Stuffed Animal Sleepover

I'm not sure if Stuffed Animal Sleepovers are old hat in the library world by now, but I'd taken a fairly extensive break from them for while and, over time, wound up getting so many requests from patrons to bring them back that, finally, I did! Even though I've blogged about this program a bunch of times before, it's been a while (a year and a half!), and since each Stuffed Animal Sleepover has its own personality, and also because the pictures are SO DARN CUTE, I wanted to write about it again.

The idea of the program is pretty simple--a few books, a few songs, and a craft--but the real fun starts when the kids go home and leave their stuffed animals behind for an overnight sleepover party! SO HERE IT IS: My fifth Stuffed Animal Sleepover! Can't believe it!

As the stuffed animals and their owners arrived for the evening, I gave everyone a name tag. I've changed the name tags up a few times over the years but resorted back to my first ever version, because I think it's the best. I don't often use name tags in programs but they're important for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover so I can make sure the right stuffed animals match up with the right kids at the end. In fact, I take a lot of measures to make sure this is done correctly.

Once I took the kids back to the program room, I did a regular, simple bedtime-themed storytime. A list of my favorite bedtime-themed books can be found on my Recommended Storytime Books by Topic list. For this program I started with Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (as usual), then I sang Five Little Monkeys with the monkey mitt.

After this, the kids moved on to the craft tables and decorated "sleeping bags" for their stuffed animals to sleep over in. In the past these have been pillow cases from Oriental Trading decorated with fabric markers, but this past time I changed it up and used canvas tote bags from Oriental Trading instead. Aside from this slight change, this is the same craft I've used for every Stuffed Animal Sleepover since I started them, but it just works! So why reinvent the wheel? The kids like it (even repeat attendees) and it gives them a way to "tuck in" their stuffed animals before they leave them, which I'm not sure I could do without.

Then, when everyone was finished (and when there was about 5-minutes left of the program), we wrapped up with one more book: Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen. Then, to end the program, I had the group sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star twice-- once normally and once as quietly as possible so the stuffed animals could drift off to sleep. Then they kissed their animals goodnight, whispered goodbye to me, and tip-toed out for the evening. 

There's a very important behind-the-scenes step that comes next. Before taking the animals out for their library adventure, I always always always photograph each animal with its sleeping bag and name tag. That way, when the children pick up their stuffed animals the next day, I can match everything up right without having to worry or guess. Sometimes matching the sleeping bags isn't so easy so this step can be very critical!

Now on to the fun! Here's are the picture from the seven stuffed animals' big night out at the library:

Telling secrets in their sleeping bags.

Playing computer games.

Playing Gin Rummy

Playing other games: Connect Four, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game, and Checkers.

Making Valentines.

Building at the Lego table.

Doing puzzles.

Choosing books to read.

Thanks to Mary, our clerk who stayed most of the night with me, each stuffed animal got a super-custom-picked book that matched them. Then, as a circulation bonus, when the kids came in the next day to pick up their stuffed animals, I asked if they wanted to check those books out, and guess what? 6/7 of them did! Here are a few of those animals and their books:

Upon pick up the next day, each kid went home with a pile of goodies: their stuffed animal, sleeping bag tote bag, name tag, a book chosen for them, and a set of photos from their animal's night out. As usual, the kids liked the print outs, but the parents LOVED the print outs. This has held true every time. In fact, I have copied and pasted this exact sentence from post to post.

What worked least: Rather than something not working, the biggest challenge in doing this program has been trying to do so much of it after hours. I've found that I just can't do too many of the photos while there are patrons in the library. Not only are there very few places you can set the animals up without disturbing people, I also just kind of want to keep the magic alive a little too. So most of the hard part is done after the library closes--propping up all the stuffed animals, taking all the photos, matching all the stuffed animals back up with their sleeping bags, and preparing the photo print outs (a Publisher document). I wish I could figure out a way to fix this, but right now, I can't think of a better method. It's not hard work per say; it's just hard because it's late at night and I'm super tired.

What worked best: Singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and then singing it again quietly so the stuffed animals could "fall asleep" is sooo cute. We all whispered from this point on and this was a good, natural way to say goodnight to the animals and end the program.

Petite Parachute Play

Greetings from the blog post of my first EVER parachute-only-focused program. Despite the parachute always being the resounding favorite part of every program I've ever used it in, a parachute-only-focused program has always petrified me! I just didn't think I had enough stuff to fill a half-hour. But, as it turns out, I didn't have to!

