Stuffed Animal Sleepover, September 2015

I can't believe I forgot to write about the Stuffed Animal Sleepover that I did a month ago! I'm usually super on my blogging game! Anyway, better late than never, right?

About a month ago our stuffed animal patrons had their third sleepover at the library. I blogged about this program once before, but it's been a while and, since each Stuffed Animal Sleepover has its own personality, I wanted to write about our September sleepover also.

This is a pretty simple program--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!

As the kids arrived last month (it's weird to say that), I gave each of their stuffed animals a simple name tag (with the child's name on the back). Usually, this helps me keep track of things later, although this case, the group was so small I'd have been able to keep track of who belonged to who anyway.

Something I did that was new this time, was bring one of my childhood stuffed animals, Jelly Beanie, to the party! He was very excited about staying over. He hasn't been out of the house in years.

Once I took the kids back to the program room, I did a regular, simple sleep-themed storytime. I started with Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, then sang Five Little Monkeys with the monkey mitt, and then read One Drowsy Dragon by Ethan Long. (Sidenote: This was my first time reading One Drowsy Dragon to a group and they really enjoyed it and giggled throughout the whole story! It's a keeper!)

Then the kids moved on to the craft tables and decorated "sleeping bags" for their stuffed animals to sleep over in. These are just pillow cases from Oriental Trading decorated with fabric markers. This is the same craft I did in all my past Stuffed Animal Sleepovers and it just works. I've considered changing it just so repeat program attenders wouldn't have a dozen fabric-marker-decorated pillow cases at home, but it's always a hit so why reinvent the wheel? The kids like it (even repeat attenders) and it gives them a way to "tuck in" their stuffed animals before they leave them, which, by the way, is totally adorable to watch.

I didn't make my own pillow case but, lucky for Jelly Beanie, Miss Moo Cow was kind enough to share her sleeping bag since she's pretty little. The two then became fast friends.

As the kids finished up their crafts, I had them come back to the story area to quietly read board books to their stuffed animals as we waited for the whole group to be done. When everyone was finished, we wrapped up with a few more songs. First Itsy Bitsy Spider, then Wheels on the Bus, and then I ended the program by having the group sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and then sing it again as quietly as possible so the stuffed animals could drift off to sleep. Then the kids kissed their animals goodnight, whispered goodbye to me, then 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 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 guess. (Like I mentioned earlier, I had a really easy time remebering who belonged to who this time, but this step is always a good idea anyway.)

Now on to the fun! Here's what the stuffed animals did during their sleepover:

Jelly Beanie read the other stuffed animals a story.

Games: Checkers, cards, and Connect Four.

Coloring and making macaroni necklaces.

Playing with Legos.

Playing computer games.

Doing a big puzzle.

Choosing books.

I also included individual pictures of each stuffed animal enjoying a book solo:

Each stuffed animal got a super-custom-picked book that matched them. I had a clerk stay late with me that night and she helped select the most perfect set of books. 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? They all did!

As usual, they kids also got their pillow case sleeping bags and a set of photos from the animal's fun night out when they came back to pick up their stuffed animals. Then, in addition to also giving them their animal's book choice, I gave them a coloring sheet too (the one the animals colored during their sleepover). So many goodies!

Anyway, as usual, the kids liked the print outs, but the parents LOVED the print outs. This has held true every time.

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 most of the photos while there are patrons in the library. Not only are there very few place you can set the animals up without disturbing people, I 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 way to do it. However, I did do it all in record time last month, so maybe practice makes perfect (or, faster, anyway).

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

Overall, this is a fun, easy-to-run program that is a straight up patron-pleaser. Anyone else do one of these at their library? Let's swap ideas!

Apple Taste Test & Stamping

Inspired by this past summer's Aussie Taste-Test, I did a program called Apple Taste-Test & Stamping on Monday afternoon. I had two sessions: one for ages 3-5 and one for grades K-2. I thought it'd be fun to have a sort of apple buffet so the kids could try all different kinds of apples and see what they liked best, then vote for their favorite.

I had eight different kids of apples: Courtland, Fuji, Ginger Gold, Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, Macoun, McIntosh, and Pink Lady. I cut them up into small pieces and labeled the table in front of them so the kids and parents could walk down the line and sample everything. Then, once they were done, I had the kids place an apple sticker with their name on it in the row for which one they liked the best. So essentially, we made a big picture graph. I had the second class add to the first classes results so we could see the final winner for everyone all together. This is how the graph looked at the end:

After the eating part, which took wayyyy less time than I'd expected (about 5-10 minutes), everyone moved on to the stamping part. I used fall colors and put half an apple (cut horizontally so you see the star in the middle) in each plate of paint. The kids had fun doing this and some got really creative!

