little Mouse Flannel Game

Discuss the number of houses and color of the houses with the children and explain that there is a mouse hiding under one of the houses that we MUST find! Hide other flannel pieces under the remaining houses that relate to the theme of the storytime. Only call on "quiet hands" to help you decide which houses to look under.

Song:

"Dance, Freeze, Melt" by The Learning Groove from Rockin' Read

This is a song that I've had huge success with for all ages. It's really easy to learn and it incorporates counting and "freezing", which most preschoolers LOVE. Children dance (for 8 counts), freeze (for 8 counts), then melt to the ground. This is repeated with jumping, twirling, and flying in place of the dancing verse. Perfection.

Jazz It Up Moment #1:
This idea came from Amy over at Catch the Possibilities, Amy is a good friend of mine and I often pick her mind for some good Jazz It Up moments and together we came up with this activity. 

Give every child a paintbrush and have them follow along with "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" by Karen Beaumont. 

As the little boy in the book paints various body parts encourage the children to pretend to paint their own body parts as well. This encourages body part identification, good listening skills, and gives the opportunity to talk about pretending and imagination.

Jazz It Up Moment #2:
Retell "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh using small paint cans and different colored mice. 

Start with three white mice and put the other colored mice in the paint cans ahead of time (Blue Can: blue and purple mice, Red Can: red and orange mice, Yellow Can: yellow and green mice) for sneaky removal later. Basically this works very simply: as you put a white mouse into a can, you pull out the appropriate colored mouse it changes into, and then do it again as you continue to mix your colors. At the end have the children help you turn the mice back to white by using their "magic". Have the children shout a magic word and then pull out the white mice at the very end.

It works best to complete this activity if the cans are on a book cart and high enough that the children can't see inside the cans. You don't want to ruin the mystery of the story by letting the kids see into the cans. If done right this story mystifies the kids and really blows their little minds with all the "magic" you've done. This is also a great activity to use for color mixing.

The paint cans are available at any home improvement store for a very small amount of money. The mice were originally made as finger puppets, but I have never used them that way.

What Went Not So Great

• "I'm the Biggest Artist in the Ocean" went so-so. The children enjoyed the giant fold-out in the end, but it was a little slim on plot and the children just weren't that into it. I got a lot of, "that was a short one!" after finishing the book. They enjoyed seeing the various sea animals, but the whole concept of art and painting went over their heads. I could have taken the time to discuss the book more, but I was crunched for time. (I only read this in a handful of the storytimes as a quick filler.)
• The paintbrush activity with "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" was a bit of a fail. I found that the kids were so distracted with having their very own prop that they didn't catch on to the rhyming aspects of the story, in fact they didn't pay that much attention to the book at all. I enjoyed that we could practice body identification and holding a writing utensil is a great early literacy skill. If I do this activity again I'd read the book first without the brushes, then read the book a second time and introduce the brushes then. That way I could take the time to discuss it and hit all the positives of this activity: writing, body identification, rhyming, and prediction skills.

What Went Right

• Little Mouse is always a HUGE success on so many levels. I've been using this as an opening activity for years for a reason.
• Books: "Press Here" and "Pete the Cat"
• Song: "Dance Freeze Melt"
• Jazz It Up Moments: "Mouse Paint" and encourage the children to use their "magic" to help me