In my research for Petite Parachute Play, I stumbled across this blog post from Laughter and Literacy. The librarian who wrote it didn't fill an entire 30-minutes with specifically parachute stuff. She did other songs and stories too! When I read that, I thought Oh! Of course! I'm TOTALLY allowed to do other, non-parachute-specific stuff, while the kids are still sitting AROUND the parachute! It's the parachute itself that's fun, not the songs the grown ups sing while we lift and lower and shake it! The pressure was off! In fact, in the end, this program actually most closely resembled Share & Play Babies. It was for the same age group and, aside from a little more parachute, wound up really including a lot of the same stuff. It was held at our Station branch library and the 30-minutes broke down like this:

1. 5-minutes of open play and toy time as everyone came in and got settled. I put out a small assortment of baby toys-- not quite as much as I use for Share & Play Babies, but a few things. But to be honest, I'm not sure any of it got touched.

2. Hello Song. In my last post I wrote about a song I used called Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here (which was the made-up-name I gave to the Jbrary song seen below [originally titled Let's All Clap]). This time I used the song as is and we all clapped for each kid. I had five sweet babies in total and this was a great and quick way to make sure we all had everyone's names down.

3. Songs with the babies under the parachute. After our introductions, we cleaned up the toys and lifted the parachute up over the babies for a few songs. The littler ones laid on their backs and the bigger ones sat up or crawled around. First we did The Colors Over You *, then Let’s Go Riding in an Elevator **, and last Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer.

* The Colors Over You is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and goes like this:

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

Red like an apple

Green like a tree

Yellow like the sun

And blue like the sea

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

** Let's Go Riding in an Elevator can be found in the video below and works just as well (if not better!) with the parachute and the kiddos underneath it:

4. Mini storytime. At this point, I announced that it was time for "a little story time break." First, I read the big book version of Freight Train by Donald Crews. Then we did She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain as a lap bounce.* And last we read Are You My Mommy by Mary Murphy as a class set of board books passed around (then once together as a group).

* Whenever I do She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain as a lap bounce, I start by explaining that there will be four moves that we'll be doing with the babies: Lifting for "Yee-ha!," Tilting for "Woah there!," Tummy rubbing for "Yum yum," and kissing for "Kiss, kiss." Then I sing! It can all be seen below:

5. Scarf songs around the parachute. I just love the scarves with the super young baby group. First we sang Popcorn Kernels* and then did Laurie Berkner's Moon, Moon, Moon**.

** Popcorn Kernels is to the tune of Frère Jacques and goes like this:

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels (wave the scarf around above your head)
In the pot, in the pot (crumple the scarf into balls in your hands)
Shake them, shake them, shake them (shake your tightly wrapped scarf around in your hands)
Shake them, shake them, shake them
'Til they pop, 'til they pop (toss the scarf up in the air and watch it fall slowly to the floor)

** Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner has quickly moved up the ranks to become one of my favorite sitting down/lap songs for this age group and, as it turns out, it also works great as a scarf song! I like to do some basic lap and hand motions for each-- most of the stuff Laurie Berkner herself does in the Moon Moon Moon video. I usually hold the scarf for both, waving it around bit, and let the parents and babies sort of interpret all of it in a way that works best for them. Different levels of scarffing/bouncing/watching me do hand motions work differently for each kid, so this works in different ways for everyone. It's nice. Here is the video for reference:

6. Songs with the kids on top of the parachute. This was the last part of the program and also how I almost always end Musical Kids. First, we sang Itsy Bitsy Spider, then did Peek-a-Boo!*, and Wheels on the Bus**. Then I threw the mini beach balls on and played Popcorn by Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights while the grown ups kind of shook the 'chute around a little. I always feel like everyone loves this, even though it's so simple! The kids get lots of stimulation with the beach balls, the music, the colors, and the other babies, and the grown ups get a good photo op! Last I added the mini black sheep into the mix and everyone sang Baa Baa Black Sheep. Then I  did my goodbye song (Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner, as usual) and walked around the circle, blowing bubbles at the babies-- another crowd pleaser for the same reasons listed above.

