Drag Queen Story Hour

This is pretty awesome!

Storytime regulars

I must say, I have a whole new appreciation for my story time regulars at my library. I have a group of moms and nannies (and the occasional dad) who make it in every week for my Baby and Toddler storytimes. I had always imagined that if I ever had a baby and took maternity leave, that I might take advantage of my leave time to bring my child to as many storytimes as possible, since I'm always curious to see how other librarians work.

Now that I have a child of my own, I was struck with how difficult it can be to get out of the house, on time and on schedule to make it to a planned event. And! With a little baby, even if you get to the story time on time (and many sessions will fill up, or close and not allow latecomers) sometimes when the baby starts to fuss you'll have to make an early exit, anyway. So I am really impressed and grateful for our patrons who do make it in!

I didn't get to go to as many storytimes as I had planned, but the ones I did make it out to, I feel like I learned a lot. I heard a few new songs and rhymes that I might like to steal and use in my own storytimes in future. I saw a storyteller do a storytime around colored scarves which was really wonderful.

Another take-away I had from my storytime visits was to absolutely be true to yourself. If you are a high-energy, bubbly person, go with it! If you are a calming, soothing presence, that's okay too! I caught one librarian apologizing for the smallness of the crowd (there were only three babies at storytime that day) and I realized with a jolt, that I've done the same thing. It's totally not necessary! That's another thing that made me realize that it's really okay to be present in the moment. Don't think or worry about the statistics sheets you'll be filling in later - if you've only got an audience of three, heck, if you've only got an audience of one, just give it your all and make it the best storytime ever. 
Sometimes it's about quality, not quantity!

When I do storytimes I'm always pushing myself to keep things fresh and interesting and try out new books or learn new things. One thing that I discovered while attending storytimes was how many storytellers used classic picture books. The old standbys like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin and the new standbys like Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Jon Scieszka.  They are classics for a reason, and that is because they absolutely work! Kids were enchanted with these stories. Even if adults had heard them a million times, for a lot of kids, it was their first time hearing these. And true children's classic books are absolutely as good to read out loud many times over. I think when I return to work, I'll lean a little more on some of these pillars of early children's literature.

Baby Faces Feltboard

I must give full credit to Melissa Depper for the inspiration for this felt board.

These babies were easy and fun to make - no real pattern needed. And they were such a hit at my baby storytime! 

Cookies felt board

Here's a felt board I put together for a cookie themed storytime. I also have a Cookie Monster puppet, so naturally we sang a round or two of "C is for Cookie" This set of cookies includes a gingerbread man, a sugar iced cookie, 2 chocolate chip cookies and one oatmeal raisin cookie.

Here's the song that goes with the felt board.

Five little cookies in the bakery shop.
Shinning bright with the sugar on top.
Along comes (child's name) with a nickel to pay.
He/she buys a cookie and takes it away.
(continue with four, three, two and one)

Guessing game felt board

I had so much fun with this felt board. I tried something new, and instead of doing a song or rhyme to go along with this activity, I just tried a discussion with the kids about what could be behind these mystery boxes.

I gave them lots of clues, such as: 
This animal is a mammal.
This animal has fluffy white wool.
This animal sounds like, "baaaa!"
What is it?

This animal is a sheep!

Here are all our animals, revealed. I think we had a lot of fun with this guessing game. Kids at my storytimes are super fond of animal noises, so even if they didn't guess with the other clues I gave them, they definitely had fun with our animal sounds!

This was a really fun and different dialoging exercise, and I'm really glad I tried it.

Cat in the Hat storytime

We just finished a great Cat in the Hat program to celebrate Dr. Seuss's 110th birthday!

Here's talented performer, Reuben Haller, as the Cat in the Hat, with some audience volunteers as Thing 1 and Thing 2. The kids went crazy for his balancing act, his "Thingcatcher" net and clowning antics. What fun!

Snowmen Feltboard

Here's a set of felt snowmen I put together. Easy and fun! I had a great time with these in storytime - this was before our "big snowstorm" this week. Most of the kids had not seen snow before, and had never made a snowman before. We talked about all the different colored hats. I really have the best job ever.

Here's the song we sang:

Five little snowmen riding on a sled

One fell off and bumped his head!

I called Frosty and Frosty said

"No more snowmen riding on a sled!”

Four little snowmen ....

End with: NO MORE snowmen RIDING on a SLED!

Halloween feltboards

Here are two felt boards I whipped together for Halloween.

I'm really happy with this bat one. The kids loved the sparkles on some of the bats.

Here's the rhyme I used:
Five Black Bats
Five black bats are flying around,
The first one did not make a sound.
The second one said, "I'll fly far tonight"
The third one said, "I don't like sunlight"
The fourth one said, "I want to eat some bugs"
The fifth one said, "I want some hugs"
Five black bats are hanging upside down
Shhhh! It's daytime, don't make a sound!

This pumpkin felt board was popular as well, even though it's not quite as cute as I hoped. Maybe I'll re-do it by next year.

