The Marvelous, Magestic Moose

OK, so when I planned this storytime with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (aka the MN DNR) I admit that I was a bit influenced by my passion for the moose. When Jan Welsh from the DNR told me that she could bring some moose artifacts to add to my storytime, I about fainted with delight.

(side note : the moose in Minnesota are suffering from climate change and their numbers are significantly dwindling ... find out more here)



There are some absolutely fabulous moose-themed books out there, mostly because there is nothing like a moose so how fun is it to write a children's book about this wonderful creature?

Here are the two books I selected for today :
Elusive Moose  by Joan Gannij
A Moose's World  by Caronline Arnold

Then, somehow from the recesses of my brain, I recalled a call-and-respond song from my Girl Scout Days. Perfect. Fit. Here is a video clip for "Da Moose" performed by the wonderful Susan Salidor. Just as I remembered it from my childhood!

Family Storytime - Hiberrrrnation!

In honor of the first snowfall forecast for later on this week, we said good-night, sleep tight to all our furry forest friends as they prepared for a long winter's nap.

Here are the books we shared :

I liked including some nonfiction ("Not a Buzz to be Found : Insects in Winter") plus it told the hibernation story from a non-mammal point of view (where do all those ants, ladybugs and honeybees go in winter anyway??)

We sang the "Grizzly Bear" song, which I do every year ... and which kids L-O-V-E :
Grizzly bear, oh grizzly bear is sleeping in his cave
Grizzly bear, oh grizzly bear is sleeping in his cave
(make the ASL sign for "bear" : hands shaped like claws, crossed over chest, "scratch" twice)
Shhhhh ....
(finger over lips)
Please be very quiet ...
Very ... very ... quiet ...
If you wake him,
If you shake him,
He is sure to growl -- GRRRR!!!
(clawed hands up and out)

Our "action" song was a bear hibernation song based on "The Ants Go Marching" :
The bears go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah
The bears go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah,
The bears go marching one by one,
The little one knew that autumn was done ...
And they all go marching down 
To their den
Because winter had set in ...

Two by two ...
Little one stopped to sneeze : a-a-achooo!

Three by three ...
Little one stopped to claw a tree

Four by four ...
Little one stopped to eat just a bit more

Five by five 
Little one stopped to whisper : "nighty-night!"

I also shared this flannel, based on "Five in the Bed" :

It was winter ... and all the animals were getting ready for bed.
First bear climbed into bed,
Then raccoon,
Then skunk,
Then chipmunk,
And finally little mouse.
But mouse did not have any room!
So he wiggled and squirmed until ...
There were five in the bed
And the little mouse said,
"Roll over! Roll over!"
So they all rolled over and bear fell out - whoops!
(and so on ...)

Happy Hibernation!

Flannel Fun @ MLA

The lovely Anna Haase Krueger at Future Librarian Superhero and myself successfully presented a workshop last week on how to effectively make flannel stories during the annual Minnesota Library Association's Conference. Despite the fact that at times I felt we really slapped it together at the last minute, we had a great experience and were able to share some nice tips with attendees.

Here is a link to our Prezi : Flannel : Not Just Your Grandma's Pajamas

After discussing types of flannels (stories, songs, games, etc.) and how flannels can support the five early literacy elements, we dug into the "how to make" and "how to use" ... my favorite part of the workshop!

We had three options for folks to make during their time at the workshop :
1. These fabulous dinosaurs (courtesy of Piper Loves the Library)

Here is the template that was shared for attendees to use in making their dinosaur pieces :

2. Another option was to make simple shapes as faces showing emotions and expressions. The idea was to make these double-sided with a sleeping face on one side and a surprised/shocked/delighted face on the other side. Using the rhyme "Five In The  Bed" the idea was to start with the faces sleeping and turn each one over as they fall out of the bed :

3. The final option (and many folks just took the template home with them) was to create a five apples template, double-sided, to be used with any various apple rhyme :

Here is what the template looks like :

After collecting all our flannel pieces, scissors, glue, paper, tape, display boards, brains ... we made it out of the workshop room in time for the next presenter -- whew! Note to self : if presenting a crafty-type workshop? ask to be scheduled right before a break ... so many folks wished they'd had more time to work on their flannel pieces.

All in all, Anna and I brought forth the power that is ALL HAIL FLANNEL and had a superb time.

Getting Down-n-dirty with Flannel at MLA

Apples & Pumpkins

I like to do a combined apples/pumpkins storytime because the two items are a nice contrast to each other : one is red, the other is orange. One grows in trees, the other grows on the ground. One you eat fresh and raw, the other you cut up and cook (or make a jack-o-lantern!).

In either case, we celebrated the bounty of fall harvests with all things A & P ... that is, apple & pumpkin.
Here are the books we shared :

I also cobbled together this "Apples & Pumpkins" fingerplay rhyme which went over extremely well :

Apples, apples, what a treat! (rub tummy)
Sweet and tart and good to eat.
Apples green ... apples red ... (show R fist & L fist for apples)
Hang from branches overhead. (put fists up in the air)
And when they ripen, down they drop, ("drop" fists into lap)
So we can taste our apple crop!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, big and round, (arms form a large circle)
I'm glad you grow upon the ground! (point to floor)
I'm glad you don't grow in a tree (big arms over head)
For then you might fall down on me! (ahhh!! pretend that pumpkin falls SPLAT on your head)

For our flannel story I borrowed this idea from Storytime Katie -- I had used this in the past but with only a single puppet, not multiple ones as recommended.
Today I used the following puppets :
a crow
a mouse
a squirrel
a rabbit
a monkey (a monkey?!? on a farm?? you betcha)
I never thought the kids would love it so much! Seriously, with each puppet I brought out to take a bite from the farmer's apples, there was MUCH LOUD SCREAMING. Who knew???