Everything moved much faster than I'd anticipated so it was a good thing that I brought Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss in the room with me just in case. I totally needed it! As the kids were finishing up almost a half hour early, I told them to keep stamping while I read them the book. This was the first time I read a book without having a designated storytime area but it worked just as well. The kids were engaged and many of them stopped stamping to listen, then started up again after I was done--prolonging the program a little more (yay!). Plus, my past fear of reading Dr. Seuss in general is completely gone now!

In the end, neither session of this program ran for it's full allotted hour, but it wound up being fun and--dare I say--educational anyway. So I'd call it a success!

What worked least: It was just shorter than I'd expected. If I'd advertised the program as being 45-minutes instead of an hour long, it would have been perfect.

What worked best: The taste test part was super fun and I think that having the tasting table as the first thing everyone saw when they walked in the room made it extra exciting. Plus, as the kids continued stamping, they liked going back up to the "buffet" for more apple.

Blackboard Sketch-O-Rama

Blackboard Sketch-O-Rama was one of those programs that I was super excited about doing until about a week before it actually happened...and then I got totally nervous about the details. The concept was easy--it was just simple blackboard Pictionary, but as the program got closer, I wasn't sure how it was all going to actually work. What if I had an uneven number of kids? What if they didn't know what all the words meant? Should I let them pass? If so, how many times? For such a simple program, it actually seemed overwhelming.

But last Thursday night, when it came time to do the program, a new problem arose immediately. It was a gross, rainy (nor'easter) night and I needed at least 4 kids to even play the game at all. And of course, I had three. They waited and waited and about two minutes before I cancelled the thing and disappointed three kids and three parents, I got a patron on the floor to join the program! The show must go on! And it did work out well that my four kids were two boys and two girls--all of whom enthusiastically wanted to play the boys vs. girls. I mean obviously.

I made eight categories--just handwritten words folded up into labeled cups. The categories were:

Animals
Sports & Games
Music
Travel
Book & Movie Characters
Food & Drink
Miscellaneous 1
Miscellaneous 2

The kids who did come had a great time. I started the program by handing out snacks (veggie chips, iced tea, and fruit punch) and letting the kids pick team names. The girls called themselves Purple Girls and the boys (being second grade boys) called themselves I Am Dumb (and then cracked up every time I said it). Probably just because they were older overall (and at that age, every year makes a big difference. Plus, at that age, girls have a maturity bonus over boys anyway)...but the girls won by kind of a landslide:

What worked least: Nothing worked least specifically, but the program would have just been better with a bigger group. As with any party game, it's just more fun with more people. But what can you do? The weather dictates all!

What worked best: The categories were perfect. It gave the kids an advantage to know what subject they were guessing and I think, when it was their turn to draw, they liked the power of choosing a topic for their team.

Maybe this would be worth giving another shot in the middle of the summer or during a school vacation. Like I said earlier, despite the size of the group, the four kids who came really enjoyed themselves!

Musical Kids (for babies ages 6-16 months) 10/2/15

I love Musical Kids! I have blogged about this program in the past but it is, was, and always will be my favorite part of my whole job. So it's getting another post today!

This is a reoccurring program done in three 30-minute sessions per week: 6-16 months at 10:00, 17-23 months at 10:45, and 3-5 years at 11:30, for 3 or 4 weeks in a row. They're probably the most well-attended program in the department and I seriously love the relationships I have formed with our core group of regular parents and children. Today I am going to write about my baby group (again) who I see first at 10:00.

When I first started doing Musical Kids (about 6 or 7 years ago as a librarian trainee helping another librarian), I did not care for this baby group one bit. The idea of a singing and dancing program with babies intimidated me because, well, babies can't exactly sing or dance. It took me a LOT of time (like, 5 years) to get comfortable with them and even longer to actually enjoy it. But I started to get into this age group once I figured out one key thing--with babies, you get to do an entire category of songs you can't do with the older crew: lap songs! Once I found my lap songs rhythm, I started to love the 10:00 group! You can do so much with them that you can't do with the walkers. They're actually really fun!

Anyway, Friday morning was my second class in a 4-week session. Here's my week 2 playlist: (red = ipod, blue = sing)

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. The Moon is Round (lap song)
3. We Wave Our Scarves Together (scarf + handout)
4. My Scarf, It Has Four Corners (scarf + handout)
5. Scarf Dance by Mary Jo Huff (scarf)
6. Where is Thumbkin by r-H
7. I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner (shakers + chicken puppet)
8. Milkshake Song by Anne-Marie Akin (shakers)
9. Yellow Submarine by The Beatles (drums)
10. Elevator Song by Mary Lee Sunseri
11. You Be the Ice Cream (lap song + handout)
12. Round and Round the Garden (lap song + handout)
13. She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain (lap song + handout)
14. Go In and Out the Window (lap song + handout)
15. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner

As usual, this program was made better because of good ol' Jbrary, specifically, their Babytime Story Resources playlist, which has pretty much everything you could ever need for a successful baby program.