I used this old classic:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said, "There are ghosts in the air."
The third one said, "We don't care!"
The fourth one said, "Let's run and run."
The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"
Oooooh, went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Flowers feltboard

Here's my latest felt board creation:

And here's the rhyme I used with it:

Five pretty flowers in my garden grew.
"Hmmm," I said, "I bet they smell good too!"
I bent down to sniff, but they tickled my nose.
Aaah-Choo! Oh no! (with exaggeration!)
Away one flower blows! (remove 1 flower, repeat rhyme & continue count down)

I sang this to the tune of "Five Little Ducks." I have to say, I did not expect for the kids in my storytime to find sneezing so very, very hilarious, but they really did! This felt board story was a lot of fun. If I'd had a little more time, I would have created leaves and stems, so that I could just pop off the heads of the flowers one by one, but they worked well enough on their own, and were attractive and easy to make.

5 Apples Felt Board

I've been seeing this felt board around for a while, and finally decided to make my own version. I love it! I start out with the pieces turned around, and flip them when they get "eaten." Easy to make, and the kids go wild over the "bites" in some of the apples.

I modified this rhyme a bit:

Five little apples
Hung in a tree
The farmer wasn’t looking.
So guess who came to eat?
A worm! Munch munch munch!

Four little apples... (etc.)

Rocket feltboard

Forgive the poor picture quality - I snapped this on my cell phone, and for some reason the moon looks very bright! I just have a quick little rhyme that goes with this one:

I'm a little rocket, pointing to the moon!
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... blast off, zoom!


I read the following books:

Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit – Chris Van Dusen
You Can’t Eat a Princess! – Gillian Rogerson
Mooncake – Frank Asch
The Birth of the Moon – Coby Hol
Brave Spaceboy – Dana Kessimakas Smith

The funniest moment in this storytime, I had two little girls sitting in front, who began arguing among themselves while I was reading Mooncake by Frank Asch.

"The moon is made of cheese," nodded one girl.

"No! You're wrong! The moon is made of air," her friend whisper-shouted back.

"Cheese!"

"Air!"

"Cheese!"

"Air!"

I had to stop reading, and tell them, "Ladies! You are both wrong! The moon is made of rocks. Now, can we settle down and find out what Bear thinks the moon is made out of?" It was very hard to keep a straight face, let me tell you.

Spilt Milk feltboard

I'm so glad I made this felt board! It's based on that old classic picture book, It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. It was pretty easy to make - just cut out the shapes in white felt, and the kids loved calling out what each shape was. Some of the younger kids were mystified and surprised by the ending, while my pre-k storytime kids were calling out, "It's a cloud! I bet it's a cloud! It's a cloud, right?" right from the start.

Sometimes it looked like spilt milk...

Sometimes it looked like...

Sometimes it looked like spilt milk... but it was only a cloud in the sky.

Valentines Feltboard

Valentine's is over, but I just had to share this fun little feltboard I put together. I found this on Storytime ABC's, and if imitation is the highest form of flattery, I hope they are feeling very flattered, as I pretty much copied the pattern outright!

This was a real hit at storytime - a fun rhyme, and easy to remember.

Five little Valentine's were having a race.
The 1st Valentine was frilly with lace.
The 2nd Valentine had a very silly face.
The 3rd Valentine said, "I love you!"
The 4th Valentine said, "I do too!"
But, the 5th Valentine was sly as a fox!
'Cos he ran the fastest to your Valentine box."

Owl Feltboard

I've had my eye on this great felt board for a while. I've seen a couple of different versions of it... Storytime Katie discovered them through Leah at Sunflower Storytime.

Here's my version:

Easy to make, and I think they look charming!

Five Fish feltboard

I'm really excited about this new storytime rhyme, which I love because it's an anything rhyme. You can have five of anything, and the rhyme still works.

One problem that I have with a lot of rhymes with five of anything is that they can be fairly tricky to remember. For example:

Five little seashells lying on the shore;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were four.
Four little seashells, cozy as could be;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were three.
Three little seashells, all pearly new;
Swish! went the waves, and then there were two.
Two little seashells sleeping in the sun;
Swish! went the waves, and then there was one.
One little seashell left all alone;
I picked it up and took it home.

See, you've got to remember all these things that rhyme with four, three, two and one. And what if you don't have 5 seashells? (Okay, I know you could always just use your hand, like a fingerplay) but say you wanted to do 5 flowers, or 5 cookies, or 5 elephants? Now all the stuff about the waves doesn't make any sense.

This rhyme featured on the amazing blog Mel's Desk is what we'd call "extensible," you can pop anything in there and it still makes sense.

The "original" version, as near as I can make out goes like this,

Five little cupcakes in the bakery shop.
Five little cupcakes with sprinkles on top.
Along came someone with a nickel to pay,
And one of those cupcakes went away!
(etc.)

If you can't think of anything that would logically go "on top" of your item, you can use this version:

Five little _________ at the _________ store.
Five little _________ and not one more.
Along came someone with a nickel to pay,
And one of those _________ went away!
(and so on, with four, three, two, one, etc.)

