Storytimes and More Saturday Share: January 25, 2014

Welcome to our

4th

Storytimes and More Saturday Share!

We have lots of inspiring links this week. 

So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy!

~ Amazing Activities Shares ~

Jennifer is kicking off our popular Amazing Activities Shares section with a "super simple playgroup activity" from her blog, In Short, I Am Busy. Every couple months she opens up her library's puppet theater, gets out the die cuts and popsicle sticks, and they have a puppet playgroup! Jennifer says, "It's a nice break when the programs get overwhelming." What a fun idea!

Miss Sue's colleague is sharing her ideas for a Nursery Rhyme Olympics! She based a lot of her activity ideas on the Westerville Library post about their early literacy Olympics-themed learning. 

And she added this ~ "As the kids arrived, we had several nursery rhyme flannel & magnet sets out and they could play with them on our easel board. After that, we read a few nursery rhymes, including the ones our games were based on, then started the games. I used Jack Be Nimble, Ring Around the Rosie & Wee Willie from that site, and a Hickety Pickety Pen collect the eggs relay and a Diddle Diddle Dumpling one sock on relay." This definitely sounds like a winner to me! Thank you to Miss Sue and her colleague for working together to bring us this timely share.

Travis is back this week with a new activity twist to a program for early readers that she has been trying to get going for months. The new program with the twist is Books and Bingo. Travis mentions that she "wasn't getting a big turnout for my loveable pet therapy dogs, but adding bingo to the mix seems to be a big improvement".

Aren't these two library friends cute?
They look like they are ready for a good story!

JacksNana is also back this week with a clever Duplo Counting Game that is sure to be a huge hit with all those Lego-loving kids in your life. This activity is good for focusing on numbers, counting, learning colors, recognizing patterns (which as JacksNana points out, is an important pre-literacy skill), simple addition, and so much more. According to Jacksnana, it is a "very versatile game and it kept Jack busy for over 30 minutes!"

Our next share comes from a wonderfully creative librarian whom I "met" through a Facebook group and then became friends with on Twitter. Lisa recently tweeted a link to a post on her blog, Libraryland. In the post, she walks her visitors through the planning and implementation of a Preschool Fair held at her library. Her post is very concise and informative. It shows that an important event for any community with young families is easily do-able with a little organization and consistent effort. This is certainly going on my to-do list!

~ Creative Crafting Shares ~

One of our favorite moms is back with another cute necklace craft. Did you ever make macaroni necklaces in Kindergarten? Well, Mom to Zoe did and, when her "DD Zoe wanted to make more necklaces", she "searched for how to dye pasta" ideas. The post she liked best is found on the blog, Intrepid Murmurings. Claire and Zoe are excited about all the beautiful colors. Their "rainbow pasta" is drying and they will be making necklaces with friends very soon! 

My share this week is a Storytime Prop that also works as an interactive craft. When I bring the egg out during storytime, my storytime friends are always immediately curious about what is inside. As I share the first song with them, I slowly open the egg and my storytime friends think it is magical when the egg begins to hatch! And I always get squeals of delight when I tell them that they get to make an egg and puppet of their own. So much fun! Oh, by the way, be sure to check out the link to the Blast from the Past mentioned in my post. It will provide you with another idea for a different little puppet that you could choose to make for your own interactive "hatching egg".

~ Fun Facebook Shares ~

Rachel, a stay-at-home mom, is inviting us to check out her local library's Facebook page, Franklin Public Library Children's Department. She mentioned that her children really enjoy all of their library's activities, especially the crafts like the penguin below. Rachel is happy to have a place to go where she can keep up with everything being offered at the library. "There are lots of great program ideas to be found on this page". Thanks for linking your first share this week, Rachel!

Look at the eyelashes on this cute penguin!

~ P-interesting Shares ~

Miss Sue has 2 shares of her own this week. The first one is her new story time bin that she put on Pinterest. Miss Sue says, "I got the bin at Home Depot for $5 - yes, that is the normal price. It is a sturdy canvas bin with metal frame so its tough. Its the perfect size to hold my story time books, my Ukulele, and ALL of my story time props and tools. The outer pockets are tight, but good for puppets or teddys. I keep it by my desk at work and as I put together the story time, I just add to the bin and it's ready to go on Friday!"  What a cool find! 