I like to hand out the words to the parents when I do certain songs that we sing together and I usually do this for my scarf songs.  I have a few different scarf songs handouts that I rotate between. I like the handouts because there are always new parents and I think signing together helps everyone feel involved in the group and like they're getting the most possible out of the program. Here is a link to the PDF for the two scarf songs that we sang on Friday, We Wave Our Scarves Together and My Scarf, It Has Four Corners.

I also have a handout for the four lap songs we sang toward the end of the class. Here is a link to my lap songs PDF, which includes You Be the Ice Cream, Round and Round the Garden, She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, and Go In and Out the Window.*

*I make the parents sit in as tight of circle as possible for Go In and Out the Window so the babies really get a chance to check each other out when they go IN the window. It's really cute and wonderful. Here's how it's done:



I think the lap songs and the end, might be both mine and the group's favorite part.

I haven't bothered with a handout for The Moon Is Round (sung in the beginning) because it's really, really easy. Here are the words, if anyone wants 'em:

The moon is round as round can be
Two eyes, a nose, a mouth like me.

Anyway, last note, regardless of how little they are, it's always important that babies be exposed to music and rhythms early! Here are the reasons why: 

1. Singing helps children to hear the smaller sounds that make up words, because each note gets its own sound.

2. Moving, marching, clapping, and playing instruments helps with children’s motor skills.

3. Singing helps children build vocabulary through song lyrics. For younger children, “naming songs” where you are singing a list of animals, foods, or any other objects are beneficial. 

4. Singing different pitches helps children think spatially because the notes of the melody move up and down. 

5. Singing different rhythms helps children think mathematically because the beats are timed and precise. 

6. Singing with young children helps them to learn critical communication skills such as reciprocal dialogue, speech sounds, and how to associate sounds with objects, events and feelings. 

What worked least: I was really on my baby game on Friday so this particular session really worked well. But, as a bonus and so I don't look like I'm trying to cop out, here's something that didn't work in my 17-23 months class at 10:45: I had the group gather in a circle to sing Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me and one mom, to get her twins into the circle formation said, "Like Ring Around the Rosie!" So then, in an act of trying to please everyone, I suggested doing Ring Around the Rosie next. BUT, oops, I didn't remember the song or the motions at all. Like, I completely blanked. So I just looked kinda dumb and unprepared. I've said this before but I am very lucky to have regular parents who appreciate my usual preparedness and probably understood that this was just me trying to be spontaneous. But darn you, spontaneity! Oh well.

What worked best: The lap songs are great. They're perfect for parent-child bonding and, in the case of Go In and Out the Window, even child-child bonding! Plus, like I said earlier, they're also what makes my 10:00 session special, so I really enjoy them.

Maybe I'll get another post in about one of my other age groups in the upcoming weeks. I'm so happy programming has picked back up to it's regular pace for the fall!

Books n Play For Pre-K 9/30/15

Today I had my first class of this fall's Books n Play for Pre-K program. I've written about the format of Books n Play for Pre-K in several past posts. Today, the theme was fall. After our Hello Song (still A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), I started off with the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers followed by Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss. The kids LOVED both! They appropriately laughed all the way through Stuck and were quiet, in that memorized, listening to a good book way through Ten Apples Up on Top (minus a few interruptions to say "That's a lot!" when the animals successfully balanced eight apples on their heads). Success!

This was my first time reading Ten Apples Up on Top in a storytime and, as I've mentioned before, reading Dr. Seuss out loud makes me nervous. Wording is so important when you're reading Dr. Suess because it's so rhymey and sing-songy. If you miss or flub a word, you can't cover it up easily or tell parts of the story from memory. Each word plays a vital role in the rhythm. But after braving one of his books this summer (What Pet Should I Get?), I was feeling confident enough to attempt another today. And Ten Apples Up on Top is so cute and theme-appropriate! So I tried it. In fact, I did flub some words, but the kids didn't notice or care. I just re-read the phrase and all remained ok. Nothing was lost and the funniness of the story still came through perfectly. While I probably should have given this a practice out loud read ahead of time, I managed ok anyway! And I conquered a fear!

After the two books we sang The Leaves on the Tree as seen below, thanks to good ol' Jbrary:

And I added a verse: The people in the yards go rake rake rake.

