Dinosaur win and fail

Well, I must say that my dinosaur program had some ups and downs.

I'll start with the ups because they make me feel better.

1. Kids LOVE dinosaurs. Seriously. We were ROARING and STOMPING through the entire storytime.
2. The adult reference librarian told me he could hear us across the library. (I take that as a job well done)
3. I actually got a round of applause after singing a dinosaur song.

Okay, time for the not so awesome downs.

1. All of the kids wanted to pull my felt dinosaurs down from the board before I even started my "No more room" rhyme. This resulted in near meltdowns, the rhyme taking longer than planned, and a lot of interruptions.
2. Since I do family storytime I get kids from birth to about six coming to my storytimes. I thought I would try a longer book, Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, because I had 2 shorter ones and this one had a lot of action. Ya, while some of the older kids were interested I could tell that I was losing my younger ones and their parents. Ah well, I'll just have to try something else next time.

All in all, I would have to say that my dinosaur storytime went really well. Oh, except for the fact that I forgot to tell my joke. What do you call a fossil that refuses to work? Lazy Bones.

Dinosaurs!

Tomorrow I'll be doing a dinosaur themed family storytime! I'm SO excited because I think my kids are really going to have a good time.

Books that will be read are How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? and How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen as well as A Number of Dinosaurs which is a cute popup book about counting.

We'll also be singing and dancing to "Oh I want to be a great, big dinosaur" and "Dinosaur Romp" by Debbie Clement. Followed by a fingerplay about dinosaurs and the feltboard story "No More Room".

Hopefully tomorrow will be a hit after last weeks devestating blow. I'm still not sure when I'll be confident enough to bring back my puppet.

Ultimate Puppet Fail

So I went to the annual OLC convention in Toledo last week and bought an AWESOME puppet by Folkmanis.

His name is Twickety, isn't he the cutest?

Anyways, I was really excited to try him out in my next storytime because I've heard nothing but great things from librarians who use puppets. Well, needless to say he was an utter flop. Maybe it's because I was too nervous since it was my first time and the kids could sense that. Maybe it was because my kids just don't like puppets. Who knows? Needless to say I was pretty discouraged by the reactions I received.

But, I've decided to keep going with it and maybe I'll get more confident with my new pal and my kids will come around and learn to love him as much as I do. We'll see.

Getting Squirrely during Family Storytime

I just started my first full time position as a Youth Librarian and I'm loving it! At least once a day I stop to think, "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this". Since we're entering the fall and October is just around the corner, I've decided to do a squirrel themed Family Storytime. I've been putting a lot of time and effort into it and I hope it goes over well. Currently, I'm planning on reading:

Nuts to you!  by Lois Ehlert

Acorns Everywhere! by Kevin Sherry

Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt

Errol by Hannah Shaw







I will also be doing some pretty fun finger plays and felt board rhymes. One of the felt board rhymes I found is "5 Little Squirrels" which goes like this,

Five little squirrels sitting by the door,
One ran away and then there were four.
Four little squirrels climbing a tree,
One ran away and then there were three.
Three little squirrels with coats so new,
One ran away and then there were two.
Two little squirrrels warming in the sun,
One ran away and leaving only one.
One little squirrel wasn't having any fun,
He ran away and then there were none.

I had a lot of fun with this because I was able to exercise my creativity and make my own felt squirrels, along with felt squirrel jackets, a felt tree, and a felt house! Once I juice up my camera I'll make sure to take some pictures to add on here. =)