Choo Choo! All Aboard!

Monday I finally did a storytime I'd had prepared for some time, a perennial favorite with kids of all ages:  trains!

We read:

Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown, pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon (took out the reference to an "old black man singing in the West" - not offensive so much as unnecessary),

The Train Ride by June Crebbin, pictures by Stephen Lambert,

All Aboard!  A True Train Story, written and photographed by Susan Kuklin (loved it when I explained that most trains today don't look like the old-fashioned ones pictured here, and a preschooler corrected me and said that the Harry Potter looks like this!),

and Trains:  Steaming!  Puffing!  Huffing! by Patricia Hubbell, illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy.

We did the requisite train songs (Choo choo, the big train, is coming down the tracks! and of course,  Down by the station) and pretended we were on trains and were trains.  I also did a PSA warning the children to never, never play on train tracks, and in fact, had them raise their right hand (or whichever one they felt like :) to say, "I will never, ever play near train tracks." 

Alas, this is my last storytime at the public library.  I've accepted a position as a K-12 teacher-librarian and begin in July.  But in the meantime, I need to finish my practicum, pass my cataloging class plus my three summer classes, and my comprehensive tests.  We're trying to find a house to buy, getting ready to sell ours, and everything else, so for once, I can (sort of) concentrate on my classes.  I'll miss doing storytimes, but my school has a preschool, too, so I fully intend to do storytime, if even once a month.  I can't wait!