The kids enjoyed this song because they already knew The Wheels on the Bus. So changing it up was fun for them.

Then it was time to break off for the craft and play time.

Here's what was at the craft table: 

1. Dot-leaf painted trees. (See below)

2. Apple I-Spy sheets from Life Over C's. 

3. Leaf rubbing with crayons. (See below)

 And here's what was at the toy table: 

1. Fall matching game, printed out from Free Homeschool Deals.

2. Big colorful blocks (like Duplos x3). 

3. Florist puzzles (similar to this).

4. Homemade cinnamon slime! I combined several Pinterest recipes for this. (See below for recipe)

The dot-leaf tree craft was super easy! The template was a really simple document made in Microsoft Word. Using the shapes tool, I just drew a circle shape toward the top and then overlapped it with an elongated trapezoid shooting out the bottom. Like the simplest possible tree-shape ever. You can download the PDF here!

The trees might look kind of unimpressive before they're painted but once you use a q-tip to dot the leaf part of the tree with fall colors, and a sponge brush to fill in the bark, the results are pretty cool:

Again, you can download the PDF here! 

I expected more excitement for leaf rubbing, to be honest. I walked around outside IN THE RAIN this morning, gathering the perfect variety of different shaped and textured leaves. I peeled perfectly good crayons so they'd have good rubbing sides. But despite this, sadly, leaf rubbing was not a hit. In fact the boy below, a good sport, was the only kid to even attempt it and frankly, he wasn't super thrilled to be doing it. So, oh well.

The homemade cinnamon slime was the other big hit of the afternoon. I don't mean to take credit for this slime in any way. All I did was combine a bunch of different slime recipes I found on Pinterest. But here is how I made my particular batch of slime:

In one bowl: 1 teaspoon Borax with 1/2 cup of warm water.

In another bowl: 2 bottles of Elmers white glue, two empty Elmers white glue bottles refilled with warm water (which also gets some of the extra glue out), food coloring (one batch with green, one batch with yellow [which I thought was red-- woops.]), and cinnamon essential oil.

Then toss the Borax mix into the other glue mix and it will immediately get super icky super fast. If you're as lucky as me, you'll have a willing page to do the yucky hand mixing for you. If not, you'll have to get in with your hands and sort of kneed it around. If you let it sit for a minute or two after that, you should find yourself with slime! We made two batches:

Like I said earlier, the slime was a big hit and the kids were awesome at not eating it, even though it smelled delicious. I also decided to let them all take home some slime (because really, what was I going to do with it?) and they were really great about taking only a small amount each. Smart and good sharers-- it's official: I already like this group! 

At the end, of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more story: Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. The kids weren't super into it (to be fair, they'd just been given slime) but several of the grandparents and older caregivers called it "a nice story." I guess I should be happy the kids were quiet at all after just playing with the cinnamon slime, really.

Then we did my new favorite goodbye song, Bread & Butter (I still love and use Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner in all my other programs, I just needed some variety!):

What worked least: Probably Little Yellow Leaf. It was just too calm and naturey for a post-play session story. I actually had a feeling this might happen. Shoulda listened to my gut.

What worked best: The homemeade cinnamon slime! The kids totally loved just mushing it up and making lines and snakes and balls with it. I need to remember to incorporate more simple, sensory activities with this group. They like it more than I'd realized.

Hugs for Grandparents - Drop-in Craft

Today I had a drop-in craft called "Hugs for Grandparents." Originally, I wanted to do a big Grandparents Day celebration with tea and snacks, a craft and games, but when I learned that the program would wind up falling before our September registration, I almost didn't have one at all.

I hated the idea of leaving Grandparents Day unobserved so I compromised with a toned-down, drop in craft and, actually, it was really fun!

I got the idea from Pinterest, which lead me to Last Minute DIY Valentines Day Ideas from a website called Built by Kids. I figured a life-sized hug would be easy, cheap, and fun for the kids. Plus, it wasn't too much to buy or prepare in case we didn't get much of a turn out--you never know with drop-ins. And we'd get to use up a bunch of old stuff!

I wound up having about 12 people show up and, to start, I had each kid (and one adult) lie with their top half across a sheet of white butcher paper. Then either their parents, grandparents, or I traced around their torso (I warned them before I got near their arm pits) to create their life-sized hug outline. Then they were set to start decorating!

I put out colored paper, scissors, crazy scissors, do-a-dot markers, regular markers, thick crayons, skinny crayons, scraps of fabric, feathers, glue, glue sticks, buttons and gems, heart doilies, and other pre-cut paper hearts we had leftover from Valentine's Day. (I couldn't find the pom-poms!)