Here we go! I did a version with five fish. I made the nickels perfectly round by tracing around a bottle cap - they're a little bigger than real nickels. Someone suggested the technique of stippling with a marker onto the felt - it works like a charm! Clear, and easy to read the 5's on those nickels. I'm still kind of debating if I want to add eyes on the fish.

I finished out like this:

Five fish! Five nickels!
My tale is at an end.
Now, tell me children, how much money do we have to spend?
Five! Ten! Fifteen! Twenty!! Twenty-five cents!!!

I shout the last part with as much enthusiasm as if I was saying "A million dollars!" The kids in my storytime love counting by fives, so this one was a real hit.

When Animals Get Up in the Morning feltboard

Here are some new felt board figures I made recently. The thing I love about this is that you could use any animals you happen to have around. Most of these guys are bigger in scale than the rest of my felt collection. I borrowed the chicken from my Little Red Hen set, and I think it's obvious she doesn't match. When I've got the time, I'll try and make a new chicken, more in the style of the duck, to go with the rest.


Here is the song that I sing with it:


When dogs get up in the morning,
they always say hello.

When dogs get up in the morning,

they always say hello.

Woof, woof. Woof, woof.

That is what they say.

Woof, woof. Woof, woof.

That is what they say.

And so on, and so forth, depending on which animals you've got. I wish I could describe the tune I'm using... but I'm deliriously unmusical!
You can sing as many rounds as you have felt animals, and/or as many rounds as the kids will sit still for. I always end with this verse:

When people get up in the morning,

we always say hello.

When people get up in the morning,

we always say hello.

Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

That is what we say.

Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

That is what we say.

It's a nice gentle song, I try to keep it pretty mellow and slow-paced. Afterwards, the kids like to point out which animals have eyes, and which ones don't have eyes.

Decatur Book Festival 2011

It's Labor Day Weekend, and that means it's a double-threat for awesome, huge, overwhelming, magical, cool activities to do in Atlanta, GA. On the one-hand, we have the venerable Dragon*Con, a mega-convention for science-fiction, fantasy, costuming and gaming of all kinds, and on the other hand there's The Decatur Book Festival, a monster collection of authors, illustrators, librarians, booksellers and book-lovers of every stripe. They've put forth claims to be the "biggest" book festival in the country (The L.A. Festival of Books, and the Texas Book Festival in Austin might have a bone to pick with that) but they certainly do rank in the top 10, if not the top 5 largest. Their line-up of authors is impressive, to say the least.


I'll be storytelling at the Decatur Book Festival at Booth 127, on Saturday at 10:00 am!


Come on by and say, "hello" if you can. I'm bringing some of my favorite puppets, my wackiest (badly sung) songs and funniest picture books to read-aloud. It should be a good time! Expect a full-report on all the goings-on later this week.

Pig Feltboard

I was getting ready for storytime the other week, and suddenly realized that I don't have a pig for my feltboard. I created this guy in a jiffy -- maybe if I'd had a little more time, I would have tried something different. Still, this did the trick!

Wee Willie Winkie

Long before Go the F**k to Sleep jumped to the top of sales charts there was a nursery rhyme about the same problem faced by many exhausted parents.

I'm performing Wee Willie Winkie for a storytime today, and what I didn't realize is that there are many more verses to the original!

Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,

Upstairs and downstairs in his night-gown,

Rapping at the window, crying at the lock,

Are the children in their bed, for it's past eight o'clock?

Hey, Willie Winkie, are you coming in?

The cat is singing purring sounds to the sleeping hen,

The dog's spread out on the floor, and doesn't give a cheep,

But here's a wakeful little boy who will not fall asleep!

Anything but sleep, you rogue! glowering like the moon,

'Rattling in an iron jug with an iron spoon,

Rumbling, tumbling round about, crowing like a cock,

Shrieking like I don't know what, waking sleeping folk.

Hey, Willie Winkie, the child's in a creel!

Wriggling from everyone's knee like an eel,

Tugging at the cat's ear, and confusing all her thrums

Hey, Willie Winkie, see, there he comes!"

Weary is the mother who has a dusty child,

A small short little child, who can't run on his own,

Who always has a battle with sleep before he'll close an eye

But a kiss from his rosy lips gives strength anew to me.

Transportation feltboard

I made this one in kind of a hurry. I love the way the train turned out. I wish I had made it a little bigger though. Recognize the car? It's from a whole car feltboard set I did a while back. I got a little lazy on the plane. If I'd had more time, I would have used grey felt on a black backing and cut out the windows. Instead, I simply cut out the plane in grey, and glued the black windows on top. Still, it worked rather nicely, and the kids enjoyed it.

I sang this song with it, from one of my favorite websites: everythingpreschool.com

Sung to: She'll Be Coming Around The Mountain
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)
Oh we're goin' on vacation
Oh we're goin' on vacation
Oh we're goin' on vacation on a plane (zoom zoom)

Oh we're goin' on vacation on a train (choo choo)

(etc.)

Oh we're goin' on vacation in our car (honk honk)

(etc.)