Storytime - Mittens!

Storytime Tuesday!  My topic is mittens, apropos since there's a good foot of snow on the ground.  The official title is really "Mittens for Kittens - And Boys and Girls, Too."  But today, it was only boys at my storytime, go figure!  I'm doing it tomorrow too at another branch so we'll see on the turn out.  We sort of expect a bit more than usual because of the school kids coming, but then our regulars are busy and didn't come out as they usually do.

Nevertheless, it was lots of fun, and here are the books I read.  I started with Knitty Kitty by David Elliot:

Then I read A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke:

Then I read The Mitten by Jan Brett:

And finally, I read The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg:

I did some songs and fingerplays too - "Where oh where did my blue mitten go?" (and old, and new, etc.), and the kids "retold" the story The Mitten with animal pictures and a song to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."  Initially it was more of a solo endeavor, but by the end, some of the boys were singing, too.

I'm doing Winter Wonderland next week (snowmen, penguins, polar bears, and hockey) and the week after, I think I'm doing blankies and quilts if I can find enough books.

But for now, I have to go find books to return - my library doesn't have a limit, and I brought my 16-year old to the library today and he checked out a bundle, and with my own bundle, I now have over 50 books checked out.  Eeeeek! 

Nonfiction Monday

I haven't blogged in awhile.  Sorry!  I'm going to busy this week and next and the next doing storytimes so I'll do some updates.  But for now, here's a spotlight on a fun nonfiction book that I found in the stacks yesterday, A-B-C 1-2-3 Craft Book:  Make a Cloth Book of Exciting Learning Toys by Phyllis Fiarotta.  We're doing a crafts program this week - sort of a you want the kids out of your hair for a bit program - so we changed a Christmas display to crafts.  When changing this book's status, I saw that the poor thing had only been checked out once!  It is a neat little number that shows how to make a very interactive quiet book for babies or toddlers.  I always wanted to make one for my kids and never did, but maybe if I start now, I'll have one for my grandchildren someday!  (Not that there are any imminent, but crafts take me a looooong time.)  I showed the book to a co-worker and she loved the book too, so she checked it out, and I'm going to get it after her.

I do think this is a great example of the limits of cataloging - it's cataloged as "soft toy making," "toy and movable books," and "educational toys."  If you search for "quiet book," or "busy book," you won't find it - even if that's what most moms would call it!

Nonfiction Monday

I found a marvelous book when working my way through the 900s section at the public library, cleaning it up (and I know as soon as I am done, if I were to start over again, it'd be a big mess again).  The Riches of Oseola McCarty by Evelyn Coleman tells the story of a black washerwoman from Mississippi who lived a quiet, uneventful life, until she was 87 years old and donated $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi for scholarships for needy students.  I remember hearing the story at the time and marvel at her generosity.

The thing is, it's a great story for children in a number of ways.  It's not only her generosity (Ted Turner reported that he was so touched by it that it inspired him to give one billion dollars to the United Nations), but her frugality (she never took money out of the bank once she put it in), and her simple life.  But most of all, it's the lesson that it doesn't matter what we do in life if we do our best at whatever we choose to do.

Miss McCarty died in 1999, and this book was published in 1998 so it doesn't reflect that.  It reminds me of the question in this video, "What is your sentence?"  I think this would begin a great conversation with kids about biography.

What I'm reading

I just finished Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen - again.  I read it when it came out in 1999, but gosh, he's so much fun.  I'm not sure if this is the first time we meet the former governor of Florida or not, the old bum/recluse who lives in the backwoods that shows up in Hiassen's children's books.  It is the first time we meet Twilly.  I can count on one hand the number of fiction books I've reread in my life (cookbooks don't count!) but I now want to go reread all his other books, too. 

Other books I'm reading right now:  The Adventures of Pinocchio (from the NEH list), The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, and Sh*t My Dad Says. 

Run, run, just as fast as you can!

I did storytime this week at the two public library branches (rather than at the Headstarts where we do them, too).  If I do say so, I rocked it!  At one, a grandma told me that his son never sat still for storytime like he did for me.  And for the other, a mom came up and asked me if I was a substitute.  I said no, I'm just new, and she said, "Oh - you're really good."  Whoo!

I figured out, though, that this creates pressure for the next time.  I have to rock it every time!  And I know what I did to rock it - I did a storytelling, rather than a book reading, to begin.  This allowed me to have eye contact with each of the children and preschoolers LOVE that.  Then also, I did three different fingerplays which were very intuitive so the kids could follow along quickly.  So I'm getting ready for next time - the week after Christmas I'm at the branches again, doing one on mittens, and the next week at the main library with the theme winter wonderland.  More on those later.

So here's the stories I did:

The Gingerbread Boy - my own telling of it, with a few clip art pictures - from a book! - that I colored with crayons.  FYI, do not use anything other than Crayola.

Then, I read The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson:

Then I read The Best Mouse Cookie by Laura Numeroff:

Then I read If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, again by Numeroff:

In between, the fillers were "One little gingerbread boy on the tray/He jumped up and ran away/Catch me, catch me, oh catch me if you can/You can't catch me!  I'm the gingerbread man!", "Where oh where is my gingerbread boy?", and "One little, two little, three little cookies."  Too much fun!

Patron tales

A little girl came up to the Youth Services desk yesterday and told me I had something on my face - and pointed to my beauty mark slash mole on the right side of my mouth.  Hahahahaha. 

Oh and one very strange man came into the library a week ago and when I asked for his library card got it plus a deck of playing card and did some Las Vegas sort of shuffling, then laid them out on the desk and asked me to do something or other.  Hit him?  I think the jist of it was he wanted me to decide what he should do next with his cards . . . I haven't played poker since my dad and grandpa and brothers made me play when I was a girl (so they'd have an even number of players - and an easy loser) so I told him umm, no thanks.  And I suggested that I could show him where the DVDs were, to get him out of the children's section ASAP.

Another story time tomorrow!  I'll post after-the-fact this time, in case I change up what I'm doing.  But now, to my final paper for my IT class . . .