The kids had a hard time lying down on the paper just right, but once we figured out the tracing kinks, they absolutely loved decorating themselves. I think this program had the perfect mix of structure and openness. And every single kid told me it was their first time getting traced. So this made it really fun and exciting!

Here are some kids and their grandparents hard at work:

And here are some of the finished projects:

This was super easy and fun. I was worried it would be too simple but even the adults enjoyed themselves!

What worked least: The kids had a hard time figuring out the right way to lie on the paper. I had to tell them to shift right and then shift down and then straighten out a whole bunch of times, but once they were situated, they were amazingly patient as we traced around them.

What worked best: They loved all the random stuff! Like shopping in a bargain bin is to adults, digging through the buttons and the fabrics for just the right things seemed thrilling to the kids. This was a total hit!

Sidenote: I am switching "what worked best" and "what worked least" so I can now end my posts on a positive note!

Happy Grandparents Day, everyone!

Getting to Know You

It's the first day of September! For many of us, that means (unofficially, at least) that summer's over. I'm totally bummed to say goodbye to my favorite season, and although it isn't exactly quiet around the library, I'm enjoying a short yet relaxing break from program planning.

So my blog doesn't go completely abandoned, I figured I'd write about a really simple (yet successful) program I did throughout this summer called Getting To Know You. This program was passed on to me from a librarian who left last summer. I was given the premise of the program: open play for the kids and a chance for community parents to meet and chat with other community parents. I was also told that "this was a new program and I could make it whatever I wanted." I knew this would be easy for me to keep up throughout the summer since it didn't require a lot of weekly planning and, as it turned out, the program was a huge hit with many of our patrons!

In addition to the room of toys, each week I made a different playlist, planned a 10-minute wrap-up mini-storytime, and put up this sign (thanks to Lindsey at Jbrary for the great idea!):

I've struggled with play programs for years. They've always made me uncomfortable because I'd worried about how I looked in the room--awkward, useless, and like I was "just standing around." But knowing the importance of it for kids, over time, I've incorporated small amounts of play in other programs (like Books n Play for Pre-K) more and more. Since doing so, I've noticed that they've gotten easier! I have become more comfortable with it and less self-conscious about how I appear. Making it even easier still, I had personal relationships with many of the parents, caregivers, and children in this particular group because of doing Musical Kids this summer (and there's no standing around there!). So once I sucked it up and more or less got over myself, I was able to really enjoy being part of this program!

I tried to keep this both easy for me and consistent for the kids. Each week, I put out the same toys in the same spots, then followed the same basic mini-storytime format: 1 simple book, Old MacDonald with the puppets, and the Bread & Butter Goodbye Song seen below:

I had two classes each week: 10:00-10:45 for non-walkers and 11:00-12:00 for walkers.

While the non-walkers class was generally a smaller group, I noticed that almost all of the attendees were new moms who were happy and enthusiastic about discussing parenthood with other new moms. In short, they pretty much utilized this program exactly the way we wanted them to. That's a win! Meanwhile, the walkers group was absolutely packed every week! It had a nice mix of regular library users and newer-to-programs patrons who were excited about what we were offering. Both groups were absolutely wonderful.

I noticed that people poured in sporadically for this program, which was totally ok since it was all open play until the last 10-15 minutes. I did wind up sitting for most of the time but I also got the chance to play with blocks, read board books one-on-one, and roll balls with many of the kids. Then, when there was about 15 minutes left of the program, I had the group clean up, then sit back down for our mini-storytime. Each week I read one of the library's big books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, Where's Spot?, or Freight Train. Next I lead the group in Old MacDonald with the puppets, which the kids absolutely love. LOVE! Of course it helps to have the most adorable selection of Folkmanis puppets on hand at all times. As we sang together, I brought the current animal around and had it kiss (or lick, or nuzzle) each kid and they usually giggled or squealed or smiled. Fun story: One mom told me that her son asks for this at home now. To end the program we sang the Bread & Butter Goodbye Song and that wrapped it up! Everyone enjoyed this so much!

What worked best: The open play was just so perfect for the summer. Attendance was high and, especially in the non-walkers group, this program gave a lot of new moms the chance to really use the library as a community meeting space and to talk about their experiences in parenthood together. You can't really be more for-your-patrons than that! Amiright?!

What worked least: Even though I put time into making the What To Say While You Play sign, I found that nobody really used it. I could have skipped it, really, but no biggie!

After all my nervousness about beginning this program at the start of the summer, I am now sad to see it go. But it's inspired me to create a new half-play program for babies starting this fall, so (hopefully) new parents will get to meet each other again!