Story Time Review

Animals Underground

Our 6th and final week of our summer Story Time classes was focused on critters that live underground. Moles, shews, ants, armadillos, groundhogs, foxes, cicadas and many many more. We began with a poster activity that I found online here. The poster had pictures of different burrowing animals. Before class I covered each animal up with a piece of brown construction paper. I read a description of the animal and asked the children to try and guess what it was. We then removed the paper and looked to see if we guessed correctly. Many of our children did not know armadillo or cicada so it was fun to introduce new animals to them.

We read Animals Under our Feet by Sindy McKay, Mole had Everything by Jamison Odme,What a Treasure! by Jane Hillenbrand and Underground by Denise Fleming. I also told the story of Mr. Wiggle and Ms. Waggle as was found in the CSLP Dig into Reading manual on page 121. This fun story is told with your two fists and a finger for each character. The children could follow along and do the actions with me as I told the story.

We danced to the song Ants in Your Pants from the Wild & Woolly Wiggle Songs CD by Johnette Downing. (I found a slightly different version by another artist online here.) This song is great for getting out the wiggles. Our favorite parts of the song are snails on you nails, and a bear in your hair.

We created a mole in a hole during our craft time. This craft was from the CSLP manual (page 82). I also saw a great version on Pinterest as well. It is basically a circle of brown construction paper with wiggle eyes and a Popsicle stick glued on. Then we covered a paper cup with green construction paper, fringed the top to make grass and added some die cut flowers to decorate. Then the mole could climb down in his hole and by using the stick which was sticking through a slit in the bottom of the cup, jump up through the top again.

Our next session of Story time will begin after Peach Days in September. Registration is on September 3rd.

Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

Vrooooooooooom! Into Story Time

This week for story time we got into digging with construction vehicles. We read Dig by Andrea Zimmerman, Curious George and the Dump Truck by H. A. Rey, Dig Dogs Dig: A Construction Tail by James Horvath. Other titles that I considered using but did not have time for were Bulldozers Dig a Pond by Stacey Gabel, Tonka Power Reading Construction Action by Victoria Hickle, and Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri D. Rinker. One boy who is obviously really enthusiastic about trucks kept jumping up out of his seat and coming to the front to touch each picture of a truck and declaring, "I would drive that truck!"

We sang I'm a Little Dump Truck and did a couple of finger rhymes from the CSLP summer reading manual including Tall Buildings in our Town and Tractor Tractor. We sang a version of Little Old Wagon but changed the words to Little Old Dump Truck using a prop made from a manila envelope which I had cut the shape of a dump truck out of and then laminated the top side of the envelope. I then filled the envelope with different colored papers and as we sang each verse we changed the color of the truck by saying a magic word and I would dramatically pull out the first sheet to reveal the next color.  And for some variety we did the chant Hi, my name is Joe and I work in a button factory. Silly and good for getting out lots of wiggles. I used the recorded version of this one that is on the CD Wiggles Jiggles and Giggles by Stephen Fite.

Using a simple outline of a truck we made a truck that could "dump" using a brass brad to connect the truck part to the dumper part. The kids colored the truck any color that they liked including quite a few rainbow striped trucks and lots of pink ones too.


Next Week: Underground Critters
Michele Schumann, Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

Arrrrrrrrgh! It's Story Time Mateys

The fourth week of our story time session was all about Pirates. Susan asked me what pirates have to do with our Summer theme Dig into Reading and I reminded her that pirates dig up their treasures. We read Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy, A Band of Dirty Pirates by Daiman Harvey, Pirate Treasure Hunt

Watch Port Side Pirates http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qAngsMJD3I

by Jan Peck and Dirty Joe the Pirate by Bill Harley. Of course, I used the recording of Bill telling Dirty Joe instead of reading it myself because he does a better job than anyone with that story. To hear Bill perform Dirty Joe check here. I also used the book and recording of the song Port Side Pirates by Oscar Seaworthy.  To see a fun animated video of this book and hear the tune check here . Of course I didn't use this because I just found it while I was looking up Bill Harley for this blog post! I will definitely use it in the future and show it with the projector and a laptop computer.