Fall Leaves Craft Storytime

Red and yellow, orange and brown,
All the leaves are falling down.
Days are nippy, nights are clear,
Summer's over - autumn's here!

Despite the fact that it was approaching 80 degrees this morning, we celebrated the turning of the leaves at Make-and-Take Storytime today.

I read the above three books and with Steve Metzger's We're Going on a Leaf Hunt I included the following flannel pieces :

Isn't that skunk just the most adorable little guy??
I took him right out of the pages of the book.

We also shared the following action-song (tune = "Wheels on the Bus" or "Five Little Ducks", you're pick!)
The roots of the tree grown down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
Down, down, down,
The roots of the tree grow down, down, down
Deep in the forest
(we wiggled our fingers from shoulders to toes)
The trunk of the tree grows stout, stout, stout
(arms make a circle and grow out-out-out)
The bark on the tree grows tight, tight, tight
(hug yourself!)
The branches of the tree grow out-out-out
(arms up high)
The wind blows the branches back and forth
(wave arms back and forth over head)
The leaves on the tree come tumbling down
(wiggle fingers up high to down low)



Our craft was super easy (which was great since I had a few 2-year-olds in attendance)
Each child had a tree, a blue background, a glue stick and strips of red, yellow, orange and brown construction paper. Everyone ripped pieces of paper for the leaves and stuck them to the tree (including some leaves "falling down" and on the ground).
At the end, each picture was mounted on a piece of heavy white cardstock and I attached the copy of the poem for a final presentation.
Voila!

A Squadron of Squirrels

It was all about the little furry grey guy with the question mark tail today ...
And man, I felt like I had a room full of squirrels -- the kids were SO crazy restless!
Fortunately, I planned a shorter storytime ...

 We started off with a "guess the theme" poem (adapted from a poem on the Scaredy Squirrel website) :
There is a little furry guy
Who lives outside my door,
I've often seen him try and try
To steal from the birds' seed store.

He has a question mark for a tail
And an overcoat of grey,
He sits up straight to eat a nut
And likes to tease and play.

Scampering around is where you'll see 
Him playing night and day,
But if we run around his tree?
He goes the other way!

We sang a jazzed up version of "Grey Squirrel, Grey Squirrel" and I incorporated different types of squirrels (grey, black, fox, flying, red) ending with that super-fast red squirrel found in Northern Minnesota. Of course our song went faster and faster as our tails (backsides) went faster and faster -- too cute!

The big hit, however, was the SQUIRREL PUPPET (thank you, Folkmanis!) which I pulled out for my flannel counting rhyme, "Five Little Acorns" (adapted from Katie at Storytime Secrets)

(this could be sung to the tune of "The Fishy Song")
Down around the corner by the big oak tree
Sat five little acorns looking so yummy,
Along came a squirrel with a big bushy tail,
He took one acorn and ran off down the trail.
(continue until there are no acorns left)
last time (slower) :
Down around the corner by the big oak tree
There were no little acorns left to see ...
Along came a squirrel with a big bushy tail,
Took one look, said "Rats! None left!" and ran off down the trail.

Going Buggy!

My goodness ... summer sure makes it difficult to write blog posts! What with all the additional programs I'm hosting at the library, it's been over two months since I wrote a storytime post.

But ... without further ado, I present a Buggy Storytime!

Books We Read
"I Love Bugs!" by Emma Dodd
"Soup for One" by Ethan Long
"Waiting for Wings" by Lois Ehlert
"Buzz, buzz buzz! went Bumblebee" by Colin West

Naturally, we did the Buggy Pokey complete with antennae, stingers, wings and creepy crawlie feet.
I also sang "I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee" with the squished up bee being presented at the end (see? all clean!)
My favorite repeat-after-me chant was performed as well -- the Mosquito Chant (perfect for Minnesota) which goes something like this :
Flea ...
Flea fly ...
Flea fly flow ...
Mos-QUI-to!
Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion
Oh, no more calamine lotion!
Itchy, itchy, scratchy, scratchy, got one on my back-y, back-y,
Owie, owie, zowie, zowie wish he'd go away!
Quick, get the bug spray! I think he went that-a-way ...
Shhh ... shhh ... shhh ... shhh ... shhhhhhhhhhhhh ......
Got him! 

Finally, in Minnesota we don't seem to get too many fireflies during the summer (not hot enough?) but I do like this flannel, based on the book "Ten Flashing Fireflies" by Philemon Sturges.

What do we see on a summer night?
Five flashing fireflies burning bright!
Catch one twinkling like a star,
Now there is one firefly in our jar.

Catch another over by the tree
Now there are two fireflies in our jar.

Catch one hiding in the bush
Now there are three fireflies in our jar.

Catch one landing near our door
Now there are four fireflies in our jar

Catch  one flying high in the sky
Now there are five fireflies in our jar.

Open the jar, for it's much more fun
To watch them fly away one by one.
Fly up and out and say good-bye,
Fly away, fly away, firefly!
One ... two ... three ... four ... five ...
Now there are none.
(many thanks to my fabulous co-workers Tami and Janet for coming up with this flannel)