* Peek-A-Boo: This baby song, to the tune of Frère Jacques (again), goes like this:

Where are you hiding?
Where are you hiding?
I can't see you
I can't see you
Are you over here?
Are you over there?
Peek-a-boo!
Peek-a-boo!

It winds up being a fun little game for parents and babies to play together and is particularly good for the babies on the younger side of the age range.

** Wheels on the Bus is another one of my favorite "little baby" songs. For this song, I have the parents lay their babies down on their backs in front of them, feet toward mom or dad. Here's what we do:

The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round (move baby's legs in a circle)
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish (move baby's legs back and forth)
The windows on the bus go open and shut (open and close baby's legs)
The windows on the bus go up and down (move baby's legs up and down)

I didn't take any pictures but here are a few pictures from when I did Wheels on the Bus during a different program about a year ago (what's crazy is that the babies pictured on the right have both recently turned one!):

What worked least: The 5-minutes of open play at the very start of the program was actually kind of awkward! Usually I have a great group of regular moms who all have lots to say, both to me and to each other. And usually I'm a lot better at driving the conversation! But it didn't flow this time and it felt kinda weird. I was happy to cut it short and move on to the structured activities!

What worked best: I think the songs with the babies on top of the parachute at the end were the most enjoyable for both the babies and the parents. It's such a simple thing, but this is the resounding favorite part of  Musical Kids as well. I guess just having a pile of stuff in the middle and letting the kids play is, ultimately, the most fun thing for everyone!

Valentine's Day Party

For some reason, over the course of my life, Valentine's Day has moved up the holiday ranks and landed in a comfy spot near the top. I just really enjoy it! Maybe it's because I'm partial to "girly stuff" like hearts, pink, flowers, and chocolate. Or maybe it's just that I will just cling on to anything at all that breaks up the monotony of winter. I'm not sure. But whatever the reason, every year I find myself getting more and more pumped about Valentine's Day. And even more so at work! I think Valentine's Day with kids is the ultimate cutest and most fun thing. I look forward to it and, more or less, call "dibs" on it every year.

So last week I had my Valentine's Day Party for kids in grades K-2 and, while I only had three kids in attendance, it was awesome! Here's how it went:

I started with story time and dragged it out a bit in the hopes that my group of two would get a little closer to the 18 who were signed up. I read Crankenstein Valentine by Samantha Berger first, then followed it up with Smitten by David Gordon.

After the books we moved onto our game of "Love Bingo." I made these for a Valentine's Day Party about 3 years ago and they look like this, for example:

I was clever and got candy hearts as Bingo markers too. The kids marked off boxes on their boards as I held up corresponding full-sheet pictures at random. Between rounds, I told them to keep the pieces on their boards so they could just continue to fill them up until everyone eventually had Bingo. As the kids won, I let them pick from a basket of assorted prizes--which were things leftover from programs and reading clubs that we had in the library basement. If it even needs to be said, of course, every kid was a winner.

Next, we played "Blinded By Love" (which is a game I borrowed and modified a bit from Cul-De-Sac Cool's post, "12 Coolest Valentine's Day School Party Games"). Basically, each kid got "blinded" (using a paper mask I cut out and drew heart eyes on, and, when that got annoying and I realized that these were three really fun and honest kids, was replaced by just eye closing), and one by one, they had to try their best to draw a heart on the oak tag. There are no winners or losers in this game. It's just fun for a good little giggle. And giggles it got!

Then we took a craft and snack break. I put out a whole array of things for them to make valentines with: heart-shaped doilies, pink, red, white and purple hearts in two different sizes, conversation heart foam stickers, glittery heart foam stickers, love bug foam stickers, markers, and glue sticks. Then I let them just go to town. I also served delicious Entenmann's Valentine's Day cookies + water bottles.

Last, I told the group that, if we could either spend the last 10 minutes playing one more game, or they could use the last 10 minutes to finish their valentines and snacks. The two girls chose game, which was totally enough to play if I modified it a bit, while the one boy of the group finished decorating his valentines. Also from Cul-De-Sac Cool's post, "12 Coolest Valentine's Day School Party Games," I modified a game called "Heart Hop." The original game calls for the kids to split into two teams and race across the room to a pile of pre-written-on hearts. Each kid picks up a heart, reads what it says--something like "hop like a bunny"--and makes their way back to their team, doing whatever the heart instructs. The first team to use up their pile wins.

In preparation, I made two identical piles of hearts with commands written on one side-- hop like a bunny, walk backwards, crab walk. etc. But when I found out we were playing the game with just two kids, I just used one pile and had them play just to be silly. No racing.

What worked least: The size of my group was the only thing that kept this program from being as good as it could have been. However, the QUALITY of the three kids I got couldn't have been better! If had to have a party of only three, these were the three to have!

What worked best: The games, by far. I was surprised! I always expect the crafts and snacks to be the highlights of my programs, but the games really shone for this one. In fact, these kids were barely even interested in the cookies! Crazy!

Musical Kids (for ages 6-16 months) 2/2/18

Ladies and gentleman, I cannot resist. Both my daughter and my neighbor's daughter visited me for Musical Kids last week and I've got to blog about it! I know I've written about the 6-16 month-olds repeatedly and no other Musical Kids groups for a very long time, but they're such a sweet and fun group, with such sweet and good-natured parents, I just can't resist sharing. Especially when my own sweet Sadie makes an appearance for the day!

Anyway, here's my playlist (red = ipod, blue = sing):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. We're Going To The Market by Kathy Reid-Naiman (shakers)
3. Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here (shakers)*
4. Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group from the Sing soundtrack (tambourines)
5. Popcorn Kernels (scarves) **
6. Elevator Song by MaryLee(scarves) ***
7. Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner(scarves) ***
8. B-I-N-G-O by Lynn Kleiner (circle dance) ****
9. Aiken Drum from the Five Little Monkeys CD (drums)
10. Heartbeat Drumbeat by Joanie Bartles (drums) #
11. Colors Over You (parachute) ##
12. Let's Go Riding in an Elevator (parachute) ###
13. I'm a Little Groundhog (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets) ####
14. Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer (parachute + balls + groundhog puppets)
15. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + balls + letters + bubbles)

* Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here is the made-up-name I gave to the Jbrary song seen below (originally titled Let's All Clap). I just swapped "clap" for "shake" to make it a shakers song and it's been working really well for introductions (done the first week of each session) since January. Until 2018, I have always used Mary Had a Little Lamb for introductions, subbing out Mary for each kid in the class, but after a 4-year-old told me "hates that song," I traded it for Let's All Shake 'Cause Sadie Is Here and I haven't looked back! (To be honest, I got a little tired of it too.) It's much faster and more efficient than Mary Had a Little Lamb, so it's here to stay!

** Popcorn Kernels: About two years ago I was in a scarf-rut and, to combat it, heavily researched new scarf songs for a few days. Then, of course, I wound up introducing a whole batch of new songs all at once. As time passed, the two that stuck around most prominently for the long haul were called The Scarf is On My Head and Popcorn Kernels. The handout for both of these songs can be downloaded here. The Scarf is On My Head goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and is possibly the reigning favorite scarf song, but Popcorn Kernels, to the tune of Frère Jacques, is a close second favorite! It goes like this:

Popcorn kernels, popcorn kernels (wave the scarf around above your head)

In the pot, in the pot (crumple the scarf into balls in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them (shake your tightly wrapped scarf around in your hands)

Shake them, shake them, shake them

'Til they pop, 'til they pop (toss the scarf up in the air and watch it fall slowly to the floor)

*** Elevator Song by MaryLee (from the CD Baby-O) and Moon Moon Moon by Laurie Berkner: These are two of my favorite sitting down/lap songs for this age group and, as it turns out, they also make wonderful scarf songs! I like to do some basic lap and hand motions for each-- gentle bouncing and lifting in Elevator Song and most of the stuff Laurie Berkner herself does in the Moon Moon Moon video. I usually hold the scarf for both, waving it around bit, and let the parents and babies sort of interpret all of it in a way that works best for them. Different levels of scarffing/bouncing/watching me do hand motions work differently for each kid, so this works in different ways for everyone. It's nice. Here are two videos for reference:

**** B-I-N-G-O makes an awesome and easy circle dance for the parents and babies to do together. I'm going to try REALLY hard to explain it:

For this song, heard on YouTube here, the parents hold their babies and walk around in a circle. For the verse of the song, everyone just kind of dances their kids as they face out. Then, the song slowly goes through the letters, B, I, N, G, and O. For B, I, N, and G everyone takes a step in--one step per letter. So by the end of G, everyone's in a tight circle with all the babies looking at each other up close. Then, for the letter O, we all scoot quickly back out of the circle to our original spots.

# Heartbeat Drumbeat: I got the idea to do Heartbeat Drumbeat from a library program I took Sadie to at my local library. The (real) song, however, is a little long for kids, and if I am remembering right, the library programmer who used it wound up just cutting the song off when it got too long. I just can't do that. I am too particular. Enter... YOUTUBE 💜💛💚. I've encountered this dilemma a few times over the years (mostly when I do holiday programs, actually) and, when I do, I turn to YouTube. I found the PERFECT version of Heartbeat Drumbeat here. A little finagling and it's made its way into my playlist. It even has audience applause at the end, which is a fun bonus!

## Colors Over You is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and goes like this:

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

Red like an apple

Green like a tree

Yellow like the sun

And blue like the sea

Red and green and yellow and blue

These are the colors over you

### Let's Go Riding in an Elevator can be found in the video below and works just as well (if not better!) with the parachute and the kiddos underneath it:

#### A groundhog's day special song! I'm A Little Groundhog goes to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot and was easy enough for me to memorize! We bounced mini groundhog puppets around in the parachute as we sang:

I'm a little groundhog short and stout

February second I will come out.

If I see my shadow hear me shout: 

"Six weeks more winter without doubt!"

What worked least: I'm a Little Groundhog wasn't the highlight of the program, as the song was quick, nobody knew it, and the babies totally don't care about groundhogs day, but when Musical Kids falls on an actual holiday (even groundhog's day), I feel like I have to acknowledge it in some way. Plus, we had such cute little finger puppets from Folkmanis (no longer available but similar to this beaver) that we never get to use and bouncing them around on the parachute a bit was fun!

What worked best: Everything worked with this group. I love my baby classes! But, as usual, I'd call the highlight of the program the parachute in general. It's just so much fun and so much great stimulation for the babies!

Build a Stuffed Animal

While there isn't a ton to say about Build a Stuffed Animal, this program was just wayyy too cute to leave out of my blog entirely.

So here's a short and sweet (seriously, so sweet!) post:

Mostly thank you to Noah's Ark Animal Workshop and my colleague, Andrea, for actually organizing the order from them, for me the biggest challenge of this program was selecting books to read for storytime. Andrea did the mass stuffed animal order--half snow owls, half polar bears--and we were provided with most of the stuff we needed from Noah's Ark: the unstuffed animals, stuffing, wishing stars, birth certificates, and hats for the stuffed animal pals to wear. They also provided a book for us to read but it was definitely not something I'd ever choose for a storytime, so I put that off to the side, and decided to pick my own.

Some things about the program, in chronological order:

1. As the kids arrived and signed in, I asked them to choose their animal immediately. Having this done ahead of time really minimized fighting and confusion later on. This way, once we were in the program, I was able to just go down the attendance list and hand each kid the animal they'd chosen in advance. It was easy and painless!

2. To match our selection of unstuffed animals, I decided that I wanted to read one book about polar bears and one book about owls (Snow owls were a little too specific for book-finding). Since I had kids all the way from age 4 through 4th grade, I had to choose very carefully. Ultimately, I chose Adrif: An Odd Couple of Polar Bears by Jessica Olien and then Wow! Said the Owl: A Book About Colors by Tim Hopgood. They both really worked well! Yay!

3. Once I finished the books, I handed out the pre-chosen stuffed animals. Then I put pile of stuffing in the middle of the circle and let them dive in and get filling. Except I made the mistake of saying the words "Dive in," and got some literal diving in. I've since learned my lesson.

4. The whole process went pretty quickly. They stuffed their animals, made a wish on a wishing star (which I didn't get a picture of--man!), tossed the star inside, and Velcro-ed up their animals. It all happened so fast! It was cute but I think I should have found a way to slow it all down. The whole thing took probably took 10 minutes.

5. I handed out hats for the animals (to the kids that wanted them) and had the kids fill out their birth certificates. This was cute but also kind of quick. Then they put everything in an (included from Noah's Ark) tote bag, and were set to go! Here are some finished products:

What worked least: I was a little quick. Even after reading two stories, this program still ended almost 10-minutes early.

What worked best: I mean, they made a stuffed animal. The finished product was the program. I could have literally just put out the animals and stuffing, and done nothing else, and everyone would have been happy. It might seem redundant but the best part was, well, building a stuffed animal!