Tape Town!

Tape Town was AWESOMEEEEE. It's a lot to write about--SO many details--but here's my attempt to cover at least most of it.

I got the idea for Tape Town from a children's librarian's Facebook group that I'm in. Someone in that group did a program, also called Tape Town, that was really a totally different thing (it was more like a mini town made of toy things like matchbox cars and blocks, connected by tape roads). Here is the lesson plan that that librarian shared. Again, it's totally a different thing but it's what inspired OUR version of Tape Town.

Anyway, it was clear from the other librarian's lesson plan that this was going to be a two-librarian program, so I immediately recruited some assistance. Jen and I gathered ideas for our version of Tape Town for a month or so leading up to the program. The plan was that we'd have five different "places" to visit in a "town" connected by and made of masking tape roads, then have the kids get from place to place by scooter (which, conveniently, we already had!).

First, I'll share some pictures of the room. It took Jen and me FIVE solid hours to set this whole thing up. Making the tape roads around the room was super labor-intensive (and actually sort of complicated until I got in the swing of it). If you are planning to do this (and especially if, like us, the room you're using is carpeted) DO NOT WEAR A DRESS TO SET IT UP. I repeat, DO NOT WEAR A DRESS TO SET IT UP. I wore a dress and I regretted it immediately. I had rug-burned knees after literally minutes of crawling around and wound up scooting instead to alleviate this pain. But scooting on a scooter totally goes against everything I know about "dress etiquette" and I was just so uncomfortable the whole night from holding my body in ways I wouldn't normally hold my body. It was so dumb. It could have been easily avoided if I'd just worn pants instead. So learn from me. WEAR PANTS. And better yet, wear THICK pants.

Anyway, here are some room pics:

Now I'll discuss each of the five places that the kids could visit (in no particular order):

------ The Veterinarian ------

The Vet's station was made out of a rocking boat like this that we use for our Parent Child Workshop program. We turned the boat on its side and it immediately looked like a front desk! We marked the area around it off with tape and added the following:

• An assortment of pet stuffed animals
• Two doctor kits (this one from Amazon for $10 each!)
• Ace bandages
• A vet costume that Jen had at home (but it's available here on LakeShore Learning)
• A table and our coat rack covered with white, plastic table covering
• Some signage

------ HPL Cafe (The Restaurant) ------

We used the stage area of the auditorium for our restaurant and it worked out perfectly. We had plaid bunting flags (these from Oriental Trading) tied from one side of the stage to the other and they marked the area off really nicely. They really separated the restaurant off from the rest of the room and it actually felt kind of intimate! For the restaurant we used: 

• 2 cafe tables with 2 chairs each
• A book cart for keeping things somewhat together and organized
• These bunting flags from Oriental Trading
• A ton of play food that we had for Parent Child Workshop
• Picnic plates (these from Oriental Trading) and plastic cups and utensils
• Some other misc. plates and things
• Menus that Jen made by making fake meals out of the play food and taking pictures
• A chef costume that Jen had at home (but it's available here on Lakeshore Learning)
• A hostess station which was just a music stand turned flat with napkins and a pitcher on it
• Flameless candles (I had these at home)
• Some signage

------ The Post Office ------

This was what we were calling our "least exciting" station because (1) we had the last amount of stuff for it, (2) we decided that kids don't even go to the post office that much anymore, and (3) it just LOOKED the least exciting. But surprise! The kids totally loved it! Here's what we had out on the table:

• Large-size index cards for postcard/letter writing
• Envelopes
• Pencils
• Pretend stamps (these from Oriental Trading)
• A postal worker costume that Jen had at home (similar to this one on Lakeshore Learning)
• This mailbox from Melissa and Doug (but we don't have any of the other pieces seen in the link!)
• Sme signage

------ The Library ------

What library's Tape Town would be complete with a mini local library? We borrowed some furniture from our actual children's department (thanks to our maintenance department for doing all the heavy lifting here) and it wound up looking really cute and cozy. While at the Tape Town Library, the kids could sit and read a book, decorate a bookmark, or decorate their own pretend library card. Here's what we used (besides our borrowed furniture):

• These Magic Color Scratch Bookmarks from Oriental Trading
• Index cards (for bookmarks)
• Crayons
• One of our actual library stamps (that we'd use to stamp flyers or giveaway bookmarks)
• A bunch of picture books and board books
• Some signage

------ The Grocery Store ------

The kids loved this stop in our town and I think if I were a kid, I'd be loving it too. We set it up in sort of a squared off "U" shape so that the kids would be in the middle with the food to buy on two sides of them and the check out area on the third. Besides book carts, a stool, a piano bench, and a cardboard box, we used:

• A little puppet theater stage turned around to be a produce stand (This is an old toy from Parent Child Workshop similar to this one.)
• A ton of play food that we had for Parent Child Workshop
• Shopping baskets
• Old, emptied food packages (pasta boxes, cereal boxes, etc.)
• Two of these cardboard cash registers with play money
• Reusable shopping bags
• A roll of black plastic table covering on the piano bench meant to make it look like a conveyor belt
• Some signage

Like I said, this program was SO awesome. Rather than my usual "What worked least" and "What worked best" wrap-up, here are just some general notes on the program (I guess I'm really in a listy mood today):