I am very excited to be welcoming the librarian team known as Jbrary this week! I first became aware of this awesome team of Children's librarians on Twitter. I always enjoy reading their tweets and exploring their Youtube videos ~ which you will be introduced to later in this post. Jbrary has 2 shares this week. The first is a link is their "Lunar New Year Pinterest board which has lots of great crafts, books and ideas for celebrating Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year) at your library or with your family". Thanks for joining us this week, Jbrary!

~ Spectacular Storytime Shares ~

Anne at itsybitsymom has seen "a lot of comments about Penguins this week" so she is sharing her Penguin Story Time Plans which includes 3 book recommendations, a game, a dance, a flannel board, a craft, and more! (In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I was surprised and flattered when I saw a link to my own blog in Anne's post. I am excited to see her version of the penguin hats that I shared last year. Thank you, Anne, for linking to my post.)   Anne says, "It was a great program!" and, from the pictures she shared, it is obvious that her storytime friends had a blast learning about penguins. 

Carrie Roer, a youth service paraprofessional at her local library in Michigan, joins us for the first time. She is sharing her kangaroo storytime on her blog, The Lion is a Bookworm. (I love her blog name and the reason she chose it! Check out her About Me to learn more.) Carrie has lots of great book suggestions and also a cute song to get the kids up and moving which is always a good idea. She has chosen to use the alphabet as inspiration for storytime themes so I am sure there are many more helpful posts on her blog for anyone who needs ideas for alphabetical fun. Thanks for joining us this week, Carrie!

It's time for Miss Sue's second share which is her Preschool Storytime from last week. She says, "I know it's a story time post, but if you look at the bottom, you can see the activity we did - a snowball fight! I made snowballs out of hosiery and fluff - no stitching required. Reports from parents this week say that they went home last week and raided drawers for tights and hose so they could make their own snowballs! This activity was really fun. The kids all loved throwing the snowballs at me." I am completely sold! I can't wait to make some of these snowballs of my own for several programs I have coming up this week. Thank you, Miss Sue! I am inspired to have a snowball fight at my library!

~ Wonderful Website Shares ~

Hannah, one of the administrator's for our Facebook group ~ Storytimes and More On the Go ~ is jumping on board this week to share for the first time with the website, Teach Preschool, that has helped her with planning one of her library programs. The Read It and Cook It program was a very popular one at her Library. Here is what Hannah has to say about it: "I did this program once a month last year and it got quite full, so I do recommend that people register ahead of time. We don't have a kitchen in our library so it made things a tad bit harder, but items such as a pizza cooker and blender can be used to make food. I simply would pick a book either off this website or pick my own such as If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff and then make the food with the kids that go with the story. I fully enjoyed doing this program with my Storytime children and hope to bring it back soon". Cooking with kids is always popular. Thank you, Hannah, for taking the time to share this week and for all that you do on the Facebook group to keep us going strong. You are awesome!

~ Yearnful Youtube Shares ~

Jbrary is back with their second share this week. It is their Valentine's Day Playlist for their Youtube videos! Jbrary mentioned tat the playlist "will be growing over the next week with lots of great songs, many of them with ASL signs to learn and share." I love that! ASL is one of the most popular things I include in my storytimes. Parents love it and it is the perfect thing to help focus young children's attention on what is happening in storytime. I'm positive you will want to bookmark Jbrary's playlist. Thanks for the second share Jbrary!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lysX0KZHg-c&list=PLcw3Y8sV0xpudyXY5HPdrya3WlJOxnGKD&feature=share

***Special Note: I am still learning how to share Youtube videos on the blog so, for now, here is the link. As soon as I figure it out, I will be sharing the video directly. I did it once before but for some reason I am having trouble this time. :o/ Oh, well! I'll keep trying.)

Thanks for stopping by!

We hope you enjoyed the shares.

Please consider adding your own share this coming week.

We would love to have you join in!