For a fun activity I copied the end papers of the book Pirate Pete, which features a treasure map. I cut them into puzzle pieces and hid them around the room. Then I had a child search for a piece and bring it to the front. I pinned them to the bulletin board and we completed our own treasure map. Then as we read the story and Pirate Pete visits each island the children would find it on our map.

One of the fun parts of the Port Side Pirates book is the page at the end that names the different parts of a ship like sails, anchor, crows nest, mast, life boats, rat lines, and figurehead. We looked at the different parts and discussed what each part is used for.

 Watch  Dirty Joe the Pirate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB0Wm7CsDv0

We sang the song If you're a Pirate and You Know it then created a cardstock pirate hat and a toilet paper tube spyglass telescope for our craft.

Next week:  Construction Machines
Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

This week we talked about things in the dirt from the garden. First we read Potato Joe by Keith Baker, The Enormous Potato, and One Potato Two Potato by Cynthia DeFelice. We acted out the story of Herman the Worm from the CD Wiggles Jiggles & Giggles by Stephen Fite.

We used a stuffed Mr. Potato Head toy to play a game of Pass the Hot Potato and we pretended to be seeds and sprouted using the poem Little Seeds in the Ground. We did the finger plays 10 Wiggly Worms and Where's the Worm, both were featured in the Dig into Reading Collaborative Summer Reading Manual.

For our craft we used a simple cut out of a potato shape from brown construction paper and added some Mr. Potato Head type features. Eyes, noses, mustaches, ears and even shoes. Some children drew on arms and hair too.

This summer we have some great teen volunteers from our Youth City Council. They are great to help with the games and craft. I keep them busy cutting out parts for our crafts and hanging up coloring contest sheets in the children's department. Some of these teens have been coming to the library since they were small and I even taught a few of them in story time! My how time flies, this is my 14th summer program and I am still enjoying it as much as I did the first year.

Next Week: Fossils and Dinosaur Bones
Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

Story Time Review

Let the digging begin! Our summer Story time will be all based on the 2013 Collaborative Summer Library Program theme Dig into Reading. This week we started with a lesson about dirt & mud.

To begin our day we played with play dough. Then to transition into our reading we did an experiment with some regular garden dirt and a large jar of water. We talked about what dirt is made of, what can be found in dirt (grass, leaves, rocks, bugs etc.) then we added some of the dirt to the clean jar of water and shook it up. We talked about how the particles of dirt were suspended in the water but since they are heavier than water would fall to the bottom. So we sat that aside and read Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud by Lynn Plourde and Duck in the Truck by Jez Alborough. Two of these stories featured trucks getting stuck in the mud so we talked about roads that are made of dirt. In one class this led to the side topic of driving a Jeep in Moab, which is where I just came back from vacation and several children had been there at some point or another...anyway once we got back on topic we checked our jar of water and found that a lot of the dirt had indeed settled out. We could see some sand and pebbles at the bottom (actually quite a bit since the dirt came from my garden and it is located where my children's sandbox used to be) a fine layer of dark brown silt and some floating organic matter. I have to admit that I swept up some dead ants from the patio so I could add some bugs just for interest. After all it is just plain cool to see ants floating in your science experiment.

We played a game of  Ring around the Puddle, using a brown blanket as our "puddle" we would all jump in at the end of the rhyme. "Ring around the puddle, pocket full of mud oh!, squish squash, squish squash, we all jump in!" We did a finger rhyme/ flannel board activity using the 5 little monkeys format, but used 5 little piggies rolling in the mud, along came Mr. farmer and put one in the tub!

We then made a craft using the little blue truck story as our inspiration. I had printed a simple outline of a truck onto card stock. The children colored the truck blue, added an eye (the truck in the story has eyes), and then we used a mixture of brown washable paint, flour and water to make mud paint. Some trucks were covered top to bottom with "mud" others just had muddy wheels and some made muddy roads under the truck. They turned out very cute and it was a nice simple craft.

Next week: Gardens/Plants & Seeds
Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian