Halloween- Crawlers & Totally Tots

Our Crawlers and Totally Tots were ready for Halloween, they showed up in full costumes and I had the chance to wear the great "Pumpkin" costume. This costume has been part of our Halloween tradition for years. It is a privilege to get to wear it.

We started with our
Opening Song

Everybody say one, story time has just began

Everybody say two, shake your shoulders show your shoes

Everybody say three, listen very carefully

Everybody say four, and put your bottoms on the floor

Wiggles

A wiggle, wiggle here

A wiggle, wiggle there.

Wiggle your hands up in the air

Wiggle our shoulders and wiggle your hips,

Wiggle your knees and move your lips,

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

And wiggle and bend

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,

And this is the end!

Our crawlers first book was I Love You Little Pumpkin,
 

 this book worked out really nice for this group because I could go around and let them touch the soft pumpkin on the cover and let  them see themselves on the final flap where a mirror opens up.

For our toddlers I used Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler. They were hilarious trying to do the hic, hic, hic all along the book.  

Both groups enjoyed a few rounds of the Eensy Weensy Spider, I have a small felt spider than the kids get to pat while we chant Eensy, Weensy Spider. We also clapped along to Pat a Cake.  

We listened to Walking, Walking from Songs from Wiggleworms.

Our second book was Silly Ghosts by Janet Lawler, this is a pop-up book we normally don’t circulate with lots of awesome pop-ups and shiny covers.  

We jumped to our Bubbles with a new rhyme

Bubbles small and bubbles round,

Bubbles landing on the ground.

Up into the air they fly,

Soaring, floating to the sky.

I love bubbles, can’t you see?

I love bubbles, and they love me!

Our last book was Five Little Pumpkins by Ben Mantle
I used pumpkin cutouts with black shapes showing a running person, a black cat, a spooky house, a smiling pumpkin, and a black cat.  I like this book because you can almost sing the rhyme.  

At our library is tradition to have a small parade during Halloween with the kids walking around the library and behind the Circulation desk.  They loved it!

We ended with  We Wave Goodbye Like This

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this,

to all our friends.

We clap our hands like this,

We clap our hands like this,

with all our friends.

Story time has ended.

I had to modify day two of Totally Tots because we had record attendance and the kids were way to eexcited to listen to any of the stories.  By time we got around to book 2 they were ready for our Parade to start. We did had a chance to visit and take lots of pictures with their amazing costumes on and Ms. Inma as the very bright pumpkin. 

Happy Halloween.

Halloween....all week long starting with Baby Bloomers

This has been a great week, I decided to celebrate Halloween all week long, truly when will I have a chance to wear my orange jack-o-lantern shirt other than this week.  I had asked our parents to bring their children in costumes if they wanted to....and everyone did. We also had a new baby join us for the very first time- two weeks old. The sweets, littlest baby ever.

Opening Song

We have been skipping our opening song and just having my puppet mouse go around and say hello to each child. Followed by around of

Wiggles

A wiggle, wiggle here

A wiggle, wiggle there.

Wiggle your hands up in the air

Wiggle our shoulders and wiggle your hips,

Wiggle your knees and move your lips,

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

And wiggle and bend

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle,

And this is the end!

 This week we read 

Book Five Little Pumpkins by Michael Scott

Our Nursery rhyme/ Action Rhymes were

Mary had a little lamb/ Patty Cake

We listened to Peek-a-boo from Baby Face using our colorful scarves to have some fun

Our second book I Love You Little Pumpkin! By Sandra Magsamen

Our rhyme/fingerplay was Touch Your Nose

We listened to Yes Sir, That’s My Baby from Baby Face it is a great action song for babies with lots of clapping and movement. Our last book was 

 Five Little Pumpkins by Ben Mantle

We ended with a round of bubbles and free play time before singing our goodbye song

 
 We Wave Goodbye Like This

We wave goodbye like this,

We wave goodbye like this,

to all our friends.

We clap our hands like this,

We clap our hands like this,

with all our friends.

Story time has ended.

Chicks, Farms, and Pumpkins

Last week was Toddler mayhem at the library, both sessions were jump packed with toddlers and siblings. We had new comers and kids that attended Crawlers the day before.  It was a blast. 
I originally had planned for a farm theme but I wasn't feeling the connection to the books I had selected and ended with a mix of books.  We read



The kids really enjoyed This Little Chick and we all engaged in making the different sounds our confused little chick makes. Pumpkin Trouble was the best- I read it like five times last week to different groups or to a single child.  By time we read Color Farm the group was really energetic and ready for some dancing.

This was our last week of Open Shut Them along with Touch Your Nose. We chanted both of them three times- normal speed, faster, and quiet whisper.  I also used pictures of pumpkin and turkeys (they are taped to jumbo craft sticks) to sing "Two Little Birds" we changed the birds to pumpkins who rolled down the hill instead of flying and turkeys that trot down as they "gobble, gobble". We finished with the kids making a cute monster puppet from Oriental Trading. 

Hello Baby!

Last week's Baby Bloomers was a very small class but one that allowed us to get  to play and to know each other better.  We read books, listened to a few songs, and tried our new nursery rhyme Mary Had  a Little Lamb using our felt board/puppet fingers. 

We read



Our Crawlers enjoyed the same books but we got to act out the last book doing all the motions the little bear goes through as he is counting up to ten.

We chanted Open, Shut Them and they loved to play with Mary's finger puppets.  As always we started with our "Everybody Says..." opening song and a round of Wiggles.  We listened to Baby Face "Peek a Boo" song using our scarves, and ended with bubbles as we sang "Good Bye". 

Los Cuentos

Last month I started a bilingual Story Time "Los Cuentos" (stories in Spanish).  After hosting our  first Dia Program and noticing more Spanish speaking families at our library I decided that I needed to try and offer a bilingual story time. I was greatly encouraged by a follow children's librarian & friend, Marissa Garcia.  The goal for this program is to provide story times for native speakers in their language, and opportunities for everyone to enjoy a different language. I have started with Spanish, because I am from Spain and of course the language is not a problem. Eventually, I want to expand to other languages and create a more multicultural experience.

 The biggest challenge so far is finding good books for a wide age range, good translations, and/or original stories.  This is a drop in program open to families with children under 7 years of age, so I never know who is going to join us. So far I have had 6-7 families joining us for each story time, all speaking Spanish to some degree.   This month we spent most of our time speaking Spanish and sharing our favorite colors, asking how we can mix colors, and remembering how to ask "what is your name?"

This month I read Spanish versions of



Our opening song is a translation of my "Everybody Says..."

Todos decimos Uno, los cuentos van a empezar

Todos decimos Dos, mueve los hombros y ensena los zapatos

Todos decimos Tres, vamos a escuchar

Todos decimos Cuatro, y ahora nos sentamos

  I also included the action rhyme "Wiggles"  and "Touch Your Nose" changing some of the parts to Spanish- like nariz for nose, rodillas for knees, orejas for ears, etc. I also used our TumbleBooks subscription and we viewed/listened to "Lola en la Biblioteca"





We listened to songs from My First Songs in Spanish by Beth Butlet. Hello Friend and I See Colors, both lyrics are in Spanish & English, which is fun and easier to follow but makes the songs a bit long.
Our closing song is

Colorin, Colorado                        Colorin, Colorado

This story is over,                         Este cuento se ha acabado

And if you liked this story             Y si este cuento les gusto

Tomorrow I’ll tell you another!             Manana les cuento otro!

  

I choose water colors & crayons for our craft after reading Colores which has beautiful watercolors accompanying the short poems. 

Uh-Oh & Fish Stories

This post is several weeks overdue...the next few post are part of the same group.  My days are becoming increasingly hectic and in between story times I attended the ILA Conference- Illinois Library Association- where I presented on bilingual story times and volunteers. 

Early October, that is how far back I am with my posts, our Crawlers repeated our Oh-Uh theme and our Tots enjoyed Fish stories and a craft.  Here are the books we read



We have been practicing "Open Shut Them" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" as part of our Nursery Rhymes.

Our songs were "Shake Your Sillies", "Walking, Walking" and of course "Bubbles".

Bedtime Stories

This was my second month doing our Bedtime Stories, a.k.a. Pajama Time.  I continued to be concerned with finding the right timing, is 6:45 pm to late for the young ones or to early if parents are trying to finish up dinner and get them on their PJ's?  It was a great evening, all our kids showed up on their PJ's and ready to listen, do a little dancing, a couple of fingerplays, and relax while listening to lullabies looking up at the stars in our ceiling.  We started the night with "The More We Get Together" and a round of Wiggles. I read 




Our second book No Nap! Yes Nap! was a hoot with one little boy repeating the refrain "No Nap, No Nap" over and over.  We did a few rounds of  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and used flannel stars as we chanted Four Little Stars. 

Our library has a subscription to TumbleBooks and we viewed



 with dimmed lights in preparation for our little octopus machine to illuminate our ceiling as we listened to lullabies.

meet our Octopus

It was a very special way to say "Goodnight"

Baby Bloomers- Uh-Oh!

We all know how easily our little ones can cause an "Uh-Oh" moment, and truly how cute they are when they do it.  Our small group had a few Uh-Oh moments this morning as we read



We chanted "The More We Get Together" as we greated each other, and followed up with a round of "Wiggle, Wiggle". We did a few rounds of "Open Shut Them" and "Touch Your Nose". We listened to Baby 1,2,3 and played Peek-a-boo as we listened to the song.  I also had our musical instruments out and we all enjoyed playing with the bells and maracas.  We finished with bubbles and our goodbye song. 

Totally Tots- Cats

This week Totally Tots classes have been so different- Wednesdays group was loud and rambunctious, Thursdays was quiet and a bit shy.  Originally my idea was to feature different pets but then decided to go with cats.  We read

 

Wednesdays group was very large which in our small room can be a problem. We also had several kids a bit young for this age group and one or two that were to old.  I liked Cat Skidoo's rhyming and repetition but I didn't feel like we had a true chance to enjoying the rhyming because my reading was interrupted several times.  They liked Where Is Tippy Toes? and City Animals's large flaps.

We used our regular welcome song and Wiggles, plus a new rhyme, and several rounds of Open Shut Them.

A Great Big Cat

A great big cat  (hold hands far apart)

And a wee little mouse (hold hands close together)

Ran round and round (roll hands, on over the other)

In a high, high house ( hold arms above head w/ fingertips touching)

But the wee little mouse (hold hands close together0

Got caught at last (clap hands on caught)

Cause the great big cat (hold hands far apart)

Ran round so fast (roll hands, one over the other faster & faster)

Credit: Fingerplays & Action Songs

We listened to our "Walking song" and our Bubbles, Bubbles song.   

Our Thursday group was much smaller so we had a chance to try Jrbrary's 

Everybody knows I love my toes.
Everybody knows I love my toes.
I love my shoulders, my knees, my elbows, and my nose.
But everybody knows I love my toes.
Other verses: chin and shin, lips and hips, eye and thigh.

And our Nursery Rhyme: Rub-a Dub Dub.  

This week had several good learning moments- our groups are becoming so big that I might have to consider limit the size of the group; which I hate doing because I don't want to turn anyone away.  Maybe if I can have a better balance between group sizes and ages it won't feel as chaotic.  I need to do a better job at reminding parents to engage/participate/ oversee their child.  I need to remember that there are days when things don't just flow as planned and that is okay too.  Next week we are reading stories about fishes, and doing a fun craft.