• The scooters were fun but weren't an integral part of the program. And actually, same goes for all the tape! It looked cool; it added a little more fun; but the real shining star of this program were the 5 different places we had set up. Half the time the kids just walked from one place to another and forgot about their scooters anyway. And, because we only had 6 scooters, we limited the program to 6 kids per session. BUT if we did "Mini Town" instead of "Tape Town" and took that whole element out, we could probably have more kids per session. And also, we could also probably fit a whole additional place in the middle of the room (school? car wash?) since we wouldn't need all that road/floor space for the traveling. But then again, the scooters and the tape roads really make the room look super fun. And they also make this program extra different from others. So... it's a thought.. something to mull over.
• Just a general reminder that this program took five hours to set up. And it was exhausting. And the program itself was exhausting too. But man, it was SUCH a hit. The kids and parents loved it. One mom was even inspired to comment that she loves the library and that it feels like a little family when she comes here. We like to hear things like that!
• IN SHORT, THIS WAS SUPER FUN AND WE HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN AND WE LOVED IT.

Dramatic Storytime

Hi. I want to start this post off by admitting that many of my library programs are kind of similar to each other. I am a bit of a two trick pony, as well as a firm believer that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  But this morning I had the opportunity to try something kind of different and, as my colleagues can attest, I was really excited about it! For ages 18-35 months, I now present my super fun, new, different program... Dramatic Storytime!

(Ok, I can't lie. I may have copied [borrowed] the overarching idea for this program from an event I attended with my daughter at Think Big! Theater. But all the details and all the work for it were mine and mine alone! I actually did something creative for once!)

So, anyway. the theme of Dramatic Storytime was Three Little Kittens. If you're unfamiliar with the story of the Three Little Kittens, let me include a quick summery of it for you. If you are familiar with it, feel free to skip this next paragraph:

The story of the Three Little Kittens, according to Wikipedia, "is a sophisticated piece usually attributed to American poet Eliza Lee Cabot Follen (1787–1860). With the passage of time, the poem has been absorbed into the Mother Goose collection. The rhyme tells of three kittens who first lose, then find and soil, their mittens. When all is finally set to rights, the kittens receive their mother's approval and some pie."

Here's how it worked. The whole program was based around very slowly reading and acting out the book, Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone (just a retelling of the classic tale). The kids played the part of the three (or in this case, 8) little kittens and I played the part of the Mother Kitten. When they signed in, I let them choose a cat nose to wear for their "costume" so they could really be the kittens. I would say 1/4 of the kids wore the nose for about 3 minutes and the other 3/4 of the kids wouldn't touch them. I wore cat ears because, really, they're kinda cute.

Throughout the story, there were three main breaks for activities-- aka "acting." The program broke down like this:

Read a few pages from the book. (The kittens lose their mittens, cry, are told by Mother Kitten that they can have no pie, and then find their mittens.)

Activity one: The kittens search for their mittens. This involved the kids digging through a pile of die-cut paper mittens as well as other die-cut shapes in search of two matching mittens.

 

 

Read a few pages from the book. (The kittens tell Mother Kitten that they have found their mittens and Mother Kitten tells them that they can have some pie.)

Activity two: The kittens shall have some pie. This involved making this very simple paper plate cherry pie craft from Glued to My Crafts.

Read a few pages from the book. (The kittens eat the pie with their mittens on thus soiling their mittens, cry, and then go wash and dry their mittens.)

Activity three: The kittens wash their mittens and hang them out to dry. First, this involved the kids basically just playing with pre-cut felt mittens, a few empty detergent bottles, a couple of tiny spray bottles, and a big bin of water.

After about 8-minutes of water play time, I told them to bring their mittens over to the "laundry line" to hang them up to dry. The laundry line was just a bunch of clothes pins on a piece of yarn that I taped to the side of a table. It worked perfectly.

Read the last few pages from the book. (The kittens tell Mother Kitten that they have washed their mittens, she praises them, and then they all smell a rat close by-- which, I explained to the kids, was even better than pie to a cat!) THE END.

Activity four: Unrelated to the story, we listen to The Three Little Kittens song and mother ktiten (me) blows bubbles. Uh, just like I said, when I got to the end of the book, I put on The Three Little Kittens song (this version from Mother Goose Club Playhouse on YouTube) and blew bubbles for the kids to play in a few minutes before we said goodbye. Just a quick extra thing that I could be sure would be a hit.

What worked least: So minor, but I allotted 45-minutes for this program and it took exactly 39. It was so much fun and such a success, overall, that I really really really don't think anyone would quibble over the 6 minutes, but I like things to be perfect so it bothered me a little that I couldn't make the time perfect too. Still, I think I really did time things out pretty well, considering it was a totally new program and a totally new idea that I've never done before. So, yay, good for  me!

What worked best: Seriously, all of it was awesome. I think everyone really liked sitting for a minute, then doing an activity, then sitting for a minute, then doing an activity. It broke the program up nicely and was perfect for short little attention spans. Of the four activities (five, if you include reading the book!), I thought the "washing" would be the stand-out favorite for sure, with bubbles as the second favorite. Honestly, I was way off! I think the favorite activities were a tie between activities 1 and 2-- the searching for a pair of matching paper mittens and the pie craft! Who would have ever guessed?

All in all, I had such a great time planning, prepping, and doing this program and I feel really proud of it! So I shall leave you all with this question: What other books or stories lend themselves to a dramatic storytime?